My students were able to complete their lesson with a new understanding of art. I wanted my students to walk away with something other than a finished piece of art. I wanted them to walk away with a sense of impact and the importance art can have on the community. My students surprised me even more when we had our closure on our last day. All of my students shared their work with the rest of the class and described the work they created, and why they created it. I’m so very proud of them and their hard work they put forward. The connection was made through using metaphor and expressionism for their shoe paintings.  I feel that my students loved the project and understood the importance of how powerful art can be and the impact it can bring to those who could use some compassion from a perfect stranger.

 

One of my students said, “I liked how I could design myself and use my own expressionism. In the past years, we had to match a theme, but finally I can do real art and make my own symbols.” I didn’t realize that I gave artistic freedom in the way my student describes because I was so focused on getting my students to complete their deadline.

Another one of my students said, “I would say my overall experience was the best memory. This NIU art project was by far the best ever. No other art project has been so much about kindness and at the same time, I kept thinking that if I messed up, then I would disappoint Zoey; but Mr. Figueroa told us all that even if our shoes aren’t the greatest; it will still make these children very happy.”

With everything in life, problems will happen and how you react to solving the problem is vital. I had some issues with students not feeling like they were able to paint shoes for their Child Fighting Cancer (CFC) because they were not artistic enough. The solution was to have a one on one to build confidence and understanding that art comes in many different forms, regardless of realism that so many people tend to focus on. Also during my one on one I was able to make a personal connection that I believe distracted my student from worrying about his artistic skills. We talked about subjects that interested him. Showing compassion was the solution to my problem. Compassion was even the purpose of the lesson itself. 

My class had a better understanding of the importance of making our deadline when I wrote a timeline on the board. It helped give my students an understanding of real time and motivated them to really focus on painting their shoes. 

Every student completed his or her shoes, which to me was a total victory. While some shoes were a little more detailed and skills were a little more advance than others, the purpose was not to focus on the quality on a grand scale, but to make the connection of how compassion and the spirit of giving was the main goal. Facing fears of art was another factor I wanted to work through.

There will always be room to improve my lesson because everyone and class will be different. It’s very frustrating when they say things like “I’m not good at art.” I understand that for middle school students, they will start to make their own analysis on their skill levels of art based on what they think looks right. I need explain to them that art has more than one style and that style is what artists are known for. I will have more examples of art that expresses feelings rather than realism.

Even though I enjoyed helping individual students with questions and concerns, I need to focus on getting my class up to speed. I worried a few times that I wasn’t going to have all my students complete their shoes because I was trying to work with the students who were having issues and falling behind. I understand that this is school for me too, and I need assess myself in the act and not after class. This will be something to focus on in the future. I learned keeping the class up to speed is more important because I can always work out a plan to get the students who are struggling up to speed at a different time.

I had problems all over, and for the most part I was able to fix them with research and data outside of class time. I really value every one of the professors in our program and knew that if I needed help I was able to go to them. Every professor is different and like students they all have different strengths. I was able to pick and choose a little bit of each professor’s advice and used it to make new decisions in strategy with one of my students. Everything came out successful in the end thanks to going the extra distance and getting the extra advice I needed to have my student be successful.

I feel that I failed most at time management. I have a general clue on how long a pair of shoes will take me to paint. Having twelve students paint shoes for only forty minutes in six classes gave me such anxiety a couple of times. I was lucky that I was given three extra days for my students to work. Even though I couldn’t help that some of my students didn’t show up because of being sick, the extra days helped. I think that in the real world, a teacher will do what ever it takes to make sure that their students will succeed. In this case Dr. Staikidis made sure I was able to get my class to all complete their shoes by giving me extra time and asking the student’s teacher if I could have time to work with students outside of class time.

The quality of work for some students was unbelievable because if I was to compare my eighth grade art to my students’ art, I would say a few of them have potential of becoming realistic artists. The other students who seemed to struggle had a total victory by the end of the lesson. Now if their art had more feeling they all could have been tens, but these are middle school students who have so much on their minds and some of them will feel like they are not good at art. I wanted to rehabilitate them and let them know they are all artists in different ways. I hope in the end that I was able to plant that seed of creativity back into them.

 

With all the projects I could have come up with to teach my students, I wanted to be different and do something outside the box. I wanted to show them that art is more than a painting or sculpture. I wanted them to get the feeling I get when I bring a smile to a person with my art. I wanted them to learn about showing compassion and how to help others with kindness and caring. Art is more than having something look perfect to me. It’s about process, production, and purpose. Art can be taught through many forms but how often will a student learn that art can be used to heal and bring happiness? So after the six weeks of student teaching, my students presented their work at the NIU and St. Mary Art Exhibition, and my vision of making that connection was present when one of my students was able to hand the shoes he painted to his CFC. Smiles from everyone around me told me how perfect it all came together and that all the hard work paid off because the love, excitement, and joy of my lesson brought hope in so many ways. It was a pleasure to meet some of my students’ parents. One of my student’s mothers came up to me and told me that she has never once had her son ask her to come to the school for the art exhibitions. She understood why and how proud he was of his work when she saw the shoes he painted for his CFC. I had many teachers and parents who said this has been their favorite project that a NIU student has taught. I so was very proud of the work that they did that I didn’t really think about the how I did. In the end my students gained a little more respect for art, and thirteen children fighting cancer received custom painted shoes from thirteen strangers.