MOTIVATION

Lack of motivation seemed to occur the most when I was in Spanish IV my senior year of high school. I lacked motivation on nearly every assignment because it felt like no matter how hard I tried or how often I came in for help my answers would still be wrong. The point at which I lost almost all motivation was when I would have the exact answer as the student next to me and he would get it right and I got it wrong. When I brought this to the attention of my teacher she said that he just got lucky. When this kept occurring I did not even bother talking to her about it and basically did not even want to open my mouth in class. This experience turned me into the type of student I had never been before, a student who had shut down. I was only like that in this particular class and the only thing that motivated me to try at all was that fact that I could fail, something I had never come close to doing.
I believe I can help students overcome a lack of motivation by staying consistent in my practices and showing that I care by investing time in their success. At our field site there is one student in particular who seems to lack motivation and does not even consider herself an artist. Once I confronted her claim of not being an artist by pointing out her series of successful portraits as well as her on going practice outside of school she began to see that she was not only an artist, but an artist with a body of work to be proud of. I asked her to bring in some of her photographs from home and the day she did, a group of students came over and started going through her work and lavishing her with the compliments she deserved. Her work was good, plain and simple. It took telling her that she has talent and the confirmation from her peers to get the student to see that she is a skilled artist, particularly in photography, that should continue her practice in the classroom.

RESPONSE TO Ch11 ADOLESCENTS AT SCHOOLBEYOND CATEGORIES

My expectation for the field experience that we encountered this fall was to work with and get to know students from more challenging backgrounds than the one I came from. I was not sure of the range of differences, but I expected the experience to open my eyes to a different spectrum of students than I have worked with before. One student that I have spent a lot of my time with comes from a situation that I could not even imagine handling at her age. From first glance I felt a connection with her because I noticed that she drew on herself, something I did a lot in high school. I inquired about the drawings and it led to a conversation about movies. The three dots were a symbol from one of her favorite movies and we discussed a few more I had never heard of. I had her make a list for me because I wanted to understand the symbolism. That weekend I went and rented the movies and watched them to become closer to this student. I related to this student through the fact that my interests were often drawn on my body and that I would tend to redraw symbols while bored in class. But what separated us was the meaning of the symbols. The movies the student had me watch were all related to her Chicano heritage, something I knew little about. I enjoyed watching each movie and made sure to come back with questions about the different terms and phrases I did not understand.
This student’s identity has a lot to do with her race and it is something she is proud of. The pieces that she worked on while I was in the classroom reflected one of her favorite places in San Diego, the Chicano Park. She explained to me all of the different aspects of the park that made it so special, as well as the experiences she had there. We worked together to represent this feeling of pride while recreating each segment of the park. I loved listening to her stories and watching her eyes light up as she explained the car shows that went on there. Part of this student’s identity is her race and the traditions she found through her connection to the Chicano Park, as woman with European heritage whose family came over from Sicily three generations before her, I do not feel the same connection to my heritage. Even though I am Sicilian, one would not be able to tell by looking at my face or by the traditions that I practice. From this student I have learned to investigate a part of my identity that I do not want to lose, even though my family has become more and more ‘Americanized’ through out the years.

STAYING AN ARTS ADVOCATE

I believe it is extremely important to remain an advocate for the arts, especially in one’s district. My plan to do this will be cool, calm, and steady. I want to remain an advocate by publicizing my on going work, the work of others, as well as of the students around the school and the community. By handing out flyers, pamphlets, and even creating informational handouts myself I want to advocate for the local artists both inside and outside of the school through pleasant action. I want to be a proactive advocate through reputation, experience, and knowledge. Students will be involved by helping to advertise for local galleries, programs, and events by creating flyers themselves as well as attending what they are advocating for. A group will be formed of students who would like to work specifically on involving students and teachers outside of the art program to become active in participating in community art events of all types. Together we will work to plan transportation to the events as well as sign up sheets for those who would like to receive more information. Together we will advocate for the arts, but in a peaceful informative manner. Simply stated, we will just be putting the information out there for others to join and act upon if desired.
I believe that the only risk involved in advocacy is if you do it in a forceful manner, pushing topics that may be frowned upon in the community. Art is a necessary part of society that can do a great deal of good if prioritized correctly and by simply shedding light on this fact, “going with the flow” of the community, then there should be no risk to advocacy. One needs to simply highlight the positives in the community that are the direct result of the work of artists.

GROSZ & KENTRIDGE

The particular piece I examined by Grosz is entitled Republican Automatons. In reviewing the specified questions I would agree to the piece being propagandistic, subversive, therapeutic, rebellious, and somewhat traitorous. Since Grosz had had gone into WWI expecting it to end all wars and was let down in his beliefs, eventually leading him to commit acts that would be said to insult the German army, the image can evoke feelings of each adjective listed above. Even though Grosz eventually decided to steer his focus in a different direction, his past in Germany is clearly portrayed in this painting, capturing a personal portrayal of German society.
After watching William Kentridge’s History of the Main Complaint and reading about it in our text, I believe it to be propagandistic and therapeutic in nature. The piece portrays the effects of apartheid on an entire country and how the mere existence of the government implemented act lingers on in its people. Kentridge relates to his audience something that can only be felt by those who experienced it and in his therapeutic and emotional filled images Kentridge makes the effects clear. As a viewer my heart sunk, I felt pain, suffering, as well as a feeling of distress even though I was not a physical witness to all that occurred.

THE BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING

There are many benefits to collaborative artmaking: joint ideas, making connections through art, communicating to a community of people with a community of people, expanding your world to reach a variety of people, and last but not least opening your mind to others resulting in growth as an artist. Service-learning projects will fit right into my curriculum by having students participate in community events and tailoring lessons to the society in which the school exists in. Artists can benefit greatly by participating in community outreach programs and becoming a part of their town by brightening it up through sponsored art work.
I am glad this topic came up because when I organically make art, it is usually alone and I have wanted to branch out in my techniques of creation. In the past I have been asked to collaborate with friends, but after the discussion we just never got around to it. Recently I made a point of creating a collaborative piece with a dear friend who happens to be a brilliant writer. I pulled out a slat of wood and shaped a pipe cleaner to look like an ambiguous body of the string family of instruments. The shape could have depicted a guitar, violin, viola, cello, or bass. After gluing the shape down I asked my friend to take a break from his journal and move his writing to the tree his paper came from. A bit confused, my friend took a liking to writing on wood and put his thoughts of the ambiguous shape down on the slat. From that point I went in a new direction with the pipe cleaner form and put my two-cents down as well. What came of it is a beautiful piece that I hope will inspire my students to take advantage of the collaborative process as often as possible. I want them to understand that everyone is an artist in their own way, and when we uniquely combine strengths, our technical skills and ability to nurture the transformation of ideas will become enhanced.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

When reminiscing over my past experiences with people with disabilities, I have come to realize I have had a wide range of experiences. The one that seemed to change my perspective on teaching was the memory of an older girl on my swim team that continued her love for the sport despite the limitations placed on her by cerebral palsy. She was probably five years older than me, a girl that had been on the team way before I joined and someone I came to admire. Even though she was not the strongest swimmer and could not compete with the same strength as her peers, she was someone I looked up to because of her determination and desire to swim even without the use of her legs. She is someone who is defined by her crutches, but in the water they no longer set her a part from the rest of the world. Most would view her and immediately remove the idea of swimmer from their mind, but she proved them wrong. This girl swam all throughout high school and showed me not to judge someone on their disability or to cast any of the possibilities aside. No longer will I see a student as disabled, but as a person who has to go about their lives in a different manner in order to accomplish the same tasks. As teachers we are there to guide and support them to be successful in these differences and I believe that is a lesson we all need to consistently remember.

Posted below is a link to a website promoting artists with disabilities
http://www.vsarts.org/x203.xml