Greening our art classrooms

Holistic perspectives
– Art helps us become one in ourselves. It helps us connect to our own minds and venture onto subject that create a positive atmosphere. Art helps students question themselves and how they are becoming into a better person every day. I will use this in my practice as a teacher to remind myself that students do need to connect with their mind, busy and spirit through each subject to fully grasp the meaning of learning.

Legislation
– This section spoke about how art is made too serious in elementary school and should be recognized more as a passion instead of an assignment. As well, teachers should give an amount of freedom to the students. For instance, not have everything cookie cut for them, but instead let them roam free and become true artists.

Organization
– Always consider health and safety within your classroom in the case of an accident happening. Therefore, if the classroom is organized the teacher and students will be able to find the first aid kit and help those in need. Having an organized classroom will also have the students become more independent due to them knowing where most of the objects or materials are.

Equipment safety
– Have safety guidelines within your classroom. For instance, do not take your classroom for granted, because anything can happen at any time. Be sure to protect your students by wearing appropriate clothing to specific activities and by double checking equipment to insure it is in a good working status.

Safe materials
– It is important to keep material in class that are safe and appropriate to be used by students. For instance, if we are using glue guns we should have a designated area to place them where students will use cautiousness.

I will take these all into mind when becoming a new teacher because it is extremely important to have all of these in the classroom. Safety is very important in the classroom, therefore when handling art supplies, students should be kept independent but aware of their surroundings.

Let the sun rise

From a young age and till this day, sunsets and sunrises have always been my go-to art picture. They were and are usually presented through paintings, drawings, photographs and sounds. My favourite part of any vacation is to watch the timeless moments of waiting for the sun to rise or the endless affects of sunsets. This is my inspiration because everyday starts with a sunrise and a sunset. No matter where you are in the world, you will still have the same feeling as if you were home and watching the sun. I choose to paint or draw sunsets because I feel as if the colours that are associated resemble a calm presence. By mixing the colours I am choosing to blend the surrounding scenery to blend into the sun’s shadow. I would love to broaden my horizon by venturing out of the sunrise/sunset drawings, but for me art is to calm the mind and that is exactly what sun images do for me.

Méret Elisabeth Oppenheim

Méret Elisabeth Oppenheim was born on October 6, 1913 in Germany, yet grew up in Switzerland. She joined the Surrealists and began to create sculptures. Oppenheim’s sculptures embraced feminine domestic object, but with a twist. She would specifically underline how one household item can be used in an entirely different way or by adding other materials that usually do not belong to the item. For instance, her fur-covered cup is one of her famous sculptures. Oppenheim was one of the first female members in the Surrealists group and brought these sculptures to present different forms of an object.

Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Schwitters was born on June 20, 1887 in Germany. He studied art and drawing at Dresden Academy from 1909-1915. Schwitters began his artistic journey by collecting garbage and turning it into art masterpieces. He began his ventures after World War I and used his creative building by finding materials around him. With the garbage, Schwitters would directly place the pieces of garbage onto his current works. Through these art pieces, he would create collages that would incorporate his artistic mind and the media’s printed works. He later created journals, advertisement and he founded the Merz journal.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet