Week of 4/5

Collaboration is something needs to be mastered at a young age because will collaboration be necessary throughout one's life. I, personally, have delt with collaboration in many aspects of my life especially with my family. I come from a large family, I am the youngest of five brothers. The majority of my family resides in North California but my brother Jon and I are in San Diego and my brother Mark lives in Chicago. Since we are all so spread apart we like to get together and have family vacations so we can spend time together. However, with so many of us and each of us having hectic schedule, this requires lots of planning and COLLABORATION. We have to collaborate on where to go, where to stay, what activities to do and when we can go. I have also experienced collaboration in school when I am doing group projects or making plans with friends. Collaboration does not go away in life so in elementary school collaboration should be practiced by students. One way is putting student on teams. Being on a team can teach students many skills which they will take with them such as collaboration, team work, compromising, sharing, leadership, etc. When I put in the Suburn group for this art class, I learned ideas from my team members, engaged in teamwork, and compromised. Ultimately, in my classroom, I hope to use collaboration all the time. I could use collaboration to teach citizenship by showing students that they must all work together and obey rules in order to have a functioning society and I could also use it to deal with challenging social situations by emphasize collaboration is always a tool when a challenging social situation arrives.

**Missing Blogs are posted separately and not on this blog page because I did know how to work the blog when I first start!! Just wanted to remind you in case you were looking for them!

Week of 3/22

I really enjoyed our class visit to the New Children's Museum. The New Childrens Museum was unlike any museum I ever went to during my elementary school years. The museum has a very modern atmosphere but still allows viewers to gain knowledge from their visits. I think the New Childrens Museum is very unique because of its modern aspect. Many of the modern aspects use new media resources. For example, there was a wall made out of fur that kids are allowed to play with and make designs on using their hand/fingers. This allows students to think outside of the box and use their hand as a drawing instrument instead of a paint brush or a pencil. Also allows them to work with a surface they are not used to drawing on. Another cool feature of the New Childrens Museum was the barn room. In the barn room kids could play with different light switches that made certain noises they had to recognize or told them different tasks to do. I learned that the barn room is a good learning tool for young children because it allows them to strengthen their motor skills. Overall, I think the New Children Museum is a wonderful educational resource for kids because it allows them to be imaginative and think creatively while having fun too!

Week of 3/8

Today, the different media available in society has greatly influenced the world of art. One of the biggest influences has been the camera and photography. Photography has help assist artists in their work by allowing artists to use photos as a reference while they are working. Photography also developed into an art in itself as artists found ways to add different affects and alter their photos. Another one of the biggest contributions to the world of art today, is the video camera and computer generated images. The video camera has allowed human beings to capture acting on tape and broadcast it all over the world in the movie theaters. Computer generated images have been incorporated into movies, video games, and television shows providing creative images and entertainment for people view all over the world. These contributions to the world of art also have proved to be valuable contributions to the world of education. They serves as such valuable resources in the classroom and assisting teachers in their lessons. Photography is common tool used to assist students in making observations. One way a teacher could incorporate photography is by asking the students to collect photos of interesting faces from a magazine, interpret these faces, and explain the emotions conveyed by the face. The camera is also a great resource for a teacher. One way having a camera handy is beneficial is when an guest artist comes to class to give a specific art lesson, the teacher could record the guest artist to show future classes the art lesson or to show students who were absent from class when the guest artist came.

I was actually absent on the day of Luz Chung's presentation. But from the video clips and the overview from the powerpoint, I gather that Luz Chung is in favor of social justice and riding social injustice from the classroom. I absolutely agree with Luz Chung. I feel that every student should feel included and represented in the classroom. Every student in the classroom is like a piece of the community and every member is important. It is the teachers responsibility to make sure a student feels included. I feel that an easy way for a teacher to accomplish this is through art. A teacher could design an art project for the class in which every student has to make a collage to share things about themselves including interests, cultural facts, heritage information, etc. This way every student gets the opportunity to present themselves to the class and get to know the other students. If this or a similar idea is incorporated into the curriculum, I think every student will feel included in the classroom.

Visit to SDMA

I really enjoyed our visit to SDMA! It was nice to take a break from the classroom and get a chance to personally see some artwork. I thought all the art work that was shown to us was very unique. I'm really glad the art docent chose to show us a variety of different pieces like the simple leaf painting, the worshipping statue, the half man/half tree photo, etc. This really gave me the opportunity to see and analyze a bunch of different art. Therefore, I also think that trips to museums like this would be very beneficial to elementary and secondary students. I feel that opening their eyes to different pieces of art work will encourage them to think abstractly and bring out their creativity. Hopefully they can take some of their observations from art museums and information on techniques/styles of artists and use them in their art work. Although I think making field trips like this out to art museums is very beneficial, I do understand that not all schools are able to gain access to opportunities like this which is mainly due to financial problems. Therefore, I think its really important for citizens to urge the government to help support and donate to these less fortunate schools.

Sculptural Headdress

This is my sculptural headdress that I made during class. I decided to go with a "Hawaiian" themed headdress and relate it to a "Hawaiian" themed fairy tale. In order to create this headdress I used several different shades of tissue paper. I used a dark purple for the crown and put a trim of yellow tissue paper on the bottom. Attached to the yellow tissue paper are several scrunched up balls of pink tissue paper which are supposed to represent flowers. To attach these flowers I simply used glue. On the back of the crown, several strips of lavender tissue paper flow down and mimic a vail. 


