REFLECTION:

I approached Action research with my students’ interests and development at the forefront to support my students artistically and socially. Play and humor were aspects of the project that students and I both valued. I enjoyed the social aspects of working with students and enjoyed interviewing students to learn details about their studio practices and aesthetics while they were creating their art. I learned to develop a new curriculum and teach new artistic mediums in my project that students enjoyed and explored for the first time. As an avid reader, I enjoyed the process of using a literature review and targeted searches to learn more about the field of art education. This included reading Visual Culture resources, puppet education articles, filmmaking guides, studies on play and childhood including advocacy for play in schools, and foundational art education pedagogical theory. Applying what I learned in my reading to the classroom allowed me to experiment and grow as a teacher while supporting students’ artistic development. I enjoyed researching the history of both puppets and filmmaking as collaborative and narrative arts to teach their specific processes, aesthetics, and communication potentials. As a visual learner and art appreciator, I enjoyed that Action Research allowed me to look in depth at my students’ art which included a variety of puppets, sets, props, and puppet videos. Writing a thesis paper as a reflection on my students’ work in connection to the literature I read .