Meaning day

I think that our group went swimmingly! It was a very reflective day, and as Dr. Unrath said on my blanket station, this was almost the perfect day to do these activities. After being so busy the last couple of weeks, I think it was good for us to reflect on what is important and what we want to make meaning in our lives. The feedback that we got about the labyrinth that we had to walk though was great. The discussions about energy being felt between people was amazing. I did not get a chance to walk the labyrinth that day but I plan to go back to experience by myself.

Empathy Day and Meaning Chapter

The empathy group did great, the activity was so interesting that the story we started with, not even a story, more of a moment in time, that we told was translated from word, to art, to song. And I don't know abut anyone else, but the song that was chosen by someone who didn't hear my story fit perfectly. It is fantastic how our minds work, and how our artist eyes and thinking make connections from just seeing an image. GREAT JOB!
Meaning is what ties everything together that we have read that past two weeks. It is why we are here. Meaning is what keeps this life going. Without meaning, life would be boring. We would have nothing to talk about. We would have nothing to create. What would be the point if nothing had meaning and we didn't create meaning in our lives?

Symphony and Empathy

The symphony lesson today went really well. All of the visuals the group showed us were fantastic. I really enjoyed La Luna, I had never seen that Pixar Short before. Thinking of the metaphors was VERY difficult for me this morning through. I don't know if it was because I am so tired, or that the metaphor portion of the lesson seemed rushed, but I had a hard time. I did like the shadow art, and the ones that were shown were unbelievable! Oh just kept saying "no Way" to all of the photos shown because I just couldn't believe that a pile of stuff could make those shadows! AMAZING! Great lesson!

While reading empathy I just couldn't help thinking of my husbands job. He is a debt collector for people that don't pay their medical bills. I know that there are people out there that don't pay their bills just because they think they can get away with it, but when he comes home and tells me some stories, I can't help but feel bad for some people. There are people that have lost their jobs because of health reasons, and in those situations I know that things go downhill quickly. I know that Corey feels bad for these people ( I know I do) but there is nothing he can do really, it is his job to get te money from him. I just think that that job is a lesson in empathy, or no empathy I guess. I know I would be awful at that job. But, like Pink says, empathy is a quality that is being looked for in todays workforce. I think that teaching empathy would be fairly easy because I do feel like the new generation is a lot more accepting of people a little bit different from them.
Another thing in the chapter I related to was the eavesdropping section, mostly because I do that, I'm a slight creeper sometimes. I don't do it all of the time but when I'm in restaurant that has booths I tend to listen to the people in the booth directly behind me. I don't mean to, but it happens, and I listen to their stories, and get very intrigued. I get sucked into stories of other people.

Stories

The story lesson was great. It went along really well with Pink's chapter on story. It was really nice getting to know people a lit more through story that what I knew before. You can learn so much about a person through the experiences they share through their art, and if it weren't for people's stories, art would not be as meaningful. I really enjoyed the art activity that the group put together, however I wish I could have had more time to do better work on it.
Symphony sounds like it might be fun. The method Pink demonstrates sounds  lit like a project I did in a beginning drawing class in Warrensburg. The teacher started with a very blurry picture and told us to start drawing. All we could do was draw the light and dark areas, also, we could not pick our pencils upu from the paper, so as long as the picture was up our hands were moving. Soon we realized that we were drawing a picture of a person, and we look down at our scribble filled paper to find that we have drawn, very successfully, the same picture. It was surprising to see that we did that. It is just amazing how our brains work, and how, like PInk says, everything is relative to something else. Lights, darks, positive and negative shapes, or colors next to colors. It all depends on what it is next to.

Design

The design lesson today gave me the sense that I do think like a designer sometimes. The whole time we were trying to figure out a design to go on the billboard I was just thinking "can I read that from a car?" I think the group I was with did a pretty good job with the phrase we were given. I also thought that this lesson can show students that there is more in the art field than just a starving artist or an art teacher. Giving the parameters that is can only be this size, we only have this much money, and you cannot change the phrase that the other person gave you, and time restraint gives them a taste of how designers work (although, I believe we are much easier on each other than other boss' might be).
I am also sensing a theme in the sense groups so far in having a sense of now knowing in the activities we are doing. It causes me a little anxiety but it is helping in my own development of my unit plan.
I really enjoyed the story chapter by Pink. Having story in art, or anything really, gives it meaning. It calls on personal experiences to make other things meaningful. I am looking forward to see what the story group comes up with for the class.

Play!!

Today, during our play I could relate to our guest in class when she said she was anxious. I like to plan at least a little bit what I am going to do in my art projects, so when Kathy said you have 10 minutes to make as many self supporting structure out of paper, I froze for a second. THen I remembered that my unit plan and studio thinking projects revolve around letting go of control. SO, I dove in. I was cutting the paper before I even thought about how I was going to fold it and make it stand. Curling, folding, crumpling, and all kinds of other things later, I had over 20 pieces. I surprised myself that I just kept going and didn't let myself stop cutting and folding. The next steps came easier to me after that first one.  This play day really helped me out of my comfort zone of planning ahead and over-thinking every detail.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to going over design in the class. "A good design can change the world."

Chapter 6's, Pink, and White Paper

In chapter 6 Frredman talks a lot abut curriculum and the importance of cultural experience. I found it interesting when Freedman talked about how curriculum has changed time and time again, but to me it seems, that art education just wants to keep coming down to content and experiences. Also, she talked about art and integration, and how we need to be careful with integration. If you try to integrate too much with other subjects, it might turn out that art will start taking a back seat to STEM classes. Again, it has been determined that visual literacy can improve upon many other skills that students need such as contextual thinking and creative problem solving. We need to keep in mind that these skills that broaden a students sights on art will have differing of opinions and a multitude of experiences, but it is where we find that common ground of shared experiences, that social learning of visual culture takes place.
What I really enjoyed reading in Eisner in chapter 6 was at the very end, under the heading "What to public needs to understand." Throughout the chapter Eisner describes the importance of curriculum and what standards are and why they are important. I enjoyed at the end when Eisner was talking about a child using clay. How this sculpture is more than a piece made by a student, its more than play. It is a show to show creative thinking and development of an idea, which is being stressed, I believe, in the upcoming common core standards coming soon. Showing students that muddling through experiencing all that visual culture has to offer will be extreme, is what we need to promote in all aspects of curriculum.
Which leads my to Pink. I love Daniel Pinks book. It drives home everything that I have been learning about teaching art during my college career. People, no matter the job description, are needing to be creative problem solvers and thinkers. That is what businesses are looking for. I read this book a couple months ago and the things that still stuck out the most to me before refreshing myself were the age of abundance and outsourcing. Mostly because I cannot help but notice all of this in the world everyday. We go to the store and we have 25 choices for anything we want: food, drinks, toasters, coffee makers, paper, etc. It is amazing the choices that we have to make about what kind of toilet paper we buy. Also, outsourcing and finding the people that can do more than what a computer can do. That is what needs to be learned by students today. We need to think outside the box of the computer screen and become creative problem solvers that have empathy, emotion, and fun. I found it very interesting that even medical schools are requiring classes that show the future doctors what it means to be empathetic to their patients! The chapter on play, well, it made me laugh! If we don't have a laughter club on Monday I may be a little disappointed! Just the thought that this session can improve daily tasks in a business environment is wonderful. We need play, we need release!