PIP Presentation

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Those were the
words I had painted over the archway of the entrance to my martial arts school
many years ago. We had a firm belief that everyone started as a white belt, even
the Grandmaster. And though my days in the martial arts are sadly over, my belief
in the growth and development of young minds is as strong as ever. Imagine my
surprise then, when I entered the Education program as an Art major, got out into
the field, and more than once was confronted with I suck at Art. I was shocked.
Kids this young cant have formed so strong an opinion already could they have?
It has been my observation that most of the children and adults who say
they have no skill in art are the product of 2 factors. First, someone has given them
negative feedback on their art. Art is a very personal thing, tied very much into the
self-esteem and confidence of the person, and at a young age, when the child is
unable to process criticism, this kind of feedback can be devastating. The second
factor is inexperience. Someone once said it takes ten thousand hours to master
something; can a child honestly say they have put ten thousand hours into art?
Certainly not.
That got me to thinking how could a child get to that ten-thousand-hour
mark quicker? They spend a lot of their time in school, but only a tiny portion of that
is devoted to art. From my experience in schools, there hasnt even been dedicated
art teachers, merely a teacher volunteered to do art, and a lot of time the product is
more craft than art. So how could art be integrated more into the childs lives? Was
there a way to mesh art with core curriculum subjects so that the children were still
getting the vital information they needed while also being able to practice art and
get that important time in?
Thats what I was determined to find out. I was very fortunate to work with
Mrs. Jana Boschee and the staff at St. Paul School. They were in the middle of a
transition, as a new Catholic school was being built, and they were unsure of the
numbers they would have in the following year. As a result, they had merged all of
the grade 3 and 4 classes into multi-age classes and were looking heavily into
project-based learning as a delivery system to target ages 7 to 10. That was the
final missing ingredient I needed for my idea. I had the pleasure of meeting with
these excellent teachers in July to plan out the curriculum for the year, and
everything began to fall into place.
One of the first projects they wanted to tackle was the creation of Identity
Day. This would be a chance for the students to showcase an aspect of their identity
to the entire class, while also learning more about themselves, the world they live
in, and where they and their family had come from. This was such a wonderful dovetail into my ideas. It couldnt have happened better if it had been planned. From
there, the ball began rolling with ideas on how to create opportunities for art and at
the same time cover the general learning outcomes of Social Studies, while proving
cross-curricular with English Language Arts and even a little bit of Math.

The projects began in two areas: the social studies component of selfdiscovery and identifying the areas of interest the students felt they best identified
with, and the art component of the students discovering new ways to render images
through drawing. At first, they seemed like they were very separate elements, and
in a way were compartmentalized to make it easier for the students to transition
into a new school year, but through dialogue with the students, they understood
that these separate lessons were both moving towards the same goal: Identity Day.
As the day itself came closer, the lessons grew together, until they blended
seamlessly into work time for the students to prepare their display boards for the
entire school to see.
Identity Day was a big success. The school loved it, we have a fantastic turn
out from parents, and even got coverage from the local paper and from A Public
Education, a documentary series about education in Alberta. Sadly, my interview
was cut from the final piece, but the kids work was the highlight of the piece, and
that shone through.
As we had already talked about the students heritage, transitioning into the
cultures, people and history of Alberta was a natural transition. It was this project
that I had really built my PIP around. Identity Day had been pre-established by the
other teachers at St. Pauls, and while it was a great fit, this project was where I
could really show off the students growth, and how I could use art in core
curriculum to give these students the practice they needed to feel confident in their
abilities.
The plan was simple: the kids love comic books, so as a class, they were
going to make a comic book out of the history of Alberta. That comic book is the
labour of love that I am presenting today. The students did the research on the
cultures they were drawing, on the events they drew the pictures and told the
story. I had to do a little clean up work to make everything photocopy-friendly, but
the work you see is the work the students put in, a project that spanned almost
three weeks. We started with short tutorials on anatomy and building threedimensional structures, then on panelling and telling a story without the use of
words. The students got to practice building their own stories, then transitioned into
the comic book by adding the lessons and reading about the history and heritage of
Alberta. Combined with their own research, and the students felt both eager and
confident going into this project.
Ill be very honest; I had no idea if this was going to work or not. I had
planned this activity before I had met a single student. I didnt know what they were
capable of, or whether they could rise to the challenge. It honestly kept me up a few
nights. Until we got started. Then, everything clicked. The sheer magic of it! The
unbridled enthusiasm of the students, the ability to see the progress the kids had
already made in such a short time. To say it was breath-taking is an
understatement. It was better than I expected. These kids needed two things:
someone to tell them they didnt suck, and the time to make it happen.
The next big project for the kids, the one they are still working on now, was
another smooth transition. From the history of Alberta to the regions and resources

