Postmodernism and Art Education

I was very happy to see that our class was assigned readings that had to do with postmodern principles. I have to say it was my favorite reading yet. I really, and I can't even stress it enough, love how postmodernism is being taught in our class. I am an Art History Minor, so I've learned about art through the ages and whatnot. However, the closest I got to postmodernism was perhaps in a History of Design class, but there is never enough time in the semester for teachers to get into what is going on now in the art world and more current artworks and principles. Therefor, I am really intrigued about learning about postmodern principles. So far I have learned so much and definitely really enjoyed the postmodern principles powerpoint. The images in it really make it so much more interesting and it is really helpful to see examples of "Confronting the Gaze" or "Juxtaposition." I feel that it is a really great aid in teaching it, especially because we can read the articles explaining it but the images and examples aren't there. Then after reading, the powerpoint reinforced the concepts even more. I really enjoy being able to see what it is the authors are talking about and I enjoy the powerpoints in class very much. I feel that it facilitates class discussion, gets people really interested, and overall we want to talk about what we see and feel and think. It is a very effective way of teaching and gets me really into talking and thinking about art.

The Art of Play

Last class, we wrapped up presentations on our Art Education Game. I really want to say that I found it to be extremely challenging, but very helpful in the construction of how we can create lesson plans. The assignment itself was very difficult- having to incorporate all of the guidelines and bullet points. It was somewhat intimidating when reading the assignment, but once we as a group started to take things one by one we began to break it down, strategize, and tackle the assignment at hand. Our group came up with modifying the game of MASH in order to build a lesson plan. I feel that I would actually use this game of chance when I am aiming to construct a lesson to teach and I think that the elements and "answers" I can get from playing the game could really make an interesting lesson. It was also a lot of fun and very helpful to see what other groups came up with. It's fascinating to see how everyone executed the assignment very differently, but all were successful in creating a fun, quick, and engaging way to come up with a lesson.