BIG IDEA: STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS 1

Big Idea: Structures and Systems-Adaptation and Synthesis

Carrie Ann Duffek Castanon
As a teacher, you want your students first and foremost to learn the curriculum and take

something away from it. But secondly, you want the students to have fun and be themselves

while doing it. While the teacher should absolutely lay down the ground work for an assignment

and adhere to the standards, I feel that it is important to stress to the student that they have the

ability and the freedom to interpret the work as they see fit. According to Pink (2006), in a

symphony, though it is important to have each individual section perfect, the ultimate goal for

the director and composer is to see how perfection comes together as a whole. In a classroom, it

is not the quality overall that comes together in their work by doing the same exact project as the

next student, but rather the individual interpretation from the students that shows they each

understand the curriculum, but are interpreting it in their own way. This also allows other

students to be open minded and perhaps have a better grasp on what is being taught when seeing

it in so many different forms. Just as Walker discussed (2001), creative behavior with students

allows them to create the meaning of their work as they are creating it, rather than limiting them

to creating an idea already given to them. Although there is a fine line between instruction and

creative freedom, as a teacher, it is our job to walk that line so that our students get the most out

of what we are teaching them.

As someone who is artistic, I think art in the classroom is absolutely crucial. I would like

to use art as a tool, while teaching other subjects. That way children can learn that subject as well

as artmaking. Most children love when its time to do anything artistic. They think its fun, and

thats exactly how I want it viewed in my classroom. What they need to understand is that they

can have fun while learning at the same time. At the end of the day, speaking as a student myself,

and as a parent, I notice that my kids, and myself included retain and learn much more when the

work required is something I am interested in, even if the topic isnt.

BIG IDEA: STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS 2

References

Pink, D. (2006) A whole new mind: Why right brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: The
Berkeley Group.

Walker, S. (2001). Teaching meaning in artmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis.