Final Reflection 
I will be honest, going into this class I was not sure what to expect. Art has never really been something I was very good at or enjoyed doing much of. However, I learned so much this semester about how we can create art out of anything and connect it to anything. I was surprised that this turned out to be one of my favorite classes even though I was dreading it a few months ago. I loved the connections that all of our presenters made through their content and art. One of my favorites was with Dyane and the “awesome squiggles” project. I had so much fun making images out of those lines (after we did it in class, I printed off a few more pages and just played around with it to see what else I could make). I am especially thankful for all the tips that we got from the presenters throughout the entire semester. Whether it was for how to incorporate art into the classroom, or how to have better classroom management, I feel like they really gave us a lot of helpful information that we will use in our classrooms every day, even if it has nothing to do with art. This class has makes me want to incorporate art into my classroom as much as I can. I found that (for me at least) I can focus on class and the concept we were learning if I have something else to occupy me. For example, if I did not do the project as I was watching the video or on zoom, I had a tough time remembering or focusing on what our speaker was teaching. But, if I was doing the project along while they were talking, I had a much easier time writing my reflections and remembering what we learned. I do not know if that is how a lot of students are, but this semester taught me that it is okay if students are doodling on their paper while I am talking because some kids process information just as well if not better that way. I loved that I was able to get out of my comfort zone every week through this class. I realized that even though I am not the best artist, it can still be a lot of fun. I really don’t know if I could pick a number one favorite presenter, I genuinely enjoyed every single one of them. Hearing their stories about what they do got me to thinking also. I realized there are so many teaching opportunities that don’t necessarily have to be in the typical general education classroom. One of the things that surprised me the most was from Kelsea Clayton. She taught us a lot about developmental stages that children go through and how you can determine where they are at based off of their artwork. She also mentioned having students draw a self-portrait at the beginning of the year and at the end to see how much they have developed throughout their time with you. I think this would be a really fun things to incorporate in my class. I also really enjoyed making our shape grams and learning about Buncee, I really like to make things like that online and I think that both of those are great options and will definitely be something I use in my classroom. I was introduced to so many new things and pushed to do things I typically would not do. Overall, I think that this class was extremely beneficial for me and I will be taking more information and advice from this class than many of my others this semester.

EDEL 270 Art for Elementary Schools