"Create a 250-word pen portrait that reflects a dominant philosophy from your own schooling. Reflect on the place of the arts and creativity in your portrait."

I remember participating in many forms of art in both Primary school and High school. I enjoyed a lot of creativity in storytelling, visual art and music. Whilst drama and theatre seemed to be more of a focus in early childhood, it 'came back' again in High School, when we were able to choose elective subjects. Dance and Movement in primary school would have been primarily explored as part of Physical Education. This, I assume, is the same in the majority of schools today.

The notion of teachers or students 'leaving behind' play and art (O'Toole, 2012, p. 9) did initially fill me with a bit of sadness. I was concerned that my imagined ideal classroom was lacking a creativity vibe. The negative attributes of the 'dialectic of play and art' diagram ate away at me for a short time. Many 'behaviour management' aspects came back to me. I began to worry about my unconscious aim to set up a non-exploring, rule-based, prescribing, closed, horrible classroom!

And then I thought of a grade 5/6 class I have been working with lately, and how the class happily explores a variety of tasks, including visual art. The teacher joins in with the class, and lets their creativity fly. I've seen her use drama, storytelling, visual art and music in her classroom. If she can make art part of everyday life in her classroom, in a government school, and get the best out of her students, then I know I can too.

Source

References

O'Toole, J. (2012). Art, Creativity, and Motivation. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 7-14). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

Create a 250 word pen portrait that reflects a dominant philosophy from your own schooling.  Reflect on the place of the arts and creativity in your portrait.

Being educated in the 80’s, creativity was not encouraged as teachers wanted students to ‘toe the line’.   As Sir Ken Robinson states in his TED talk (2006) “education has stifled creativity”.  Education has taken a step in the right direction to allow children to use their creativity.  This can clearly be seen in pedagogy such as Universal Design for Learning (Ashman, 2015) which encourages different forms of expression, allowing students to show their learning in whatever form they desire.  This is very different from my education which more geared towards a transmissive pedagogy which certainly stifled creativity. 

The increased usage of technology also allows for increased creativity.  This allows all children to use their creativity, innovation and flexibility.  Technology also breaks down barriers for those students with learning difficulties as they can express themselves through many different mediums such as iMovie, photos, PowerPoint and animation apps, allowing all children to show their learning.

I am looking forward to learning many different ways to engage children in the various art forms whatever their talents or capabilities. As Rich said, "art is subjective", so what someone sees as not being very good, the next person will think is wonderful. That is what I hope to achieve in my classroom - that no person's work is any better than the next.

References

Ashman, A. (Ed.). (2015). Education for inclusion and diversity. (5th ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Pearson Australia.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? TED talk, February 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Having watched Sir Ken Robinson's talk I was inspired by his quote:

Creativity is as important as literacy.

This applies to all of the Australian Curriculum, where we, as teachers, should be striving to encourage the children to be creative in their studies.  This creativity can be in many guises, movement, visual, ICT, musical or written.  The important factor is that the children are allowed to use and strengthen their creativity, not to have it stifled by set structures of rote learning and transmissive teaching.  This is advocated by the Australian Curriculum under the general capabilities of critical and creative thinking. (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015)   Not only does this allow them to enjoy their studies, it allows them to work to their strengths and so builds an inclusive classroom where risks are taken, encouraged and celebrated. (Killen, 2013)

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2015). Australian Curriculum: Critical and creative thinking. Version 7.5. Canberra. Retrieved from: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/introduction/introduction

Killen, R. (2013). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and practice. (6^th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? TED talk, February 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

 

Image retrieved from:
http://www.saddleback.edu/studentdevelopment/ted-tuesdays-fall-2013

"Share your most formative early arts experiences (be they school-based or not, positive or not)"

Visual Arts

In terms of actual memories, I can remember leaf rubbings at Hollybank, creating bubble pictures, vegetable stamps, decorating real eggs as Easter etc.

During my first degree I took an elective in Digital Arts. I learnt during that unit that art is quite subjective, and that although I didn't think much of my own work, my course coordinator and external markers did think it was good, so I think that's an important aspect to keep in mind when teaching art: remind students that we appreciate different elements of art.

Music

I started playing electronic keyboard from about age 6, and continued on to electronic organ and then piano up until I was about 16. So I have an appreciation for music, especially classical or film-score music. I taught my sister piano at an early age, and she went on to play piano up until her college years.

Drama

I've got photos of myself dressed as 'Joseph' in my preschool school nativity play, and I went on to love drama in High School and college (years 11 & 12).

We state that this blog is 50% the work of Sarah Gale and 50% the work of Rich Talbot. We accept that the grades awarded will be the same for both of us.

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:)       (: