Confidence, Skills, Passion, and Appreciation

Overall this class has been both an eye opening and a transformative experience. I was intrigued to take this class because I have always considered myself somewhat of an artful person. Although I cannot draw or paint on any sort of professional level, I have always loved being creative. Lately, I have found myself more caught up with the hustle and bustle of everyday life and places where I used have a creative outlet have become blocked due to my negative attitude. School used to be a place where lesson plans and bulletin boards gave me a sense of satisfaction and a place to hone my creativity. The past two years I have been feeling more and more pressure from above. I feel more of an obligation to get my students to a certain level rather than teach them in a creative and motivating way. This class has forced me to not only think twice about what and how I teach my students, but it has given me an opportunity to challenge my negative attitude that I have recently adopted.

There were two challenging parts of this class that rose above the other challenges. Firstly, I struggled with some of the creative aspects of this class. As mentioned above, I have developed a creative block and a defeatist attitude. I was convinced that I had lost every creative bone in my body. Each week was a struggle to pick the topic, picture, song, ect… I was never quite sure of myself until the final product was completed. I also consider myself a bit of a perfectionist so I needed every project to be perfect or I was not satisfied. I have to say that during the past few months, I believe that I have grown in confidence and creativity. In the beginning I was so afraid to show anyone my pictures for fear of failure and embarrassment. I have since gotten used to sharing my work with others. I even became so used to the fact that people would be looking that I allowed myself to be put on camera for the final project. I also realized that I should be confident with my initial choices because I can always adjust them later to make them work. In addition to a boost in my confidence I have also noticed that my creative side is showing through a little more. I have taken the initiative to incorporate more creativity into my lesson plans and into my classroom. I took the time to make my classroom environment more inviting and engaging. I created interactive bulletin boards, warmed up the space with pillows in the book corner, and rearranged the table groups. In terms of lessons, I have learned to take a different approach in planning. Instead of focusing solely on objectives and standards I have also taken into consideration current trends and students interests. I feel like I am still covering the standards, but I am just considering my students much more. I believe that this class has made me think more abstractly and for that I am thankful because I am climbing out of the rut I seemed to have dug myself into.

I have also openly struggled with the technology that was required in this course. I am a self confessed illiterate when it comes to any sort of computer program or technology, but I feel that I have given my best to learn new programs that will be useful in the future. I have learned to conquer many different programs that I did not even know existed before. I learned to use a camera properly, how to create a movie with effects and transitions, how to use animation, how to mix audio, and how to upload my work to multiple sites. The struggles I have had with both technology and creativity have made me push myself and do things that I never thought I could do before. I have realized how important it is to challenge myself so that I can grow and be a better person. When I was frustrated with the technology I often turned to others for help just like my students turn to me for help in the classroom and when I finished each module I felt a sense of accomplishment just like my students do when they complete something challenging. I am reminded that we all have different strengths and weaknesses and that my experiences are not that different from my students. I believe that good teachers should get to know themselves and their students to be able to teach in the best way possible. In having these experiences I have learned more about myself and can use these experiences to communicate and help future students.

I have gained confidence and skills in this class, but above all I have a greater passion for art in education. I have always been an advocate for the arts in schools, but being such a new teacher I have never really had a reason why I believed it should be there. For the most part, I understood it to be an area that many students excelled in and it would be a shame to see those talents go to waste if art programs were lost. While I still believe this to be true, I have learned that art is much more important. As Phillip W. Jackson stated, creating art makes the artist awake and aware. Art teaches us to look and listen carefully as it takes on nuances. The artist has a heightened sense of life because they are aware of their surroundings. I have begun to implement more art inside my classroom because I am now aware of its power to make people more aware of their surroundings and themselves. As a result of my appreciation and understanding of art I have certainly become more aware of what is around me. I have become more appreciate of the arts because I now know exactly how much work is put into everything. Having explored the nature and design of movies, music, TV, architecture, interior design, and fashion, I have a better understanding of what captivates audiences and keeps them interested. I then translate this understanding to my own classroom. For teachers to captivate their students they first need to know the individuals in their classrooms…get to know everyone’s story so that they can speak to the core of the individual. Just like a photographer gets to know a camera or a musician gets to know their instrument, their art is better because they understood how their tools and subjects worked. While studying the NDCE I noticed that there was a certain level of intimacy or passion involved in each area. Teachers should also put forth that same passion and enthusiasm to make their students want to learn as well. Teachers should also consider spending more time on planning. Lessons should be organized, simple to understand, and innovative. Innovation is a similar theme I found running through the NDCE. I have read about how editors and interior designers will play around with various ideas before choosing the right one. In the same sense, teachers should try new ideas and learn to use colleagues who are wonderful resources. I have also learned that the NDCE is purposeful and thoughtful. Great art should be thought thorough carefully. The same should be done with our classrooms, students, and lessons. Finally, teaching is about overcoming obstacles. Teachers have daily obstacles to overcome. Perhaps resources went missing, or the schedule has shifted or a student is acting up…whatever the obstacle may be it is put there for a reason. I have learned thought this whole process that obstacles are put in front of our paths to challenge our beliefs and passions. When we overcome those obstacles it proves how badly we want to continue. So no matter how big or how small the obstacle may be we have to learn to face it head on.

Although this class was more demanding than I could have ever imagined, it has also been more worthwhile than I could have ever imagined. I have gained confidence and learned about believing in myself and in doing so I realized that believing in me is at the heart of teaching. We want our students to believe in themselves and try new things that they may be afraid of, but to do so we must first believe in ourselves. I have gained a passion for art in education and have also gained a greater appreciation for the world around me and the work of art that is in all things.

Go! Animate

Here is a link to the site I found for animating. It was easy to sign up for and easy to use. I found it almost addicting!!! Have fun animating :)

http://goanimate.com/

Learn to Improvise and Try New Things

This module presented a few obstacles for me and I think these past two weeks have been all about overcoming obstacles. Firstly, I had difficultly deciding how I was going to film this project. In England students and teachers have two weeks of Spring Break because schools are set in a more year round fashion. Schools typically run from September to the end of July with six weeks of holiday time spread throughout the year. For these two weeks during the fashion module I seem to be without students or a classroom. I was stuck as to how I was going to film a What Not to Teach episode without students. I thought about using friends as actors, but where would be film the episode. Then I remembered something that my Professor had mentioned, get creative and play all the parts yourself. I also thought about playing all the parts myself, even the student roles, but it did not seem realistic. Then I noticed one of the examples given to us. It was an animated short film about what not to teach in a foreign language class. I thought about tackling this idea of animation so I began a search for user friendly and affordable sights that would allow me to explore this option. Thus my second obstacle appeared. I looked through various sights, but found one that reigned above the rest. Go Animate is an exceptional sight which was free to sign up and super easy to use. This site was fairly simple and had great video tutorials to watch for help. Although I seemed to pick up some animation skills, I still found myself learning new things every time I went to create or edit. The entire process was also much more time consuming then I would have ever imagined. Every facial expression, background, movement, and prop needed to be thought about and planned precisely for the animation to be successful. I now have a new found appreciation for animation because I know that for every 5 minutes I watch, there was probably up to 20 hours of work! I think that my big lesson this week was improvisation. I learned to work around the obstacles that were put in front of me to achieve what needed to be done. In teaching, you often have to improvise or shoot from the hip. There are a number of obstacles that might throw off my plans for the day, and although I try to stay on schedule for the sake of the students and to achieve the targets for the day, sometimes I have to adjust my plans. Because teaching is so unpredictable we have to be able to think on our feet and improvise to make things work as best as they can. This reminds me of the time I had planned a lesson that involved food. The teacher in the classroom next to me got ill and there were no substitutes so the class was split up among the other year 3 classes. I was given 10 extra students with no time to prepare. Because I had planned a lesson with a set number of supplies, I had to think fast and create enough for everyone. I was teaching about the Christian ritual of communion. Ironically I had to turn bread and grape juice (representing the wine…no real wine was served in any of my lessonsJ ) into enough to feed two classes and felt a little like Jesus himself feeding the masses with bread and fish. Honestly the whole day was hectic, but it worked out because I learned to improvise. Being able to balance and improvise are skills either natural or learned that teachers need on a daily basis.

