Identifying Yourself

Understanding your self-identity and thereby self-value is probably the most important and significant step in maturity. Being comfortable with who you are begins by understanding who you are. You are not: your parents, your friends, your teachers, your religion, your career, your looks, your wealth/poverty, your fashion, your education, or your culture (to name a few). These things influence who you are but they are not what make you - YOU. I believe you are more a product of the choices you make then your external influences. Your decisions are the only things you truly have any control over. Once you come to that conclusion is when I think you can identify yourself. I believe as teachers we need to help students to that realization. We all have different circumstances to overcome. Some may seem to have it easier than others but that is not within our control and so should be set aside. What we do with those challenges we are given is how determine who we are.

Collaborative Art Project

We started a project last semester that I thought was a great idea for a collaborative project. The students would be given a topic to base their project around. Once that was decided the students would create an image on cardboard that explored that topic and how it represented themselves. The cardboard images were painted and cut-out. Next all of them were arranged and attached as a single installation piece. the pieces would overlap and fit together. I think it helps the students see themselves as pieces to a puzzle and how each piece can bring it's own unique impact to the work. The idea that they are all made of the same material reinforces the similarity that we all have as well as helping to unify the work.

James Van Der Zee