Methods and Materials of Art Education

Derocher Jake

 

Art Ed Teaching Portfolio 2020

 

Standard 1: Visual Arts Educators Have a Thorough Understanding of the Visual Arts

 

One way that I've developed strong studio skills is by learning to work with the materials that I have available to me at home. I’ve taken two painting classes now but I’ve never worked with acrylic. But since I’ve been stuck at home all semester I have only had access to acrylic and water for medium. I continued working on my original assignments which were an abstract and a free choice painting. This is what I came up with:

 

 

Standard 2: Visual Arts Educators Understand Student Characteristics, Abilities, and Learning Styles 

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    I feel that my lesson plan, ‘“The Harmonicazoo” was a good example of how I came up with a fun creative way to capture the attention of the students, especially considering that it was a remote learning video. Given limited materials I gave a quick lesson explaining one example of an artistic instrument that you could make at home. I wrote music to put in the background of the video because I thought that was appropriate given the theme of musical instrument art. My goal was to motivate students to be curious and creative about what they could make themselves, while providing one concrete example to get them thinking. My harmonicazoo looked like this in the end:

 

 

Standard 4: Visual Arts Educators Make Informed Selections of Art Content and Curricula 

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    I feel that my lesson that I wrote in reference to the Bill Peet book “Wump World” is a great example of one way that I have built a lot of choice into my curriculum. Students do have to create something that resembles a house, but as far as materials they only guideline they had was that they are encouraged to use natural materials and recycled materials. Other than that they had full creative range of mobility. They could use anything from pipe cleaners and tape to clay and fiber. Anything that is available in the classroom that they think would be appropriate. This is an example of the “wump house” that I built for this project:

 

 

Standard 5: Visual Arts Educators Use Knowledge of Students as Learners to Plan Appropriate Instruction 

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    All of my lessons strongly encourage collaboration among students. I usually built in time for them to brainstorm and get feedback from each other. The idea generating part of the creative process is the most flexible, plastic, and one of the most important in my opinion. If the students are not driven by some inspiration then they’ll wonder “why are we doing this” they must come up with their own answer to that question before we start on the project. Some examples of collaboration time built into the schedule:

 

 

Standard 6: Visual Arts Educators Use Contemporary Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning 

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    One way I did plan to have students using technology was for research purposes. When designing the Nonwestern Art lesson that dealt with musical instruments of other cultures, it was originally for older kids, like 6th or 7th graders. They were expected to do some actual research on the styles and patterns of other cultures’ musical instruments throughout history to gather inspiration from another culture besides our own.

    One other way that I brought technology in the classroom, although rather against my will, was through online learning. Students would have been required to get online, watch my teaching video, then use additional online resources for further instruction/ research to get specific help if they needed it for creating their musical instruments. That portion of the lesson was geared towards a younger audience, approximately 3rd graders. Here's a screenshot of that video:

 

 

Standard 8: Visual Arts Educators Systematically Reflect on Their Own Teaching Practice 

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    I am constantly re-evaluating my own teaching ability, especially during my classes. I compare myself to what others do and decide what I like and dislike about the way they do things. I’ll try to adjust the way I deliver a lesson, mostly when I am presenting to the class. My goal is just to seem real, and genuine, and engaged when presenting to my students. I want them to respect me, but I also want them to like me and to be comfortable in my classroom. One way that it's great for me to do this is to look back at my teaching videos during this time of online learning. Now I can recognize that the way I sound talking to a camera alone in my room, will be very different from how I'll speak to a room full of faces. But it is still very helpful for giving myself feedback about how I can improve and incorporate new elements to gain students’ engaged attention.

 

 

Standard 12: Visual Arts Educators Continue Their Professional Development Throughout Their Careers

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    There are multiple ways that I plan on continuing my professional development and artistic growth through my career and the rest of my life. First of all, it is important to stay informed and up to date about current teaching standards and expectations. One way to stay mindful and aware of your own practice is to constantly be updating, adding to, or just redefining your teaching philosophy. It should be something that you know and stand by. As of now mine is very new since I haven’t started teaching but I plan on keeping it updated. 

    Another way, especially as an art teaching is to continue learning about art, and art history through reading and online research. But also to stay informed of what is currently going on in the art world. A good way to do that is to subscribe to different contemporary youtube channels or websites, visit museums, attend shows, just be a part of the local art community.

    The main thing to keep in mind is to continue your personal art practice. Embark on a long term study, learn about yourself, or start an online store and get your work out there. Being a teacher won’t stop me from being an artist. Here’s some examples of work I’ve done outside of my classes: