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Sarah Kate Cone

1. After reading personal spaces I did find strengths and weaknesses within the BIG IDEA. I feel as though the strengths were in the sense that each student was getting to understand personal spaces in a new light and starting to realize their own personal spaces. The weakness in it was that the instructions on what kind of personal space were limited. So some students might not be able to produce something to their best ability.

2. My art education really hit all the spectrums. We would have assignments that were subject centered when we were learning the basics but then we would also have assignments that had to deal with you and yourself and personal expression and then also assignments relating to social and society things.

3. I think my experience was a little more accomplished in the sense that I was able to experience multiple kinds of media as well as subjects to create art and be inspired from. I think the best approach for students is to really let them find their way on their own and get to figure out themselves through art. I feel this way because when my art assignments were too structured I felt trapped in a way.

4. What really resonated with me most was the idea in general of personal spaces. I have never heard of a project relating to that and I was honestly very intrigued to read about I think when I teach art I will definitely use that.

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1. I think that the strengths of "Big Idea" in teaching art is the fact that it can be multidisciplinary, students could be able to learn about other subjects, ideas, concepts while using art to be creative and have that freedom to connect the two. I feel that this approach fosters creativity and learning. With this approach students would also be using their critical thinking skills in order to make connections, question concept which could lead to really creative and interesting art projects. I feel like as educators we are doing our job when we inspire students to learn and want to know more about certain subjects, I feel like by using this approach we have more probability of accomplishing that. The weakness of "Big Idea" I feel can occur if the ideas are preplanned, cliche, or even limiting.

2. My art education in High School was more subject centered. For example, for my Art I class we focused on shading, couture, proportions through out the whole semester. We would sometimes look at art work, but again the subject was always the subject art. There was not a project, homework, or lecture that connected art with other subjects, ideas, or any society-centered approach. My Art II class included sculpture and drawing. In Art II the subjects were also not centered around society or any other issues, there was no "Big Idea" or theme to base our projects on. However, one year the school did have a project called "Bowls for Soup" which was a society/community centered projected focused on raising funds for food pantries during the winter time, this was a school wide even and everyone was able to participate and create a bowl that would later be sold. In this particular even I feel that it was more society centered as it spread awareness in our school and our community of the need for funds in food pantries.

3. My experience is very different than the Big Idea that Sakatoni and Pistolesi are advocating for. As I mentioned in question number two, my art education in public schools were very subject centered. I believe that Big Idea is a great approach for all ages as it can be cross disciplinary and inspire students in art but most importantly, learning. I feel that if a Big Idea is broad and interesting enough it could result in a lot of creative work that could potentially encourage students to learn about themselves, each other, society, and other subjects.

4. I personally like the idea of "Big Idea" because as an art educator it would be amazing to be able to include other subjects into the curriculum by connecting it with one "BIg Idea." I feel like it's an opportunity for both teachers and students to be creative and could lead to amazing work by students that we may not be able to witness if another approach was to be used. One thing that stood out to me was the author's advice to word "Big Ideas" with basic human truths and needs versus the overuse of certain words like "Identity, culture and society." Students in junior high and high school may hear these words being used too many times and I can see how it can be tiresome to them as well. As art educators we want to spark imagination and creativity into students and using Big Ideas previously mentioned may cause the opposite.

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1. I think that the "big idea" approach is theoretically a good idea and could be beneficial for students because it can increase students engagement and allow for them to express themselves more creatively in a way or ways they had not before. This could be good because it can allow students to focus or explore mediums that had not before. However this large sense of openness and ability to be imaginative and prove to be a downfall. Some students could come out overwhelmed by the notion of creating something representative of themselves.

2. In my high school a lot of the work we did was very subject centered. We had a main goal by the end of the year that we need to complete: concentration pieces with a clearly defined theme and breath pieces which we there to show off our technique and skill. Creativity and personal individuality came soon after that but was not completely limited from the main idea.

