Visual Arts

Our Thoughts on Visual Arts:

My Arts Journey with Sketchfu (By Alysha Downham)

Thanks to Eleanor, I have been having fun with Sketchfu and have documented a clip of my arts journey. Have a look at http://sketchfu.com/drawing/4120821-my-arts-journey

After experimenting with this website, I can see how beneficial this could be to use in the classroom. In Education in the Arts, Sinclair mentions how important it is to give each student an opportunity to express themselves and achieve in other ways (Sinclair, Jeanneret & O'Toole 2009). Sketchfu would be very benefical for those students who have trouble expressing themselves through writing or speaking and gives them an opportunity to creativly express themselves (Sinclair et al., 2009).

Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O'Toole, J. (2009). Education in the Arts: Teaching and learning in the contemporary curriculum. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.

Tucker's addition:

Another GREAT resource for constructivist teaching ideas that link in with the Arts is Edward de Bono's book called Children Solve Problems (1972). It argues that we should give children problems to solve in order to build their creative/lateral thinking skills. The book is filled with wonderful visual representations of how children might stop a dog and cat from fighting; how to build a house quickly; invent a fun machine etc. After I first read this book a few years back, I asked my son to draw what a tickle looks like and here is his response: