Memo 1

Brette Higgins

Visual Arts Research

I have taught at the alternative high school, Orchard View, for five years now.  Often there are misconceptions and stereotypes about the students who attend classes there.  Many of my alternative students cannot follow scripted and ridged steps. They come from homes where educational achievement is not a priority. Often, they are stamped as dangerous, gang bangers, stupid, too far gone to save….. you name it.  Realistically, many OV students suffer from severe, learning disabilities and behavioral issues.  Surprisingly, there is a huge emphasis on accountability as the kids must demonstrate and show willingness to succeed academically and control their actions daily.  Attending our school is a privilege and for some students a lifeline.

The structure of our program briefly is that we offer courses in “blocks”.  I teach a morning block of art- period one and two. The electives often are limited as is our physical space and staff, but the most popular elective offered is art. I have large classes with a variety of personalities that can be very challenging and difficult to manage. On a positive note, the autonomy of the school is quite intense as we have the freedom to design our own curriculums, exempt from the external control of the district. We also have the flexibility to teach a variety of materials relevant to our subject.

Throughout my research/in depth literature review, I am very interested in exploring material culture studies and integrating my findings into my own curriculum.  I feel that material culture allows for flexible and responsive learning phases, allocated based on individual learning needs.  I also like that through the study of artifacts, I am encouraging kids to think for themselves, they are not waiting to be handed answers.  This kind of instruction fosters independence and also encourages 21^st century thinking skills.

I would also like to concentrate on what my students can do, not what they cannot regardless of IEP classification. I need to gain more insight into the physical, emotional, and psychological needs of my students and I would also like to investigate the tactile effects of materials in relation to disabilities, especially Attention Deficit Disorder and Emotional Disturbances. During the course of my literature research, I will hopefully learn how limitations of academic abilities may better be explored through the visual arts.

I try to foster productive-student teacher relationships which build trust, and this is imperative to student growth, I feel as though if I knew more about an individual disability, I may be more effective and an educator and more responsive to my students’ needs.  I feel we all face the challenges of keeping students attention in the classroom.  I try to include verbal, visual land gestural cues to draw students’ attention and influence understanding but I always feel like it’s not enough.

As a society, we are engulfed in media saturation and immersed in fast moving imagery,  I find that many of my students need so much encouragement and motivation when beginning a project. They often seek the simplest avenues and demand instant gratification.  The benefits of material culture studies is that  flexible and responsive phases are allowed  and  allocated based on student learning needs, fostering independence but also encouraging meaningful connections for self to object.  I think it is refreshing also, that students become the historians by examining artifacts and they are developing higher level thinking skills and learning strategies to ask better questions. I feel that material culture also encourages greater intellectual independence among students where they formulate their own questions; they will not rely on me for answers.