Group Forum Reflection

The focus for the last two days on the cultural make-up of our student body was an extremely useful opportunity to come together as a class and learn from each other.  I greatly enjoyed hearing others' opinions on the topics that we discussed, and likewise having the opportunity to share my opinions and experiences.  Many of the topics, while potentially controversial, were presented in such a way that different opinions were encouraged.  I greatly enjoyed presenting on our topic of Appalachia and so wish that we had more time to discuss its implications in the classroom and look at strategies when teaching rural students.  I don't know that I necessarily learned anything new, but I do feel that I was able to organize my thoughts on the topics in a different way.  What I did learn was a lot more about the people in the class, and for that reason, I almost wish that we had this forum earlier in the semester. 

Everything but the kitchen sink...that's how I learn

How I learn is a lot like how I teach...I like to play!  I view my own personal style of learning as a combination of the Social Cognitive Theory and the Constructivism Theory.  I learn best with authentic experiences and when I can get my hands dirty, literally.  As an artist, I am a visual learner who does best in a few different classroom scenarios.  Firstly, I excel when I can watch someone do something (vicarious learning) then practice it myself (enactive learning).  This is where the Social Cognitive theory comes into play at its best for me.  However, I also strongly related to the Constructivist theory, especially with the aspects of authentic tasks that I can apply to real situations and experiences, and the aspect of get in, get dirty, experiment, explore, and learn!  Below are a few images of just what I do.  Before I learned how to do this (and what you are seeing is screen print) someone had to show me, then I had to apply what I just saw to my own work and along the way figure out how to make that process work the best for me and my ideas. 

This is my work area.  I have things EVERYWHERE!  I make a mess, play around, and then clean up.  I like to see how something may work or look, and when I learn, I also like to see how something will work.  I'm very visually inclined, which relates back to SCT.

I set things up and then just figure it out as I go along, a very constructivist approach.

These three images show phases in the creation of a piece of mine.  As you can see I work with layers, and I work with visuals in hand.  I have to test things out as I go, whether it's a color or line placement.  Just how I work is learning through the Constructivist theory because I experiment and try so many different things.  However, it's also ties back into the Social Cognitive theory because I set goals (self-regulation) and work hard to meet them.  The goals for me when working on the two pieces above were 1. finish 10 or more pieces in a week, 2. have a framed exhibition ready to install in 2 weeks, 3. be in the printmaking studio ALL day every day of my week of vacation.  I had to reflect on compositional choices, think critically about the message I wanted to convey to my audience and whether it was successful, and then of course the fun part of figure out how I was going to do it all!  The entire life of an artist is a constant lesson where you always question, self-regulate, discover, and achieve. In a way I feel like this relates to one of my favorite quotes:

"Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job."  -Andy Warhol

Yes, being an artist is a job, but also a constant learning experience (key word!) that I wouldn't trade for anything...much like teaching!

If you are interested in seeing more of my work (prints, photographs, paintings, drawings...) please check out my website www.stoneking-stewart.com

Kids these days!

My Classroom Environment and Problem-Solving Strategies

I like to think of my classroom as one that is structured yet allows for flexibility.  Everything has a place and every person knows the procedures that are to be followed in their daily routine, whether it is picking up their portfolios from the back counter at the start of class, or the last period of the day putting all the chairs up on the desks.  Having this bit of structure, something that every student can always count on occurring daily provides stability to my students that might not have it anywhere else.  I enforce the procedural structure with rewards, such as candy and music, and punish any students who do not follow the structure with extra tasks, such as sweeping the floor or reorganizing the books. 

Beyond the daily routines, I approach my classroom as an environment that allows for students to express themselves through artwork that, within the structure of the projects, allows for much freedom and choice.  They create their own compositions, pick their own still-life objects or subject matter, and have choice between at least two media for each project.  Providing them these forced choices allows for them to feel as if they have some control over what they are doing, therefore they have the desire how to learn the best ways to mix paint because they WANT to know how to paint. 

So many students enter my classroom saying that they cannot draw or that they are not creative, yet I always tell them that they can!  Practice makes perfect, and yes you can learn to draw and drastically improve your skills through simple techniques.  I always show them two drawings of Van Gogh, both of a man, two years apart, having them recognize the obvious improvement in proportion, spatial relationships, and form.  These images are inspiration for my students to start the class.  I always keep one of their first projects to show them how far they have come and how much they have learned not only about the creation of art, but artists, the materials, and the use of correct terminology.

