Deephaven Elementary Art

At Deephaven we use a combination of teaching approaches to help your student learn to their full potential. The state of Art Education is changing for the better. We are on the cusp of a transformation to meet the needs of our 21st century learners. My goal as the art room facilitator is to allow the students to learn about art history, different mediums and techniques, and then be inspired by those experiences to create something new.

Facts for Creative Thinkers

The arts were recognized as a CORE subject in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act approved by both the house and congress in 1994.

• The US Dept of Labor predicts that in 2018 there will be over 2 million jobs that require a background in the arts
• Everything we purchase has been touched by an artist in some way…designed it, photographed it, advertised it
• Every year the non-profit arts industry generates 166.2 billion dollars Music fans have downloaded 10 billion songs from iTunes
• Kids who have arts education for at least 3 hours a week throughout the year are:
  • 4 x as likely to win an award for academic achievement
  • 3 x as likely to be elected to class office
  • 4 x as likely to win an award for writing

How is art involved in the time you relax?

My Take on all this...

The idea of art in the elementary school environment is to give a taste of art and enable students to find their own joy in art. Our classroom is a constructionist environment where students are encourage to experiment and explore the many avenues art has to offer. I follow both the constructivist approach and the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. These approaches fall into the category of a choice based curriculum and utilize 21st century teaching methods for better student learning and connecting. Through the use of these methods students learn how to be creative thinkers that can take an idea and develop it into a product of their choosing. This is not about recreating what already exists but rather gaining the ability to create new inventive ideas. These strategies will aid your child in becoming a creative critical thinker and problem solver.

We utilize studio habits which mimic the habits of mind which help create better problem solvers and creative thinkers. This technique focuses on solving an essential question and targets learning that your child will be able to answer and be able to do at the end of every quarter or year depending on whether it is a year long goal or not.

It is a paradigm shift from what you might be used to, this approach is very different than how you or I learned. The focus shifts from product to process. That being said, we normally will achieve a product as an end result of our learning. The difference is that we will spend more time observing, reflecting and teaching each other about or process. We will be learning how to be creative thinkers by not just creating, but from learning how others create. We practice the skill of metacognition, thinking about our thinking. All of these practices take time and create a deeper level of knowledge about our topic. You will notice that projects will shift from being all the same to being your childs’ representation of their idea and plan. For example; instead of every child creating a painting that looks very similar to a sample Van Gogh, they will learn about his technique and create something using that technique while demonstrating the theme and the learning targets for that quarter in their work.