Art Journal #7
#allabouttheteamwork

Although this week was mostly about our work with our peer group for our peer teaching projects, I gained valuable insight into how to integrate social justice in the classroom and work on strategies to give our students the best opportunities to make meaningful connections and experiences with medias and different forms of art that aren't always conventional. 

Throughout this, Claire really pushed us to not only think about what we are going to ask and what we are going to cover, but how we are going to ask and what new and different ways are we going to cover our topics? Our overall big idea centers around sustainability and how our art can impact our respective communities. How do we get students engaged and ready to take in all we have to give for such an extended amount of time? This was our challenge when we were writing our detailed lesson plant. Important steps such as differentiation and incorporating choice-based activities seemed almost overwhelming but we think we have a pretty good base. I guess when thinking about lesson planning and teaching, I didn't really think about how much work goes into creating lessons, especially ones that are designed to be as multi-faceted and long as ours is. I think it will be a fun experience to get outside and physically transform a space as a lesson for both ourselves as future educators and our students. 

For my art activity, to reflect this learning experience, I chose to design a sort of team-building activity. Of course, there is only one of me, but again it acts as a sort of base for a future lesson plan. Our lesson plan really comprises of three different lessons where we come together, branch off into three, and come back together to understand a big idea from three different approaches. I want this mini project to be a mini representation of that same idea. I will give the class a topic and each of them will be given a square and any media they choose. I might have a bigger print out of an outline that they can puzzle together and make a big image at the end, but what is really important is the individual squares and their differences. However, despite each student creating their own square, they will be able to talk with their classmates about ideas and colors and medias, and put it all together to see how all their individual approaches can make something beautiful.