Taking the high school case study into consideration, I would handle the situation in the following ways. Firstly, I would speak with each student individually and after class (dependingly, I would call them out of their next class to come talk with me).  I will let them know that their behavior is not acceptable behavior for a student of their age and maturity and that they know better.  I would let them know how disappointed I am in them and ask them how they think they should be behaving.  If they do not provide suggestions, I will provide my opinion and ask whether that seems acceptable.  I would reiterate that in their final grade is a percentage that goes toward participation, and currently they were failing that section.  With their other grades taken into consideration, and I am making an assumption that with their severe case of “senioritis,” that they would be barely squeaking by, I would let them know that they could potential fail this class and that would keep them from graduating since they are required to have a Fine Art elective to graduate.  I would also let them know that I would be speaking that day with the other two students and let them know that tomorrow in class I expected them to behave appropriately or there would be consequences, including calling their parents, creating a new seating arrangement, in-class chores, after-school detention with cleaning duties, etc.  I would also ask for their input: Why are you acting this way?  What do you want to be doing in this class?  Is there a different assignment you’d be interested in? Based on what they tell me, I would create an assignment that they would find more engaging, yet still relevant to the standards I was teaching.

Motivation in the classroom

MOTIVATION!!!!  

focus, accomplish, excel

Life for me is a series of goals.  In general, I rarely have problems with intrinsic motivation.  I am driven and push myself hard, especially in the things that matter to me: my family, career, creative works, relationships, learning, community involvement, and the list goes on. But then there are the things that I have no desire to do, like currently organize my garage.  So what motivates me? 

Personally, the Goal Theory is most applicable.  I set short and long term goals regularly, working hard to achieve them.  However, when it comes to my students, their response often is, "Goal?!  Forget that!"  This attitude is one that is very challenging for me as an educator and life-long learning to not only understand but also overcome.  Ways that I have found to be successful so far were some of the ones that we discussed in class.  

Bringing in elements of play have been a great way to engage my students in the task at hand.  Whether it is using "fun" technology for projects, like iPads and the Smartboard, or bringing in materials, activities, or ideas that are unexpected, my students seem to enjoy in this simple motivational strategy.  Another approach that has been successful is using students' personal interest to motivate them.  I bring in subjects and aspects that are relevant, whether broadly to popular culture or personally to their own lives and experiences.  Involving aspects of fantasy with their art projects has also been very successful with some. Lastly, creating projects that have elements of peer-to-peer teaching has been very successful.  Whether I use shoulder-partners and have each of them teach the other person a segment of reading, or having class presentations on artists and art movements, providing students the opportunity to share their knowledge has worked well.  

As an end note, motivation of students will always be the big challenge, and finding the ways to over-come individual barriers and engage them in studio projects will always be my goal and therefore motivating factor to teach.

 

First Class Reflection

The first class of the whirlwind 5-week summer tern was on Thursday, May 30th.  I won't lie, my attentions were a bit divided between the information and my 8-week old daughter, Elizabeth Claire, who had to come with me the first day.  However, there were numerous tidbits that I gleaned from the lecture and class discussions, some of which were old news and others new news.  Firstly, what excites me the most about this class is that I will have the opportunity to learn about the various modes of learning, motivation, and engagement of my students.  I'm fascinated to hear how, and hopefully why, we learn.  I know that the information taught will be extremely relevant and useful to me when I return to my classroom in August, especially with the different modes of instruction and their uses.  Personally, I relate to the Interactive/Collaborative and Discovery/Inquiry theories, not only for how I learn but for how I like to teach, but it is so interesting to see how everyone else processes and redirects information.  I am definitely looking forward to the discussions and knowledge that everyone in the class will bring.

Here we go!

So this blog has been created for my Educational Psychology class this summer. However, my intention will be to actually use this to highlight my experiences, past present and future, as a teacher and life-long learner, and continue to use this blog long after this class is over.  Just as a background on me, I am an artist by birth and a printmaker by training.  I have taught college for over six years at a number of institutions (private, public, two-year, four-year, religious and not) in Tennessee and South Carolina in a variety of media, plus Art History.  My family brought me back to East Tennessee and a job at the University of Tennessee where I worked for a year.  However, my passion lies in teaching and after that year I sorely missed the classroom and desperately wanted to return.  An opportunity arose for me to teach Art at a local, public high school and I jumped at the opportunity, though it scared me to death.  Not only did it mean that I'd have to return to college not as a professor but as a student to earn my teaching certification, but also my own high school experience was so drastically different from the environment that I work, so therefore I had no like-experiences to pull from.  The first year was definitely a trial by fire, but I learned so much! Whenever folks ask me how I like teaching high school, my response is, "It's never a dull day!"  Some days it's good, and some it's bad, but never the same and never mundane.  And that's one huge reason why I love to teach...nothing is ever the same!