WEEK 4 Developing*

WEEK #4 09.24.2011

Developing my Lesson Plan: *TYPOGRAPHY* ("MAKE YOUR MARK!")To be honest, I wasn't very familiar with the term *typography* (which is the style, arrangement, or appearance of type) until I began brainstorming for my individual lesson plan.  Also, our team was heading towards the direction of a *printmaking* theme, so even though I do not have much experience in this medium, I am willing to learn.  When working within a group, many a times one must compromise.  Also, I firmly believe that all teachers should be dedicated and take on a life-long comittment to become constant researchers...

So I was "stuck" for awhile.  I realized that I kept asking myself, "What would the students want to learn?" and "How can the students relate to this concept?"  "How can I form a connection from the outside world to something that the students can relate to and find interesting*...This reminds me of this one time I observed an art educator who was teaching a group of 6th graders two point perspective.  #1) The students couldn't relate #2) They simply didn't get it!!! Therefore, the majority of her class was un-interested and un-motivated.

It has taken alot of thought and reflection (and self-correction) BUT I believe ideas are beginning to become concrete.  I begin with an *enduring*understanding*:  "We are all designers of typography." "Our world is filled with hundreds of examples of typography."  It is important to understand that in a modern (digital) world, we are bombarded by type.  Each type is unique in its own right...and while type usually refers to "digital" there is an artistic and expressive element to typography and that is the *message* that the letters convey.  Generally speaking, in a digital age, type is generated on the computer.  Respectively, people (i.e. graphic designers) work hard at studying and creating these letterforms.  BUT the the main concept I want the students to wrap their heads around is that any appearance of font (digitally or manually created) conveys a powerful message because of its style.  How can the way you stylize and arrange your font express a message?...And what message are you trying to express?  "If you were a fontographer, how would you create a relief signature stamp that expresses a unique quality about yourself, about your identity or perhaps personality?"  I want the students to take into consideration: How they space the letters, the size of the letters, and the orientation of the letters.  My goals are to have students demonstrate sensitivity to typography and gain an appreciation for the beauty of typography and the power of the message that the style, arrangement, and appearance of the font conveys.
"For we are not sent into this world to do any thing into which we cannot put our hearts."
-John Ruskin The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849.

My *1st* Glog!?!?

No I didn't make a "typo" its really called GLOG, with a *G*...I first learned about "glogster" through Professor Baldensperger last year during her WEB 2.0  Presentation.

*GLOGGING*  = "...saying good-bye to PowerPoint..." 
(And here I am, still trying to graduate from the BASICS of PowerPoint, today's generation is far beyond yesterdays news).  Simply put, a "GLOG" = a poster, "fully designed by you!  A Glog is a unique creation made up of text, images, music and/or video." 

According to www.glogster.com, a glog is for educators and students. 
"Our mission:
Glogster is committed to bringing the best Multimedia Tool & Expression Space for young people, students, educators, and all creative people through its innovative Glog format and the new online phenomenon, Glogging." 

Ok, well I have a few thoughts and concerns regarding "glogging":


1) On their homepage it says and I quote, "EXPRESS YOUR CREATIVITY AND IDEAS"
How is having PRE-MADE "text, lay-outs, and graphics" truly one's own creativity.  You are limited to what you select and display by what the website has to offer.  You are not, authentically, creating much of anything truly your own.  You are simply bringing together text, lay-outs, and graphics that have been pre-made for you already.  I think this also promotes laziness.  I've worked hard and endless hours on visuals starting from SCRATCH.  Yes, on a blank, white poster-board.  But maybe I need to come to the realization that those days are over and we are going into a "green" or "paper-less" world but at what cost?  The cost is that children are becoming lazier and having to think less for themselves.  This is what they are taught to do, its promoted, its part of their being and generation...www.glogster.com is pure proof of this!!!
 
This brings me to a point that Jane K. Bates talks about in her book, Becoming An Art Teacher (2000).  I've asked myself before if giving students *SUBJECT*MATTER* was stunting their creative growth?  But Bates suggests that subject matter "may be necessary to provide focus for the what while the students are exploring the how...In allowing them free rein to choose their own subject matter, you may be inhibiting their growth." It's a very sensitive area and as a successful educator of any kind, I believe that one must be aware of and sensitized to this idea.  I feel like I've been spending my a majority of my adulthood trying to UNDO the way I was "taught" as a child and break down all the unfortunate barriers that were created.  So, as an art educator, I would never want to inhibit a child's creativity.  
2)"SHARE WITH THE WORLD"
Call me old fashion, but why does everything have to be so "out there?"  Why does everyone need to know what I am doing or creating and why do I find thrill in having everyone know? 
3)"GET FANS, BE A GLOGSTER"
Is this sending the wrong message to children?  Do they have to CREATE to "get fans" or are they intrinsically satisfied with creating something for the sake of "creating?" 

Well this sure is a *NEW* phenomenon to me, and I still have mixed feelings about the gestalt of it all.  Regardless,  I am proud of myself for giving it a shot and creating my *FIRST* glog today...
http://becominganartteacher.glogster.com/me/

WEEK 3 My *1st* Blog!!!

*My finished product of class-activity: Visual v. Haptic Learners*

WEEK #3 9.17.2011
Well this is exciting!  This is my first blog ever.  I still have to wrap my head around the idea of what a blog is...a "weB-LOG".  Well, here is to my journey on becoming an Art Teacher!!!  It's very exciting and I am very nervous at the same time.  Every Saturday morning, I wake up with the anticipation of going to class to learn.  My head leaves *full* but, afterall, it is a very rewarding feeling knowing that my money is worth the education I am receiving...and I am living out my passion, how amazing is that???  I used to tell my mentees at the High School that I mentored at, that I go to my classes, but it's also like going to "therapy" at the same time...painting, watercolor, collage...all my studio classes that I just get "lost-in."  Howard Gardner once said, "the creative self is like a laser beam, and nothing around it seems to exist." 

My team and I are working on building a *HIGH-SCHOOL* Unit-Plan together.  To be completely honest, I was a bit intimidated to teach at the high school level, but I believe mentoring at the high school level last Fall (2010) has helped ease my worries and I matured and developed through the whole experience. Stepping outside of anyones comfort zone is *vital* for personal growth to occur. 

I am also working on an ice-breaker idea.  So far, I am thinking of cutting up puzzle pieces out of paper.  Each student will receive a puzzle piece on the first day of class and be instructed to write their name somewhere, anywhere, they would like on their puzzle piece.  I was thinking, I would like to do the visual vs. haptic learner activity with the students as well.  We can utilize the Mona Brookes hand-out we recieved, Learning to Draw.  February, 1994.  Also, each student will have the opportunity to experience coloring with cray-pas.  All the students will have to interact with one another to put the pieces of the puzzle together.   Finally, the students will fill out a student survey.  Each student will also have a manila folder that their student surveys will be stored in.  The manila folder will act as the*student*portfolio* during our ten-week journey together...

I would like to end each entry with a prose:

" Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by. 

Instead, they should embark together on a journey from the water.  Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn."  Loris Malaguzzi, 1998.