Fine Arts in Review

I wanted to write my last blog post for EDUC 406 about my final thoughts and reflections on the course and everything I learned during it. I took many risks and tried things I had never tried this semester. For instance, I wrote this blog! I have never written a blog and been so open about my thoughts and feelings before. I shared my Youtube video of my PG's Got Talent performance, and my Google presentation I used during my practicum. Sharing with the public on this blog meant that I was vulnerable and open to feedback from others.

I went to the Art Battle this semester because Willow encouraged my class to go to art events in the community if we had never been to them before. I also went to a murder mystery night on Halloween weekend, and Willow had influence on my decision to agree to participate in that, as well.

The arts are so much more exciting to me now that I have experienced them on a deeper level. I am excited to incorporate more music, drama, visual arts, and dance into my classroom.

Singing Our Hearts Out

Here is Byron, Denon, and I singing our hearts out at Celebration of Creation!

I had to write a blog post about the singing (and playing) that Byron, Denon, and I did at Celebration of Creation on Monday, November 24, 2014. At the same time that children, their families, and other guests browsed through the art gallery, the three of us sang popular songs, such as 'Wonderwall' by Oasis, 'Let Her Go' by Passenger, and 'Umbrella' by Rihanna. The music helped create a wonderful mood as people viewed the exhibits, and we received many smiles and warm words of encouragement.

I enjoyed myself as I sang because it was a way for me to forget about all of the assignments I have coming up, and the stress I have to get them all completed. I feel that art can do this for elementary students, as well. Even though their workload is not the same as the workload is for university students, young students still stress out about the assignments they need to do and the tests they have. I think an important reason why the Fine Arts are important to teach in the school setting is because they help cultivate wellbeing in students. As a teacher, I believe it is important to do this.

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Night

This post is a little late, but this Halloween I went to the best event I have been to in a very long time. A prior UNBC Elementary Education student hosted a Harry Potter themed murder mystery night at her house on Halloween weekend. One of my best friends and I dressed up as Fred and George Weasley (Ron Weasley's prankster twin brothers) and acted like the twins all evening, with accents and all. I had a lot of fun acting and staying in character all night as we tried to figure out 'who done it.'

My friend and I as Fred and George Weasley. We bought orange wigs and cut them so that our hair looked like the twins' hair in the movies. We also coloured made our faces a little pale, put on lots of blush, added freckles, and painted our eyebrows orange.

It would be fun to adapt a murder mystery to a classroom setting or to write my own murder mystery for my students. I could see older students (grades 4+) enjoying this drama activity. I think it would work great in place of a school play perhaps because students would be able to prepare for their role and then could demonstrate skills that I would need to assess them on to meet drama PLOs. A classroom murder mystery would also benefit students who are nervous performing in front of others and feel more comfortable performing in front of their peers. The only thing is that the content would need to be age-appropriate for the maturity level of the class. Maybe instead of a 'murder' mystery, it could be a different type of mystery, as well, such as 'who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?'

Reader's Theatre

Today in class we did Reader's Theatre of the story Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin. Our professor Dr. Willow Brown adapted the story for Reader's Theatre and gave us a script to read. Six of us participated reading the narrator lines and two of us read Pete's lines and Santa's lines. It was a lot of fun doing Reader's Theatre together as a class.

I realized that I could do Reader's Theatre in my own classroom one day. I think it would be an excellent drama activity for young students to experience! Students could each have their own roles and dress up in costumes. There could even be non-diegetic sound in the background to contribute to the mood of the story, and diegetic sound for what is happening in the story. My students could perform this for themselves in class or they could even prepare to perform in front of the entire school or their parents. I think students would feel a lot of pride doing this, and it would be fun for them to do. It would also be another way for them to demonstrate their learning or knowledge and to practice oral speaking and reading skills.

