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I have created another web log on arts education. This site will house current information on the state of Arts Education as well as ongoing community projects and lesson plans.

Reading Respones

Week One:
- Chapter 1: By far the most useful part of this chapter is the 11 reasons why the arts should be integrated into the curriculum. The most meaningful for me is #5 “The arts provide avenues of achievement for students who might otherwise not be successful.” (Pg 5) In my work as a director at a camp for kids with LD’s the music and art therapy programs excelled in promoting a sense of confidence and achievement to students whose academic records were poor. Through the arts students were able to engage in a process of meaning making, propelling their self-awareness and self worth.
- The Role of Artistic Play: An art student myself, I have always enjoyed the fact that I had options and control of my projects. I was really able to demonstrate what was most meaningful to my learning in ways that made sense to me. This article calls for this type of experiential learning, citing that children need the time to play in constructive ways that will develop their understanding of themselves and their surroundings. I especially enjoyed the link between making choices, communicating these choices and receiving feedback on these choices – this is an excellent process for students to go through and play is an excellent medium.

Week Two:
- Chapter 2: This chapter demonstrates the importance of meaningful integration of the arts throughout the academic curriculum. Of particular importance is the list of principles and strategies that should be consulted for integration. (Pg 36) This list of 10 ideas provides teachers with a strong foundation for creating arts-based units and integration across the curriculum. I especially liked numbering 2, teaching arts concepts and skills. It is a huge pet peeve of mine when teachers do ‘soft’ integration of art into other curriculum areas such as “paint a picture of a rain forest.” For it to be a meaningful integration, teachers must also provide lessons on HOW to paint, the concepts behind the elements of painting and proper examples of artistic work. This ‘hard’ integration provides a more rich and meaningful experience for the student.
- A Community Art Museum Celebrates Diversity: I spoke more directly to this article in my entry on the cultural museum activity. I thought it was a great basis and written in a manner that could inspire teacher’s to create a program in their schools. I still have concerns that without proper consultation, this could turn into an objectified ‘turnstile’ event rather than a therapeutic approach to differences. I will have to conduct more research on this I think.
- Keepers of the Earth: I want this book! I love resources that integrate tradition and modern usage and this book does both – the teacher’s guide allows for succinct lesson planning that refers to the material and allows for expansion. I am personally quite interested in First Nations culture and always have been – this was a great addition to this course. Like many cultures, the arts and arts concepts run deep in Native traditions, gaining exposure to this in an academic way was very important for me.

Week Three:
- Chapters 5&6: These two chapters offer a wealth of information on reasons why and how to integrate the visual arts into the curriculum. Even for someone with a strong arts background, these chapters are relevant and integral for arts education. I love the handy hints and format of these chapters. They are easy to read and what’s more – easy to reference for future, more practical usage.
- Activities for Creating Pictures and Poetry: I loved this selection so much I have actually purchased the book. As my degree is in Art History and cultural heritage education, I love resources that bring together art history and practice and these activities are fun and worthwhile.

Week Four:
- Keepers of Life: This chapter demonstrates a meaningful and useful integration between the normally distinct disciplines of art and science. In many ways art is a science and science is an art. Using tradition, this article shows their homeostatic relationship.
- Material Culture in the Classroom: DO

Week Five:
- Chapters 7&8: Like chapters 5&6, these are very chalked full of information on the process of drama education. In the French immersion programme at my high school, I was allowed to take Gr. 10 drama in French. This was an excellent method of improving my communication skills in another language to become more proficient and understanding of the subtleties of the spoken word. PLUS DRAMA IS FUN!!!!
- Reaching Inner-City Youngsters Through the Arts: This is my dream. I think in many ways I was meant to complete a program like this. I still need to do a lot of work in this area of working with Inner-City youth and practical arts Ed experiences but the research has proven TIME and TIME again how effective the arts can be.

Week Six:
- Chapters 11&12: Like 5, 6, 7&8, these two chapters deal with the music curriculum and integration. By far my weakest of arts areas, these are two chapters I will return to as I prepare music education lessons. I am lucky in that music runs deep in my family. My mother was a singer, two of my brothers are extremely musical and my other brother and myself are both able to read music and play instruments. For me, music is so important to understanding society – its one of the most primitive forms of artistic expression. In the words of Dick Clark “music is the soundtrack to our lives.”

Week Seven:
- Keepers of the Animals: Like the other two excerpts from this book, this chapter links the arts through the message of animal beings. This reminded me of the basic principles of drama that students employ from the very beginning “let’s pretend”. What is important in this book is that the story is presented in conjunction with discussion topics and activities to consolidate the learning. It’s a one-stop resource for teachers making it highly useful and usable.

Week Eight:
- Chapter 14: WOHOOO assessment! Ask any teacher candidate in the PJ stream and they will tell you they want to know more about assessment. Here is an entire chapter on assessment and the arts AND its not solely based on assessing provincial curriculum. Not only does this chapter provide information on how and what to assess, it provides assessment tools to try out and adapt to suit your own needs. AMAZING!

Alice Williams - Quilter, a response

I was very moved by Alice Williams’s presentation on her personal history and quilt making. I very much enjoyed the process of listening to her explain her background and then link it to her quilting practice. I have always been quite interested in First Nations culture and found great value in having the opportunity to meet a practising First Nations artists.

Since my undergrad degree is in Art History, I was quite used to the format of the lecture on art and artefacts. While some of my peers found her lecture style to be bland and sterile, I enjoyed returning to my time as an art history student where sociology, cultural anthropology, critical and artistic practice are woven together. I felt that her lecture style spoke to another time, when storytelling was a vital component to the structure of cultural values.

I learned a great deal about her artwork, namely her integration of the medicine wheel, and her interpretation of that symbol. Having a common thread between works of art is central to many artists, what I liked about her integration of the medicine wheel was how it was never central to the design of the piece, meaning that there were more explicit elements for the eye to wander through, yet the wheel and its significance to the artist’s culture was never compromised.

I have been specially trained to listen to these types of lectures and to look at art and artefacts from many vantage points. I found it quite disconcerting and saddening in many ways, that some of my peers could not look past the format of the lecture to see the value not only in what was being said, but also in the method that it was being transmitted. I question their ability to inspire in their students the ability to look for meaning and importance in the events they witness.

Lastly, I found this lecture to be an excellent way of introducing the idea of quilts and their meaning and relevance to “story” cultures and material culture in general. I found that when I went to do my quilting piece I asked myself some interesting questions. What story does this piece tell? Who is it telling it to? Why am I telling this story? In the end my quilt piece became a story about two dolphins dancing in the starlit waves together. It is quite clear that they two dolphins enjoy each other’s company. A very good friend of mine is expecting her first child in May. It is my intent to embroider the details of her child’s birth onto the cloth and present it as a story of their love for their new child.