Can’t wait for you to share your individual self-portraits and to explain the significance of your unique creations. We understand that many of you need time to complete your painting and we will discuss with you how to best provide the space and place. This picture is an example of how one elementary classroom chose to display their artistic representation of who they are as individuals and how they each bring a uniqueness to their community of learners.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please take some time to reflect on your experience at last Friday’s Self-Portrait Workshop. Write a thoughtful response to this posting that can be shared with Sarah Longman. We want her to know just how much we appreciate her taking the time to purchase materials, to plan the workshop, and to take time away from her very busy full-time consultant position. As you reflect, think about: What did you learn from this activity? How will you apply what you learned? How did this self-portrait activity help you in your ‘process of becoming’ a teacher? Why is this project significant to your learning? How do you see this activity making a difference for your students of the future?
We look forward to reading your responses and to sharing all responses with Sarah. Thanks!
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In regards to the self portrait presentation by Sarah Longman, I think that this is a wonderful idea that I can use and develop in my future classrooms.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this presentation was the incorporation of Saskatchewan Aboriginal story telling. Now I know that when I use this process (and follow the rules) that my lesson will be authentic and not superficial.
Sarah had mentioned that developing this project would take a long time in our classroom. I just wish that the presentation was longer so that the importance was placed on the background information and the project itself. I felt like we were really rushed which took away from the portraits.
Thank you for sharing Sarah!
I enjoyed the presentation on Selt Portraits as it is a great way to get to know your students. It also really made me think about what was important to me and what my self portrait would look like.
I also enjoyed learning how this topic could be integrated in various subject matters such as math, science, etc.
I think the best part of the self portrait would be listening to the reasoning behind each self portrait, as each student will have their own story to tell. I say that beause when you first look at them it is not what most people would consider as a “Self Portrait”… it is more.
The self-portrait workshop by Sarah Longman certainly opened my eyes to effectively weaving MY understandings of education into the threads of the already existing First Nation’s culture. I’ve traditionally seen it the other way around. I experienced roadblocks of trying to implement First Nation culture into my “white” lesson plans, but the concepts always seem to come out as a separate identity, held up on a pedestial; this tokenism just never seems right. Sarah’s simplistic views blend different cultures of equal importance to easily connect “white” terms to the 1st Nation understanding of symbols and communication. The project of creating a self-portrait over a period of several months made so much sense to teach the traits of writing, math, social studies, etc. through the symbols and communications of First Nation’s people. Of course, not all my questions are answered as to how I go about learning First Nation culture inside my very white world; but then again, isn’t the basis for every educator to question, question, and question again?
Overall, I really liked the presentation that Sarah Longman gave in regards to creating self portraits. The only thing that I would change in the future is to have a little more time to paint the actual portraits however, I did find the lecture portion of the presentation very informative especially the discussion on how there are many different forms of literacy and not just reading written words. I will definitely be using this activity in my classroom to not only get to know my students and what’s important in their lives but also to provide for them an on going project that possesses realistic and accurate Aboriginal content.
I found this workshop particularly exciting:
In my pre-intern classroom, my students were beginning this exact same identity project. My co-op briefly explained to me the project after they had gone to see the Bob Boyer Exhibit at the Mackenzie Art Gallery. However, this workshop really made me see the depth behind the process that the students were working on. I am excited to share my identity portrait with them, and I now have a deeper understanding of what their portraits mean.
From the bottom of my heart, this workshop (and presentation) was so amazing. At the risk of being too critical, we spend a lot of time talking about First Nations integration, but not so much actually doing it. For this reason (and many others) this workshop was what we needed –and I look forward to learning more.
Thank you, Sarah!
The task of creating this “self-portrait” posed a unique challenge as it forced me to reconsider my understanding of literacy. While I had previously been exposed to ideas that have expanded what I consider literacies, this workshop stretched me to find value in a wider range of literacies than I would have previously made use of in the classroom. As a teacher that will strive to be relevant to the students I teach, I believe that it is my responsibility to ensure that students are able to communicate stories and represent their ideas in ways that have personal meaning. The most powerful aspect of this workshop was seeing the simplicity of design in my own self-portrait, yet knowing the intricacies of shape and colour which could tell many stories about who I am. I believe there is much merit in doing this activity with students regardless of their cultural background. While being particularly relevant to Aboriginal students and traditional ways of knowing and sharing information, all students have so much to gain from this learning experience. As this art is combined with personal reflection, writing, sharing of stories, and identity formation, our students are provided with opportunities to more authentically engage with each unique member within their community of learners.
First off, I would like to say that it was wonderful to see Sarah again. Our section was lucky enough to get a special session with Sarah last semester, and not only did she impress our section with her knowledge, I think that we can all admit we were touched by her passion and genuine interest in education.
In regards to her session on Friday, I felt that she gave some insight to a very worthwhile and important aspect of education that unfortunately, sometimes goes unnoticed. I felt that the self portrait project was very innovative and worthwhile for every single person, no matter their culture, race or sex, to explore in depth. However, I feel that our class was not given the opportunity to fully develop our thoughts and ideas, which may have hindered our experience. For next time, I would suggest Sarah use the whole time she is given, and then the class could have the weekend to explore their ideas and do the actual painting in the EPS class whenever that may be. I just felt that what Sarah had to say was VERY important, and really wanted some extra time to think about my self portrait.
So, thank you Sarah for your wonderful presentation. You raised some very interesting points, and really made me begin thinking about equity and it’s true meaning!
Sincerely,
Jill
First of all, thankyou Sarah for sharing this workshop with us.
The thing that I enjoyed most was the explaination of the various types of literacy. I had never thought of there being much more literacy than reading, writing and other ones that are subject areas. I very much enjoyed how symbols are a type of literacy.
One thing I would suggest for improvement would be more time to acutally paint and work on our portraits.
Overall, I enjoyed how personable Sarah was and how she shared her stories with us.
This workshop was a GREAT idea! It’s exciting as emerging teachers to recieve this kind of knowledge and experience, as I know many of us have concerns with our lesson plans and our teachings being culturally responsive. Sarah Longman did a fantastic job of helping us to discover this form of literacy and story-telling. It opens your eyes to so much!
My only concern about the workshop was that we seemed to run out of time at the end. There certainly was alot of talking by the presenter during the workshop but I can’t think of anything that Sarah spoke of that wasn’t valuable to hear. Overall, this workshop was a big eye opener for me- a huge “a-ha” moment! The experience gave me confidence in finding ways to make learning relevant for students so that they can enjoy coming to school and feel respected and welcome.
Thank you Sarah! I would love to use this in a classroom!
I loved the Self Portrait session on Friday. I thought it was neat how all subject areas can be included doing this project. What I loved is the Aboriginal content. I’m struggling with knowing what is Aboriginal content and any ideas at all to help me with this is very appreciated. I really wish we would have had more time to actually paint our portrait, but other than that it was great. Thanks!!
I thought the “Self Portrait” was awesome. I think that we are all constantly wondering who we are as people as well as educators and this workshop allowed us to explore both areas and find out what is important to us and how we are shaped and molded into the people we are today. I could not help but think about how awesome this would be to do at the beginning of your school year with a new class to get to know your learners and who they are as students but also as kids. Sometimes we are so caught up in teaching the curriculum and making sure they know what they need to know that we do not have time to truly get to know our students outside the classroom. I think this is a great activity to do with your students as you can incorporate so many subject areas into it as well as get to the heart and soul of the students. I also think it would be neat to do it again at the end of the year to see if students believe they have changed or if their self portraits have been altered at all. I loved this workshop and the only thing that I would have changed in order to better it would be to have had more time at the end of paint. Sarah, you did an amazing job and it was a fun activity but also a thought provoking one!
In regards to Sarah Longman’s presentation:
This idea was certainly original. What I saw as being great in this presentation was the chance for the students to really take ownership of their work– it definitely served as a different way for them to express their own self identity, which I can appreciate.