Celebration of Creation

This evening was Celebration of Creation - the Children's Arts Gala we have been waiting for all semester! The paintings that my students created during my three week practicum were on display all evening and two of my students even showed up with their families. I had a fabulous time! I sang songs with my two classmates Byron and Denon (Byron was playing guitar and Denon and I sang), and enjoyed watching a children's choir from a local school sing some popular songs. I talked with many people - some of those people were the media! The event was covered by several media outlets in our city, actually. (You can click here for the 250 news article.) A photographer from the Facebook page 'HYPG' was even there with his wife. He took so many amazing photographs of the entire event. Here is one he took of my display:

I realized throughout this event that celebrating what children create in the Fine Arts is very important. By expressing themselves, children can learn to see themselves without limitations, and that is very liberating for them. When children create art, adults should celebrate it! It is a celebration of creation (I really liked the name that my classmate Caroline suggested for our event...'Celebration of Creation'). I hope to do something like this event in the future for my students. I think I would incorporate visual arts, music, dance, and drama though. There would be performances and skits students would create themselves, as well as dancing to music. I think a Children's Arts Gala is the perfect idea to support children in the Fine Arts.

  

Self-Assessment in Art

The same day that I had students write Artist’s Statements I had them self-assess their paintings. I gave them the following rubric:

Objective:	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
I can paint a value scale.	I have not painted a colour value scale that goes from low value to high value.	I sometimes put colours of a value scale in the wrong order.	I have painted an obvious colour value scale.
I tried to put my best effort into my painting.	I did not put in any effort in my painting.	I put some effort into my painting.	I put as much effort into my painting as I could.

This self-assessment is the first one I have ever given to students. I thought that it seemed easy enough to understand and from what I observed in the classroom as students assessed themselves, it was.

I included effort on the self-assessment rubric because I was thinking of the students who try their best in art but are not the most skilled. I wanted to know how they felt about their work to be able to assess them fairly.

Language Arts with Art Integration

One of the last lessons I taught during my last practicum was Language Arts with Art integration. My students had all finished their ‘Spooky Silhouette’ paintings and some of their work was going to be in the Children’s Art Gala. Because the artwork was going to be on display, I thought that it would be a great idea for my students to write Artist’s Statements to describe their paintings, how they were created, and what they thought of them.

For this lesson, I borrowed Willow Brown’s technique when she showed us pictures that depicted chiaroscuro and had us guess what it was based on our judgments of the characteristics. I showed students images of three Artist’s Statements, and told them they had to observe the pictures and tell me what they noticed or what they saw in common between the three. All three of them even had the title ‘Artist’s Statement’ so I was surprised that students did not say that right away, but at any rate, it was a great activity for students to practice their observation skills. They finally realized that the pictures were all Artist’s Statements and then students began writing their statements right away.

The statements all turned out so well. I am proud of my grade 5 students for creating Artist’s Statements of the paintings they completed. I think for those who have their art in the Children’s Art Gala, they will be very proud to see their work paired with a statement of it.

French with Music Integration

During my practicum, I taught French with Music integration. I used the song 'Les jours de la semaine' on Youtube. With grade 5 students, I decided I would teach them the song for this purpose: as a mnemonic to help them remember the days of the week because this is a part of their CORE French Curriculum.

The first time I sang the song with the grade 5 students was the first day of my practicum and the very first lesson I taught them. First, we went over the vocabulary, and that in French, the first day of the week is lundi, or Monday. We went over the words over and over, and practiced asking simple questions such as, 'On est quel jour aujourd'hui?' Eventually, my grade 5 students understood the days of the week. Finally, I showed them the lyrics to the song, and then the Youtube video. We practiced 'Les jours de la semaine' twice with the Youtube video, and then I accompanied the class with my ukulele and we sang it a couple more times.

It did not take long for them to remember it off by heart and I would hear them singing the song as they came in from Lunch or Recess, and they would complain about having it stuck in their head. I was sure pleased that the song I had taught them as a mnemonic certainly worked.

