What is First Nation's Art?

I picked up this colouring book from the Art Gallery last week and was a bit surprised by some of the images inside. I fondly remember one of the Aboriginal education support workers in our school, Chis Wilson, teaching us Haisla art at Nechako Elementary in Kitimat. The art that he taught us was used the ovoid and "u-shape" heavily and was similar to the style of the blue hummingbird on the front cover. Growing up I always thought of that as "real" First Nation's art. The style of the bear on the front cover is something I had seen before, but I wrote that off as basically a more modern version of First Nation's art, certainly the art I had been taught about as a child was more traditional and more authentic.

It was only when I flipped through this book and looked at the artist names beneath the pictures that I realized all the images were legitimate traditional First Nations art, but from different geographical regions and different cultures of people. In hindsight it seems so strange that I knew that First Nations cultures varied greatly across Canada, but never considered that the art would too.

It is funny to think of all the little ways that we can be ignorant. Here I was, all my life so proud that I knew a how to draw basic First Nation's art, and now I find out that I only know a very small amount of Coastal First Nation's art, and that there is so much other art throughout Canada that I was totally unaware of. 

Definitely a humbling experience and proof that teachers really have to be dedicated to being life long learners!

The Night I was Shot

Tonight I went to the Drama Club's Series of Theatrical Shorts. There were 5 performances, some more enjoyable than others. I don't want to ruin the night for any of you who may plan on going tomorrow, so I wont reveal the plot of any of the plays (except that one of the actors shot me with a toy gun... at which point I pretended to be dead in my seat for the rest of their play). I would however like to comment on how being in plays throughout my life has ruined some amateur theatre for me.

 Often during a play, instead of fully immersing myself in the experience I am constantly catching lines, or expressions, that seem fake and thinking about how I portray them differently. Overacting happens a lot in amateur theatre, and I'm not saying I don't do it sometimes too. It is usually pretty easy to spot though. A great way to avoid overacting is to have a good director. When we teach students to act we tell them to use expression and their body language, but teaching them to be subtle and to act naturally is important too. A great way to teach students to self-assess this is to play back video of them acting and ask them to think about what they were trying to convey. How might they be able to change the way they act to do a better job of it conveying certain emotions? Record a real conversation and compare it to one done from a script by the students. What is the difference? How can we make the scripted lines more real? This is something I would love to try with intermediate students.

Microscope Art

For the art show I had my students work on art that integrated with their science microscope unit. The first step was for them to draw what they saw when looking through the scopes. At this point I had students generate the criteria (though of course I had what I wanted in mind and led them to generate all the criteria I wanted them to have). After students had drawn their specimen in pencil we talked about point of view and I asked students to brainstorm what they would see if they were tiny, the size of their specimen. They then had to draw what they think they would see from their specimen's point of view around their specimen. The results were supposed to be similar to the edited photo below.

The art show itself was quite fun. It is not often that our class gets to hang out and work on projects like that, so set up was fun. Of course it was also great to see all the art that others had made and to have students visit the university to see their artwork.

Speech Arts

The poem to the right of this post, In Flanders Fields, has been recited many times today. This poem was part of one of my first exposures to speech arts. My teacher, Mrs. Watchorn, expressed frustration that the poem is often read poorly. By poorly, I mean that the way the poem is usually read does not often match the gravity of the subject matter or make sense when you really look at the punctuation. Based on tone alone, most students who read this poem aloud at Remembrance day assemblies may as well be reading Hickory Dickory Dock. When reading poems with students try to have them think critically about what they are reading. How would the author have been feeling when he wrote this? How, therefore, should I be reading it? Is this one idea together, or two separate ideas that should have a pause between them? One important aspect of speech arts is to read a poem, or other written work, so that you convey the intended meaning. One line that always bothers me is:

        "To you from failing hand we throw
         The torch; be yours to hold it high."

Most people reach the word "throw" and give a pause before saying the next line. Read those two lines again. Wouldn't it make more sense to read all the way to "The torch" then take a pause at the semicolon? (The answer is yes, yes it does make more sense) This link is to a document that shows several ways to divide the poem into parts for choral reading. Check out how they divide the lines up. Speech arts invites you to think critically not just about what you read, but how you read it!

(Photo credit: In Flanders Field )