3. In highschool I was in ap art classes so we never had a set curriculum to follow. The teacher simply let us now what we needed to have done by the end of the year and gave us that time and freedom to use how we saw fit. Therefore we were neither encouraged nor discouraged to follow whatever we felt creatively. However, even as a high schooler with this much freedom, I felt overwhelmed with the possibilities that I could make. I felt pressure to be original and make something amazing, so I feel that it is a bit unnecessary to ask of that from an elementary school student.

4. What resonated most with me was that students were encouraged to explore different mediums. At such a young age and even up until high school I was under the impression that fine art was only created from traditional mediums such as painting and drawing. It was not until I got to college that I realized that that is not the case, and I wish I had been able to explore different mediums early on to be able to perfect my own style.

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2. (Con't) We weren't encouraged to draw from society at large or our own experiences for subject matter.
3. My own experience definitely doesn't align with any of the ideas expressed in the article, although I personally find them appealing in theory. I personally think that younger kids are less likely to compare their work to others, making it effective for them, while high school aged kids could benefit in their own self-exploration which usually occurs at their stage in life.
4. Growing up I constantly find myself creating spaces specific to myself either subconsciously or not, in my living space for example. I resonate with this article because I feel as though myself and my peers would enjoy and benefit from making a project like the one mentioned, to help solidify our own identity, which I felt I lacked in my own art education. Our prompts were too formulaic and subject-centered.

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1. While the “Big Idea” approach is beneficial for students as a starting point and a place to begin developing ideas about their work and what they want to say with it, there is the danger of conformity within a group of students with such a general idea. A Big Idea can be a very encouraging way to start students on a project: theoretically, these projects are open and become significant for each student for different reasons and at its best, can produce lots of interesting, valuable and different submissions from art students. However, I’ve seen and been a part of a lot of classes where teachers gave the students “Big Idea” projects that often yield similar results for each student. According to the article, the professors chose a “Big Idea” to use as an umbrella over a large sample of students and specific guidelines for how they needed to complete the project, which I fear would result in a lot of projects looking a little too similar.

2. Most of my art classes have been subject centered; I was asked to complete projects within the bounds of many guidelines and requirements that were meant to teach formal techniques but paraded around as another opportunity to become something very individual and creative.

3. In general, I don’t think that “Big Idea” projects were all that different from the assignments I’ve had up until this point. I think that big ideas are really helpful for younger children from about 4-12 years old, because children haven’t developed that strong of an identity by then and these projects can help them understand how to make a project your own. But once students enter middle school (at the very least high school), things should be more student-centered. This would help a lot of artists grow outside of guidelines and grades and help them to flex their creativity muscles. If I’m being honest, a lot of my art education didn’t make me feel valued as an artist or as an individual; Being asked what I would like to make or felt passionate about making should be asked before “What do you know how to make/what should you be learning based on this curriculum?"

4. I’m fascinated by the big idea “humans create personal spaces”; I feel like this is extremely accurate, relatable and has been expressed in a lot of interesting ways throughout history. I also really loved how a student said “working small and and creating something ‘Big’” because that reminded me of how my sketches and art tend to be small but I hope that they have a big impact (things don’t have to be physically imposing or impressive to evoke something from your audience). The thematic umbrella that the article focuses on really reminds me of projects I was assigned all throughout elementary and even middle school and how much I enjoyed them despite the fact that a lot of my peers’ work didn’t look that much different than mine.

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1. The strengths I found in the "Big Ideas" approach to art education were regarding my thoughts that individualized activity boosts student engagement and therefore learning overall. These kinds of activities are always relevant to students because it requires them to reflect on themselves, which most people don't usually get time to do in other classes. Not only does it allow students to focus on themselves, but they are able to connect to different subject matter, cultures, and eachother. The only weaknesses I could foresee are that not every student is bold or creative enough to create a thorough personal space for themselves and may be discouraged by the activity, especially if their peers are creating very interesting spaces for themselves. Students have a tendency to compare themselves to others.
2. In my art education, I was always instructed to draw from specific topics or categories. AP Art, for example, required that we choose a concentration subject to base about 12 paintings around.

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1.       After reading Personal Spaces I found the strength to be that students really are given the opportunity to pursue and learn about a topic that is important to them. As an art student in high school, we were given a broad assignment for projects and could break it down or interpret it how we saw fit. I really enjoyed this approach because in the end students could collaborate and share their learning experiences with one another classmates. It also allowed me to see the creative processes of other artists as well as learning how art is interpreted by an audience which further strengthened my own ability to convey my ideas through art. The most apparent weakness to me is the students who are going to take advantage of this approach and not get their work done. Or if students weren’t particularly interested in art in the first place. I could see this becoming a bigger issue in Art 1 classes, where students are only taking the course for a fine arts credit.

2.       Most my high school art classes were student centered. My teacher encouraged self-exploration and gave us a lot of freedom when it came to our projects. The only art class I had that wasn’t student centered was probably my Art 1 class that was subject centered.

3.       I think that my own experience had some similarities to the Big Idea approach. I do believe that the Big Idea is the best approach because it is teaching students more than just the technical skills of art.

4.       I think the part that resonated most with me is where it says “humans create personal spaces”. I completely agree with what is being said, but had never realized that was something I was doing. I can remember being in elementary school and using art as a means of creating an imaginary world. I would spend hours in my room just coming up with crazy backstories for all my creations. I always think that I chose this over toys because it gave me the freedom to create something from the ground up. While I no longer lock myself in my room playing with scraps of doodles, I still submerge myself in to another world when I am creating. I like to create this universe where the painting exists and taking it out of its safe place can be quite vulnerable.

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1. The "Big Ideas" method focuses on allowing students to follow their own passions and 'big ideas', instead of following the often clichéd curriculum to express themselves and learn to really love art. No right or wrong answers means children can pursue their interests, but also can leave some students, especially those just taking art classes for the credit, confused and worried, since they have been told their entire lives that every question has a right answer and a wrong answer. This can scare them and cause them to worry that the work they produce will be the 'wrong' answer, and they can end up staying very safe in their subject matter in attempts to be 'right'. The pursuit of students’ interests means that they are more likely to self-motivate, and continue their workflow and ideas without needing assignments in the future. This is especially helpful for children who wish to become studio artists, and in teaching self-motivation.
2. My early art education was much more subject-centered than anything else, but over time I entered classes that allowed room for student- and society-centered art, which was much more stimulating for me personally. I received very small amounts of art and art history education for the majority of my school life, and most of my assignments were the overdone and uninspiring curriculum projects described in the article, which did a great job of driving me away from art.
3. I did well in school with a structure similar to the "Big Ideas" approach. We were asked to consider important themes in our art, but not given a specific theme to work on. That part was up to us. This definitely made it much easier to create a continuous stream of art that was enjoyable to make, but the way my school did it didn't necessarily push a student to technically improve or expand their subject matter. For example, if someone's theme was 'adolescence', that is what all of their work revolved around. They didn't ever really have to contemplate a question posed by the instructor or try too many new things. In fact, straying too far from the theme was not really allowed, because it needed to be turned in for an IB portfolio at the end of the course.
4. The part of this that really resonated with me and made me happy was that there is subject matter included that is often seen as 'too adult' for students to care about. Students could be encouraged to talk about the hard issues that affected them personally in real life, and affected those they knew. If I tried to talk about issues like homophobia, women's rights, racism and police brutality, essentially anything political or that involved an 'adult theme'- including tasteful artistic nudity, I was discouraged from pursuing it for fear of scaring the administration. These "Big Ideas" can be extremely personally significant for students and to their lived experiences, and shutting them down when they try to speak up is not productive or ethical. It can communicate to the student that their experiences do not matter, and that speaking about them is inappropriate or somehow hurts the others. Anything that really makes an effort to question the 'known' quantities and especially the system of authority is an essential part of knowledge, and that is what makes the "Big Ideas" approach so interesting and important.

