PS8: Collaborates and forms interdisciplinary connections within the school and community.
Evidence 1: Lesson Plan: Young Architects.
Description: Created for fourth grade students and adapted from Lisa Bresler, this lesson plan incorporates collaboration between art students and school faculty and staff. School community members can elect to submit a "brief" describing their space and how they would like to alter it, with the help of an architect. The art students take on the role of the architects and create a 3D rendition of the space including the improvements from the brief.
Analysis: Art students receive a brief from a member of the school faculty or staff, and with a partner, they visit the actual space and collaborate on how to recreate the space with cardboard. Students have six class periods to complete their model and present it to the class. They share the space they were assigned, what additions to changes that they made, and what difficulties they encountered along the way.
Evidence 2: HeART Show at Rustic Roots.
Description: The annual HeART Show hosted by Rustic Roots in Shelburne, VT. Montpelier High School senior art students as well as my mentor teacher and I participated in the fundraiser by entering our original artwork.
Instagram - heartshow_vt
Analysis: By entering in and participating in a local art show, my mentor teacher and I encouraged these young artists to be a part of the art community. Taking time to create an original piece of art and then agreeing to the possibility of it being sold to a member of the community to raise funds for a local charity, is an empowering and important experience for students to partake in. We then visited the locale of the art show in Shelburne, VT., and spent time talking to the owner of the establishment who also organizes the art event every year. Creating this connection for the students had a powerful impact on their art making experience - many of which sold their pieces to community members.
Evidence 3: Vermont Art Teachers Association (VATA) Membership.
Description: Becoming a member of NAEA includes membership in VATA as well. I joined VATA and attended the annual conference in order to build connections within the art educator profession and learn more about what it means to be an art teacher in Vermont.
Analysis: I take an active role in VATA. I attend their monthly meetings and contribute to discussions as the group contemplates ways to support Vermont art teachers, planning the annual conference, and how to keep the organization innovative and forward-thinking.