After talking with Dr. Walker about teaching strategies, do you have any ideas on how you might start to incorporate contemporary practices in your own classroom? I'm not looking for full-blown lesson plans, but rather some brainstorming ideas on how contemporary strategies (and the work of contemporary artists) might begin to show up in your classrooms. Also: We have done two projects in class (Object Self Portrait and Walking Score). Reflect on your own experience in making these pieces. Take a look at the results. What big ideas might your pieces connect with?
As I was reading the Chapters from Dr. Walker, I was definitely drawn to her discussion about experimentation in the second chapter. i have brought up play before and we compare and contrast play, practice, and making portfolio quality work. However, I have been unsuccessful coming up with a way to scaffold play for students. I have started with a mantra from a colleague in the science department: "The difference between messing around and science is writing it down." So I have intructed students to have that scientific mindset of observing and recording what happens. I think having the structure of having the verbs will help students know what to do. There is also the element of pleasure in doing things like "to smash" that are a little unacceptatble and destructive that most students aren't willing to do without being told it's ok. The walking score and self portrait pieces that we did connect more to the sense vs. nonsense chapter. I think some of my older students would enjoy these more, but it would take a lot of support and front loading for some students to see them as valuable. One of my first art experiences at UNI was taking Drawing 1 with frje, who used a lot of these sense vs. nonsense strategies in his teaching. At the time as a freshman undergrad, I remember thinking that this crazy bs was a waste of my time, and wondering when we were going to learn to draw. It wasn't until later that I was able to understand, process and appreciate what he was doing. Now I can say that class was very valuable and impacted my teaching more than any other class that I took at UNI, and that a conversation that frje and I had, has had more lasting impact and is seared into my brain more than any interactions I had with other professors. In terms of teaching with contemporary artists, I would like to start having a monthly theme and periodically show students artists that fit into it. For my research, I have had my students start making "creative bank accounts" on their art websites. Rather than have them create a specific art object around a certain artist, I would rather they use this information to add to their creative bank account page more organically when they find an artist that resonates with them.
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AuthorMorgan Singleton is a secondary art educator with a Master's degree in art education. Archives
April 2017
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