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1.) After reading the article on Personal Spaces, I feel the “Big Ideas” approach to teaching has a lot of strengths as well as a few weaknesses. The “Big Ideas” approach allows for students to use a high level of imagination as well as a way to take a thematic big idea and break it down further by investigating the historical and cultural context of art to other artists, artwork and materials. It gives students a chance to get out of their comfort zone and explore their ideas from a given topic. It opens up doors for students to try a unique material, a new technique and learn how to properly research past artists to better understand their own art making process. I feel that the “Big Ideas” approach can really help students to challenge themselves and get them to try new things but there are still a few weaknesses to this approach. Every student is different and each student grasps instructions differently. With this approach, I feel students may get overwhelmed with the amount of freedom given. They may feel lost on where to begin and unsure on how to execute their ideas. It allows for too many options and not enough room for students to learn the proper skills in a certain material. Also, with this approach there is a chance for students to lose interest quickly. They may not feel passionate about a certain topic making them feel unmotivated to explore their ideas.

2.) In my art education experience, I got a glimpse of the “Big Ideas” approach but it wasn’t executed very well by my teacher. My teacher Ms. Deatherage attempted to use big ideas for projects but she didn’t limit it to just one major theme. She would make us each draw a theme out of a hat and have us create a project based off of that theme. Then each week she would do a demo on a new material and have us practice that new skill in our project. The problem with Ms. Detherage’s approach was she didn’t allow us to take the theme and explore it deeper by doing our own research or by looking into other artists who created with similar materials or themes. We had to just create off of the information she gave us. All of her projects were subject centered and she didn’t allow for our own individuality to come out or for us to explore abstract ideas. And unfortunately, I didn’t feel that I learned enough about a certain material or theme. I always felt confused and frustrated with the assignments she created.

3.)  Although my art teacher didn’t execute the “Big Ideas” concept very well, I would still like to introduce this approach in my classroom. Knowing that this approach doesn’t work for all students, I still feel it is extremely impactful. I believe giving students the chance to develop their own unique idea from a given topic and allowing for their imagination to run wild is very important. If a teacher gives too strict of a topic, there is no room for curiosity or growth. Students grow by conducting their own research, trying out new materials and challenging themselves with a new theme. I feel the “Big Ideas” approach can work well for all ages, because it allows for students to explore new ideas and thoughts without having to stay inside the walls a teacher created for a specific project.

4.)   What resonated most with me was the concept of conducting your own background research through the process of a “Big Idea”. This idea was completely foreign to me in high school. I never knew how important it is to look at past artist, study the way different materials work and research new techniques. I am still disappointed in my high school art teacher for not allowing us to research before starting a project. It is crucial for students to understand how important it is to research and I hope to always give my students the proper skills to explore their ideas and teach them to value the power of research.

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1. The “Big Idea” approach is a smart and innovative way to help kids branch out an express themselves in a healthy environment. I believe this method is very strong in the fact that it gives students a new way to look at a project from different angles in order to create something original and different. This teaches kids to use different spaces and mediums (other than paint and a piece of paper) that they might have never thought to use before. Students are encouraged to research more materials and to interact with their peers more, which I believe forms important skills they can use in the community. Even though, this approach has many strengths, it is also weak. The approach might bring up themes that children do not agree with or will not want to participate in. It is hard to come up with one solution that will satisfy everyone.

2. My experience with art education was more subject centered. We were taught the basic elements used to draw and then given paper and paints to do our own thing. Even though we were given free reign to choose what we wanted to work on, we still had to show our knowledge of all of the elements we learned.

3. Throughout my education, we never tried the “Big Idea” approach. We never tested our ability to work in different spaces or focused on one specific theme. We just kind of did what we wanted. I believe the “Big Idea” approach is best for students, because this approach will help them develop their understanding of art better by pushing them out of their comfort zone.

4. When the article started talking about middle school lockers and how children decorated took me back to when I was in middle school. Everyone really did have a specific voice with decorating their lockers. I liked have colorful images and objects inside and others did not. I remember I had a purple, removable shelf and pink heart magnets along the walls. A locker truly is a space where a student can express themselves.