This is a fun and creative project that could easily be incorporated in the classroom in particular a second grade classroom. An easy way to introduce this project would be to start by reading several fairy tale stories then discussing the stories with the children. While discussing the stories address the fact that in several of the fairy tale stories the princesses wear crowns or headdress. Tell the students that this is an element that seems to be very common among fairy tales and maybe of the headdresses have a cultural relation to the story. Then tell them for their activity today they are going to create their own fairy tale and a corresponding headdress for their main character in their fairy tale. 


Several  California Content Standards for second graders are present in this activity. The standards that are most applicable to this activity include: 1.  Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral. 2. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. 3. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. 4. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.

Week 2/15

After learning about VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies), I was able to recognize many positive contributions this strategies contributes to a child's learning. In my opinion, VTS has the power to open up students minds to different perspectives for students usually have different takes on what an artist is trying to portray in a image, painting, or piece of artwork. Child learn to think differently and analyze others thoughts. Adding to this, VTS also helps a child to be creative, think outside the box, and expand their visual perception. VTS helps children form connections, relationships, critically think, and draw from their own knowledge bank. Showing students different works of art and discussing it can also help students to learn different forms of art and later distiguish between different types of art work and different artists. It introduces them to different styles and techniques as well. Lastly VTS encourages active class participation, group problem solving, and confidence in one's ability to construct meaning. I decided to practice VTS in my own home with two of my room mates Brooke and Anna. For this particular demonstration of VTS I choose a familiar painting to me called "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez. I simply asked Brooke and Anna to describe what they saw in the painting and what they thought the painting was portraying. While they did this I just ficilitated their comments. They observed that the girl in the middle of the painting was the focus of the painting because she has a bright dress and everyone is surrounding her. They think she is a girl of royalty or of the upper class based on the way she is dressed. They also felt like the women around appear as if they are attending her and might be her maids. Anna thinks she is 6 years old and Brooke thinks she is 4 years old. They believe the dog in the front is protecting the little girl. They also thought that the elderly man to the left of the little girl was painting her because he is holding a paint palette. Brooke feels that the picture takes place in an art gallery room in the castle of the little girl. She also feels the woman to the left of the little girl is trying to calm her down. They both noticed a mysterious man in the back and struggled to identify his role in the painting. Brooke was the first to observe a nun in the background then Anna saw it.  They believe the painting is from the 17th Century because it looks victorian. Lastly, Brooke made the observation that the painting is gloomy on the top and clearer towards the bottom which she feels the artist did on purpose to shift the focus to the bottom where the people are located.

Melissa's Blog

Images From My Life

This wooden piece is hanging on the wall of my room. It is special to me in a couple different ways. First of all it is in the shape of a key. The key shape is symbolic to me because it is one of the symbols of my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. This art piece was made and given to me by my "little" in the sorority which makes it so special to me. By the looks and texture of the piece, I can tell she used paints to decorate the wood piece. I am not positive which specific type of paint she used but I would guess some
sort of oil paint because of the texture on the surface. The image that has been painted on the wooden key is a beach scene. The artist choose a very appropriate scene to paint as going to the beach is one of my favorite activities as well as traveling to tropical place. Looking at this piece makes me feel relaxed and feel like I want to be out in the sun!

Here is a picture that is hung up in my house. This picture is my roommate but one of my very favorites. This picture is a photograph that was taken by someone then blown up. The picture depicts a couple kissing in the middle of St. Marks Square in Venice, Italy. For me this picture sends me feeling of romance and happiness. Especially, since the woman in the photo is popping her leg a little. I feel like this photo is a great photo because it is very universal - people of all ages and backgrounds can relate to it if they believe in love!

Here is a paint that is in my house as well. It is hard to tell by this photo of it I have taken but this paint is on a canvas and created with oil paints. I love this painting because every time I look at it, it takes me back to when I was in Europe in particular, Greece. The dark and rich blue water reminds me of the ocean there and the buildings are very traditional european. However it is very possible that this painting could be set in another location too. 

This is a quote that I have spread across a wall in my room. It reminds me every day of what life is about and how to live my life so it is very important to me. It is made out of mirror glass which is really neat  because every time I look at it I can see myself in the mirror glass which reminds me to embrace these words in myself. There are butterflies around it adds a nice touch and sparks feelings of happiness. I think these are three words that all people should embrace and live by but some people may have different desires in life. 

Here is a vase of pink roses that I have in my house. They are all uniform in color and have accents of babies breath surround them. They were given to me by my parents when I moved into my new place as a little house warming gift so everytime I look at them it reminds me of them. The pink color is very vibrant and sends me feelings of excitement and happiness. It also reminds me of Valentines Day which is coming up soon!! I think roses have many meanings and every interprets them differently but most associate them with love, romance, and happiness.

Lastly this is a photograph I took on my iphone the other day! I caught a beautiful sunset while out on the beach and just had to capture it! The past week in San Diego the weather has been just absolutely amazing. Being abroad last semester, I forgot how summer is a year round thing in San Diego! I took this picture because I love sunsets and watching the sun set. The remarkable part about this particular sunset is the colors that were created in the sky. The sky looks as though it is painted but its not! The purple, pink, blue, orange, and yellow make up this gorgeous sunset. To me this picture promotes feelings of relaxation.. every time I look at it makes me want to be out on the beach watching this with a drink in hand! I feel the feelings provoked from this photo could differ from person to person though.