Blog 7

"Creating an Anti-Racist Classroom"

In this article the author speaks about how unfair the minority is treated in a classroom.
 "there were 149 suspensions and expulsions for every 100 black students compared with 32 for every 100 white students." More kids who are black are getting written up more than white kids, There is a huge difference on how the teacher treat different students of color. Many teachers said that for white students they had an excuse for why they acted out. They have more compassion for the white students which is very unfair towards students of color. She wants to raise awareness to our own biases. She wants to make a classroom a place of equality and everyone has a chance. 

Then she list out 5 ways we can be a better teacher who treat our students equally.
The first step is not to ignore race. What she means by this is not "pretend that race doesn't exist or doesn't matter." We must not pretend that once race is not here, we must acknowledge that race and make it safe for them to be in the environment we created. And if things that comes up that talks about a race, we as educators must use the right words and "find positive language to acknowledge difference and to remind your students of all the ways they are similar". 
The second step is to find help from community centers, especially in neighborhood of color. That will assist us with our own biases.
Step 3 is about that we shouldn't assume things about people of colors, like if they are from a low-income family or first person in their family to get a higher education because that not always the case. We must respect were they come from and their culture.  
Step 4 is about reading more into other peoples culture to educate themselves, so they offend someone and their culture. As an educator we must know a bit of every culture so we can be respectful towards them. 
Step 5 is to be self-aware, we must know ourselves to improve ourselves. We must ask ourselves these hard questions that will make us uncomfortable. These questions will make us realize our biases and put ourselves on check.  

Blog 6

As an Asian-American male, I feel like I have a lot of privilege, not like white people do but more then others. I haven't gotten pulled over, People don't feel scared around me. I don't really know if people have a bias opinion on my culture or race ... If so I haven't heard of anything. Or maybe Im super unaware of these things. There are stereotypes about Asian people that are like we have " high standards", "Good intentions,"...I just asked my sister if we have any privilege as Asian American and she said that we are considered " Honorary White because of how well we do in school.
I don't know how to feel about it. Like should I feel honored? But I don't like it. It insulting actually. Apparently we are not good enough, but if we are, we are " honorary whites" not the race we are... cause that not good enough. or thats how I see it...  
Linking this to my classroom I would think I would treat my students on how they act then the color of their skins. Maybe im clueless on my own biases that I don't recognized that I have them.

Observation 3

What I notice is that I'm not that really prepared as I thought I was when it came to state standards. Also that the pressure of doing well to " have a great life" which is stressful and gives me a lot of anxiety and schools don't teach us how to deal with stress and anxiety. If we want our students to do better in testing overall we should teach them how to deal with stress and the different types of stress and  how to deal with anxiety. Most students do have test anxiety which makes them perform not as well as they usually do. I have test anxiety which makes me perform bad, and I have a bad habit of rushing through it because im self-
conscious about it and I just want to leave...
They have these test that teachers don't know whats on so they don't know how to perpair for the state standards. They might have an idea but not an exact answer. I feel like what is missing is how confident the students feel. I know when I'm taking the Acts and other test like that I don't feel as confident as the other students who took an "Act prep class" which cost money to take. If they offer a class like that, they should offer it for free where other students who are not financially stable to take it as well.
Testing for an Ib Art student is very different this year, They have to compare and contrast two different artist and evaluate their work. " This test is more about analyzing than it's about creating, which i hate." -teacher.

TechTool Kit 5

One good technology I can use in art classroom are video games! To be more specific is minecraft. My niece plays that game all the time. and she is also an artist. She is only in the third grade and she told me she wants to teach art as well and when she told me i felt so happy and proud! But I played a little bit of it was well and I think its a pretty cool game that kids and adult can play. It is a very creative game. I seen people build a lot of crazy things with that game that is mind blowing. I feel like if I can implement that into my classroom I feel like it can help students get creative with their art. It can help students who are having an "artist block" plus its a nice break from doing art because doing art can be sometime stressful. This can help students who don't like doing art, so using this game they can " play with art" because the game is art itself, The game you are literally building art. A house you built in that game can be art because you created it using your imagination. There are many other games out their that can help us be creatives, like the Sims series.  We build a fantasy life that we want and its all uses creativity, All games use a part of your creativity. I think that why I like video games so much because it use so much of your imagination. It makes me feel like a kids again when I play.

Tech ToolKit

So today tech tool I will use in a classrooms are movies! Movies are different than videos on youtube. Movies portray a story and many more elements. Some of the reason I want to use movies in a classroom is that it goes beyond the text. We can visual see the actions and emotions. It can also provide teachable moments. Another thing is that movies are more interesting than books.
I can use movies in an art classroom by showing them the history behind art and the artist. How the environment was back then. The cultural influences on artist and their works. These movies can also show emotion in the characters action which were we "can capture the moment" in the art we do.

Observation 2

So the school I'm observing is Washburn High. I'm in an art class where the teacher is encouraging students to be free with their art work, she gives them an assignment and the students can be free within the rubric. In total so far I have spent 14 hours, I have been observing and assisting her with her classrooms. The education philosophy I believe she follow or believe is the existentialism. I think this because I see her encourages students to take risks with their art work and they have the freedom to chose how to do their work but also they have to by in the boundaries of the learning targets. The students who are in "IB art" have more freedom the students is "studio art". On the walls their is all full of students art but also reference pictures as well of past students that she uses.

 The relationship between teacher-student is good, they both respect each other so its always a happy and positive environment. The room has 4 big tables, each table has 8 chairs. The students do not have assign sitting. The students can listen to music, just not to loud. For the most part the students works independently, but on peer review day, they critique each other works and how they can improve. Most of the students support each others ideas.

Tech Tool Kit

Today I am talking about the website called "ArtConnectEd" it's a website many use for making presentation but using local art from Minnesota, most of the work are from the walker art center. When doing my observation, the teacher I'm observing showed me this website and this is were she mainly do her presentation on. They have two different types of search bars, one is for finding a type of art, this finder breaks down the specifics from textiles to video/audio. The other search is by art collector and I didn't know much about that because I didn't want to sign up at the moment. You can make an endless amount of presentation, For an art teacher I can make a presentation on every different type of style of art. Another great thing is that it will save it online, because you have an account and it just save your presentation on your account. 

Another feature this website has is a a whole tab on the main page that you can click and some of the tabs say "ask an educator" or "recent event" and again these are local Minnesotans.