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Spending time outdoors and maintaining an active lifestyle are core parts of who I am and plays a significant role in my wellbeing. I cherish watching rugby, going for walks and drinking coffees with my loved ones, as it brings us closer and creates shared moments of joy.

Being outside has a powerful, positive impact on my mental and emotional wellbeing. I have a deep spiritual connected to the sun and believe that vitamin D enhances mood and mental health. These values align with my aspiration to become a Physical Educational Teacher, where encouraging students to engage with the outdoors will be central to my teaching philosophy (Ewing, 2010).

This art activity demonstrated the transformative potential of the Arts in Education by allowing me to express personal meaning through natural materials found in my immediate environment (Wright, 2003). Through authentic arts integration, I connected curriculum, creativity and my own lived experiences, bringing together physical, emotional and cognitive learning. Despite limited resources the art process deepened my appreciation for nature, self expression and how the arts can meaningfully enrich educational experiences (Goldberg, 2017).

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Week 1 Natural Assemblage: Reference List

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Week 1 Natural Assemblage: Reference List

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Ewing, R. (2010). The arts and Australian education: Realising potential. Camberwell, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

Goldberg, M. (2017). Arts integration: Teaching subject matter through the arts in multicultural settings (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Wright, S. (2003). Children, meaning-making and the arts. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson.

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Week 2 Moving Recycled Artwork: Reflection

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Week 2 Moving Recycled Artwork: Reflection

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I explored the theme of environmental sustainability by focusing on the positive impact of recycling and reusing materials to create meaningful art. I repurposed leftover paper from thank-you gifts I had prepared for students during a practical placement. Rather than discard the scraps, I used them to create the stop motion artwork piece that symbolises the power of reusing resources. I arrange the cut-up paper into the shape of a hear, with the recycling symbol illustrated at the centre, visually representing how environmental care can emerge from compassion and creativity (Barton & Baguley, 2014).

This process reflects the transformative potential of the Arts in Education, particularly in how it allows students to engage in real-world issues through artistic expression. Authentic arts integration was evident as I embedded environmental education with the creative process, combining visual art, sustainability and digital storytelling through the stop motion video. As Goldberg (2017) notes, such integrated approaches support deeper learning by encouraging students to connect knowledge, values and emotion (Dinham, 2023). By using recycled materials to convey a sustainability message, the activity empowered me to reflect critically and creatively, demonstrating how the arts can foster social consciousness and promote responsible future-oriented thinking in education.

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Week 2 Moving Recycled Artwork: Reference List

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Week 2 Moving Recycled Artwork: Reference List

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Barton, G. M., & Baguley, M. (2014). Learning through story: A collaborative, multimodal arts approach. English Teaching: Practice & Critique (University of Waikato), 13(2), 93-112.

Dinhan, J. (2023). Delivering authentic arts education (5th ed.). Cengage.

Goldberg, M. (2017). Arts integration: Teaching subject matter through the arts in multicultural settings (5th ed.). Routledge.

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Listening to the music evoked a sense of clam and I found myself responding to the shifts in pitch, tone and dynamics with vivid imagery. I imagined snow-covered mountains, swirling winds and a landscape painted in blues, greys and blacks. The music inspired me to create artwork using both pencil and textured elements, reflecting the contrast between loud, prominent sections and the soft, gentle parts. The swirling lines represented the flowing rhythm, while sharp angular shapes captured the sudden changes in tempo and pitch.

This experience highlighted how arts learning encourages active engagement with sound, emotion and visual expression. Arts pedagogies such as guided listening, visual interpretation and curiosity-driven learning help foster creative thinking (Gazzaniga, 2008, as cited in Cornett, 2011, p.41). These approaches align strongly with socio-cultural and socio-constructivist learning theories, where knowledge is constructed through social, emotional and sensory experiences (Wright, 2003).

Creating art in response to music allowed me to reflect, interpret, and express personal understanding in a non-verbal, imaginative way. It also demonstrated how learning through the arts can build connections between inner thought and external representation, encouraging learners to construct knowledge through interaction with both media and cultural contexts (Ewing, 2010; Goldberg, 2017).

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Week 3 Painting the Music: Reference List

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Week 3 Painting the Music: Reference List

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Cornett, C. E. (2011). Creating meaning through literature and the arts: An integration resource for classroom teachers (4th ed.). Pearson.

Ewing, R. (2010). The arts and Australian education: Realising potential. Camberwell, Australia: Australian Council for Education Research (ACER)

Goldber, M. (2017). Arts integration: Teaching subject matter through the arts in multicultural settings (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Wright, S. (2003). Children, meaning-making and the arts. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson.