When the Skills Aren't There

I have mentioned lately that if people are intimidated by teaching visual arts that they should practice. Well, here is the other side of the coin - teaching music scares me!!! So much. I had the chance recently to see my son perform at Vanier Hall with his choir and although it was such a neat experience, you could tell that there were differences between choirs, quality wise. I'm afraid that one day I will be that person, lacking the skills to teach music and doing it anyway. Unlike visual arts, I feel music is a place where there is some natural born skill required. A music teacher once told me that tone deafness is determined between 3 and 5 years old. All people are born with tone range but depending on what they are exposed to in relation to tone, that can go away around these ages. Unfortunately I have a bit of tone deafness. Not completely but I definitely lack the skills to teach. What do you do in these situations? Maybe those are the times you look to parents. I have an amazing friend that is a stay at home mom who loves to volunteer in the schools and is an incredible singer with a lot of experience. Maybe I'll luck out and find one of those people to help, it is always worth asking. This is a great way to involve family and community in the classroom and school.

Right now I am switching gears to holiday mode. Homework and classes are done and I have a smile on my face. I came across this video this morning and it brought tears to my eyes, it is so beautiful! Please check out this acapella version of "The Little Drummer Boy" by Pentonix. It inspires me to find a way to reach those kids who have amazing skills and need the experience.

Merry Christmas all, especially to my classmates. I hope that you all have a wonderful, relaxing holidays, see you all in January!

X-Tails and X-dreams

This evening I received a special delivery. A friend of mine delivered the first book of a series that her husband wrote.

The X-Tails: Join tis adventurous group of best friends on their thrilling journeys as you learn about friendship, sports, safety and the importance of being a role model. This first book, The X-Tails Snowboard at Shred Park is great. It has a great story, amazing art work and even a moral. Good times. I will definitely be purchasing the rest of these series as they publish them, and can't wait to introduce my kids to new adventures of skateboarding, BMXing, heli-skiing, surfing and mountain biking.

When I see someone following their dream and giving up everything to make it happen I can't help but be inspired by Larry Fielding. I used to have dreams of writing a kids book, even have collections of pages that were going to be my first short novel. I'm not sure if that is my dream anymore but still, it is inspiring. Perhaps when we have more time (Christmas? Summer?) I will take an opportunity to consider further the X-Tails and my ex dreams. For now, I'm going to finish up some assignments and take some time aside to read my kids a cool new book.

Those Who Can't...don't tell.

So I recently made a post about an art experience in school that had a huge impact on me and so I thought that I should mention a course that had an equally huge impact on my love of art. It kind of relates to my last post :) For the second half of grade 10 I went to school in Saskatchewan and because I had already taken Art 10 I took Art 11 in my new school. This course was incredible!! I learned two things in this course and fell in love with doing art. I think that the teacher in my previous class had artistic ability (the learn to draw on the right side of the brain teacher) but she never showed it to us. This teacher was an artist and he was not afraid to let us know. In this class I spent half of the year doing watercolour painting and then the other half doing pottery. I learned this from a man named Ken Guenter who is a watercolour painter and a potter (go figure!).

I think that you can learn math from someone who hates math but it will be harder and you might not learn it as well. The same goes for any subject. I think that anyone can teach art but I think we are much more likely for students to get excited about art if you love it...and actually do it! So this is my theory, if you hate art, try to do some and see if you can grow some fondness (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain?) If that is something you REALLY don't want to do, at least do the art project before you have your students do it (maybe you  will find it is fun and decide you still hate art but love doing this project). And keep in mind, this is all my theory, don't put to much credit in it. If you can't do any of these things: FAKE IT "TIL YOU MAKE IT. That's it. I think that is actually my theory with all subjects. If you can't stand a subject, don't let your students know. Fake it and maybe one day you will love it, and at the very least, you will not spread your hatred to your students.

For now, I will say that Ken Guenter was one of the greatest teachers that I've ever had. He loved what he taught, he did it well, he taught skills, he made us work for our finished products, he often made us start from scratch and do paintings 10 different times...these rough drafts were actually a requirement for some assignments. He taught me that art skills are just that, skills. They can be built up and refined by anyone. I am taking those theories with me to all areas of education.

Mrs. Aaslie, You Rock!

Well, lately I have been focusing on the Art Show...and inspiration. I thought I would combine those thoughts today and talk about what inspired me in the art show :) My cohort did, of course! All of you facilitated amazing projects in your class. Beautiful, meaningful projects. Recently a teacher in my school asked me what I thought of my cohort - what kind of people they are. I was proud to say that I think that you are all great. I said that we work together well and that I think that there are soooo many great teachers in the cohort, they really make me happy about the future for students. I might have not sounded quite as gushy as that sounded but really, that is the truth, I have come to respect you all so much. This event really enforced that respect for all of you.