I think that for myself, the disconnect during this activity came in the very specific expectations set out for each self portrait. For example, for many F.N. children, a circular design on their self portrait would far better represent their self identity (unlike the Dakota or Lakota, many Cree and Sioux prefer round shapes, both historically and presently). I understand why she chose to be so specific (to educate the students on the DNL peoples), but I think that the self portrait should have been more student directed, and less specific.
Overall however, I thought that this was a neat idea. It definitely has potential to work great in any classroom, and I think that the students would like it irregardless of my own personal qualms. Thanks very much Sarah, it was another great presentation.
I thought that the self-portrait workshop was rewarding in many ways. I enjoyed making my own portrait and I’m excited to do this in my own classroom. This type of activity would benefit the students and help form community within the classroom. Sarah did a great job showing us how to go through the process correctly. Listening to Sarah’s stories about this lesson in a real classroom made the idea seem like something that every students would enjoy and that it is a great way for teachers to really know their students. Overall the presentation was great and designing and painting my own self-portrait will be very useful. I could use it in my teaching career as a way to introduce myself to a new class. Thanks for the great presentation Sarah.
Sarah,
Your passion is evident regarding equity and our westernized curriculum. You shared some of your personal journey on how you questioned yourself as a professional, specifically with how to integrate Aboriginal content and perspectives without the idea of it being an ‘add-on.’ Furthermore, you pushed me to really value literacy as something that goes beyond reading and math to something that encompasses people’s identity–something more holistic and multi-disciplinary. I appreciated how you used self-portraits to share your identity as a person/professional and how everyone within our schools and even our communities can do the same in a learning piece like this. This will definitely be a future learning experience, which will bring a strong element of respect and community for all of my future learners.
Thank-you so much!
I really enjoyed the Self Portrait presentation on Friday. Sarah showed me that you can incorporate Aboriginal content into all subject areas in a natural way. I also appreciated how Sarah showed various ways that the self portraits could be adapted for different age or ability levels. I found the self portraits to be a personal and empowering project that I would be able to use in the future, no matter what grade level I end up teaching. Sarah, thank you so much for sharing with us!
I really enjoyed the self-portrait presentation on Friday. I though that Sarah presented us with awesome information and a great way to incorporate Aboriginal content into our classrooms. I liked how the Aboriginal content was explained to us so that we could understand why we painted our portraits the way we did. I think that this is a great project to do with the students and I can not wait to try it in my classroom. Thanks!
I really enjoyed the presentation by Sarah. I wish that it would have been done by sections and we had more time to go through the entire process. The self portraits information will be extremely valuable in my future teaching. I think this activity is really empowering to students and teachers. They become more self aware and more aware of their peers. They value and appreciate differences within each of the portraits.
I really enjoyed this workshop as it helped me understand a different way to teach literacy to children. I find that self portraits can be used in different subject areas as well. It has many lessons contained within in it that are important for students to learn. I think that students would really like self portraits as it is away to tell their story. I am interested to see the kinds of symbols that students will come up with to tell their stories. I think that it is important for teachers to teach in other ways then the traditional way. The classrooms that we will be teaching in have a variety of different learners, and I feel that it is important to teach them in a way that interests them. I can not wait to try self portraits in my classroom. Thanks Sarah for coming and sharing your ideas with us.
I thought that the idea of creating self portraits was a very good idea! I had never imagined that an idea as simple as that would turn out so good and be so meaningful in the end. I think that after completing this project in a classroom each student would feel empowered in some way with his/her end result. This idea will definately stick with me as I continue on with my teaching career. I also really enjoyed listening to all the stories Sarah shared with us. I found each story powerful in it’s own way and I know a few of them will stick with me for a long time. I am excited to take her ideas and to use them in my class! Thank-you for taking your time and sharing your ideas with us Sarah!
I really enjoyed Sarah’s presentation. She is a very good speaker and I like listening to her stories and experiences. Making my self-portrait was very meaningful and I will use it with my students. The self-portrait is great to learn interesting information about your learners and for building your classroom community. It would have been nice to have a little more time to make my self-portrait but other than that I learnt a lot and I enjoyed Sarah’s passion in connecting with her students.
