I arrived early, about 7:30am and prepared for the art integration session. We would be talking about integrating visual art with literature, science, math and history. I prepared three studio projects, a science integration lesson, a math integration lesson and a literature integration lesson. We opened with the science integration lesson on balance and symmetry. This was the first time in the semester that I included any sort of rote, process based art making. The science lesson consisted of symmetrical butterfly drawing. I showed the students how to fold a square piece of paper and draw half a butterfly on one side along the fold. Afterwards they worked at the windows to trace the butterfly through to the other side of the paper, the end result being a symmetrical butterfly. They were excited at this project; there is an element of surprise and fun to it. It gave them a feeling of immediate success. When they finished, I asked them to take all
119 the butterflies to the back of the room and lay them out on the floor. We then talked about ways that we could further integrate science through grouping – so grouping by size, by color, by wing shape, by antennas, and shape of the eyes.
We moved on to math integration with a collage project about radial symmetry and fractions. They worked with paper cut into 8”, 4”, 2”, and 1” squares.
After what I perceived as my unsuccessful experience with group discussion during the previous weeks, I had decided to tighten up the discussion component of the class by giving the students a specific task to complete in-class as a group. I asked the students to divide into four groups and to be sure that at least one person in the group had a laptop or some other way of accessing the internet. Each group was assigned a subject area – math, science, social studies, and language arts. They were tasked with finding three art lessons integrated with their assigned subject area. Once they found the lesson they were to critique it based using the following criteria: What would a student learn about art from these lessons? What would the student learn about the other subject area from these lessons? What did they like about the lesson and what could be improved? Each group then shared their critique of the lessons with the larger group. I asked them what they had noticed about arts integration. The general observations were that art touches a lot of subjects, but it was not formulaic; it just depends on what you are doing and how you’re doing it. I thought this was a good observation. I pointed out some of the difficulties in trying to teach integrated art lessons, such as making sure there is content being taught about both of the subject areas. I reminded them that it might be necessary for a generalist to teach an art program in a school if there is no art specialist; and art integration is one solution to that challenge.
120 We then took a break and started the final studio project of the day: working with metaphor in images. I presented several song lyrics about shoes and we talked about the metaphorical meaning behind each one: greed, freedom, loneliness, the unexpected, etc. Each student then designed a shoe that was a metaphor that could represent the power and strength.
What motivated the actions I took today?
It has been difficult to reestablish a routine after the two week break in the course. The rhythm and pacing of the class had been disrupted by this gap, the stress from the student strike and the pressure of competing commitments that accompany the semester coming to a close. I felt I needed to pull the group back together a bit more tightly. I realize this was an issue of my reasserting more control of the content and the structure of the class, but I made the choice based on the time it was in the semester and the work we still needed to accomplish. So I opted to provide a very structured group exercise that would be helpful for the students in their final project as well as their future work. I also brought the studio lessons back to a more structure approach. I think these decisions were a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to feeling so completely out of control during the past two weeks. I tried to change too much about my teaching style too quickly and I did not feel comfortable. I felt like I was a bad teacher. My attempt to lead a discussion on multi-culturalism was dismal in that a majority of the students would not join in the conversation. Attempting to teach without a PowerPoint presentation was unnerving because I have come to rely on a PowerPoint presentation to help keep track of the
121 sequence of the class. And while my interactions with the women representing the
students that were on strike was not confrontational or negative, it was frightening to me. I believe these factors shook my sense of confidence to a point that I sought security in my previous teaching style.
What aspects of holistic education informed my actions?
The class session reflects the notion of the paradox of education as discussed by Palmer (1999) “To become a better teacher, [one] must nurture a sense of self that both does and does not depend on the responses of others...” (p. 73). Thus the activities of this day were designed to reestablish a sense of balance and connection with the students. Echoing the notion of the importance of relationships to the holistic classroom as
discussed by J. Castro (2012), Campbell (2012), J. Miller (2006), I attempted to bring the class back into focus by reestablishing a kind of routine. The studio activities and the group were intended to provide structure to direct the students back into relationship with the content of the course. This is reflective of J. Castro’s (2012) idea of “constraints that enable” (p. 90) in terms of the teacher designing lessons that help lead students to make connections between themselves and content. J. Miller (2006) describes the role of the teacher in the holistic classroom as needing to recognize the balance between structure and spontaneity and become cognizant to when each approach may be needed.
At a much broader level, relationships, connections and structures I put in place during this lesson were informed by a particular aspect of Noddings (1984) discussion of care. An aspect of caring is that the actions of the one giving care are informed by a
122 concern for the long-term wellbeing of the one, or ones, receiving the care. My actions were based on feeling that what was best for the students at that moment was to come back to an activity that could reinforce the relationship structure already established. I was, in a sense, inviting them back to a place of inquiry with me. Cummings (2012) addresses this head on in her discussion of teacher-student relationships. While she believes in the importance of open, honest human relationships with students, she notes that one should never forget the professional responsibilities that come with the role of teacher. This responsibility includes engaging students with the act of learning.