call me ms. b

As a pre service teacher my journey emotionally and mentally has so far been a series of realizations that open up my perspective a little more each time. At the start of this semester I wasn’t sure how to feel, and the pace of study in all of my classes felt slow and vague. But as time went on, I started to appreciate the speed and understood more of why the content was so open. 

As far as I know (and with what we have been told) the day in and day outs of a new teacher won’t differ much from what we are experiencing now - except that we will likely have much less time. So the idea of becoming more comfortable in a state of unknowing, and the skills of being flexible are crucial in our future success. 

I think the biggest take away for me this semester boils down to one vital aspect of teaching: inclusion. 

One of the largest projects we had this semester was referred to as our “Inquiry Project”. We were asked create a question or concept that we wanted to know more about in our teaching and I chose to look at the ways we can provide support for students with special needs in art education. It was through this research and the themes we explored in our classes that I came to the conclusion that one of the simplest and most impactful things I can promote and model in my classrooms is inclusion. 

At the foundation of every successful classroom I saw, safety and inclusion were top priority. Making this connection and knowing how much work it will take to create this, especially as a new teacher is the most impactful learning I have done. 

The culmination of the Inquiry Project was a Gallery Walk Presentation of the work we have done. We were asked to present our findings in a visual and interactive way. I knew that I wanted to create something engaging that expressed my learning, but I also wanted my audience to understand in a more personal way the challenges special needs students face. I created a trifold of the information I researched and then an exercise: Make a Leaf for the Abili-tree. The audience were asked to create on leaf cuts out I made either blind-folded or with their non-dominant hand. From this experience it was my hope that people would come away with a deeper understanding of what it is like to create with limited capacities and appreciate the kind of support they would have wanted and can provide as teachers. 

Take a look at my set up below:

In the final weeks of my Secondary Art class, we have had the privilege to see the work our fellow classmates are doing through presentation and exercises. The focus of the presentations are lesson plans that we have come up with based on our own interests. Each week I am awed by the creativity and passion my classmates have and I love witnessing their thought processes and styles of teaching as they evolved. Here are some of the stand out moments for me:

Approach - One of the biggest hurdles I am facing in the theoretical planning stage is “how I should approach a topic”. One of the presentations I saw explored an interesting way to weave mediums and concepts in a longer but more organic way. As an art teacher I want to provide my students with the opportunity to experience art in unconventional ways and challenge the compartmentalized nature of scheduled learning. I was excited to see examples of some ways that I can do that. 

Humour - I think it’s really easy for me to get caught up in the gravity of my work. I know that right now I am training myself for a career I hope to be doing for the majority of my life, and sometimes the weight of that outcome can blur my view. One of the presentations that I saw, reminded me of how fun this job can and will be, and more importantly, the way that it becomes fun starts with me. Laughing and keeping things light and fun is such an important part of my well being, but I often forgot to do it!

Our final contribution in our Methodology Art class will be a short presentation of a piece of artwork that is meaningful to us. When we were told about this last project I immediately thought of a silkscreen I did in early this year.

Prior to starting the Post Degree Professional Program at UVic, I took a few studio art courses at York University in Toronto. One of the courses I took was silkscreening - I had never done it before. I was immediately challenged, it was a medium that was completely foreign to me and I was confused and frustrated at the exactness that is the art form is traditionally built on.

For my final project in this studio class I knew that I wanted to create something difficult, but I also wanted to capture the steps, effort and teaching moments in the process. So I created a step by step guide to building the 6 layer print. This is the work in completion and in its creation. Below the images is the artist statement that goes with the work.

Foreboding in Creation

I am very excited about inviting Inquiry into the classroom. During this first semester of this teacher program, the term Inquiry has been thrown around a lot. It is a very exciting buzz word - but for a long time many of us did not know what it meant. What is Inquiry, and how do we bring it into the classroom?

It wasn’t until after I picked up Trevor Mackenzie’s book Dive Into Inquiry that I really began to understand practical ways in which educators can make inquiry based learning happen.

I attended the Intersections Conference held at the University of Victoria on October 21-22nd and I found it both inspiring and informative. The two workshops that I sat in on were great examples of how art educators can work in their communities to bring art work to life. It was very encouraging to see the different ways both teachers and community members want to interact more and I am very excited to begin building those relationships for myself. I would like to especially mention the Vancouver Biennale for providing such an interesting and accessible programs for art teachers. My eyes were really opened to the possibilities for community connections in art that I had not seen before.

I love discovering and exploring resources that I can imagine using in my classroom - and one exciting part about so new to this profession is the seemingly endless places to find resources. When looking at UIC’s website Spiral Art Education, was really interested in the Moment In Time Video Project I think that it is an innovative way to utilize a number of different skills that have previously been touched on, but also can be adjusted and differentiated to make it more accessible for a large group of people.

The concept of creating a sequence video of compelling images without an overarching theme or story could be very challenging for students who are raised in western culture and then asking them to further dissect and break down the work into three still images for further manipulation really alleviates any pressure or attitude of precious-ness that I think is very important for young developing artists.

As I continue along this path as a pre-service teacher I am consistently struck by how well adjusted I feel for this kind of job. I have had many jobs in my life but none of them have felt as natural as this one I think will be. I am consistently reminded of how fortunate I am to get the chance to become a teacher. 

In this exercise I played around with one of the Image Development & Design Strategies (IDDS - Style). I began by drawing a realistic sketch of my little statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe and then tried again to simplify it. 

Robert Dalton’s exploration of art appreciation through an empathy narrative is a crucial aspect of art education at any level. I was particularly encouraged by the articulation that storytelling continues to be one of the most impactful ways to develop empathy. The introduction of the empathy narrative has broadened my perspective as both an artist and as an educator. One of the struggles we will face as art teachers is convincing those that aren’t familiar with the process of creating art, that the “product” is as much a representation of the process it took as the piece itself - and that sometimes it takes a long time to get there.

Mark Coreth’s Bear in the Square is a great example of piece of art that is driven by empathy narrative.