I thought that Sarah’s presentation was fantastic! I am looking at teaching in a community school for my internship which will have a large population of first nations students. This presentation has given me some great ideas and knowledge if I were to be placed in a classroom such as the one Sarah used to teach in when she developed the idea of the self-portrait. It was too bad that everything was so rushed and we didn’t have time to finish our own self-portrait. But, I do look forward to hopefully using a similar idea within my own classroom!
I really enjoyed the self-portrait workshop by Sarah Longman. This is a wonderful idea for getting to know your students and creating a community within the classroom. I have learnt new ways to teach literacy to students and a great way to show students how all of the classes they take can relate to eachother and to their own lives. I wish we would have had more time to listen to Sarah, her presentation was amazing and she has so much more to share. I cannot wait to share our self portraits in class!
I found this presentation extremely helpful in both my growth as a teacher and as a citizen of Saskatchewan. I think that it is extremely important to incorperate First Nations world views into the required curriculum content. As a non- First Nations teacher I was somewhat puzzled as to how I was going to do this. Using the information that Sarah provided us with makes me feel mush more comfortable.
I also really enjoyed creating my own self portrait. I feel that because I experienced the creative process first hand I will be better prepared to engage my students in this activity. This activity can open the doors to different perspectives and personalities. I really like how the art style is that of a Dakota perspective because it shows students a whole different style of art work. I find that using the same style with students will give them a respect and understanding of a culture that they may not have experienced before.
I think that this activity is extremely flexible in that you could also do a self portrait under the guidlines of another art style. Using the same criteria students could examine the differences and similarities to better understand the differing nations.
Overall I really enjoyed this presentation and will definetly be using this in my classrooms in the future.
Sarah did a great job presenting to us about self-portraits. I found it interesting how hard it was to think about the five most important things in my life. I don’t think a lot of people really take the time to evaluate what is really most important to them. It is crucial for us, as beginning teachers, to really understand what our belief and value systems include. We need to have a solid belief foundation in order to show and teach our students what is really important. We discussed in class last week how hard it is to be an expert on every piece of subject matter. What is important is to understand what means the most to us and focus on being an expert in fields of study that we feel passionate about. Obviously we cannot be perfect but we need to try our best to pass our passions onto our students!
I really enjoyed Sarah’s presentation. It had connections to so many different subjects and was a great example of how to use a project within a classroom across such a large range of areas. Sarah’s a very engaging speaker and her ideas are very practical. It was very useful to listen to someone who actually understood a different form of literacy speak about it. Well worth attending this session!
So far during our pre-internship year, we have been able to participate in a wide variety of professional development opportunities. All of these presentations bring a certain element to the table that helps us to expand our growth as educators. However, not very often does a presentation come along that truly engages and inspires me. Sarah did a sensational job at giving us a a new perspective on literacy. At the same time, she provided us with tools that will enable us to create better connections within our classrooms. Sure curriculum is important, but in the end we are human beings first, and we owe it to our students to be real. Thank you Sarah for opening my eyes to a new view of the world.
Jeff Moser
I really enjoyed the session on “Self Portraits”. I found it quite interesting how this one project could be included in so many subject areas. It must have been quite amazing for Sarah to xperience such success with this project. I really enjoyed being able to express who I am and what influences my life through a different medium. Thanks for the opportunity!
I really enjoyed this session! It seems like I am constantly looking for new ideas and activities that allow me to incorporate Aboriginal and Metis content into my lessons.
This activity not only forced me to think about who i am as a person, but also the things in my life that make me that way. I also I liked how we had to use abstract images with straight lines to represent these things.
This is a lesson that I will most definitely do in the future.
Thanks Sarah!
Last Friday’s presentation by Sarah was a breath of fresh air. So often we talk about integration of subject matter, concepts, and culture, we even try to teach this way, but rarely do we ourselves get to be participants in these rich learning experiences. Our stories are a powerful part of who we are. Often I am hesitant and shy to share my story, so it was refreshing to have the time to think and be reminded of my story, of who I was, who I am, who I will be.
