Term Paper 115

Autumn Roe 
Education 115
Term Paper
April 19, 2017

What are the students learning, and how is the teacher facilitating the learning?
    Art! That little word can be considered a loaded work. What is art? What does art consist of? Is art something pretty, or is it communication. Art can be many different things from graphic design to music. This year I got to observe a high school Art at Abingdon High School. This school has a wonderful art program, and it offers more classes than the general “Art” courses. This school offers Basic Art, Graphic Design, all the way to Advanced Art. I observed many different graphic design classes. I observed an advanced graphic design class and a basic graphic design class. The one thing that I kept hearing from the students is “How does this project consider graphic design.” Many times we have an idea in our head as to what is really is, and it might be wrong. Abingdon High School is breaking those ideologies and teaching children about what art really is. 
In the basic graphics design class that I observed at the beginning of the year, the students were working with an editing program. This program they could go online, and create different colleges, alter images of themselves, and so much more. At the beginning of the semester, the students understood that what they were doing was considered graphic design. Because in their minds graphic design is only things that you do on the computer. However, this could not be further from the truth.
After the first month or so of school, the students started to get away from the computers and started working with graphics on paper. The students participated in things such as created an ironic logo. One student created an Apple Tree. This apple tree was a tree that used the Apple logo as the apples that were in the tree. Another project that these students to part of was understanding how composition works. The students drew words out of a bag. These words were the elements of design. They had to incorporate the element that they got at random into their composition. This was very cool to see. Students were intentionally placing marks on their papers for a specific reason, and that was all because they had to make sure that the element they were given was represented in their composition. Normally when you create a work of art you do not think of today I am going to make sure that my drawing has a lot of value in it. You normally create a work, and by the end of it, art elements are present. However, if the piece just is not working then you go back to intentionally thinking of the art elements. However, with this class, the students did it backward. But it helped them understand that every mark that is put on their paper needed to have a purpose, and a reason behind it. 
I observed in a high school this semester. I observed 2 graphic design courses 1 regular art course, and one advanced art course. This semester watching my mentor teacher teach I learned many different things. I learned that learning is social all learning is, even art. Art is an escape for some children who struggle in regular academic classes. However, it can be a gateway to helping them understand the different material from other classes. Students are chatterboxes, and they are constantly learning whether it be the content that the teacher is providing, or the content from the last class is finally setting in, or students are even be learning how to behave properly just from the teacher's example. I have learned that every opportunity with a student is a learning experience for both the teacher and the student. However, the teacher needs to realize this and take advantage of every moment that could be turned into a learning experience.