Emily+Dunn

=Emily Dunn = POD CAST WEEK

Below I have embedded my podcast and a painting by the artist Anselm Keifer that I talk about in my podcast. This podcast would be an example of what I would want my students to do throughout the semester. I would be asking them to research an artist and talk about them, their work, and how they react and connect with the artist and their work. It would almost be like a verbal journal response, but more beneficial as other students can then learn from the reflection as well. Also it would be my hope that students would then be introduced to more artists.Scroll to the bottom to listen!

My first very own wikispace!

"The object of teaching a child is to enable the child to get along without the teacher. We need to educate our children for their future, not our past..." -([|Arthur C. Clarke])

"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon" - ([|E. M. Forster])
 * I am pursuing a masters in art education and hope to teach at the high school and hopefully one day the college level. I am also a working artist and instruct currently at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Jewish Community Center, and the Brashear Association. Why art? Well for me art is a practice is learning that is whole student oriented. Art transcends subjects lines and in my experience was the one area that I really learned. For one thing art is a process that requires failure. I believe is was Sir Ken Robinson who said that we stigmatize failure in our education system and I think this is a huge downfall. Failing is important as it teaches students how to push forward through adversity. Art can also help students work through emotional issues in a positive way. Most importantly I think art supports human connectivity and brings the creative process into students lives. This creative process is not specific to making art, and it can be applied across subjects to support creative thinking. These are a just a few reasons why I want to be an art teacher.
 * Art classrooms have always had a very student centered feel. When you walk into a studio you rarely see the teacher standing at the front of the classroom, and even the project prompts require the students to come up with their own particular project. There is no way to slide by in an art class. Effort in art is very easy to judge. Art classes are also a great place to see learned helplessness and the growing uncomfortableness with thinking for yourself. Kids want teacher to tell them what to do and how to do it. Art also offers no clear finishing point which I just adore. Art is done when you are the artist feel done with it. That's not to say when you are tired of it, but when you "feel" done. This can be so frustrating for children as they are unhappy with how their work is going and want a teacher to say its done. During my field placement I was working with the students as was the teacher and we were spending time with children individually when a maintenance man came in and looked around the room trying to locate the teacher and finally asked me if I was the teacher. There is the equality in an art classroom which allows children to use the resources available to them, but requires them to really think.
 * Community art is very important to me and a point I intend to harp on in my own classroom. Having children create a large scale community project is a very valuable learning experience. Projects like this use every students strengths and children walk away from these projects feeling personally connected to work itself and those who they worked with to create it.
 * Critiques are another part of art education that I feel are beneficial to the overall learning process. In an art class we sit around as a group and discuss each others work. It is not often that students get feedback from all of their peers, their teacher, and a chance to talk about their work. This process is much more meaningful than a grade from a teacher. They learn where to go next, what they need to work on, what is absolutely amazing, ect. My favorite is when peers get a totally different idea from your work than you intended. I spoke with a fellow instructor who told me a story about one of her favorite critique experiences. She said she ran out of room on her paper to fit the head of the model she was drawing. Come critique the student put meaning on this cropping and commented on the faceless-ness of women. She laughed as it was not her intention, but possibly the other students were benefiting from associating meaning to a visual representation.

So these are a few points I wanted to make about education and in particular my interest in teaching art. The examples I have picked out speak to my educational philosophy.

POD CAST WEEK

Below I have embedded my podcast and a painting by the artist Anselm Keifer that I talk about in my podcast. This podcast would be an example of what I would want my students to do throughout the semester. I would be asking them to research an artist and talk about them, their work, and how they react and connect with the artist and their work. It would almost be like a verbal journal response, but more beneficial as other students can then learn from the reflection as well. Also it would be my hope that students would then be introduced to more artists.

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