Gathering Artistic Educational Curriculum for continually evolving public schools. We share what we know to better our students, ourselves, and our community.

Art described as a ‘free play of imagination’ by Immanuel Kant, suggests that beauty just is.

“An object is beautiful because it promotes an internal harmony or ‘free play’ of our mental faculties; we call something beautiful when it elicits this pleasure. It feels right and supposedly has objective applications to the world.” 

(Cynthia Freeland)

Within this idea I pull out my beliefs in Art Education and how these beliefs will relate to my practice. I can see art to be a free form of both instruction and creation. Students have as much right to be inspired and interested in their work as they do creating artistic pieces of expression.A basis of art concepts are imperative in proper technical instruction and make the students widely receptive to more visual forms of communication. Each art process the students endure comes valuable insight into their personal growth.  Vicktor Lowenfeld states,

“Art is a dynamic and unifying activity, with great potential for the education of our children.The process of drawing, painting, or constructing is a complex one in which children bring together diverse elements of their experience to make a new and meaningful whole. In the process of selecting, interpreting, and re- forming these elements, children have given us more than a picture or a sculpture; they have given us a part of themselves: how they think, feel, and see.” 

(Lowenfeld)

Diverse is the keyword in Lowenfeld’s statement. I believe that both the art that is created and the instruction of that artwork will in turn be diverse. We are individuals with many insights and circumstances and we interpret both the information given to us and the process of relaying that information differently.With this being said, no one artwork or lesson will be interpreted in the same manner.

I have spent time communicating theories based on known educational ideologists, but, in retrospect, education and the art of teaching art education is basically theories we put forth everyday in the classroom.They are beliefs and judgements on how to teach and manage a classroom to the best of our ability and the only way to succeed is to try new ideologies everyday. My belief about art is that anyone can view it, take away something from it, and give a formidable opinion on it. By learning technique in class, my students will be able to see proper design and structure in art. Through Art History the students will relate past and present, see how art has changed in style, and make common relations to statements on a piece of artwork and what it portrays. They will then form opinions on the artwork and on the artists’ work. At that point, the final cognitive analysis is personal preference and the objective standard that art is ‘free play’ and what we the viewer and forever students see as beautiful, is art.

Effective classroom management allows my students to become good role models for themselves and others by setting the standards they wish to learn in. If we break these rules, then the consequences should fit the expectation of the class. As individuals, we are on a unified learning front and together we must respect the group rules.We work together to unite our- selves, as one body aware of each other and our forms of “free play”. I hope that in a classroom of individuals, a just education is brought out through a group standard of learning. My students all have goals to reach and different

agendas to meet, but as a group the outcome could be as simple as respect- ing one another and sharing ideas, while making a conscious effort to under- stand one another. When we meet these standards as a class, we can then begin to assess who we are and what we want to accomplish with the time we spend together.

A healthy learning environment to me is conducive to both a measurable assessment of the student and their work, with a proper mix of learning strategies in class to allow each student to best complete that work. No one thing can allow you to give an precise grade in art, but the more possibilities a teacher allows in the lesson plan for a grade, the better chance a student has to shine in areas that interest them from the objectives specified in that lesson. From this I can see grades given not only on artwork, but also on the process of how that artwork was created. Students are always thinking of something and brainstorming ideas. I as a teacher must observe the students link between thought and artistic creation.The issues that confront their big idea is a large part of the picture in art. I would like to see a portfolio created for each student so that they and I can see progress in their work. Assessment will also take in affect work habits and productivity in class. Do they manage their time well? Are the tools used in art being properly handled?These simple questions show that students can work socially in a group environment. Students will also be asked to write reviews on artwork and create artist statements for their own work. This allows for written diagnoses of what they know about art, its history of design and their culture. I can also see critiques being given on all large-scale projects.That way students are involved in another big aspect of art and learn to give out, helpful, not hurtful information about art in an evaluation form. Students get a moral satisfaction from critique and learn other social values that represent working together in a common interest of creating art.There will not just be one area of emphasis in my lesson plans. Numerous measurements of success allows for students to create meaningful productive work in a creative environment. It is the process, performance, understanding, and progress of a student that allows for final judgement. All of these things will be built into my lesson plans and thoroughly thought out in an effort to give each student a chance to excel in some area of the arts.