Secondary Practicum Experience Overview
My experience in secondary practicum experiences led to a multitextured experience where I experienced Cedar Shoals High School and Clark Central Middle School. Aside from school experience, I worked with classmates to develop a curriculum plan that focused on activism through creating pieces for the Linnentown Mosaic, a project meant to expose the Univeersity of Georgia's deliberate cover up of Linnentown, a historic Black community that was destroyed to build dorms. Finally, my time in class helped me focus on a diversity statement, a statement meant to hone in on the intersectionality found within schools, and emphasize the importance of respecting and valuing different people in school.
The Linnentown Mosaic Project & Curiculum Development
Students from Cedar Shoals High School proudly pose with their work on Linnentown Ceramic tiles
The Linnentown Mosaic Project's primary focus was to bring awareness to the issues surrounding UGA's historical removal of a Black community known as Linnentown. Residents who were forced to leave Linnentown's site were not allowed to return, and they were poorly compensated. Today, Athens' (Georgia) inequity is hidden, as the University of Georgia fails to talk about the poverty and houselessness that plague the Athens community. As part of our curriculum, our class was divided into groups and worked together to produce materials that were suited to add to a mosaic, a planned monument designed to mark the historic community and spread awareness of Linnentown to students.
In Cedar Shoals High School, my group worked with high school students to create ceramic tiles which highlighted the importance of acknowledging and remembering, as well as seeking reparations for Linnentown. We gave each student a part of the tile to trace into the clay, so our final project could be a focal point of the mosaic which details what the mosaic is about and what values we were trying to capture.
Our group discussed local Athens mosaic artist Krysia Aria, who develops intricate largescale mosaics in public places. It was our hope that this local artist would inspire the students into thinking about the value of public community art, and the value of sharing artistic messages with the world.
Our experience in Clark Central Middle School was another opportunity to create mosaic pieces for the mosaic. There, we worked with students and learned about being creative making clay tiles, and also more practical techniques, like slipping and scoring. We gave each Clark Central Middle Schooler a piece of clay to work with, as well as clay tools. The students creatively created tiles that were inspired by pieces of Linnentown’s history. Students used clay to create visual language which connected with history.
After every group developed a lesson plan for both the high school and the middle school demographic, every art education student got the opportunity to collaborate through using their own lessons and their peer’s lessons to create a secondary education curriculum. My curriculum focuses on inclusivity, as well as creating public art through activism.
High Schoolers working outside to create pieces for the Linnentown Mosaic Project
A final view of all the mosaic pieces from Cedar Shoals High School together. It reads, “Making Justice Of The Hidden Truth That Heads The Roots Of The Silent Struggle Of Linnentown"