JOURNAL #13
FINAL ENTRY (PART 1)

#PROCESSLEARNING

JOURNAL #13
FINAL ENTRY (PART 1)
5/1/22

As my time in this course comes to our final two weeks, I have a lot of big emotions surrounding what I have accomplished, the wonderful people I have met and what I have learned. My initial perceptions of art education were based on my two years teaching middle and high school students. I wondered, "What other teaching techniques are there?" "How can I be a better teacher?"

I didn't know how our class would be constructed, or what sort of learning or activities I would be participating in. After completing this semester of art education, I feel so excited by the techniques I've learned and I have more drive and dedication to the art education practice. I am also excited to learn more; as there is so much I still don't know! I feel lucky to join this art teaching community and continue studying art teaching and pedagogical practices.

How have I changed this semester?

I was an active participant in a huge classroom lesson on the benefits of different art teaching methods, integrating social justice and technology in our lessons; where we as a whole class have just taken part and participated. This of course was no accident, but the thoughtful and mindful planning of our instructor, Professor Claire Chien. Our readings directly correlated with our instructional practices, giving us direction and methods to implement directly and immediately in practical real teaching applications.

Through peer teaching, I had learned so much about making an integrated lesson, teaching for personal connection, writing a lesson plan, integrating Colorado State Standards, merging technology and other studies into my lesson. Participating in the lessons of my peers has taught me so much about teaching as well and the importance and value of integrating social justice issues; how to connect to my class on a personal and meaningful level to connect them to the lessons and integrate their learning on multiple levels.

When I started to compose how I wanted to convey all of my learning over the course of this class, I begun to compile my ideas from all my journals and the ideations from the lessons taught by my peers. I also choose to use two of the technologies I have learned through their lessons: 3D printing and the laser cutter. As these Ideas swirled in my head, I thought of one of my favorite artists and jewelers, Alexander Calder, who's mobiles have always been an inspiration, and his cold connection techniques I used to teach metalsmithing to my students in Austin.

Playing to my strengths, I have incorporated two of my strongest mediums: jewelry and painting to make one ethereal style mobile. I think this is a great way to display my learning, the personal connections I made, my thoughts surrounding teaching and the weight of our actions as teachers. How all these things are delicate and interchangeable and have such emotional weight; all swirling around in my mind as they deepen my learning, lessons and experiences.

I'm still painting, planning and composing my thoughts. I am adding imagery from Peer group #4: Sustainable practices and Peer group #5: Voting and elections. As you can see here (to the right) some of my 3D printed mobile images from my learning.

I did an initial mockup (see right) of where I hope to possibly place the ideation images. Depending on the weight, and how they visually look, I may move them around and omit one or two. (I am not sure about the inclusion of the snake in this instance? It relates to my first journal, and peer teaching, but I may not include it because of the size?)

There are more things to work out for this mobile, including some logistical connection issues. This is how to build the connections in a way to help things to spin and hang how I want them to. I looked at many images of Calder's work to help me, but my mobile has many "charm" like pieces that will require some delicate balancing.

Deciding how things hang and spin will contribute to the overall effect and readability of the piece. There are also the logistics of hanging the mobile from the ceiling, which I have never done before, so hopefully it all goes smoothly!

I decided to spray paint the brass to be colorful- This was in part to visually relate to the painting and color of the 3D pieces, but also because I really enjoyed spray painting the stencils we made with Peer Group #3. Their project was about identity, and the medium of spray paint felt like a powerful medium of social activism and communication. (See image left)