What a great experience!!
This art show felt so REAL.
For our students and their families, I know it was an amazing
experience. The parents of my students were all beaming with pride. I
had three students who were chosen to present their artwork, and they
were all able to come, with their pleased families in tow.
One
parent was brought to tears because the assignment had been to create a
tree sculpture that represented a relationship in the students' life
and the boy had chosen his parents (most chose a friend). This was
amazing to witness, to see the impact that a simple 'lesson' could have
on a student and his family (similar to what I wrote about in my last
post).
Another student arrived right at 4:00 with her
parents and a grandparent who refused to let her move until they had
taken nearly a dozen photos. The student looked quite proud and confused
to be so much the centre of attention.
The third
student almost wasn't able to come. I called in a favour of one of our
classmates who knows the girl's family to ensure that they had a ride to
UNBC. I found out afterwards that the girl (who is quite shy) hadn't
even mentioned the event or her special invite to her family. I think it
was a great experience for her, despite her discomfort to be celebrated
the way that she was.
Each of these three experiences
were so rich. Twice, I was asked by the parents to be in a photo with
their child. It is amazing to me the way that art (and the celebration
of art) can impact people.
A great lesson for us as teachers, especially those who are most concerned with the emotional growth of our students,is to let art be one of the mediums to teach about emotion, and to connect with our students. Art is so unique as a school subject and must not be undervalued.
Thank
you to all those who put in so much time, and creative thought into the
decorations, the music, the programs, and setting the whole mood of the
event. Thank you to my classmates that ensured all of my students were
welcomed and greeted right at the door (one parent was quite impressed
and made a point of it!). Thank you Willow for having the vision of this
event, though for me (and others, I suspect) it was hard to imagine.
Special Thanks to Katerina, Barb and Emma for creating such an
enchanting ambiance to the event. Thank you Bea for the slideshow. There's too many to thank! Thank you EVERYONE!
(I only wonder if we should have invited our CT's? I think they would have enjoyed it.)
Thank you for sharing the emotions and reactions of your parents and students...I actually got choked up reading your post!!!! I watched children come in with their families...a little jealous that my students wouldn't come. Your post touched me because it gave me an honest, heartfelt sense of what you felt when your students came and I really love how you drew so many connections between art, emotions, pride, connecting, and family. Through your descriptive post I was able to feel all of that and imagine the sense of accomplishment and pride that you felt when you saw that joy in your students eyes as they looked around that enormous university foyer, decorated and surreal with art work and violin music, and saw their own work displayed proudly and prominently. Thank you for sharing your experience Jes, it made me feel really happy :)
ReplyDeleteNot much to say after Laura's comments - so glad that you could express your experience clearly enough for others to share and learn from. I am so pleased that you got from the experience what I hoped you would - the looks on the faces of the children and their families will be so much more compelling in your career than anything I could say or you could read in a text.
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