The great philsopher, Aristoltle once said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” This is a fundamental principal in the early part of a child's creative journey which begins with the self-discovery that leads to inward significance. In our art room, every child's creation is celebrated, every creation is unique to the experiences of each child. I will encourage students to further explore their inward significance through our art curriculum.
My instruction is an amalgam of styles, trends and models which places individual development, building relationships, and foundation at the core. I follow a model developed by visual art and museum educators called Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) combined with the choice based Studio Habits of Mind model with an exploratory perspective. To balance the DBAE model, I provide opportunities for children to have open options with minimal limitation for a semester. Having choice in media, process and interpretation allows students to explore, experiment and interpret art making on a personalized level. The choice based projects range from an established theme or medium with open choice, technology infused projects, or free exploration. One example of abundant choice is the Jim Dine HEART project wherein second grade students choose from a wide variety of media to select in interpreting and creating their own heart, whether two dimensional or three dimensional. DBAE provides a foundation and balance to open choice creative exploration. DBAE consists of art creation, art history, aesthetics (elements and how they work together), and art evaluation. DBAE is an art model that articulates knowledge application beyond art making to enable students to read art and make value judgments; its foundation applies to a variety of contexts and provides a balanced knowledge of methods and means. It teaches students to function at a higher cognitive level, and to place an image or object on an historical, material or theoretical core simultaneously. This multidimensional thinking facilitates problem solving, and higher order thinking.
In addition, DBAE is adaptive and flexible to allow for scaffolding with other curriculum subject matter which is an outstanding model for STEAM projects. I look for ways to include social studies, history, communication arts, math, and science. Students in art who integrate problem solving and creative exploration are encouraged to bridge visual knowledge to other disciplines and respond with innovation and imagination. Integrating the arts and other academic subjects challenges students to broaden their knowledge base and curiosity about a subject, make essential connections, and provides a round, holistic perspective. It is my hope that this connection leads to a deeper interest in all things for every student.
It is my goal to model, demonstrate, guide, teach, inspire, challenge, nurture and motivate students to explore flexible, divergent, original, and imaginative thinking, to develop fluent visual thinkers and to encourage curiosity, inquiry, and discovery, problem solving, decision making, apply new concepts and materials, and to collaborate and communicate ideas through the arts. Further, it is my goal to infuse fun while we are learning, and learning from one another.
I strongly believe the arts connect learning and ground us in humanity. I model and communicate the belief that the arts teach us all value in diversity through creative expression of different cultures that make up humanity. As a group, our different voices encourage collaboration and the acceptance of individual perspective. Individually, art encourages us to seek our own voice and explore our own individuality. This is one of the reasons art is attractive to me - it binds all of humanity, it is universal.
Education is about finding significance through curriculum and self growth; learning to creatively solve life issues through effective decision-making processes and becoming reliable, caring and valued citizens that will contribute to society as a whole. The visual arts program contributes to this developmental process and is an essential part of every child's academic experience.
My instruction is an amalgam of styles, trends and models which places individual development, building relationships, and foundation at the core. I follow a model developed by visual art and museum educators called Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) combined with the choice based Studio Habits of Mind model with an exploratory perspective. To balance the DBAE model, I provide opportunities for children to have open options with minimal limitation for a semester. Having choice in media, process and interpretation allows students to explore, experiment and interpret art making on a personalized level. The choice based projects range from an established theme or medium with open choice, technology infused projects, or free exploration. One example of abundant choice is the Jim Dine HEART project wherein second grade students choose from a wide variety of media to select in interpreting and creating their own heart, whether two dimensional or three dimensional. DBAE provides a foundation and balance to open choice creative exploration. DBAE consists of art creation, art history, aesthetics (elements and how they work together), and art evaluation. DBAE is an art model that articulates knowledge application beyond art making to enable students to read art and make value judgments; its foundation applies to a variety of contexts and provides a balanced knowledge of methods and means. It teaches students to function at a higher cognitive level, and to place an image or object on an historical, material or theoretical core simultaneously. This multidimensional thinking facilitates problem solving, and higher order thinking.
In addition, DBAE is adaptive and flexible to allow for scaffolding with other curriculum subject matter which is an outstanding model for STEAM projects. I look for ways to include social studies, history, communication arts, math, and science. Students in art who integrate problem solving and creative exploration are encouraged to bridge visual knowledge to other disciplines and respond with innovation and imagination. Integrating the arts and other academic subjects challenges students to broaden their knowledge base and curiosity about a subject, make essential connections, and provides a round, holistic perspective. It is my hope that this connection leads to a deeper interest in all things for every student.
It is my goal to model, demonstrate, guide, teach, inspire, challenge, nurture and motivate students to explore flexible, divergent, original, and imaginative thinking, to develop fluent visual thinkers and to encourage curiosity, inquiry, and discovery, problem solving, decision making, apply new concepts and materials, and to collaborate and communicate ideas through the arts. Further, it is my goal to infuse fun while we are learning, and learning from one another.
I strongly believe the arts connect learning and ground us in humanity. I model and communicate the belief that the arts teach us all value in diversity through creative expression of different cultures that make up humanity. As a group, our different voices encourage collaboration and the acceptance of individual perspective. Individually, art encourages us to seek our own voice and explore our own individuality. This is one of the reasons art is attractive to me - it binds all of humanity, it is universal.
Education is about finding significance through curriculum and self growth; learning to creatively solve life issues through effective decision-making processes and becoming reliable, caring and valued citizens that will contribute to society as a whole. The visual arts program contributes to this developmental process and is an essential part of every child's academic experience.