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The main strengths of the Big Idea approach to teaching is that is encourages students to think in a larger context about major themes and topics and apply them to their own experience. The Big Idea approach allows for students to make meaning and connect with topics and ideas through their own relationship which I feel pressures students to create their own ideals and sense of self. In contrast, the "Big Idea" approach focusses less on technical skills and physical experience and more on the abstract. I think that there must be a balance of both in art education that cultivates talents while also pushing students to think about their work in a bigger context.

2. In terms of my art education throughout public schooling I was taught in a more subject-centered way. Most of my art classes taught skills and referenced artists in a formal sense without giving much context to what their works mean or how to take big ideas from art. I took AP Art History in High School and had a professor who really changed my perspective on that by giving me a more socially-centered representation of art. She taught us about how art reflects big themes in society and we talked about pieces in context of their history and setting instead of in a vacuum. I wish that there had been more student-centered opportunities in terms of my art-education. Most public schooling classes taught the same assignment to every class and left little freedom for students to explore other mediums and create art in a non-traditional sense.

3. I believe that the big idea approach benefits students in helping them make meaning from visual and formal elements. I know that my college -level art history classes have helped me for example make meaning and connect big picture ideas in literature or film. I think that students need a balance of technical lessons, student-focused application and the big idea approach. While I believe strongly in the benefits and perspectives gained from a more abstract and relatable approach, it is not everything needed to support every students needs while fostering developing skills and talents. As well, the big idea approach needs to be adaptable enough to represent themes that exist throughout the world and not just western topics and ideas. It needs to represent new perspectives and be able to change with our shifting society.

I resonated with the idea of spaces becoming an extensions of one's individual self. The idea of making your own place of expression is one that is very important to me. The presence of spaces that support individuals that might not have those spaces elsewhere fosters progress in art. For example, DIY spaces in art or music that allow for marginalized individuals to flourish in a society that does not include them. These spaces allow for new perspectives and identities which I think is so important to foster.

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1.     A very important thing to remember about art education is the fact that what may work for some, may not work for all. With a concept like the “Big Idea” students are guided through the process of developing a personal idea to coincide with a given topic. Through this process they learn the importance and relevance of research, ideation and technique. Teaching young minds to think outside of the box is something that is most successful as a hands on experience, which is exactly what the “Big Idea” is. However, on the flip side, having too much of freedom when in regards to projects given to children and young adults hinders the control over the material being learned.

2.     I feel very fortunate to have had the art education that I did. I not only grew in my knowledge and technique but my overall self as well. This type of personal and artistic growth I feel was on achievable through a balance of both student and subject centered teaching. While each student needs different and individualized instruction and lessons to grow and develop, there will never be a time where the key elements, principles and techniques of art are not dire to creating a strong foundation for success.

3.     My art instruction consistently stressed the importance of research as well as developed personal content, those two factors being constant with that of the “Big Idea”.  I think that like all good things in life balance is needed to have the best end result. Being subject centered and having a set of key foundation points to strive to instill in your students I feel is an important driving force, but on the flip side that shouldn’t be all there is to your teaching. Meeting the needs of your students and growing and changing with them will allow them to gain more out of their time with you.

4.     What resonated the most with me in this article was the stressed importance of research for the “Big Idea”. I think that a lot of times people are fearful to teach from examples because they want students to develop ways of their own, not truly recognizing the power within researching artists, mediums, techniques and concepts.

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1) I feel like the main benefit to the Big Idea approach is the amount of free reign the students get to enjoy, which allows them to be able to make personal connections to their art and become more inspired and involved in the curriculum. However, I could see students taking advantage of that free reign and being lazy, or still just being uninterested, especially at the high school level.

2) Mostly my art education was subject-centered. In high school each assignment was based around an idea or concept, as well as in college within specialized studio art classes. In college, a lot of the professors did come around and talk with us individually, however.

3) I think that the Big Idea approach is definitely a viable option, especially today. It's something I'd like to try with my kids eventually. While it doesn't work for every student, I think that being able to establish personal significance and importance to each project and idea helps kids learn, especially in art. It does make me wish that my teachers and professors had incorporated it a little more into what we had been taught.

