Final Reflection
This semester...wow. I never thought that art projects could be incredibly simple yet impactful for people of all ages really. Like my bio on Wakelet mentions, I wish I could be creative off the whim, but in reality, it is a struggle for me to become invested in the time it takes to create something special. I would say that the ease and the fun of these art projects were surprising and extremely useful. Not only were we exposed to several hands on projects that we could implement in our future classrooms, we were also exposed to online tools and sites that would be applicable to this digital age of teaching. Because art had been something hard for me to invest time in, this course showed me how simple it is to include in lesson plans. Making a candy cane (Summer Moeckel), creating art online on Shapegram (Tony Vincent), and coloring self portraits (Kelsea Clayton) are just a few impressive ways to keep kids' artistic skills flowing. I don't think I had a favorite speaker throughout this course only because each speaker brought something special to the table that contributes a lot to this subject. Although, I do have to say that creating art with my feet was definitely a challenging yet entertaining project (Tabatha Rospory). I would have never thought to implement an art lesson that requires students to take off their shoes at school, but like Tabatha mentioned, that is part of the beauty in the design of that lesson. The speakers from this course have taught me that including art does not have to mean over the top, extravagant projects, but to focus more on how art is important in the development of students' brains. Art goes deeper than putting a colored pencil on a piece of paper, so much that two networks are working together in our brains for creativity called default-mode and executive control (Megan Clark). Providing rich environments for opportunities helps students make connections within themselves and their surrounding environments (Megan Clark). Knowing more now of what art provides for us as growing individuals, I plan to prioritize this subject in my lesson plans for my future classroom because these networks are important to exercise. It would be ideal to fit art in my lessons weekly where projects pertains to what the students would be learning. While art is still not in the plans to be my concentration, I now have a way better understanding of what practicing creativity does for the brain and how implementing artistic projects forms internal and external connections. I am encouraged to keep art in my future lesson plans because I have learned that activities/projects never have to be a huge, lengthy process, and can be more impactful when the purpose of the work is known.

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