While reading
Playing, Creativity, Possibility I noticed that I related to many of the situations that she described. Anxiety being a prevalent one. My art one class is really divided between those that really enjoy art and those that are just taking it for the credit. So often, I find those that are just taking art for the fine arts credit are so apprehensive about what they are doing and it seems like the have anxiety about being good at something in general. I encourage them to think for themselves and rarely do I answer the question, is this what you are looking for. I have anxiety about answering questions like that because I have been on both side of the coin. I want to have my own voice but I also want to make sure I get the grade that I want. I stress to them that as long as they are doing the work and putting thought into what they are producing they are going to get the A's that they want. They are so worried about pleasing me that they forget to create on their own.
One that I have a specific story for is Resistance. Oh my the resistance I see every day in a high school art room. Again mostly with art 1. Two days ago I was trying to get a discussion going about popular culture and about how images are thrown in their faces every day. I was trying to get examples from them about what is popular now. I was expecting technology, sports brands, clothing brands, etc.. I GOT NOTHING!! The stuff we are talking about is about them and their lives and what they encounter on a daily basis. I am sure there is a better way to go about this discussion, but I gave them some examples and then I got some examples that had to do with hunting and guns. A few of my students said that those examples were not right. I KNEW I HAD THEM!!! We then discussed how guns and hunting were popular culture and one student said well it may not pertain to everyone but it is what these particular boys see every day. They hunt regularly. Then I brought the subject of how guns are in the media right now and then we had a great discussion on gun control and then various other subjects like that. It was fantastic. I almost gave up to their resistance, but I didn't and it was a good thing that I didn't. They are thinking abou their projects a lot more deeply than projects beforehand.
I think that cultivating creativity is so important. I think that I sometimes fall into that rut of, ok, I need to see this many sketches my the end of the hour, just to keep them busy. I think that hinders their creativity, after reading these articles and reflecting in my head I may try other things. Like maybe instead of having them sketch right off the bat, I can have silent time. Where they just sit and think. No drawing, just thinking and creating possibilities in their heads, then they can sketch. Any suggestions on how that may work??
In many of my classes we utilize play. It is a monthly, sometime more, activity that I introduce something new to my art 3 and 4. Or I tell them to go into the closet and bring something out that they have never used before and play. We have jokingly deemed these days "play-dates" I know that I have turned the other art teacher at my school to doing this with her classes as well. We are planning, right before our painting unit in art one to have a play-date where the students get to try painting techniques on their own and just play. The students are so relaxes and in such good moods when they get to do things like these. I do not discourage in any way if the student wants to play with something not on those days, because they discover new materials to improve their work. It is amazing how play affects them.
Things that inhibit me would be my want to start and finish things in one sitting. Once I get into something I am in it, however schedules do get in the way of that as does the fact that I apparently do need sleep to be a functioning person of society. I have started to try to fight off the urge to say that I am finished with something because generally I come up with ways to improve it when I am watching my students work.
This is the second or third time that I have read Postmodern Principles and I still think that they are fantastic. I find, now that I am actually in a classroom teaching, that I relate to these differently than in the past. I now look at what my students are doing instead of my own work, and thinking about how they fit in. As I was grading pieces yesterday I found myself paying attention to the pieces and thinking about the principles that Gude describes are in all of them. My students are so in tune to the world around them. They use images that are so readily available all of the time. I think that says a lot about the times that we are living in. Imagery is all around us and it is up to us on how we sort it out. I like how at the end Gude states "I do not hope to see a generation of art education texts that merely add a few postmodern principles...to their lists of modernist elements and principles and then proceed to use them to structure and justify a curriculum." (p.13) I completely agree with this. You cannot just go part of the way and expect to get the most out of your students. They will reach this point hopefully at some point but, by explaining these principles you can help them along the way.
