Dear Everyone,

I feel completely drained.  It’s 6:00am and I am sitting on my couch, trying to think about/write this blog.  I think this has been the hardest week for me.  I am looking forward to a long weekend of recuperation.

The question I was trying to ask in art yesterday that I didn’t really want to ask and then asked anyways and probably shouldn’t have was, how do we engage students in art when they’re not really interested in art?  The reason I didn’t want to ask this question is that I know the answer (use different songs, be passionate, emergent curriculum, ect.), I just wanted to point out that there is an underlying assumption that what we’re doing in that class is interesting and relevant to all our future students and of course it can’t be, which is no fault of Jan’s.  I really appreciate how our professors always push us to think about the bigger implications of what we’re teaching and look at the assumptions we’re making.  

I don’t like singing in front of people (who have graduated from the 5th grade) and found that exercise anxiety producing.  I also usually don’t like reading poetry in front of people but Tuesday was an exception.  I think one of the big differences was that Zalika’s set up the activity much differently.  She acknowledged that the work we were doing was difficult, was clear about the expectations around sharing, and made it optional.  I really appreciate that teaching style.  I think that was a nice illustration of how a community can be and feel--we were all safe and able to do something new and challenging.

That's all for now.

Best,

Catie