To finish off, the real blessing of integrating French with Music came just a couple days ago when I went to go visit the class now that practicum is over. As I came into the classroom they were all so excited to see me. Then, they asked if we could sing the French song together. I was so touched I felt that I almost teared up! Integrating French with Music is one of the best decisions I have made in my pre-service teaching career.

Visual Arts Class in Practicum

I taught three Art classes during my three-week practicum. Overall, I had a fabulous experience teaching Art, though I had many surprises! Some were wonderful surprises and some were learning experiences. First of all, I did not anticipate how well the fifth grade students would absorb the information on colour value and all of the terms that I taught them. In the first Art class, I taught students about what 'value' meant, as well as terms such as 'tinting' and 'shading.' I also taught them examples of high and low value. I thought that all of the new terms I taught during Art would confuse the students, but they eagerly learned the information and were able to successfully recall it two weeks later. They were able to tell me that navy blue had low value and was the result of shading blue with black, and light blue had high value and was created by tinting blue paint with white. I was pleased! :)

After the lesson on colour value, my class had two more classes to to paint pictures that demonstrated a colour value scale. They had to tint paint to make lighter versions of the colours they chose to create a beautiful background. It was these lessons, when students actually 'did' art that surprised me. Tempera paint was the medium that I chose for the art projects, and I quickly learned how chaotic painting can be with a class of 30 students! Organizing and coordinating all of the paint trays, paintbrushes, and paint is easier said than done. The explosion of activity when 30 students paint in Art surprised me, however, the students seemed engaged and to enjoy themselves. In the end, I think the Art lessons I taught were successful for this very reason.

Here is a picture of the colour value scales my students painted:

Value Presentation

Click here to see a presentation I made with Google Presentation on colour value. I will be using this presentation during my practicum.

Prince George Model

Yesterday (or actually, two days ago now but it still feels like Friday to me today), I blogged about art demo lessons my class presented in our 'season' teams on September 30. Today, I wanted to make note about the 'winter' team's lesson prepared for us because it was very engaging. They brought in objects from nature like pine cones, bark, and sticks, as well as art supplies such as plasticine and pipe cleaners, and had us, in our 'season' team groups, to construct a representation of anything we wanted. They gave us a sheet of card-stock to make our models on top of. My group decided to make a model of Prince George. We started by drawing the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers the city is built around on the card-stock and then proceeded to design our model from there. The model had little plasticine rabbits, a couple foxes, Mr. PG, and coniferous and deciduous trees. It also had the Exploration Place, the Two Rivers Art Gallery, and a parking lot for visitors who go to those places.

Here is a photograph of my 'spring' team with our model of Prince George:

I really like this activity because of its collaborative nature. Because we were doing art in a group, we had to be cooperative and respectful of each other's ideas and creations. I think this activity would be great in a classroom with younger students because they would have to work on these qualities and there is also the potential they could learn from each other's strengths. I also think using different materials would make the project enjoyable for students. Very cool art lesson, 'winter' team!

Art Lesson Demo

On Tuesday, September 30, my class did group presentations. We did our presentations according to ‘season' teams. I am in the ‘spring' team and we decided to do a visual arts lesson on abstract self-portraits my classmate Karim learnt about last year. You start with a piece of construction paper, any colour or shade, and then use oil or chalk pastels to draw shapes and different shaped lines to colour on top of using complimentary colours. As an example, orange is a complimentary colour to blue so you would colour one side of the face with orange and then the other side of the face would be blue.

In our lesson, everybody in the class made their own self-portrait. The art looked so lovely so we decided to pin their work up on the wall! Here are my class’ self-portraits:

I wanted to dig a little deeper to see how I would be able to incorporate this art lesson in my practicum or my future teaching career. Since my next practicum in grade 5, I looked at the grade 5 PLOs. I think A5: create 2-D and 3-D images that express personal identity, is appropriate to this lesson. The abstract self-portrait is an expression of self because first of all it is a drawing of the self, and second of all, the colours chosen to complete the artwork can be favourite colours or be symbolic colours that means something to the student. Students can explore their identity with this art project because it is very flexible and abstract. I would love to use this idea in a future art lesson.

Bedroom Makeover

I moved into a new house about a month ago now and I am STILL painting my new bedroom. Today as I was painting over silicone-filled nail gun holes and touching up the edges of the trim with white paint I was reflecting on how I have been using skills and knowledge that I learned in elementary and high school art to makeover my room. For starters, I learned that when painting you should never use a paint brush that has just been washed with water if you want to achieve bright and bold colours; a water-downed paint brush could change the colour of paint you are using by diluting it. As I have been painting my room I have had to wait about two hours before using another colour of paint (altogether there are three colours in my room: 'sea haze' grey; 'blue lagoon' blue; and white for the trim, door, and window frame). An example of a skill I have been using that I learned in art class is how to hold a paint brush with a steady hand. I am a perfectionist when it comes to many artistic activities and painting a bedroom is no exception. It drives me nuts when paint is on the floor (I have already spent four hours scraping paint off the floor from the mess the previous owners made); when it is on the ceiling (I painted the ceiling before painting the walls...well, my dad helped me by doing it); and when the paint is blotchy and not a solid colour or tone (I do not even know how many coats of paint I have done so far but it is a solid colour). Here are some photographs of me painting the trim! I am planning on writing a 'before' and 'after' blog once I am all finished my bedroom.

Loading the Paintbrush

Touching up the Edges of the Trim

Art Battle 169

Willow encouraged my class to step outside our comfort zones and go to events and places that celebrate the arts this semester. She told us this would enrich our experience in the arts. I felt inspired so I decided to go to Art Battle 169 last Friday on September 19 at the Groop Gallery downtown on third avenue here in Prince George. It turns out that I had friends outside of the class who were also interested in going to the event so I went with my long-time friend Julie. I saw classmates Kristen and Byron when I was there there, too. Kristen was actually the one who recommended Art Battle 169 after Willow suggested the class should celebrate fine arts.

I had never been to such an event before and I was very impressed by the production. I did a wee bit of research on what Art Battle was and this is what I found. Basically, Art Battles are live competitive painting competitions held across the country every year and artists are chosen by popular vote to compete in a national Art Battle in Toronto. (Click here for more Art Battle information.) Last Friday, eleven painters competed in Art Battle 169 and the crowd chose local artist Cliff Mann to represent Prince George! Below I have posted photographs I took of Art Battle 169.

Round One

Round One Paintings

Round Two

Round Two Paintings

Crowd for Round Three

Round Three

Second Place: Amy Stoltz

Winner: Cliff Mann!

  

PG's Got Talent 2013

Two summers ago I went on stage in front of a large crowd for the first time since I was a child. I competed in PG's Got Talent here in Prince George alongside my then-boyfriend (and now fiancé) Gerald Rosenau and our friend Celina Jarales. The three of us named ourselves "Paula's Friends" because we had a mutual friend named Paula and we performed a mash-up of "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men and "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers. I played ukulele, harmonica, and sang; Gerald played kick drum and tambourine; and Celina played guitar and sang. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the month it took us to prepare before the competition.

The day of the big show everybody who was competing in PG's Got Talent were treated like celebrities. Loxx Academy did all of the performer's hair and make-up was done by a professional aesthetician. Paula's Friends did not end up winning but we had no regrets that we put ourselves out there and shared our talents with Prince George. Since the competition, I have been on stage many times with other friends and have grown to absolutely love entertaining people with a ukulele and my voice. Music is one of my passions and it was reignited the summer of 2013. To watch a video of Gerald, Celina, and I competing in PG's Got Talent as Paula's Friends, you can click here.

PG's Got Talent Poster

Paula's Friends