As an example, Mrs. Aaslie rocked this art show. Now, Laura inspires me all the time. She is a great teacher, amazingly dedicated student and a loving mother. She has given so much to be here in Prince George and in the end, it will be her students that get the advantage from that price paid because she is going to be such an amazing teacher. Her art work that she brought to the show was amazing. Inspired. Beautiful. Every piece of art was frame worthy and some were far more than that.

If that wasn't enough, there is more! There was a really great lesson to accompany this art. Students were able to learn about identity, First Nations culture and hard work, among many other lessons I'm sure. It was such a neat experience to hear Laura talk about each of her students and their process towards their masterpieces. You could tell that she was invested into each and every one of them. 

So, kudos to you Mrs. Aaslie. You have inspired me and many others. 

Right Side, My Friend

I first started to believe that everyone has artistic ability in high school, this belief came in relation to a school art class. I did the majority of this program when I was in grade 4 and then did it again in grade 10 and I absolutely love it.

If you have never done it, I encourage you to do it. If you think that you lack artistic ability, do this in your spare time. That might sound lame but I am serious. If you "can't" draw but can honestly say that there is a chance that you may have not invested time into this before deciding you "can't", I think that this is a valid thing to do in your down time (lol - down time). In the beginning of the program you draw a face and then you do a ton of assignments that seem to have no value (in the eyes of a child). You cover perspective, shadow, symmetry, among others. At the end of it you draw the same face again and see your progress. I encourage you to google "Drawing on the RIght Side of the Brain" and see the before and after photos. When thinking about this I though "I have some stuff from this program in my portfolio" and so I decided to check. It turns out that I have the WHOLE program worth of assignments saved. I am not sure if I have even one other thing from my elementary or secondary schooling but I have this whole course full of assignments, that is saying something in support of this program, right there! This is my before and after of my faces.

At 14, this evidence of developing skill blew me away and developed my philosophy on artistic ability. It was so neat to see some people in the class go from one extreme to another. I think that this program has a completely valid place in school, especially intermediate classes and secondary. I will also re-iterate what I said in the beginning: If you are reading this from the perspective of a teacher that is freaked out of art - pick up a copy from the library and try this!! I am hoping to find bucket loads of extra time over Christmas and do it again.

While I was looking through this course of assignments I found this picture. I was talking with a classmate about this technique so I thought I would throw it in. It is created with making tiny dots of ink (we had an old school pot of ink and pen that you dip in - I thought that it was the coolest). I think that it is called pointillism.

Inspiration

When I was on practicum a couple of the teachers in the school told me about this great blog called "That Artist Woman". I LOVE this blog. She has so many wonderful projects that are totally do-able in the classroom and as an added bonus are really nice looking finished products. Another thing that I really like is that the projects are categorized into seasons and also into medias. Such a great resource! I couldn't leave it without a picture so I will add this one - I can't wait to do this project one day. It involves a wet on wet watercolour painting technique, which is great, but my favourite part is that the trees are painted using a blowing technique where you move the paint around by blowing through a straw. Can you even imagine the different things you could link this to? How seasons change, forces of nature (wind), creating with different techniques...PLUS it is gorgeous!

Time Well Spent

I have to say - there were times that I didn't LOVE the process of planning the Art Show. Don't get me wrong, I felt it was a completely valid event and experience but there was something about trying to get a whole class of people to give honest input into things like date, refreshments, budget etc. It seemed like it was hard to be heard, hard to come to decisions and hard to discuss anything without it sounding like we were arguing and complaining (which we have all made a pointed effort not to do). Everyone had such valid concerns or desires, it is so difficult for 28 people to go from nothing to a planned event by discussion.

HOWEVER, the event was awesome. I think that it came together so well. Everyone had such unique and beautiful projects, the snacks were sufficient, the violin playing was really great (one of my favourite moments was seeing a students holding her baby sister in her lap, sitting in a chair right in front of the violin player and just mesmerized - I was most inspired by the "art" of that moment), the decorations were wonderful. I was so impressed with the graciousness of the whole cohort to all of the visiting students and families. Everyone was eager to jump in and help students find their project or talk to visitors about their own projects. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole three hours. It was neat to see it go up so fast and equally neat to see it come down so fast - like a pretty little moment in time.