Nat Blooming

 Primary Education Practicum Experience Overview

Throughout my time taking primary art education practicum coursework, a diverse range of projects and experiences taught me about the importance of a balanced primary education experience. My coursework ranged from learning and responding to National Art Education Association webinars to experiencing the classroom and being able to partake in practicum coursework with a group of Kindergarteners from Oconee Primary School. Through my time at Oconee Primary School, I worked with my practicum partners to create a case study in which we learned about the developmental needs of kindergarteners in regards to “crossing the midline.” I also devised a unit plan emphasized on the needs of community, as well as the concept of “creating a safe space.” It is my hope that the curriculum I create is able to emphasize intersectionality and empathy.

Written Response to a NAEA Webinar

I responded to a National Art Education Association webinar which featured the creative input of Matthew Pembleton. Pembleton emphasized the importance of creativity, as well as digital literacy being a critical key to understanding modern story telling.

Read my response to Pembleton’s webinar here.

I responded to Pembleton’s webinar to fulfill InTASC Standard 9, in which I engaged with a meaningful learning experience. Responding and learning from other teachers enables me to fit the needs of my students, as well as the school system I am part of. Furthermore, Pembleton’s emphasis on understanding and being culturally literate is important as it also references the aspect of the standard in which the teacher emphasizes safe ways of accessing and using media and technology. Part of being a learner, whether a teacher or student, means understanding the digital frontier and current resources.

Lesson Plan Project

Working with my art education practicum group, we created a project at Oconee Primary School which focused on testing student’s physical ability. We didn’t know it at the time, but this project would eventually bleed into our case study investigation which involved thinking about the physical ability of kindergarteners and how it could be improved through art. Our lesson plan also involves an aspect of contemporary worldbuilding, through examining the work of JooYoung Choi, as well as public art like the Milwaukee “Sunburst” by the artist Mike di Suvero. Students were asked to envision themselves as tiny people existing within the folded paper world they created, which helped the practical lesson of learning to fold different types of paper become an exercise in creative creation.

• Full Lesson Plan “3-D Paper Worlds”

• Powerpoint for “3-D Paper Worlds”

Throughout time spent teaching this lesson at Oconee Primary School, InTASC Standard 3 was fulfilled through our group’s understanding of creating a learning environment that emphasized positive social interaction, as well as self motivation and encouragement. Students had the opportunity to work independently, but also request help from me or those I worked with, Juliana Lutz and Olivia Carter. As a group, our primary motivation teaching in the classroom was to emphasize a culture of respect that was demonstrated through clear communication and direction when teaching the lesson. An example of how this was seen in the way that our group taught the lesson is through our constant evaluation of the needs of the kindergarteners; as our group taught, we quickly realized that the ways that which we were explaining the project had to change to engage our learners. In my section of teaching, I was showing the kindergarteners how to fold paper accordion-style. I quickly realized that the students did the best with an example, and concrete step-by-step examples of how to work with the paper. InTASC Standard 4 was also considered; our group taught with the intent to aid with student’s mastery of the subject matter through encouraging a skill-building lesson which offered ideas of creativity. Through prompting students with the idea that they were creating a city or a “play structure” students were encouraged to think about their work as conceptual while engaging with the physical material they were given.

Case Study Project

During our time at Oconee Primary School, something our practicum teacher, Ms. Brimanson, pointed out was the kindergartener’s trouble in ‘crossing the midline.” Ms. Brimanson pointed out that in the classroom, something that the students had trouble doing was using both their hands; they would attempt to cut paper using just one hand, and would refrain from using both their hands in conjunction. As such, their work often contained noticeable asymmetry. Our group decided to look into the concept of the midline, and ways to encourage students to “cross the midline” to improve physical skills and the creation of their work.

Our observations about crossing the midline led to the creation of a PowerPoint which we shared with our art education class. This PowerPoint focused on what crossing the midline is, as well as what we can do as teachers to aid students in crossing the midline. Including a variety of pictures, as well as demonstrations of student work, the PowerPoint’s goal is to illustrate what crossing the midline is and how it can be pushed.

Read the “Crossing the Midline Case Study” PowerPoint here.