I am excited about the ways I can use oral and visual literacy in my classroom, for the potential for meaningful relationships and conversations to emerge and grow through an activity such as this. Sarah did a great job. Her presentation broadened my horizons and challenged many of my ideas about literacy in the classroom.
Thanks again,
Stephanie Hodgins
I really enjoyed the self portrait workshop Sarah did with us. The activity was something that I could see myself using in the future in my own classroom. I enjoyed the fact that we were forced to think about ourselves and the most important things in our lives. It was difficult to think of the things that matter the most to me and then to transform them into a work of art. In the end, I was very satisfied with my final product and I know that when I look at it it will remind me of the things that matter the most to me. I can only imagine how powerful it would be to do this project with an entire classroom and display their portraits for the rest of the school to see.
The painting part of the session I found hard becasue you really have to reflect on who you are and I am still trying to figure this out. With that I believe that the painting helps students think reflectively and make deeper understands of ones self.The portrait activity got you to explore and reflect on who you are and how you can portray that through art, which is just another way to learn and think critically and reflect.
This experience is something I wish I has done when I was in school because it really helps you reflect on what is important to you and how do you express this importance.
The session really spoke to me and made me think how students need to tell their stories in a way that helps them really reflect and feel safe sharing. This activity allows students to trust and express who they are to themselves and others.
It was great to have another session with Sarah. That is twice now that she was able to show how simple it is to add not only aboriginal culture but all cultures into the classroom. I found the discussion Sarah led this time to be engaging and informative.
When we started to develop our self portraits I had to really think about who I was and how I could represent myself with geometric shapes. The process was rushed because of time constraints, but I can see how it would be worked through during a good part of a school year. The process is important and it should not be rushed if students are to get everything out to the experience. I feel we were rushed and that is why I feel I did not get as much out of the project as I would have liked. But, I can definitely envision how this project would develop in a classroom. I particularly disliked the painting part because I could not get the picture to turn out how I envisioned the final product, but that too may be because of time. I think that students should have the opportunity to use whatever medium they want because what they choose for a medium would be part of who they are. Overall for me it was a fabulous experience up to the painting part and it will be something that I hope to allow my future students to experience.
Darin
I liked the simplicity and the structure of the self-portraits project. I liked the way Sarah Longman weaved Dakota Culture into ELA and Arts Ed. I specifically liked the way Sarah encouraged us to become critical of multiple forms of literacy. As we brainstormed different media with which to create our portraits, I thought about taking the design process outside, creating with nature, making our product ephemeral.
This project lent itself well to students with exceptionalities because the directions were clear and the process followed a consistent format. I liked the idea that we are more than the sum of our parts, a theme that was evident as the students led the hanging of their self-portraits, giving meaning to each piece and to the collective as well. The process allowed the students to feel ownership. However, I hope that the Arts Education teachers in all of us will understand the need for an extension to this project, as well.
Basic visual art skills were reinforced through this project. Skill development is necessary, yet so is the need for open-ended assignments so students learn to develop their own styles and methods. An extension to the self-portrait project could easily be introduced at the end of the mini-unit offering students chances for deeper engagement.
Being offered the theme of self-portrait, I immediately understood how and why, I wanted to represent myself. However, I had to narrow my vision into five areas, and then I had to narrow it again by making my ideas fit a two-dimensional concept, forcing a broad vision into a prefabricated mold of symmetry, giving it hard lines, justification. Consequently, although the product had a link to me, it did not have the spiritual and emotional ties that would have made the artwork uniquely my own.
I believe in the critical and fluid ideas of self-portrait/identity representation as a part of ELA and Arts Ed. Had I been invited, after exploring Dakota Culture, to explore my own culture and given few restrictions on the process and on the product, I might have been able to create a truer self-portrait.
I enjoyed the self portrait workshop that Sarah did with us. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on who I am as a person, and my beliefs about teaching. I was intrigued at how you can integrate this activity into many different subject areas and disciplines. I hope that I will be able to learn more about how to integrate more Aboriginal content into my classroom, and it is important for me to learn as much as possible about teaching for different cultures. Overall, a good seminar.