Cape Dorset Prints

So the place I was thinking of was Cape Dorset (on Baffin Island in Canada) It's an inuit community of I think around 1000 people at the most and yet, at least in the 60's they were producing an incredible number of prints. I found a book on the Cape Dorset artists in the library at CalArts in California and fell in love with their work. I'm not so hot about the more recent work I found on the web. But at least the older stuff I think is worth a look.

Chapters 8, 10, 11, 12 & 13

Ooof. There was a lot of information in these chapters. The actual number of pages was short, but it has given me a lot to think about. The math chapter was great but I found the science chapter REALLY exciting. I would like to do some of the projects with my classes up at the museum.
Chapter 12 (on children with special needs) will prove to be a great resource for me in the future. I have very limited experience working with children with special needs and I found the “general teaching strategies” section very helpful.
Chapter 13 (on gifted students)
I have always been uncomfortable with the “gifted and talented” category for exactly the same reasons mentioned on page 139, that the test for intelligence is highly weighted towards aptitude in math and reading, so I appreciated that this chapter addressed that issue. I really need to read Howard Gardener’s books. And once again, I found the section addressing teaching strategies quite helpful.

Chapter 9

I had to read this chapter over several times because some of the concepts were new to me, and honestly some of them made me a little uncomfortable. Some of the children’s art DID indeed seem somewhat stereotyping. I found both Rosie’s and Joe’s comments very articulate and perceptive and my thoughts feel very clunky in comparison. I haven’t had any actual experience teaching kids social studies in conjunction with art , so maybe that is why I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around some of the issues addressed in this chapter. Really most of it seems like common sense but I am wrestling with the idea Rosie brought up about “How do you help students understand some basic tenants of a culture AND simultaneously free up the cultural boundaries? “. I think perhaps kids learn best about other cultures by having friends who belong to other cultural backgrounds. But I’m not sure how that observation relates to teaching in a group setting. A teacher has little control over the diversity of their classroom. This chapter did have many great ideas for projects- that for me might have been the most helpful part of it. Also- I’m curious to hear more about Rosie’s multicultural research.

Chapters 6-7

I was very interested in the discussion of the “affective” domain discussed in chapter 6. It tied into some ideas brought up in chapter 7- particularly the idea of students keeping illustrated journals. Children’s work is so strong when they draw from their own life. Also I tend to forget how much children need to move. It was good to be reminded of this. At work today the students were learning about dinosaurs at the museum and the lesson plan has them put on a dinosaur play/dance at the end to synthesize what they had learned. I thought it was sort of a silly idea at first, that the kids would think it was stupid. but I was wrong. They loved it. The lesson plans that were created for the museum workshops with kids all seem to follow the cognitive/affective/psychomotor structure. I have been impressed by how well designed and effective they are.

I continue to find the children’s art in the book exciting. Particularly jumping frogs on pg 61,.and the snowy scene on page 71. Also the quilts. They make me want to take up quilting.

Chapters 3-5

The imaginary roosters are extraordinary. I would love to try that assignment. Maybe with dinosaurs though.
There were many exciting ideas in these three chapters, many of which overlap with our discussion in class last week, so I won’t bore you by listing them out.
The main thing I can’t help but thinking about is the advantages of an art teacher staying put in one room rather than traveling around. I am very much looking forward to hearing what Rosie and (new momma!) Stephanie have to say about their experiences. I’m a little disappointed that music gets an hour a week and art gets 3 hours a year. Do you feel that the kids suffer from this?

Chapters 1 & 2

I was so inspired by (the author) Frank Wachowaik's philosophy of teaching art that I interlibrary loaned several of his published papers. I would be happy to xerox them for anyone in class who is interested.

A summary of Frank Wachowaik's teaching philosophy.
1. Art is not something special done by special people. It is part of our everyday life.
2. Allowing all mark-making and visual statements children make to qualify as art limits their sense of art rather than encourages it.
3. "When art plays a subordinate roll to other subjects, or is limited to stereotypical holiday decorations, it cannot perform a vital role in children’s creative growth"
4. Children need substantial time devoted to art every week. Most art that is created in a limited time period is apt to be cursory and sterile. It takes 45 minutes to motivate and inspire the kids and do the preliminary drawings for a project. A fully finished project takes 3, 4, or 5 sessions.

Three other ideas I found exciting
-have the project let the student “say something” about their friends, pet, selves or world.
-idea of using role playing (ex. students are graphic designers charged with creating an ad for an ecological cause)
-drawing from a taxidermy animal (ex. owl)
Also I enjoyed our classroom management/organization discussion in class. All of the specifics such as "give instructions before you pass out materials' were very helpful but the part that I have been thinking about the most was the idea of speaking to the best self of the child.