Why I Keep Thinking About Artist Sonia Delaunay

A digital story sharing my impression of artist Sonia Delaunay: as a visual teaching artist, why I find her inspiring, both aesthetically and personally.

This topic sticks in my mind over the years, so it seemed like a rich place to start and one that would allow me to get a running start with a better chance of success on a short timeline. I wrote most of the script with pencil and paper using a writing prompt from the instructor of Coursera's "Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling" Course.

The images in the video include watercolors and sketches I created when attempting to put together a picture book dummy several years ago. I also included photographs of books about Sonia Delaunay, and a few photos from Wikimedia Commons.

My goal was to tell a story within a story, using personal narrative voice to engage the audience with my impressions and experience. I also wanted to closely study the step-by-step process of assembling the many parts of a digital story, so that I would be better able to guide my students in creating their own digital stories.

The most difficult part of the project for me, emotionally, was recording voice narration. I had to really struggle and overcome some self-doubt. When editing the audio, I tried to listen to my voice as if it were someone else talking. Another problem was just carving out enough time to do the very time consuming work that is required for a digital story! It did help me to just really focus on getting each step completed by the class deadline, and think of the project as if it were someone else's work, such as one of my students, so that I would not get too discouraged!

The most significant things I learned are to believe in myself, be creative with emerging technology, and work step by step to achieve a goal.

Friendship Tales

We started Friendship Tales with Cartoon Day and some very fun results!

The kids learned about word bubbles and drawing simple cartoons with basic shapes.

Some even had previous experience and were working in panel form!

Students participated in get-to-know-you games, helped build our learning community, and listened to Mo Willems’ My Friend is Sad. We worked together to figure out if the story was sad, silly, or a little of both.

Corduroy by Don Freeman and Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel helped us persevere to learn sewing skills.

 

Finally, our button artwork came together in fine form. Meanwhile, we thought about different ways friends can help each other and work together to solve problems.

After reading Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Arthur Howard, we made a list of good things, just like Mr. Putter. Then we had lots of fun crafting books! It turned out the students were already experts at this.

Ling and Ting - Not Exactly the Same! By Grace Lin led us to a painting activity. I had plans for the kids to paint the covers of their books, but the students declared mutiny and decided to create these beautiful paintings instead. We struck a happy truce!

While reading The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, we began creating stick puppets to help us tell stories of friendship. Best Friends for Frances, by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban, helped us continue our crafting fun, by this time settling into a great routine for our final few class sessions.

I am so proud of the thoughtful discussions we had on some difficult friendship problems. The Sneetches helped us talk about how it’s okay for friends to look different from each other.

Hearing Frances’ troubles helped us think about ways to get past hurt feelings and be friends again.

We decided you can have time by yourself and still be friends. But, we all especially agreed that it's not okay to exclude people because of who they are.

Our final class, we were inspired by Little Bear’s Friend by Else Homelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. This story helped us find ways to stay friends, even when we had to say goodbye!

Big Words for a Big Idea

Gearing up for my final session at the TATLab, a teaching artist training lab that may well turn out to be a life changing experience for this teaching artist, I'm still trying to get comfortable crafting a Teaching Artist's Big Idea. How about this version:

"Engaging in the Visual Arts activates metacognition, empowering students to make integrative connections."

It's a mouthful.

Photo by Youth in Focus

Words like "activate" and "empower" easily roll off the tongue, but who says "metacognition" in an elevator speech?

"Integrative connections" are where I try to elaborate: in art and in life, connections within and between systems, across diverse disciplines, is what I want my students to find the power to enact.

What better place to foster this synergy besides an arts rich learning environment? Where tools and training are readily at hand, and a spirit of inclusiveness clears a path to creativity and collaboration?