4) Admittedly what I liked the most was the authors' openness to different media, especially where they allowed students to make social media parody websites as part of their projects. I think that that's such a fun way to bring everyday relevancy into a lesson and make students care.

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1.) The main strength of this approach is exposing students to a type of Scientific Process made for art. They are not only taught ways to use certain mediums but are taught that research into other artists, their commentary on societal and contemporary issues, and using this to influence and inspire ones own art is also important. This Big Idea approach also teaches the value of connecting one's own personal identity and thoughts to abstract ideas ("personal spaces") and then applying this in an art form

A large weakness of this idea that I sensed from the beginning (that is also part of its strength) is its demand of students to think abstractly. The challenge is filled with good intention but if this approach is used by a teacher unable to help students comprehend these abstract ideas, the students will end up lost and their art may show this confusion (say, if this Big Idea was on something more complex than "personal spaces")

2.) My art education in high school was mainly subject and student centered (however it fell short of the mark in this). We were mainly given opportunities to improve our drawing accuracy and experiment with color theory (with little instruction on how to even paint). Most of these projects were paired with prompts about ourselves, encouraging self expression (but giving few artistic utilities to properly do so) A few projects were based off of design concepts from contemporary artists but this was the extent to which the instruction reached. There was little to no projects that required research into societal issues or the questioning of norms.

3.) The Big Idea approach would have helped give me a more rounded view of what the art world really consists of and how research and abstract/critical thinking can truly impact one's art. I was also subject to many open ended prompts which left me with few and weak ideas. I would definitely encourage the Big Idea approach over the approach my old art teacher's took in their curriculum. With narrower guidelines, creative ideas always flourish. And the Big Idea approach isn't too narrow to squash student inspiration.

4.) What resonated most in this article for me was the planned research assignments on artists involved in work similar to the project's Big Idea. It’s hard to reach one's full creative potential when one is left to their own devices and making research a requirement for the main project is highly beneficial in inspiring students with their own art. It wasn’t until I took my first college art class that researching and imitating other artist’s work was a requirement and it helped me discover new ways to express my ideas as well as show me new ways of thinking.

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1. Some strengths that I found in the "Big Idea" approach are that it helps students to connect and relate their ideas to a bigger concept. It also resonates better with them because they can relate these big ideas with their personal lives and experiences.
A weakness of the "Big Idea" approach is that since the ideas are very broad, it could confuse some students. And because they might not be able to grasp the concept, they will not be able to understand what to do for their art.

2. My AP studio art class and most of my art classes were mostly student-centered in that we were free to do whatever we wanted. But I had to do everything on my own and try to teach myself how to use the materials that we had, with little to no guidance. I feel like that made things more difficult for me especially because I wasn't taught by an actual teacher how to use the materials we were given.

3. My art education experience was similar to the "Big Idea" in that they gave us free-rein. However, I feel like using the "Big Idea" approach would be very useful and appropriate to use with high school students. It would give them a better sense of artistic concepts and help them to organize and relate their ideas better.

4. The part that resonated with me the most is that the students were given the opportunity to research different artists, with guidance. Had I been given the opportunity and guidance to research other artists, I would have grown a little more as an artist and been able to express myself using other mediums.

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1.)  For the "Big Idea" approach in this article, I found myself agreeing with what was being said. I think it's great that the teachers thought about the importance of having broad themes that are applicable to the students instead of going for themes that are overdone and too specific; it gives the students a chance to explore themselves and encourages them to research the world they live in. The weakness, however, is that the project is much too long and that even though the theme is broad, the specifications/rules for the theme seem too specific.  The students are required to make aluminum foil figures and paper furniture for the miniature 3-D tableaus, but what if the student wants to try a different technique or go more abstract? The kids could get more creative if there wasn't this many specifics in my opinion.  I also think that the students should work on this project for a semester at most instead of two years and just let the kids decide which one of three projects to do. It would be exciting to create even more themes to work from each semester instead of narrowing it down to one.  The "Big Ideas" project was made to be more creative after all.

