My creative spirit

At the beginning of this course, I felt much like the individual underneath the waterfall. I felt bombarded with information to the point of suffocation. However, now I feel renewed and refreshed. I know that I am not a great artist but my disposition towards the fine arts has greatly changed. I understand its importance and have seen first hand the positive effects it has on a child's emotional, social, physical, and academic development. More importantly, I have formulated my own principles for infusing the arts based on my own personality and artistic ability. When teaching fine arts I will show enthisiasm, a willingness to take risks, and an ability to do creative problem solving. As well, I will demonstrate a willingess to learn by proactively pursuing ideas from colleagues and capturing the many opprtunities to learn from my students which will undoubtedly arise. Not having learned how to play a musical intrument is something that I regret. I would like to take formal lessons at some point in the future. Hopefully I can follow through on this but the greatest obstacle has been overcome - the seed of desire has been planted.

Potluck Luncheon

I want to congratulate everyone on their ability to come together and put on some great entertainment. It is nice to see people put in a little extra effort just for the sake of doing something to the best of their abilities and not just work hard when they know that they are being evaluated or that they will get something in return. As teachers, we will all have to put in extra hours and our best effort to help children learn. It was great to see that we raised the bar for next year's class. I was floored with how well Nicola and Linda played the drums. And the recorder quartet; Leisbet, Linda, Sara C, and Sherri; you were fantastic. How you all learned that song in such short notice is beyond me...Thanks to everyone who volunteered, put in a little extra effort, and came with such great holiday cheer. I know that I had a tough time being festive with the busy last few weeks. Way to go EY07!

On a final note, I would like to thank Mr. Michael "mustache" Caldwell. It has been great collaborating with you on videos. Thanks to you, I now can edit a video on my own! Thank you.

Art Gallery

I really enjoyed the art gallery. There were lots of great lesson ideas shared and the chance to get "in the mix" and experience making art was wonderful. The most rewarding experience for me was hearing that it is not always best to display art. My focus up to this point has been on creating class murals and documenting final products so that students can celebrate their work. I know that this is important, however, now I understand that it is equally important to include art projects where there is no final product. This helps kids enjoy the process of art rather than focusing on the final product. I think this viewpoint is important to include in the school curriculum. How wonderful it would be if we all were able to focus on the process rather than on grades...I think this lesson is something that we all can benefit from by reflecting upon. If we want to be teachers that focus on improvement rather than test achievement, then we need to model this for our students. How can we expect children to do something that we won't?

Theatre North West

Gail and I went to a the play at Theatre North West tonight. It was "A Christmas Carol" adapted by Jeff Pitcher. This was my first experience attending the theatre in Prince George. I plan on returning. I found it to be extremely entertaining and very professional. The set was amazing and the acting was first-rate. I also enjoyed looking at a dramatic performance from a new perspective. I found myself admiring the use of song as a transition. Whenever there was a new scene, the performers would either sing a song or play the violin to act as a segway. I was blown away by the talent of the musicians and the voice of one of the actresses. This play is running until Dec. 7. If you have time over the holidays, check it out. Theatre North West will "re-create one of your best-loved dramas, overflowing with hope and true Christmas cheer. The Cratchit family, Jacob Marley, Mrs. Dilber, Old Fezziwig, and Ebenezer Scrooge all come alive on the TNW stage."

For more information check out their website at http://www.theatrenorthwest.com/

The Dali Project - A Multimodal Research Platform

This is the video that Mike and I collaborated on for our Reasearch Platform. This was a great experience. I think it is very important to incorporate multimodal learning into our instruction and assessment. It gives students multiple ways to learn and apply this learning to demonstrate their understanding of course content. As well, it is congruent with many of the core principles we have learned thus far in our education program - we should include a variety of evaluation methods and use differentiated instruction so that students are most likely to achieve success. Not all students learn the same way, at the same rate, and represent their learning the same. Variety is the spice of life! My thanks to Mike for patiently taking me through the editing process. This marks the first time that I was able to edit a video!

Remembrance Day "Lest we Forget"

For me, Remebrance Day is a time to remember all the individuals who have given their life for our freedoms, and the many who are willing to risk their life so that strangers in another area of the world will have a better life. I know that there are not as many World War I and II Veterans but I believe that change is underway to include present day soldiers. My spouse and I went to the Remebrance Day ceremony at the Civic Centre and Cenetaph today. It was solemn, grave, and touching. The slide show by the soldier who had been on two missions - one in Afghanistan and one in Bosnia - was particularly illuminating. It helped to give me a brief glimpse into what it would be like to be a soldier and put your life on the line. It is something that I am willing to do for my immediate family, but not for complete strangers on the other side of the planet. Words cannot express my gratitude. People like him make this world a safer place.

Children's Art Show

What a fabulous visual arts event! It was so great to see all the beautiful art work that was created during the practicum. I also enjoyed seeing the wide variety of art work. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about getting everything ready, but I believe it is a testament to our amazing cohort that we were able to put such a wonderful event together on such short notice.
Not only was it well-organized, but I thought that everyone chipped in and contributed. I know that I missed a good deal of what was happening in the main atrium, as I had appointed myself the menial and unnecessary job of shuttling parents and students who arrived at the front entrance, but when I did walk around I couldn't help but smile at all the interactions. People were "chatting" it up with parents and keeping kids entertained. It was amazing. The best part for me was hearing the little tidbits as I walked people in. A typical conversation involved me asking what grade and school a child attended. After telling me, they usually added who their teacher was at how excited they were to see him or her again. I must have received at least ten, "Is Mr. ___ or Mrs. ____ going to be there?" I must say, well done everybody. Not only was the art show a great success, but it sounds as though people did some wonderful things in getting to know their students, capturing their interest, and motivating them throughout their practicum.
On a final note, I would like to add that I was aware that this event would have an important impact on the students' lives, but I was still impressed when the following Wednesday I returned to my practicum class and my cooperating teacher told me (about five times) that students had told him how much they enjoyed going to UNBC for the art show. I wish that all the students could have gone but for the five and their two friends who came along, it sounds as though it was an event that they will remember for a long period of time and that it will have a positive impact on their self-esteem.
Oh yes - thanks everyone! What a great experience it was to collaborate as a class. You all rock!

Practicum Reflections

I did my best to provide an environment that stimulated the "inner artist" wiithin my students. My goal was to encourage students to take risks and take pride in their work. I found that displaying student work was a great way of accomplishing the latter. The former was more difficult. It is my belief that this does not happen overnight but is the result of the teacher's attitude and disposition towards art. I feel that if teachers model a positive attitude towards art, then it will be more likely that a similar disposition is instilled in their students which will enhance self-efficacy. For my students, this was extremely important. Many of their previous teachers had labelled them as a "problem class". Creating art was one way that I was able to make in-roads to this self-fulfilling prophecy and instill feelings of success.
I was astonished by the depth that fine arts could be incorporated into classroom management. I used music as a way to keep students on-task and working cooperatively. I had students bring in some of their favourite music and played it during seat work and group work (previewed by myself of course). The results were great. Students worked more quietly and were more effective in group work. Another way I incorporated music into my practicum was to play classical music at the beginning of the day while students entered the classroom and began their daily edit. Although some students initially complained, the results were beneficial in creating a positive environment to start the day. Student performance at the daily edit also increased which supports what our text says about music increasing academic achievement. I believe that the results could be even more profound at the primary age.

Documenting student work

I think that it is important to document student work, especially when it comes to creative endeavours such as art. The smiles on the students' faces in this photo and the pride evident in their eyes is reason enough to keep a digital camera in your classroom. After photographing groups of students, I printed these photos on the school's colour printer, laminated them, and displayed them on the chalkboard. The students loved it and a number of them requested copies that they could keep.

Class pumpkin carving

I bought 10 pumpkins and carving kits from Save-on and had students bring in the rest. This ensured that all the students were able to take part in the pumpkin carving activity. It was very messy but the students absolutely loved it. It is nice doing this type of activity with grade seven students - they relished the autonomy and responsibility in carving their own pumpkin and I was pleasantly surprised that many cleaned up their area without any prompting on my part! I would be hesitant to do this with younger students as I think it would be much more time consuming (the set-up, carving, and clean-up only took 75 minutes for our class) and there would be a greater demand for adult supervision and help. Still, with enough parent support and planning, I think it would be a fun activity to do with a primary class.

