When I introduced mindfulness at the beginning of the year, the introduction went something like this, "When we are stressed, anxious, or experience something new, we often take shallow breaths into our chests. By breathing deeply into your belly, we can use your breath to calm both your body and mind. To practice mindful breathing, place your right hand on your belly and your left hand on your chest, feeling the gentle rise and fall of your breath. Count to three as you inhale, then count to three again as you exhale. Close your eyes, if you feel comfortable it may make you focus." I was determined to include mindfulness into my art lessons. It is introduced as a practice so students don't try to "get it right", because there is no wrong. Much like life I believe the only wrong move we can make is putting up a mental barrier, fearful it may not be the right answer. In mindfulness it is taking that step to be present, in the moment, and practice focus. This is a list of list of prompts I use in guided mindfulness, often I need reminders. Each practice is different, rarely do I use the whole list. I find that for most younger classes 3-5 minutes is enough to settle young minds and ready themselves for art learning.
Mindfulness is a useful tool to attain focus, practice being present, and noticing our surroundings. Even if only practiced a few minutes the brief pause, reflection, and connection to surroundings is beneficial for teacher and student.
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Where have I been and where am I going? What do you know about yourself as an art teacher? I have been a lot of places. "Oh the places you'll go!" I grew up on a dairy farm in south central rural Wisconsin. It was a really beautiful place to be raised with an endless amount of things to learn. From agriculture to nature, life and death, making, fixing, building, and maintaining. At the age of sixteen I travelled to England with a friend and her family, to visit her family. I really enjoyed that experience and collected a few pieces of pottery and lithograph prints. My interest in art and appreciation for it was instilled early, my grandmother was deeply tied to her roots in Holland, and often shared her love for beautiful objects with me. My mother also had a good eye for design and collected many antiques and fostered my desire to create. In my senior year of high school I studied abroad in Russia. It had newly broken away from the Soviet Union and things were in flux. From the architecture, textiles, design, and language I was immersed and learned much from that opportunity. In my sophomore year of college I studied abroad in England where I learned a lot about a very similar but different country. I studied painting, printmaking, and photography, through Nottingham Trent University, After I attained my BFA in Fine Art Studio Fibers I continued to create art. Upon entering college I considered becoming an art ed major, however I felt I wanted to concentrate on on one area of art before teaching. I did enter the art ed program which lead to many years teaching in the inner city of Milwaukee, through internship, residencies, and through the Milwaukee Public Schools Recreation department. The experiences were priceless. I learned a lot about community, about looking for the similarities instead of the differences. Seeking that common ground creates a fertile environment to bring creativity forth. Artist in residence, Woven Wisconsin, 2012, Hartford Elementary, Milwaukee. My family moved to Menomonie and at the time my youngest was three. After some volunteer art workshops, and some art classes, I was hired to teach art to the K-8 children in St Paul's Lutheran school. I began to think strongly about returning to school to finish my art ed certification. Close to four years later since our move, I enrolled at Stout. It's been quite the year. Only something of biblical proportions would have taken place my first semester back! All kidding aside, I currently continue to teach in person at St Paul's Menomonie. I am blessed to have that opportunity, which many of my classmates do not. As to where I plan to be or where I'll go? Not sure. I am confident in my teaching (most days) to these great kids at St Paul's. I enjoy bringing art to them, bringing skill, and critical thinking. First things first and one day at a time. If anything was made clear by this past spring, the whole world can change, our views we once had shift, being flexible to meet that change and challenge it with new thinking and creative solutions is imperative.
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AuthorI have a passion for the visual arts and love sharing it with others. I have enjoyed teaching all ages and love to incorporate art history and traditional disciplines as well as innovative ideas. Art is vital to who I am as a creator and educator. Archives
April 2021
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