Our group’s work on examining the phenomenon of crossing the midline relates to InTASC Standard 1, in which my group assessed the needs of our learners and modifies our instructions to meet our learner’s needs. Furthermore, through using our knowledge of what the midline was, our group was able to challenge students physically to use both of their hands and create more effectively, as well as create more completed work. We collaborated with Ms. Brimanson when we asked for her advice in pursuing “Crossing the Midline” and asked her for examples of student work. Finally, we understood that for some kindergarteners, crossing the midline was more challenging than for others so they needed more care and attention as students than others. This led us to make informed choices in the classroom when we were thinking about ways to explain to students how to cross the midline and what ways crossing the midline was necessary. We also showed understanding of InTASC Standard 2 through emphasizing learning differences to create a culture of inclusive learning and creating an environment that allowed students to reach higher standards. Ms. Brimanson’s class at Oconee Primary School consisted of students with disability, as well as students who were pre-IEP and didn’t have accommodations yet. Through understanding the midline and it’s relevance in the classroom, we were able to find accommodations for students who were not able to cross the midline successfully. An example of this is taping a student’s project to the desk so that it wouldn’t slide, something that occurred because the student was only using one hand to work on his assignment. Through understanding each student’s story and perspective, we were able to create accommodations and ways of learning which suited their individual needs.

Unit Plan Lesson

As part of designing a curriculum for the elementary schoolers of Oconee Primary school, I decided to create a unit plan centered around the concept of safety and safe people. The curriculum “Building a Safe Space” is centered around second graders thinking through and learning to blueprint a safe space which they will then create in a cardboard box. The safe space asks students to think about things that bring them comfort. Contemporary times swarm with a culture of globalization and crisis. When students think about safety, they are asked to evaluate what matters to them, as well as their community and social structure. Furthermore, when students share their safe spaces with each other they are given the opportunity to intersectionalize with others.

• Full Unit Plan “Building a Safe Space”

• Powerpoint for “Building a Safe Space”

Through creating this curriculum, I was able to satisfy InTASC Standard 4 which concern teachers utilizing tools of inquiry to create experiences which lead to learners assuming the mastery of the content taught. Through designing a curriculum, I hone in on using multiplicity of representation to curate understanding of course materials. Supplementary materials and resources are brought in through using contemporary artists Jordan Casteel and Do Ho Suh to teach course content and emphasize current artists working in the field today. Because the content throughout “Building a Safe Space” is so personal to each learner, InTASC Standard 5 was considered, and the diversity of student understanding was honored in the making of this curriculum. When students are asked to blueprint their safe spaces, the curriculum offers a broad idea of perspectives. A safe person can be a family member, or a safe person can be a valued “community member” and exist in a place outside of familial connections. A safe space can be public or private, personal or global. Furthermore, through being able to blueprint, students generate novel approaches. Offering students an element of planning time eases the pressure of creation and encourages students to evaluate their intentions before beginning a project.

Curriculum Map

As part of designing a curriculum for primary education, I designed a year long curriculum detailing the methodology and goals that students learn while following the curriculum. The curriculum first focuses on students picking up technical color and compositional skills, and than progresses into students moving into the use of more conceptual driven assignments, which focus on more contemporary art topics like social issues, sense of self, and environmental action. The curriculum map demonstrates an emphasis on everything from technical projects to more abstract projects, like designing and carrying out Fluxus event scores. The curriculum shown is meant to be broad and emphasize student creative thinking. It also emphasizes planning, as well as working with classmates in contemporary ways. Furthermore, the unit plan lesson “Building a Safe Space” is meant to be integrated into this curriculum map, and demonstrates a piece of the curriculum which I will hone in on.

Read my curriculum map here.

I made sure to honor both InTASC standard 4 and 5 in a similar way to the way I designed my unit plan lesson; the artists chosen for each unit plan are diverse, emphasizing contemporary figures as well as older artists who spearheaded artistic moments such as impressionism, or abstract expressionism. In this way, I hope to ground my curriculum in well-rounded forms of learning, which considers the history of artistic trends but focuses on contemporary uses for historical material. The diversity found within my classroom is something I hone in on. Students need to feel comfortable being themselves, and seeing themselves in the curriculum taught. In this way, I can empower those who take my class and build an environment in which they can express themselves and feel seen.