Balloon Instillation Project Con't

The experience of making a work of art with my peers was a beneficial one for me. I really enjoyed the notion of creating hot air balloons over a community to represent applied art concepts for children. I thought that this project was especially effective because each of us had different ideas for what art for a child meant and expressed that through decorating our balloons. No two balloons were similar and when they were all put together, it really created a cohesive sense of childhood and art. I would definetly enjoy an experience like this in the future because it feels good to be a part of a group like this and to contribute in helping make something, that I feel, is really benefical to learning art.

Balloon Instillation Project

My experience of working collaboratively has added greatly to my understanding of what I learn through art. Most of my previous art experiences have been individual and this project was the first time I would in a group to contribute to a greater art project. This experience has shown me that there are ways in which you can learn from your peers in art and many good ideas come from others who inspired me to create something of my own. The balloon instillation project inspired me to try and take a collaborative approach of teaching art in my classroom. In this way, the students will be able to work together, yet still contribute and embrace their own creativity, imagination, and different learning styles. I think by doing this in my classroom, it will help instill a sense of community, improve self-esteem, and help students interact with others they may not have otherwise.

Creating a Collaborative Work of Art

Creating a collaborative work of art can be a very rewarding experience. It is beneficial because when you are working with other people, there are many ideas that are arosed and group is able to react to and inspire each other. Ideas can come abou that probably would have never been thought of if one was creating an art project on their own. Another benefit of working with a group is that there are always people around you to work with, to help you and you are there to help others. It creates a great sense of team spirit and friendship. Creating a collaborative work of art, however, also has its limitations. When working in a group, you have to accomadate other people's ideas, which you might not agree with. When working on a collaborative project, things may not turn out the way you might have wanted them because other people's work is used as well as yours. This can be frustrating for people who are perfectionists in individualists and like to have their art work in a specific way. Overall, however, I think that any experience in a collaborative work of art is beneficial to individual's characters and their growth of artists.

Brooke Johnston, Age 12

For my child workshop, I had Brooke (age 12) make a scrapbook from scratch. Brooke was extremely easy to work with because she already had a very good sense of self. She did not need any encouragement with the project or the materials, but took to them very easily. Brooke was already previously interested in journaling and scrap booking so my main focus for this project was to further her interests in creating a scrap book journal for where she could express thoughts, emotions and memories in one place and where she could experiment with a variety of materials such as photographs, buttons, pressed flowers, magazine cutouts, etc. I was able to provide Brooke with these materials and she was very interested in using them and experimenting with them so I basically only had to sit by and be there if she needed any help. Because Brooke has two older brothers and is the only girl in her family, I thought a scrap book would be a good idea for her so she could have her only little project for herself and not feel so separate from her brothers. Because of Brooke's brothers, she also had a very mature mentality and was polite, excited and enthusiastic about the project. If I was to work with Brooke again, I would try to aim for a project that was more challenging for her. She enjoyed making the scrap book and seemed enthusiastic to fill it up, but the project seemed to be fairly easy for her. Overall, the project with Brooke went very well and I had a really good time working with her.

Special Needs and Gifted Learners Education

One of the joys and hardships of teaching is that teachers come across may different individuals with different learning styles, different backgrounds, and different abilities. It is important for teachers to recognize these differences in their students and accommodate all types of learning, but at the same time, we are encouraged not to discriminate nor ostracize students.

In the past, special needs students were separated from the other "normal" students, but of late, these students have been integrated into the classroom with all the other students. This helps for special needs children not to be ostracized from the rest of the group. Although an improvement, having special needs children in the classroom provides a further challenge for teachers. Special needs children need a different teaching approach because they have different learning styles. Teachers, however, should be aware that special needs children are not as incapable as one might think. Mostly, special needs children need to be taught more slowly and encouraged by their differences. Usually these children have personal assistants that pay special attention to them and their learning needs so the child can excel in the classroom.

Art is an excellent way to celebrate individual differences between students. Special needs children and children from different cultures and backgrounds can use art as a mean to express themselves. Because there is no "right" answer in art, children are able to embrace the things that divorce them from the other students without feeling self-conscious or insecure.

Puzzle Time 2

Since our group has finished our puzzle, we have been helping out group three. This group is having some trouble because they purchased a 1500 piece puzzle while the other groups purchased 1000 piece puzzles. While helping out group three, I noticed that they used some different techniques to solve their puzzle. Group three had separate all the similar pieces into different groups and each group member was working on a specific part of the puzzle while using these pieces that have previously been separated.

Community -Based Learning

Learning in a community-based setting is extremely beneficial to children for many reasons. One reason is that it allows the children to get out of the academic environment and explore their surroundings outside of the school. This allows them to have hands-on experiences outside the classroom such as observing art in a museum, or taking in different cultural aspects of their community that might otherwise be overlooked. This type of learning is beneficial for the teacher as well, as it not only lets the teacher provide a different means for teaching, but it allows him/her to have their own experiences teaching and learning what works best for the children outside the classroom. Community-based learning allows for the teacher and children to explore different settings, different mediums that might not be available at a school and enables the classroom to meet new people and explore different works of art that can only be found within the community and not in the school.