Aesthetics and Criticism

I believe that talking about art is a really great thing to do in the classroom. When I was in high school or even middle school I don’t remember ever talking about an artist.  We just got instructions about what the project we were going to be doing and were sent on our way.  There was no discussions at all or debates about what is and isn’t art.  And when I got to New Paltz I was I guess shocked that people were actually talking about this, I was never really introduced to the large gray area of art. I know when I become an art teacher I definitely want to introduce my students into thinking outside the box and questioning things and art and give them a perspective I never had. 

I really enjoyed the article Talking With Kids About Art by Tom Anderson.  What I like most about it is that there are examples or the ‘crit cards’ to show examples of questions that the teacher would ask their students.  I also really like that Anderson explains what each subject (reaction, description, interpretation, and evaluation) mean and how a teacher can intergrade that in their classroom.  Anderson says, “professional critics go through the processes of description, interpretation, and evaluation to determine the meaning and significance of art.” Compared to art education purposes in which value is important in being able to distinguish the process of critiquing and structuring the crit in stages.  Aesthetics as Critical Inquiry also by Tom Anderson, addresses aesthetics framed as critical inquiry as a teaching and learning strategy and becomes more in depth in having students question art and things that are considered art.  He also says that students must have an idea on what they think is art before they can critique it.  I believe this can be a great opening of a discussion about aesthetics and critiquing and talking about art in general. In the article, Eyes Wide Shut by K. Tavin, says the challenge to art education is to help students and teachers view, interpret, and respond to the world though aesthetics and post modernism language to open students eyes on art.  In my opinion I find that the Anderson articles would be more effective for me if I was conducting the discussions in all the articles because I like the steps and the building up of the questions in the Talking With Kids About Art article.  I just feel that the students would get a better understanding of an artwork.  But now thinking, I do like the ideas in the Tavin article, having students bring in objects they think are and aren’t art. That would be a very rich discussion too.

My first day of Middle School

Today I had my first observation at Wappinger falls junior high. It was so much fun. My teacher was absent for the first half of the day so I was able to see what a sub does. It was really interesting. She had a folder with all of the information about fire drills and other safety procedures and what to do situations. I really learnt a lot from her in the short time we were together. When my mentor teacher came in I was nervous but really excited. She is the nicest woman. She was extremely welcoming and made me feel so comfortable in her classroom. I cannot wait to see what is ahead in my time at the junior high. I really want to teach Middle school so I am willing to take any advice I can get and soaking in an information that is thrown my way. I can't wait to see what I'll be doing next week!

Interpreting Art

I never really thought of formally interpreting a piece of artwork. I have interpreted art through critiques in my studio classes and I suppose in art history classes as well. I know sometimes people see things and meaning in my work that I had absolutely no intentions of. So I think interpretations are nice but sometimes not necessary. Sometimes I paint something just because I like it, not because it has some big elaborate meaning. After reading chapter 1 I am interested in the questions that were proposed on page 1 and 2 and 35-38. I want to learn more about why people do interoperate art and why it is important if it even really is and so on.

Grow-a-game

I think it is very interesting when the articles talks about how video games and television influence people. i think that they do have some kind of influence but not 100% of it. A lot about a person has to do with where they live and what kind of background they have grown up in. I have seen first hand what impression violent video games have on a first grader. This child always talked about playing all of these "killing" games with his older brothers and a lot of his art projects and writings have either been about bombs or exploding/killing people. I think that the grow-a-card games are a really good alternative to the violent games. They actually can get people thinking and interacting with one another, instead of just sitting alone playing a video game. It will definitely be healthier in my opinion. The grow-a-game i think would be a nice alternative to learning about a subject. Like instead of having to sit at your desk and take notes for 40 minutes i know i would rather be playing a fun game. I feel like students would remember the information better, unless that student remembers from note taking.

Surrealist Games

So over the weekend I tried out some of the surrealist games with my boyfriend. We had a lot of laughs doing these! We tried the Conditionals game, Syllogisms game, the Exquisite Corpse writing and drawing games, Automatic Writing game, and the Definition or Question and Answer game. The results to our games were so bizarre. They are really good party games. Actually one of the games I have played at a party. And here's two of the games we played!