Where to begin?

Education and Creativity

Slanted writing….

Everywhere….

Samuel Shannon

Teaching and involving children in the arts everyday is the single most powerful tool presently available to educators to motivate students enhance learning and develop higher order thinking skills. In my experience, particularly during pracs, children do not view the arts as a school of education - it’s just too fun. Doing some painting, singing, dancing or playing their guitars is not as much a chore for them as writing out spelling words five times, or doing their twelve times tables for example. Almost all of the activities based around the arts are fun, easy to engage with, and seen as a “break” from normal school work. That’s always how I saw it.

Creative Arts in Education

The arts are an integral and important component of our everyday lives. As such they need to be a part of our children’s education. My experience in creative arts education have always been very fond memories. Whether the activities were musically based, dramatically or artistically, every lesson gave me a chance to express myself in different ways, either directly through a drama performance or indirectly with a sketch or painting.

Everyday we are surrounded in some way by music, media, dance, visual arts and drama. This holds true as we listen to the radio, read magazines, watch TV and even view advertisements. Elements of the Creative Arts are absolutely everywhere, at school, at work and in public places.

We as a society have created this environment for ourselves. It only makes sense to help our children to understand it.

Music is a way of knowing and learning about the world and expressing one’s identity within the world, as with many other Creative Arts activities.

A love of Music…

The music scene is continually changing. As new children are coming into schools, their prior knowledge of “music” will constantly differ to every past and future generation. Thus, we need to implement new combinations of old and new ideas which emerge to suit the changing demographic. If the children can relate to the teaching ways and engage with the lessons actively and enthusiastically, then they are much more likely to take something out of it and become more involved.

If everything is working well, you should be hearing a song I have recorded, a cover of another artists work. I figured it might add a little emphasis of my love for music if I provided the soundtrack to this slidecast.

me

A quality developmental visual arts program should allow children to develop their skills from making simple designs on paper to designing and making sophisticated and creative representation of their world. I feel that a quality visual arts program in primary school is an integral part of child development. I am not a remotely gifted visual artist, yet I can see that the opportunities for expression, interpretation and experimentation involved in visual arts are invaluable for young children.

The VisualArtist

Within

Most of us judge a good musician by what they can replicate. They practice scales and other peoples work until they have mastered it. Unlike visual arts, where many children are expected to pick up a brush or pencil and create something completely original. Let’s work with these children, teach them the work of different artists and let them practice these techniques. All good art has one common and vitally important element....

TIME

In my experience, every child begins their journey into visual arts by making simple scribbles or drawings. Also, the medium or tools through which children can express their drawings are vast. To explore the form of drawing, children can use pencils, ink, felt pens, charcoal, crayons or oil pastels Through drawing, children can learn about the outline, hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and various other drawing techniques. Children can use drawing to tell stories, document and experiment or excursion, show their feelings, recall an event, share their thoughts and experiences, and to solve problems.

I feel that drama is an incredibly important tool in children’s education through witch they can express themselves. I have witnessed firsthand in years eight and upward the effect that drama based activities can have on normally quiet and shy adolescents, and the way that they can change to carry themselves in a certain role or character in a performance when inspired and encouraged effectively by peers and educators. Drama is a subject that I feel helps children to loosen up, let go of their inhibitions (to an extent) and immerse themselves in what they may simply call “make believe play”.

To be, or not to be?

Effective drama is an integration of thought action and emotion. It involves exploration, inquiry and experience based on developmental drama, knowledge skills and understandings. This statement sums up my feelings towards drama. These are critical factors learned through the study of drama that can help children to express themselves and find their place in society.

Channeling Hamlet.

Media is everywhere, it is inescapable. From birth, most children are touched by media, in their homes, shopping centers, in the cinemas and as they play or work on computers or video game consoles. I believe that the availability of forms of media to children and the influence they will have on them will grow exponentially into the future years of their lives. Children need to know about media, about how it is made and produced and how it represents reality, but also need the practical hands-on experience designing and creating and producing the media themselves. Learning about media is to develop their ability to analyze and appreciate the media they engage in themselves. That is to say, becoming media literate is essential.

Media relates to creative arts education in the designing, making and appreciation of media, and as teachers encourage children to become text analyzers. As with any other aspect of creative arts, media education encourages creativity and self expression. Whether it be through the interpretation of an advertisement or web-page, or in the creation of posters and simple comic strips. It is also important to note that every type of media has an element of a different creative arts school imbedded in it.

Interpreting Media

There are at least six ways in which learning about other knowledge, skills and attitudes can be achieved through dance.Dance can be a part of a physical fitness program to develop children’s physical skills such as coordination, stamina and rhythm. I feel that a need for good physical fitness programs in schools is becoming more important as obesity in children continues to rise.Children can use dance and movement to learn about the concepts of music such as pitch, tone colour, dynamics and duration. Dances can also be an integral part of action songs, where the lyrics reflect the movement and actions made during the song being sung.

DANCE

Other ways in which children learn through dance include the knowledge of different cultures and contexts, the development of social skills, and the awareness of creativity and self-expression. Dance is a powerful vehicle for non verbal communication, self expression, creativity and ways of knowing. Dance and movement engages the physical, creative , mental and emotional self and through this medium, children can learn about themselves and their world. Dance is has similar focuses to that of drama. That is,

the process of learning, creating and appreciating dance is valued more, rather than the end product or performance. The elements of dance for three to eight year olds reflect this, as they are all based around how, what, when, where and with whom we move. The focus of dance education is not how we perform, or how a dance is presented, it is all about the experience of learning and developing self-confidence, to minimize inhibitions in children and encourage creative thinking and movement.

And let us not forget another big selling point for the arts….

FUN!

INCLUSIVE!

EXPRESSIVE!

DIFFERENT!

Children need to experience and understand the complexity and beauty of the world of music, drama, dance, visual arts and the media for themselves. Being involved in the arts gives children the tools for lifelong learning within the arts so that they have the opportunity for pleasure and for self-development, and for creativity and self-expression.Which other subjects give children these opportunities? Math? English? Sure, there are necessities and benefits of these courses, but the strongest point of the arts is the encouragement of self-expression.

We as a society are becoming more and more similar. People are looking to be accepted into society, friend groups and certain “scenes” every day, and will fall into line behind the masses if it works for them.I feel that I try to distance myself from the “popular“ crowds (mostly because I was never popular). I try to stand out, but not to be egocentric, and you will see this in each assignment I submit. As a teacher I want to see uninhibited, individualist students, creative thinkers, children who will risk failure in new experiences. The arts is a school of education that I can see promoting these values.

Thanks for watching, reading, and listening.