Surviving and Learning!

We are excited to be back in the studio with our classes. It has been one fast start to my journey as business owner, artist, Master's student, and now PreK teacher. In the last three weeks I have been stretching my teaching legs and learning best practices to being a successful teacher of Pre-Kinders.  We have had fun learning, creating and exploring :)  Now that our studio classes have begun, I am ready to apply some of the brilliant techniques of the Reggio method to my art curriculum.  

In an awesome coincedence, my graduate course readings for this week are focused on Brainbased Education. This learning philosophy almost directly parallels The Emilio-Reggio method and provides benefits to applying to class curriculum.  While reading an article by Leslie Owen Wilson, "Brainbased Education- An Overview", I came across this wonderful section on the benefits of art education and wanted to share...

Utilizing both music and art: One of the key tenets of brain-based education is that attention follows emotion, and both music and art often tap into the emotional areas and thus are natural conduits for remembering and connecting information.
Music: Music can lower stress, boost learning when used 3 different ways:
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• as a carrier – using melody or beat to encode content,
• as arousal – to calm down or energize,
• as a primer – to prepare specific pathways for learning content) impacts the immune system, and is an energy source for the brain.

Art is an important part of brain-based education in that it provides many learners with avenues of expression and emotional connection and release. It is important at many levels. For instance, it is important in technology in order to create aesthetically pleasing PowerPoint presentations and multi-media displays that showcase work and make the information and facts presented memorable. Art can be metaphoric creating simple icons or images that ground larger more complex ideas. Multicultural awareness is improved through the study of art as it instantly connects viewers to different cultures. Indeed, due to the diverse power and inherent potential of art to create deep emotional connections and aid in memory retrieval, some educators think the arts should be named as the fourth R.

Working with shapes and watercolor resist

Working with lines and dots in a variation of lighting.

Learning about primary colors and discovery how to mix colors

iCento art awesomeness