In addition to improvisation, I also realized this week that there are many numerous ways of doing any one particular thing. Just like there are numerous fashion styles or even many different types of white T-shirts, there are plenty of ways of doing the same project or teaching the same topic. As I was learning the animation this week I thought about the hundreds even thousands of ways each module could be done. Just like everyone has their own fashion sense, they have their own creative sense that translates to work or even their career. In my case I was reminded that different teachers have different teaching styles, but there is not necessarily a right way. As long as either technique has the same outcome of reaching students.

Also I was reminded of how trying new things can be beneficial, educational, and fun. Just like we try on new clothes, we also need to try new things and not be afraid of change. Change is how we progress and learn. This week I dared to try something I would have never done before; animating and I realized how much fun it could be. You could almost say that I was addicted. I thought of how much my students would enjoy a lesson with themselves as a cartoon. I could even take it as far as teaching them how to use a simple animation sight to create their own stories. Trying new techniques or ways of teaching is how teachers are to grow and stay current. I was reminded of how nervous and scary it can be trying something new, but what wonderful things can happen when you try.

Teacher as Both Designer and Tailor

In looking ahead in the syllabus I saw fashion as one of our discussion topics. I have been looking forward to this topic ever since. I am one of the millions of people who have already subconsciously decided that fashion is compelling. I love to watch all the fashion shows on television and spend considerable amounts of time and money on different aspects of fashion. It was not until this week that I began to see that fashion is a real vehicle for learning. Not only is fashion a deeply engaging experience like Wong and Henriksen suggest in If Ideas were Fashion, it is also an extremely thought provoking subject. Wong and Henriksen mention various connections to teaching and learning through fashion. They mention how fashion is compelling because of it is “characterized by intense imagination, motivation, emotion, and thought”. Just as I am compelled to think about my personal fashion choices and styles, I was compelled to think more about fashion roles inside the classroom. I began to think more in terms of my role in the classroom and began to see teaching like designing or tailoring. Teaching is also all about designing. Just as a designer thinks of a new way to express an idea through fashion, teachers have to create lessons that show students information in new ways. Teacher design lessons in a variety of ways. They have to decide what material to cover. Even when standards are in place they may be vague and it is up to the teacher to choose how to interpret the standards. For example students in Michigan that are in third grade all have to be able to explain what a decade is as a part of the history curriculum. I decided to have students match items and pictures of clothing to their decade then discussed the meaning. Other teachers in my building used various buttons through the years to show the difference between past and present. The teacher also has to design their classroom as discussed in my blog on second chances and classroom environment. Teachers also design the layout of each day and when each subject or lesson should be taught. Designers choose fabrics, colors, shapes, and styles and they take careful consideration of each when designing an outfit. Teachers also think carefully about the design of their day as to best suit the needs of their students. A takes just as much time to plan out each day of their students as a designer would with each one of a kind piece. Ultimately teachers also design each lesson so that students achieve and grow. Each lesson is therefore tailored to suit the needs of the teacher, the students, the school, and the state.
I began to see the teacher also like a tailor. A teacher’s main job is to see that all students are growing; academically, mentally, physically, and socially. To do this teachers have to get a feeling for their students as individuals and how they function as a community of learners. Then they design custom fit lessons to suit the needs of all learners, much like a tailor fits the garment to suit each individual body type. We are all different and although clothes are made in generic sizes we often have to have them tailored to fit our own bodies or at least we could to make our clothes fit as good as they can. Teachers take the same concept of one size fits all with most lessons catering them to the needs of most students or what the majority of learners need; then they adjust the lessons to fit individuals. They may also need to do some adjusting more than once. Often time’s tailors have to see a suit on a man many times before creating a custom fit. Well teachers do the same thing…they may teach a lesson once and have to re-teach that same lesson again with slight variations to insure that all students have understood the main focus. Teachers must really design, tailor, and adjust lessons so that all students are successful.