Welcome to Issues and Theories in Art Education Spring 2024

Class discussions on our blog
We will use this blog as an extended space to discuss our class readings this semester. Since this is such a short class and several of you may need to leave a bit early due to scheduling conflicts, we will share many of our thoughts, reflections, questions, and experiences pertaining to the readings here.

Each week one student will be in charge of the discussion questions (see calendar). I will begin our discussion this week by posting the first discussion post from our assigned readings from the entire week by this Thursday. It may be fun to ask us all to view something, share an experience, respond to a new idea through critical thought and curiosity. The goals are to think critically about our readings, to make further connections to the topic, and to expand our understanding on this new information. 

 For example: we will have a reading on Tuesdays and Thursdays of most weeks. If you are in charge of the post that week, you will need to read ahead so you can email me your questions/ activity by Friday at 9am. This way, I can post it right away and the rest of the class has until Tuesday to respond. You can respond to each other and to the prompt directly. HAVE FUN WITH THIS!

Please use the article I assigned called "How to Write Discussion Questions That Actually Spark Discussions" and use this link to help you: https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/critical-thinking-stems/

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when posting on this blog:

1) Please do not give full name or location to school or community organization where you are working during this class or the specific students or residents with whom you have contact with, including your peers or post photos of anyone without their permission.
2) Do not use foul language or language that may offend other people or use abbreviations like LOL.
3.) Take time to compose your writing well. Please spell check and fact check. These blogs are graded. While this is a novel way of recording your reflections on your experiences and reading, remember this is also an academic exercise.
4.) Before you complete your blog post, preview it for grammatical or formatting errors.
5.) When commenting on the posts of others keep an open mind, do not personally attack the views of others. If you disagree with something someone has posted feel free to engage in a discussion that provides sound reasoning to back up your point of view. Ask them to clarify what they mean in order to better understand their point of view.
6.) Remember your audience for this blog is your professor and other pre-service teachers.
7.) Please restrict your blog posts about our reading, your experience as an artist and teacher.
8.) Make yourself a note in your planner or set a reminder on your phone for when blog comments are due. Blog posts are due by Friday at 9 am and responses to peers are due before class by Tuesday at 12:30pm. You will not receive full credit if they are late. Blogs are time and date stamped so I always know when you posted. Don't lose out on points just because you simply forgot!

Thanks everyone!