Art: Coping With Trauma

    For this blog post I wanted to do something that would get art educators inspired and share why I have the teacher philosophy that I have. Below is a link to my visualization project! I decided to use adobe express. I use this app with my students all the time for their graphic design projects! You can access and see the beauty that is this project: Art Education- Student Trauma.

    

    Hello everyone! Before I dive deep, I wanted to explain why I chose the topic I did. So many students go through situations in life that none of us want for them. Within my student demographic, these kids have been through so much and sometimes school is the only safe space for them. As an art educator I thrive on making my classroom and lessons something that students can use to cope with these hard times. I have such a passion for making a safe space for students while in school. This world has so much negativity in it right now, my hope is that maybe one day I can really help a struggling student. I want them to look back and say they were proud to have a teacher that cares like I do for my students.

 Now you may be wondering why I chose the platform I did? Maybe not? I don’t know! It really is your brain not mine! I’m still going to explain anyway. Since I am an artist, I wanted to use a platform I love. Adobe Creative Cloud Express is what I use in my classroom along with personal work. Now I could get really advanced with my Illustrator or Photoshop but I thought this was best because you… YES YOU can even use this. 

I chose images where I thought background knowledge and understanding would need scaffolding. (Look at me using what I learned in this class!) For example, I have an image of the vagus nerve. I am not a scientist so when I heard the word I thought… “What the H-E- DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS is that?” So, I looked it up and low and behold I found a diagram to help! I also chose images for some of the activities that I explain in my project. Not everyone is an art person, so one might not know what “Bilateral Drawing” or “Weaving” is. So I included a video to show the process of the bilateral drawing and a photo for the other activities.

Creating this visualization helped me understand how important my field can be for students. These are small activities I didn’t even think of at first to help with trauma. When it came to learning about the vagus nerve, looking up the image helped me understand where it is in my body and understand why it can control stress levels. It’s literally connecting to our brain. If I did not have the image of this, I could have misunderstood or have a false mental image while reading.

By far visualization is my favorite in this class. Mostly because… I mean I AM artsy! Anything involving imagery and videos is my thing. In a way the videos I shared in this, I share in class. I love using songs and videos for students to better understand the elements of art or principles of design. I also would use this for resource pages in scaffolding a lesson. Creating images of the project they do, videos of how-to-draw certain items we may be focusing on, and so much more. 

I hope you enjoyed my blog and got to see why I love what I do. These students need good teachers in the system right now! I hope to be the best I can for them.