of Alberta. Their current project is a mural that is going in the hall outside their
classroom. This is work by them, and I couldnt be more proud. The preliminary
sketches that came out of planning this mural were simply put; they were stunning.
I have with me today a video. This video showcases and highlights the work
the students have done over the last 15 weeks, and the progress that they have
made. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did putting it together. Being able
to go back, to walk through these visual memories is something I will cherish.
<Show video>
And now, I have brought a few of these amazing students with me so they can share
what they have learned, and to tell you themselves how far they have come.
<Let students talk>
Finally, if anyone has any questions, Id be happy to answer them.
<Answer questions>
Thank-you very much for your time, and I hope something in this presentation has
sparked an interest in you to infuse more art into your students lives, to give them
more time towards their ten thousand hours. Thank-you.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Author Unknown. Make Your Own Comics. Marvelkids.com. Publish date unknown. 4
Aug. 2015. http://www.marvelkids.com/create-your-own-comic
Basham, J., Perry, E., & Meyer, H. (2011). It's in the bag digital backpacks for
project-based learning. Learning and Leading with Technology. ISTE.
September/October 2011. 24-27.
Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the
Future. The Clearing House, 83: 39-43. doi: 10.1080/00098650903505415
Bradley-Levine, J., Berghoff, B., Seybold, J., Sever, R., Blackwell, S. & Smiley, A.
(2010). What teachers and administrators "need to know" about projectbased
learning implementation. Paper presented at Annual Meetings of the
American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO. April, 2010.
Retrieved
from http://www.bie.org/research/study/teachers_and_administrators_need_to_
know
Buck Institute website. http://bie.org/resources http://bie.org/for/teachers *PLEASE
NOTE* I understand this entry is not in proper MLA formatting, however the
amount of links I used just from these 2 web pages would fill pages
themselves, therefore I am including them as springboards.
Corley, Michael. How to Create a Comic Strip With Your Kids in 7 Easy Steps.
Mykidsadventures.com. 5 Aug 2013. 4 Aug 2015.
http://www.mykidsadventures.com/create-comic-strip-kids/
Couros, George. Their First Fifteen Minutes; Identity Day. Georgecorous.com. 25
June 2010. 17 July 2015. http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/791
Couros, George. Identity Day. Diigo.com. 27 July 2010. 17 July 2015.
https://www.diigo.com/list/gcouros/Identity-Day
Filippatou, D., Kaldi, S. (2010). The effectiveness of project-based learning on pupils
with learning difficulties regarding academic performance, group work, and
motivation. International Journal of Special Education. 25(1). 17-26.

Grant, M. (2002). Getting a grip on project-based learning. A Middle School

Computer Technologies Journal. 5(1). Winter 2002. Retrieved from:
http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2002/514/3.html
Hernandez-Ramos, P., De La Paz, S. (2009) Learning history in middle school by
designing multimedia in a project-based learning experience. Journal of
Research on Technology
in Education. ISTE. 42(2). 151-173.
Kessler, Sarah. 6 Free Sites for Creating Your Own Comics. Mashable.com. 24 Oct.
2010. 4 Aug 2015. http://mashable.com/2010/10/24/create-your-owncomics/#_CNN4AkkdPqa
Kilinc, A. (2010). Can project-based learning close the gap? Turkish student teachers
and proenvironmental behaviours. International Journal of Environmental &
Science Education. 5(4). October 2010. 495-509.
McArdle, Thaneeya. Mural Techniques. Art-is-fun.com. Publish date unknown. 17
Oct 2015. http://www.art-is-fun.com/mural-techniques/
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: [the Invisible Art]. New York:
HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.

McCloud, Scott. Making Comics. New York: HarperPerrenial, 2006. Print

Warner, A., Myers, B. (2008). Implementing inquiry-based teaching
methods. Department of Agricultural Education and Communication Florida
Cooperative Extension Service. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
University of Florida. AEC395.
Wejr, Chris. Identity Day: Pride in Who We Are. Chriswejr.com. 27 Apr 2015. 17 July
2015. http://chriswejr.com/2011/04/27/identity-day-pride-in-who-we-are/
Williams, Bernard. Techniques for Community Walls. Cpag.net. Publish Date
Unknown. 17 Oct 2015. http://www.cpag.net/guide/2/2_pages/2_1.htm