Halloween buddies

This is a picture of the art activity I did for buddy time the week of Halloween. It was a quick lesson (30 minutes) but both the grade sevens and grade twos really enjoyed working together. While observing, it was difficult to determine who was benefitting the most - the older or the younger buddies. As well, I was happy to see that a number of grade seven students took home a piece of art work that they made during the class.

Community Links

This is a picture of a floor hockey game I organized during the final week of my practicum. I had the Midget AAA hockey team I coach come in and play a game of floor hockey at lunch hour versus my grade seven class. Prior, our team captain and assistant gave quick speeches introducing the team and talking about the positive life choices and sacrifices that were involved in playing at a high level of sport. I think that everyone involved enjoyed the game. It benefited everyone's self-esteem. From an organizational standpoint, it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Getting the permission from all the necessary people (principals, parents) went smoothly and a couple of quick phone calls had photographers from the Free Press and Citizen there. I think this was the thing that students most enjoyed - seeing their photo in the newspaper. It was great to see students beaming with pride and proved to be a success at building links within the community.

Pumpkin carving of skull

This is the pumpkin that I carved to get the students excited to take part in the school pumpkin carving contest. By carving it well in advance, I was able to better prepare for the lesson as I had an idea how long it would take the students to carve their pumpkins and what materials would be necessary. I would also like to add that this was extremely fun. It was the first pumpkin I carved. Putting a flashing light inside and turning off the lights made it look pretty cool, but this is the best picture I was able to take...

Scribes 'Twas chaos the night before..'

This is the end product from a Scribes of Mesopotamia lesson. The students enjoyed writing their names in cuneifrom but I must admit that I learned far more... I had originally intended to make potatoe stamps, not name tags. Fortunately, I tried to cut my name into a potatoe and bought ten pounds of potatoes and carving tools. Unfortunately, I tried this at 4 pm the day before the lesson which was being observed by my supervisor. With the help of my CT and three other classroom teachers, I was able to change my lesson after it became apparent that the students would not be able to carve their names into the potatoes. Only one of the teachers was able to do so and the principal refused to let our class to use knives. I learned the importance of trying out an activity well in advance, and that if you are stuck it is best to ask other teachers as someone (or several) is bound to have some expertise in that area and be willing to help because all teachers are awesome and kind enough to help some bumbling TC!

Innovations and Assessment in art

This is a picture of a class mural made during my practicum. I found this to benefit the students in many ways: it made the learning environment brighter and gave them ownership of the room (at the beginning of my practicum the bulletin boards were blank and there was very little student work displayed), it helped increase student motivation to complete work to the best of their ability, and student confidence grew because they experienced success. The latter was a result of my decision on how to assess the art work. After consulting teachers and our text, I decided to give students full marks as long as they completed the art assignment and met the mutually constructed pre-estabished criteria (min. 2 colours, materials, and innovation stated or illustrated with how it related to modern-day life). I felt that this was the best method of ensuring that students were more likely to develop a life-long appreciation and disposition towards creating art. I realize that there is a need to balance grades and student creativity. My feelings are that grades stifle creativity and limit development in that students will tend to produce art work for the teacher and not themselves. I found this experience with assessment in art to influence some of the decisions I made during my practicum in other subject areas. For example, I tried to focus on the process and not the product by incorporating effort into my assessment. I included this as self-assessment and had students give themselves a mark out of three as to how hard they had tried (1 - little effort, 2 - tride hard but good have done better, 3 - best effort) when handing in assignments.

Drama in practicum

I was able to use drama in my practicum. The photo is a lesson I did during my practicum using the Black Eyed Peas song, "Where is the Love". If you look closely you might be able to see some 'bling bling' I was able to get my hands on... I also did a drama lesson on the re-enactment of Hammurabi law. I found the use of drama to be extremely effective. It captured students' attention and helped them better comprehend concepts. I also found that student self-esteem increased - sometimes I thought I could actually see a student become more confident while they were role playing an aspect of Mesopotamian life - and that students did extremely well on the unit test section where they explained how Hammurabi law was simlar/different to Candian law. Perhaps drama could be used as an effective review? I found that students made more meaningful connections to concepts that were included in dramatization.

Off-task again...

Man alive! Is this picture ever realistic. I guess I was a little off-task in last week's art class when we were asked to draw a picture of where we would be if we were somewhere north of ordinary. Oh well, a person can be a place too can't they?

Caligraphy

Well, here is my first effort at caligraphy. I really enjoyed it. I found the process very peaceful. In fact, I am going to try and use caligraphy for an art lesson during practicum. Now that I said it publicly, I will have to do it unless I manage to erase this before Willow sees it.

Underappreciated artists

I think that teachers are underappreciated artists. Their job is to shape and mold the lives of children. I got a small three-month taste of this last year. It was exciting and a wonderful learning experience. All the teachers made time to support one another and I can honestly say that everyone felt appreciated. Even the new guy who was the designated gohper, recycler, and coffee filleruper. Besides the positive support, there were two CHP Friday events, a golf outing, and a few dinners together which I thought helped a lot of the teachers in dealing with the day to day stress. A smile and a little extra support can truly lift someone's spirits and make them feel appreciated. Thanks to Carly, Sheri, and Sarah Ca for lifting my spirits with a drawing last week!

A future of cooperative learning and non-competitive assessment

I absolutely loved art class today. So many ideas and possible lesson plans/ideas were shared. I truly felt like I was in a cooperative and non-competitive learning environment. How wonderful it would be if all of our learning were like that...I think we would enter the teaching world better prepared to meet the call for new culturally relevant pedagogy and be better able to teach in Canada's cultural mosaic. I know that sometimes I am guilty of focusing on grades and outcomes but I feel the tide turning - teacher training programs are better preparing student-teachers to focus on life-long learning and self-improvement, rather than on straight A's. That said, I think there is still lots of room for improvement - especially in the area of communication.

Expectations

I feel it is extremely important we reflect on the demands we ask of our students. Our primary concern should be the well-being and future of our students. What we want or expect might not be best for them.

Expressive reading gone too far

I CAN DO IT!

I do not consider myself to be an artist. In fact, I would consider myself to be extremely challenged when it comes to drawing, creating, and doing many of the things involved in the Fine Arts curriculum.

One of the most important new learnings to come to me so far in this course has been the need to change my attitude. I must show a positive attitude to art. I must admit the stongest reason I have had an "aversion to art" is that I think I suck at it. It is one thing to understand the theory behind a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (and tell others that they need to become more confident or set students up to succeed in an effort to increase their self-efficacy) but it is quite a different story when you are trying to do it to yourself.

In an effort to practice what I intend to preach, I am trying to change my mindframe. I can think creatively. I can draw. I can paint. More importantly, I enjoy it because it gives me a chance to express myself in a different way than which I am accustomed. I am growing. This is my best work of art to date. There will be others.

Grades vs. Process

One of the most natural human traits is to enjoy success. We tend to favor things that we are successful at, investing more time and effort, thus developing strengths in certain areas of our life.
In our Bed program we have learned the importance behind intrinsic motivation and the need to focus on the process in learning not the grades. If we establish this in our classrooms we will be more likely to create a community of learners where the students will be more prone to become lifelong learners who value education.
However, after taking this week's Art quiz, I have come to question my ability to do this. I feel that I must be able to effetively model something that I expect my students to do. I noticed that after the first quiz Willow sang a song and got us to sing along. At first I thought that this was another transition exercise, but after observing Willow, looking at others' expressions, and examining my own feelings, I think it was an unplanned song designed to uplift the mood of the classroom. I think that Willow thought that we were feeling depressed about having just taken a test. Perhaps it was just me. Perhaps I am way off base. But I know that my mood was not the best after taking that quiz. It gave me an insight into what a seven year old might be thinking when I am giving a quiz - "This is stupid. I hate school. I am doing ---tty" - while I am thinking, "You are all going to do fine. This is easy. Just do what I told you to".
I believe that I am more process-oriented when it comes to education. Perhaps I have further to go than I thought.