2.)  I guess I could say that my own art education was subject centered.  When I was at home my mother tried to teach me the foundations as much as possible so that I could apply it to my own art, while I suppose my education in school was also subject centered but most of the time my teachers would just give us a prompt, sort of show us some examples and a demo, and then release us to do our own thing.  There was never anything "deep" and exploratory that we had to learn so everything I had to do to learn about student/society centered art is through books or online.

3.)  Well, I wish I had as impacting and inspiring experience in school like these kids seemed to have since they mentioned how each project taught them how to use "their mind and imaginations." I was also shown work from working artists, but their work was only something to be glanced at for references to be replicated, not to understand their philosophies and thoughts.  My experience feels much more narrow compared to the "Big Ideas" project but in a way I'm glad that I was given the liberty to have many different projects to work on instead of focusing on one theme for 2 years.  I think that students of a younger age should learn foundations and skills (possibly middle school) so they can use these techniques more towards junior high and high school, branch out the ideas and impacts that art can make and make specific conceptual themes.

4) The desire to express yourself and give better and more exciting themes really got me excited about this article, and I really related when they talked about how such broad themes like "power" or "truth" was so limiting. I remember being so frustrated when I was in school because I never understand what to do for the theme and how to "do my best" when there were too many directions to go. I understood both the teacher's and student's frustration.

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1. Some strengths I found to the "Big Idea" approach that was described is that it helps to expose students to artists that share similar ideas as they, and that the approach allows for students to freely express themselves under a broad idea. The approach also builds the student's ability of independent inquiry and research. However, a problem I do see about this approach is that the curriculum was taken over the course of two years. In this time it's very likely to perhaps see many students dropping for lack of interest, motivation, or simply moving schools.
2. My high school art education was leaning more so towards student centered, the exception being my Art 1 class. My classes afterwards, Art 2 and AP Studio Art, were more so student center, in which I had to do a lot of my own research, resource gathering, and made a lot of my own choices.
3. My experience is vaguely similar to that of the one from the reading. I was exposed to more "traditional" means of art education via sampling of different media. I think an art education that leans more so towards student centered is the best. What separates the arts from other forms of education is that there is a lot more freedom from structure and standardized testing, and I believe that freedom should be used in favor of allowing the students to pursue their own interests.
4. The part that reached out most to me is that the students were introduced to new media via the artists that they took interest in. I, too, was introduced to other media because of my research into other artists. I think that the practice of researching into other artists helps open up the possibilities of a medium can reach, and draw a lot of inspiration.

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1.  After reading Personal Spaces, I found strengths in the goals of the project to symbolize personal spaces important to students. Some time in curriculum, it doesn't allow student the personal touch that makes art so amazing. I would like to also add to the weakness of "Personal Spaces" is that it too limited which might limit the student creative. For example, by having one of the three project involving their locker is limiting their decision and forcing them to make a locker a place of meaning when the student might even use a locker.

2. My art education experience was mostly subject centered.
For my sculptures and ceramics class, we had curriculum to focus on a building a strong and cohesive art collection. This was very benefiting for student who need strong art profolio.

3. My experience compared to the Big Idea approach is that the Big Idea is still too structured. I believe in freedom for student to take the project in whatever way they want. No boundaries, no limit on creativity. But I will have guide lines and example for students who need that structure to help them spark their project idea. I think the best approach for student is a unrestricted and student centered curriculum as possible because it set the freedom to express themself and it is a fresh breath of air from students daily core classes with strict curriculum.

4. What resonated the most with me with the article was that one of the three Big Idea projects is a digital project. I was not show nor taught anything about digital art which is a very fun and exciting art form. And, in the digital age we live in now, it is important to teach skills to student with computers.

# data[].attributes.body
Please type your name at top and number your answers 1-4.

Prof. Murphy says...

1. After reading the Sakatoni and Pistolesi article on Personal Spaces, in your opinion, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the "Big Idea" approach in teaching art?

2. Describe your art education. Was it more subject centered? Student Centered? Or Society Centered?

3. How does your experience compare to the big idea approach that Sakatoni and Pistolesi are advocating? What approach do you think is best for students (of various ages) and why?

4. What resonated in this article with you? What connections did you make?