|
|
Waldo Peirce |
Social Studies Lesson
Teacher Reflections by Val Vassar
Reflection 1
I settled upon the idea of painting the background of a type of industry done in a Maine county because I was working with the art teacher and had attended the students’ art class where I had seen their project related to Woodmen in the Woods of Maine. I knew that the students were working on their own mural designs, and that they were creating space using foreground, middle ground, and background. Even though the idea of using tempera paint brought chills to my spine, I realized that students had enough knowledge to create great murals depicting the middle ground and background of their industries. Given that most of my students are extroverts and aspire to stardom, it was easy to picture them posing in front of their murals.
Reflection 2
A difficult part of the project was helping the students identify and research the industries in the Maine counties. I did a Google search for each county, and found that real estate websites have lots of information about jobs and industries. For Penobscot County, I made sure that the work of the Penobscot Indians was featured so that students would study the work of contemporary Wabanaki people, as part of Maine law LD291 requiring the teaching of Maine Native Studies at each grade level.
Reflection 3
One interesting and funny part of the project for me was how students used their background knowledge to create their murals. Riverton School has a very culturally diverse population. You may notice that bits and pieces of my students’ cultures appear in the murals. For example, notice how the houses of the Penobscot Indians resemble traditional Cambodian houses.
Reflection 4
Looking back, I could not have predicted how much students actually learned from this mural project before I had started it. In order to create accurate backgrounds for their photomurals, students had to do a lot of research about the jobs they were depicting. Students had to look at videos, research jobs on the Internet, and read books and encyclopedias. All students had clear visions about how to create their photomurals, and everyone worked together—students, parents, and teachers—to realize those visions. Parents came to the rescue with clothing, wooden spoons, buckets, fabric, and even holiday berries spray-painted blue. My students learned so much through the creation and sharing of their murals that I will do this project again with each class that is learning about Maine. Students were highly invested in the creation of their murals as well as the photomural concept. Delight in the project’s outcome from parent, student, and teacher perspective was immeasurable.