Many teachers are given a curriculum at the beginning of the year, and within that they must stay within the state standards. But, most of these standards make it hard for teachers to feel motivated to have their students creates art. When using forms of learning that are written in a conventional format are never going to be ideal. When the curriculum is boring teachers and students will not want to participate. In the art room students should be able to examine, and explain the structure of their curriculum. In teaching the students can represent their own opportunities while also generating personal meanings in their work. If art teachers continue to transform their work then they can continue to feel deeply committed to teaching. Since art is always changing, it is important, include these aspects into the classroom and adapt. This means that art education is a field that will continue to evolve and as an educator we will need to incorporate new practices within the classroom.

When planning curriculum it can be important to focus on the artists and their practices. Relating those practices to cultural studies helps for students to connect to the modern world. As teachers we shouldn’t just talk about line, shape, and color. They should focus more on their personal feelings and should not be trying to simply master a technique. It also helps young learners to think about issues in their communities and grow intellectually. As stated in the article, it is really important to uses found materials such as sporks in a cafeteria that have already been used to the make a piece. One thing that I really agree with, is the idea of introducing less artworks or cultures in depth, and really focusing on less work so students can really focus and learn.

In my future classroom I want to strive to allow my students to incorporate their own personal meaning into their work. This is beneficial not only in a classroom setting but in a community setting, because the participants in an activity can focus on how being in a larger setting with a more diverse group of people can teach them about other cultures and ideas.

Hannah Epstein is a folklorist and discusses how story is a part of everything that we do. Stories are the architecture that build our world view. One of her big ideas is to experiment in order to understand the world around her. She in particular is from Canada, and she was taken with the folk art in the areas that she is living in. As a Canadian she was fascinated with American culture. American television and folk art was a common thing in her area and had a connection especially near Nova Scotia.

 There is a graphic nature to the qualities of folk-art. Folk art is a form of storytelling but is also embedded within historical times, and cultures. She would often create rugs that would act as memory devices and would remind her of certain times in her life, giving them a storytelling element. She wanted her work to become a form of media, so she experimented with GIFS. She then was looking through the internet and decided that she wanted to explore memes.  She wants to memeify things that are going on in the news. She created a game that is about being in prison as a woman. Men often have positions of power in prison, and she puts real images of police beating women throughout the game. There is real violence that is being used but people have glamorized it, and personally I could see that through the show Orange is the New Black. She also made a game called Cyborg. You are trying to upload your consciousness so that you can live forever.  Going back to her time in Nova Scotia, she decided to buy an old church and make it her studio. She has a lot of work up in the studio that consists mostly of rugs. She then created a program that has a brush tool that resembles her rugs. 

When relating this to digital visual cultures, there is such a digital element to her work, yet she takes real 3D, and physical art forms and then turns them into something that can be created in a virtual world. Implementing this type of creation into a classroom is beneficial in terms of STEAM practices. For students who may not be excited about creating art, they may find Hannah’s work really interesting due to the fact that is has a technological aspect to it. Not only does she discuss technology, she also works with political and social issues that have importance to her through her art work. This can encourage students to explore ideas that have importance to them in their artwork. She also discusses humorous but serious topics that I believe would get students actively thinking about issues that are going on within the world. I also really enjoyed that she went through her process as becoming an artist to really give students a better idea on what it is like to be in the real world as a working artist.

The podcast by K12 Art Chat featured two art educators, including Sean Justice and our very own Andrea Kantrowitz. I really enjoyed how the speakers discussed about what is your “why” within teaching. This is a very interesting topic, because as a young hopeful educator, it is essential to remind myself of why I want to continue my education in teaching art. This podcast reminded me of my “why,” because art classes teach students so much more than just how to paint and draw. As stated in the podcast, art connects everything, and everything is connected. Art is at the core of our culture and helps us all, and especially children to learn how to make connections. This leaves students feeling empowered. In an art class students can create work that they feel is important to them versus just teaching techniques like shading. They can learn multiple perspectives within a project. As a teacher, I really want to make sure I encourage my students to realize that just because they may not draw well, doesn’t have to mean that they are not creative. The podcast says that being in artist is a thought process, and it is a way to look at things differently. I want to implement this into the classroom because everyone should feel included in the process of creating art. I also love working in groups and would bring that into the classroom in order to teach everyone how to collaborate and appreciate all of the different viewpoints. This podcast was inspiring to me in so many ways, and I know I will go back and listen to it again and again to bring new innovative ideas into the classroom.