In Chapter 11: Unsung
Heroes: Making a Positive Difference through Intergenerational Learning by
Debrah Sickler-Voigt; students discovered Middle Tennessee’s Wetlands through
art and exploration. They did so by working and learning with an
intergenerational group of participants, which consisted of college students (preservice
teachers) elementary school students, and veterans/people with disabilities
/community members (mentors). With all
of these different ages and types of people involved it created a very diverse
group, which is what intergenerational learning is all about.
“Intergenerational artmaking in a community brings individuals from different
age groups together to make visual statements” (pg. 84). Throughout the process
both groups became more impressed with the other, and felt that they learned
about from each other. All of the people
helping with the project brought something to the table to contribute. What was very apparent from reading the
article was that the veterans/community members (mentors) that helped out
didn’t realize how big of an impact that they were going to make on the
project, let alone the impression that they would leave on the elementary
students and preservice teachers. What
they often referred to these mentors as was “Unsung Heroes” and these Unsung
Heroes can be found anywhere within the community. They are very valuable resources for teachers.
By using the Unsung Heroes, Sickler-Voigt taught the preservice teachers to
utilize groups (often forgotten about or seen as invisible) to “learn the
skills they need to create community art and provide children with a more
balanced representation of society than they typically have at school” (pg. 85). By the end of the project the group had
transformed a drab bus pick up, into a beautiful place with landscaping and the
creation of cement animals from the wetlands.
http://mtweb.mtsu.edu/dsickler/community_art.htm
-Link to Voigt-Sickler’s Web page where you can see the work that they did in
this Community Service Project as well as others.
Key Terms:
MENTORS- Are trustworthy individuals who
guide students through various learning processes. (Reese, 2006).
UNSUNG HEROES- A Person who makes a
substantive yet unrecognized contribution; a person whose bravery is unknown or
unacknowledged.
INTERGENERATIONAL-
Relating to, involving, or affecting several generations.
Key Points:
·
Mentors play a significant role in educating our
children. But along with Mentors, What
stood out the most was who was considered mentors from this project, and even
more so, who are the “Unsung heroes”. “We called upon the expertise of everyday
community members, our unsung heroes, who brought their skills and knowledge to
our wetland project,” pg. 84
·
Intergenerational Role Models can help students
achieve more. It was awesome to read all
of the quotes of all the elementary students and college students that were
helping out, and all the amazing things that they had to say about the
veterans, and other community Mentors, and how much they valued their
help. The students left an everlasting
impression on the mentors as well. “John who had never done art said “We learn
from them (the children) and they learn from us…words do not explain this. Like I said, it’s a new beginning for
me. I opened my eyes to new bigger and
better things in life, things I didn’t know about. Anything is possible.”” Pg. 87
·
Outreach to Adults living with hardships and/or
disabilities to educate our youth. By
reaching out to these people it made them realize all of what they have to
offer, and it also made some of the students realize how much lively hood that
they adults have left. When mentors have “diversified life experiences that
plays a significant role in education children and providing them with quality
experiences.” Pg. 84 (Garbarino, 1995;Sickler-Viogt,2003;Tucker, 1999).
·
Community Learning was very important in this
chapter. Not only did the project transform the area that they were working on;
it transformed the communities’ perception, of themselves, others and their
capabilities. From working together they have shared experiences, thus making
them interested in their “fellow participants” and take their needs seriously
(Hughey, Speer, &Peterson, 1999) thus improving the community.
·
You can use community art to discover peoples
hidden talents and capabilities. In the
chapter she talked about how she couldn’t figure out how to mix the
cement. She had just thought that she
would be able to figure it out no problem, but one of the veterans ended up
coming to her rescue and fixing the cement she had mixed, and teaching her and
her students throughout the next 3 weeks how to mix cement themselves.
Questions:
1.Following
Lindsey’s last post, take your big idea and essential questions and decide some
ideas of community learning service projects that you could do in your future
classroom, and what steps might you have to take in order to make the project
happen?
2. Reflect
on important mentors in your life. In what ways do you think that a mentor may
have affected your learning, in art, as well as other subjects?
3. Brainstorm
a list of people in society might be considered marginalized/invisible or could
be seen as an “unsung hero” and consider ways to include these people to your
curriculum or service learning project.
Activity:
A
quote that inspired my activity was “What I now consider an ugly swamp I can
now appreciate its existence.” Pg 86
I would like to have everyone think
of place, thing or task that they once considered ugly, gross, or unappealing,
but now can appreciate. Once you have
your place, thing or task in mind I want you create an image based off of
it. Keep in mind transformation, and how
your view of this place, thing or task changed/what made your view change. For
instance in this chapter their project transformed the boring uninviting brick
wall bus pickup by landscaping and their concrete animal sculpture, but along
with that visual transformation, their experiences that they had making art
there also left a positive memory of the space.
The image that you make can be created using your medium of choice, but
don’t forget to upload a picture of it with your blog.
Please post your answers to the questions and your art piece
to your blogs by Friday at midnight.
Example Piece:
No comments:
Post a Comment