I am a MATH person. I like numbers and equations and problems that have one correct solution. Numbers are fun and are a benefit to me. I can balance my check book; I even make a game out of how close I can estimate my grocery's cost at the grocery store. Yesterday, for example, I added my grocery items in my head as I added things to my cart. I 'guesstimated' my cost to be around $50.00. When I arrived at the counter the cashier said, "Your total is $52.91." "YES," I thought, "I was very close." I say all of this just to demonstrate how much I like math.
Art. Oh this is something I have no clue about. I can’t cut straight with scissors. I can’t color in the lines in a coloring book. My stick people are always crooked and I took band in middle school to avoid art class and Spanish class. So you see I am not an art person. I recall watching many episodes of “Sex and the City” where Carrie and her friends would go to art shows and gallery openings. They would all gather around a picture for several minutes and stare in complete awe. It was like they were trying to analysis the art or ‘see’ the message the artist was conveying through his masterpiece. Every time I would see one of these scenes I thought, “Why don’t you go see a movie or go out to dinner? Anything would be better than this.”
Needless to say when I learned we were going to the art museum I thought, “Can’t we just go to class and have Dr. Duncan show us some more cool dances or pottery. This will be way more interesting.” The day of the art museum visit finally arrived and again I tried to look on the bright side. I thought, “Well we don’t have class until 8pm tonight and the history museum turned out to be a lot of fun and full of interesting things so maybe the art museum won’t be as bad either.” I am not going to lie and say that the art museum was as interesting to me as the history museum, because it wasn’t, but on a scale of one to ten I will give it a seven. (Before arriving I gave it a three so a seven is great improvement).
There were many positive things I can say about the museum. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about all the exhibits. She did an excellent job explaining the art to us and teaching us how we can use some of the art pieces for teaching our students. This was very helpful. Secondly, I loved the student gallery. The students did a wonderful job and this is a great way to encourage students to become involved in the arts. My favorite art piece at the museum was one where an artist carved faces of several individuals. No two individual heads looked alike. This was AMAZING. Lastly, I loved the butterflies that formed a jet. The pictures of faces on some of the butterflies were amazing and it took creativity, hard work, thousands of hours and lots of patience to create this art piece. I was very impressed.
Although art is still not my favorite subject, the museum opened my eyes a lot. It made me see the many different ways we can integrate art into the curriculum. It also made me appreciate the artist, their talent, their patience and their creativity. As a teacher we need to exhibit many of the same characteristics that these artist demonstrate when creating their masterpiece.
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"Art. Oh this is something I have no clue about. I can’t cut straight with scissors. I can’t color in the lines in a coloring book. My stick people are always crooked and I took band in middle school to avoid art class and Spanish class. So you see I am not an art person."
ReplyDeleteHeather, you crack me up.
In seriousness though, why do we teach students to color in the lines? What's wrong with going out of the lines? Why does coloring have to be so rigid it the net idea is to allow children to express their creativity?
Stick people! Congratulations Heather, you have the beginnings of a master artist! From what I understand, artists begin most of their work with nothing more than lines and circles. Details are added, refined and developed over time.
It seems to me that you have a great understanding of fitness and healthy living--you'd probably be a great figure artist. Someone with a detailed understanding of the human body and its musculature knows what it looks like and how it feels when you flex/relax certain muscles. That's part of the difficulty of just drawing there--figuring out how it should look, but you have that background knowledge already!
Great post, Heather! Your honesty in your posts says alot about who you are learning you are as an individual and a teacher. I appreciate your candidness in rating the museums as it shows that you aren't exaggerating a rating just for me or anyone else who reads your post. The art museum is very different and I agree with alot that you've said. I found the resources amazing and our docent was phenomenal...both of which can turn a mediocre lesson into a great experience!
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