Personal Artifacts Project

A exercise in self reflection:

Our assignment was to bring in five personal artifacts that represent who we are - or something important about us. I thought that this assignment would be challenging for me - but it turns out I am not really that complex :-) I found it easy to choose five items.

The first item I selected is my Bible. From the age of thirteen, the Bible has been a source of guidance and hope for me - and my faith really defines many of the decisions I have made in my life. To me, the words within are are like fresh water - often giving me strength and bringing me peace. I included two other books - one is a family album that I put together during the years I lived in Bulgaria. The five years of my life that were consumed with raising funds and preparing to go to Bulgaria - and then living there - were really tremendously life changing years for me. They are years which changed me dramatically in so many different ways. The other book I included is an album of portraiture that I assembled while taking a course in digital photography. In it I represented the techniques of many famous artists through unusual portraits of myself, my mother, my husband, and my children. I chose to include this album because I feel it represents the creative side of me - which I do not always have a chance to express. I was also pleased to include both of these books - because both are stocked with fabulous photos of my precious loved ones - and this represents me because my family is so important to me - so the books each served a dual purpose! The fourth item I included was my passport. I love to travel and discover new places, people, cultures, and foods - I love adventure. I never want to live my life in fear or with regrets. The fifth item I included in my personal artifacts is my university ID card. Returning to school has pretty much consumed the past four years of my thoughts and time - so I thought it appropriate to say that the university ID card is a very accurate representation of me right now.

I think this would be a wonderful activity for an upper elementary or high school classroom. This is not only a great opportunity for students to reflect and make personal connections - and for their classmates and teacher to know them better - it is also an activity with potential for extensions of writing and the social studies explorations of famous peoples or groups of people and the artifacts which might represent them.

Whitwell Middle School Paper Clip Project

What an incredibly moving experience today, as we spent time in Social Studies methods watching an hour-long documentary on the Holocaust Project undertaken at Whitwell Middle School of Whitwell, Tennessee beginning in 1998 and continuing today. I won't recount the entire story, but encourage anyone interested to scout out the video for themselves. I have shared just a few photos here - and want to share just a few impressions.

This photo is from the documentary - showing an eighth-grade class in Whitwell with their vice principal.

The first thing that caught my attention was the purpose given for embarking on this project. The school's principal, vice principal, and social studies teacher felt a need to facilitate a project which would promote an understanding of diversity and tolerance within the children of their overwhelmingly homogeneous community.  We should all be so bold!

Secondly, the project was SO inquiry method! What a fine example of a project being student-led. AND I love that the teacher did not feel the need to "wrap things up" at the end of the year, but was willing to allow the project to spill over for four more years...and even to today. The paperclip idea all began with one student asking "What is six million?"...

The class wrote away to celebrities in effort to collect six million paperclips to represent the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. After NBC caught the story...and after four years of effort, the students had more than 29 million paperclips, each with a unique story.

I was so thankful that the German couple (reporters) got involved, showing the students that though the Holocaust occurred in Germany, Germans are not monsters, just regular folks like you and I. We must all remember and bear the burden of human responsibility for the monstrosity of Hitler's acts and regime.

This authentic German railroad car was a gift from the German reporters, long-time friends of the school's project. It is now filled with 11 million paperclips, and stands as a memorial within Whitwell to the Holocaust victims and survivors.

Finally,  I was blown away thinking about the long-term impact that this incredibly integrated project has had and will continue to have not only upon the students of the school (over multiple years), but upon the entire community - as well as the countless other schools and communities which were touched by this project in some way. What a phenomenal memorial - not only to the Holocaust victims and survivors, but to the profound potential of sound, daring education!

An Inch Of Beauty

Our puzzle BEFORE.

 In this class, we spent time reflecting upon the concepts of "beauty" and "creativity." What do we mean when we tell a child to be more creative? How does it effect that child? What is a "beautiful" picture?We discovered is how closely beauty is connected to our emotions and perceptions.

Creativity is personal; it is highly subjective. It changes in definition depending upon culture, society, personal understanding, information, personal experience and association.

We spent some time sharing our personal "inch of beauty" images and objects (brought from home).

Next, each member of the class conveyed their sense of beauty on one of the puzzle pieces.This was a soothing and reflective activity following a long day in our field experience classrooms.


Each of us used different art supplies - crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint,  etc. Some of my classmates saw beauty in abstract ways - just colored with bright colors. Others made recognizable pictures or specific designs.

Here is our finished puzzle. My contribution is in the lower left-hand corner.

Our finished pieces were placed back together to create a beautiful puzzle...a montage of beauty from multiple perspectives. 

This would be a great activity for any elementary classroom during the first week of classes - what a great way to open conversations on diversity, respect, and individual perspectives!

Customizing and Covering Cowbooks (Also Known as Composition Notebooks!)

Today we began class by customizing the cowbooks (composition notebooks) that we will be using as interactive notebooks for every social studies and arts methods class throughout this semester. To be honest, at first I thought...OMG...please don't make me do this! I am in college, already! 

But then, as we began to look over the available materials (fabric scraps, wall paper, buttons, ribbon, etc.) I began to think that maybe this was actually something I might enjoy creating - and - more importantly USING! After all, anything has to be better than the standard, boring, impersonal black and white cow print book I have been staring at for the last seven semesters of my college experience!

It was a lot of fun, doing this alongside my peers - seeing what they created - and thinking through what I might do...

This is what I learned from this social studies learning experience: it is healthy (for adults and children) to do things outside of one's comfort zone; engaging in an open ended art project can prove quite therapeutic - it allows time for one to reflect, relax, and let go; it is rewarding to stand back and view the finished product of one's own making; it is interesting to see the diversity of what others have created. This would be a great arts integration in any elementary classroom.

Great Social Studies and Arts Blogs

SOCIAL STUDIES BLOG LINKS

Rayleigh Elem. Social Studies Blog

Fun Social Studies Ideas Blog

Social Studies Lesson Ideas Blog

Learning Social Studies through Social Action Blog

Social Studies Blog Based on K-6 Standards!

Current Events Social Studies Blog

Educator Social Studies Blog with Great Links!

Conversations about Social Studies Curriculum Blog

History Education Blog

Another Blog with Great Social Studies Links

ART BLOG LINKS

Award-Winning, Kid-Focused Art Blog - Beautiful Illustrative Photos

Art Blog K-5th

Elem. Art Blog with Lesson Plans

Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons and Samples - Well Organized

Student Art Samples Aligned with Standards

Elementary Music Blog

First "Last" Day

Today was my first "last" day....meaning that this is my last semester of on-campus classes...next semester I will be student teaching!  It is a bittersweet time; I have come to really respect and enjoy the girls (and guy ;-o...thinking of you Ryan) that I have spent the last few years with. We have gotten to know each other well...the good - the bad - and the ugly, and I will miss being with them once this semester is through. But - now that they have all convinced me to get with the times and join FaceBook...and least we will be able to keep track of one another! Oh...enough of this sappy stuff!

To celebrate our last on-campus semester - a bunch of us went to lunch at Wings, Etc.

BTW - when I announced it was my first time there Jen asked me what rock I'd been living under, Aubree recommended this wing sauce that tasted like General Tso chicken, and Ryan shared some more intimate details about first times. What a fun, fun afternoon! Now we are all waiting for our invites to a slumber party at Carmen's.