Olivia's+Journal

=**Chapter 1 - 2**=

I am not really big into video games and to this day have never beat a video game despite the hundreds of hours I played Super Mario Brothers 2. I will occasionally play older arcade games or racing games like Mario Cart. In high school I was really into Dance Dance Revolution and then when Guitar Hero came out I got into that one a little but I never really got into the Wii version of Just Dance. I really like games that are more interactive and kinetic.

My first interaction with video games was around 7th grade when my uncle gave me an original Nintendo with some games. The first game I played was Super Mario Brothers because I didn't have the gun for Duck Hunt. I really liked this game because the world was only two dimensional and easy for me to understand. When I got Super Mario Brothers 2, I liked it even better because I could go backwards in the two dimensional world. My cousin, who was a few years older than me, and I would play Super Mario Brothers 2 for hours. She was really good and knew all of the secrets and I would hardly ever complete a level without dying. Playing Mario was something we would always do together and I would hardly ever play it by myself. Besides Mario games the only other games I have really got into are Sims Roller-coaster Tycoon which was more about designing and maintaining an amusement park than building roller-coasters and Typing Tutor which is a program designed to teach typing with arcade games. I actually learned how to type better from playing the game.

When I first started playing video games in three dimensional worlds I became frustrated because I would get stuck in a corner and end up dying. I ended up just avoiding playing games in three dimensional worlds. So I usually would just watch other people play these video games. This week when I checked out the game Evolver, I was really proud that I didn't get stuck in a corner and could walk around and explore the game world. My finest moment was when the game said "Watch out behind you!" and I managed to turn around, switch weapons, and then shoot the robot guards that were headed towards me. I feel like this game did a great job of teaching me how to move around in this world and getting me caught up in the story. For the first time ever, I actually enjoyed playing a three dimensional video game. Unfortunately, it made me really, really, motion sick. My stomach is not a happy camper right now.

James Paul Gee's definition of literacy is the same as mine in terms of teaching because I am an art teacher. I am well aware of the importance of visual literacy and decided to take this class in hopes of getting inspiration of different ways to incorporate video games into my art curriculum and to become more fluent in the video game semiotic domain. Video games are a huge part of our culture and very popular with students. If I can make connections between the video game semiotic domain and the art semiotic domain, then I could probably get more students engaged in art in a school setting.

I can think of many different identities that I take on, especially now while I am in grad school. Some of the identities I have are: student, teacher, daughter, sister, girlfriend, rugby player, swimmer, runner, artist, roommate, dog owner, Oregonian, Coloradan, American, and woman. Some of these identities I was born into such as daughter, American, woman, and Coloradan. Other identities I had to enter the semiotic domain. I like to think of a semiotic domain as similar to a community of practice according to Mark K. Smith. A group of people who share in a passion for something and regularly do it to be better at it. A good example for this in my life was when I first started playing rugby. I had to learn the rules and social expectations of the sport. I eventually became very involved in the rugby community and even took a position on the team council as the head of fundraising. Currently I am trying to enter the teaching semiotic domain. Currently I feel like I am literate in teaching but not completely fluent in the domain. Some days are much more fluent than others but that is all part of learning. I feel like as I continue through life I am always entering new semiotic domains and making connections between domains that I am already fluent.

=Chapters 2 - 3=

In my teaching experience so far, I have found virtual and projective identities extremely important in art class. Art is a subject that many believe is a talent. I cannot tell you how many times people find out I am an artist and say something like, "Wow, that is amazing. I have always wished I was more creative. I couldn't draw anything to save my life." This is often the attitude students have as they enter an art class. When the fact of the matter is that this attitude and way of thinking is a complete misconception. Art can be taught just like any other skill and just requires practice. I like to think of teaching art like teaching a sport. Anyone can learn the basics of the game but it is the ones that practice that get really good at the game. And just like in sports, there are going to be prodigies every now and again but those people are rare. The same thing can be said about art. Anyone can learn the basic elements and principles but the ones that practice the most are the ones that are going to be really great artists.

As an art teacher, I feel like at least half of my student have a "damaged identity" when they enter my classroom. They have the opinion that art is a talent that one is born with not a skill that can be learned. In my experience I have found convincing students to accept the projected identity as an artist is half of the battle. If I can get students to buy into the project and believe that they are capable at succeeding then they will be more willing to practice and try new things. I have also found that it is important for students to feel that this projective identity is also a virtual identity where there will not be consequences if they make mistakes. Students need to feel safe to take risks in art because art is about exploring and developing understanding. I think students need to feel free to explore and safe from ridicule in order to make great art. Currently I am actually doing an Action Research Project on student motivation for creating art inside the classroom environment in order to further study how to motivate students to make art. I am finding it extremely interesting that many of the ideas from this class are overlapping with my research. It is very helpful.

I feel like everyday at school I use the probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and re-think cycle. As I mentioned my research is about student motivation and everyday I try to find new ways to motivate students. Everyday I get to know my students a little bit more and hypothesize ways to get them excited about art. I then re-probe by trying out my hypothesis and then based on my results re-think of ways to either better the lesson plan or ways to make similar lesson plans. I also use this learning technique to discover new classroom management techniques and new ways to break down different art techniques for students.

Art is an interesting subject when it comes to situated meanings because art is subjective to the viewer which means that as an artist it is important to be aware of the general cultural meanings of everything you do. For example the color pink culturally is viewed as feminine depending on the shade it can be associated with other cultural meanings. Right now neon pink is trendy and often worn by both males and females. On the other hand a light pink is often associated with babies or ballerinas. As an artist using pink, I need to be aware of the cultural meanings of pink and how that will effect how others view my artwork. There are also more art situated meanings when talking about the elements and principles of art. One example would be the principle of balance. In art it refers to visual balance and how the elements of the art are arrangement within the composition of the artwork. I feel like in order to be a good artist, one needs to be aware that situated meanings and cultural meanings exist and understand how to play with the meanings of things.

=**Chapters 4 - 5**=

This week I played On the Ground Reporter. It is my favorite game that I have played so far for this class. The game is played in the first person perspective with limited options for turning moving around in the environment which I appreciated as a beginner gamer. I also really liked the story line and being a journalist. I also really liked that in the first episode of the game, the city you are exploring is bombed and you get injured and have to seek medical help. The idea that anything could happen at any moment kept me on my toes.

In art class I like to use the just-in-time principle when teaching students to draw. I start off having students find the basic shapes and edges of what we are drawing and then make a contour line drawing. Once they have completed that step I introduce students to shading. By having students practice seeing the basic shapes and edges it give them the vocabulary they need to discuss how to apply shading.

In art class I will often have students practice in the sub domain of the real domain by giving students daily tasks to practice the new skills introduced. For example, currently I am introducing students to surrealism. I am going to have students create a drawing using surrealist ideas. In order to give students practice, they will need to come up with four different ideas for their drawing and create a thumbnail sketch for each idea. Then they will have to choose two of those ideas and further develop them. Finally students will choose one idea for their final drawing. By having students create thumbnail sketches they will have multiple opportunities to figure out how to create a drawing using surrealism.

I could help students transfer ideas in art through drawing and painting. Drawing is much more simple than painting because it does not involve color. I could help students transfer ideas they learned about creating sense of depth in their drawings to paintings by having students first make a drawing of what they want to paint and then have them trace it on the canvas. Students will then know where everything goes on the canvas and will have an idea of which parts need to be dark and which parts should be lighter. Students will then only need to figure out how to use color to get the same effects of shading and depth in their painting.

When I first started playing rugby I many of my cultural models were challenged. One of the first rules of rugby I learned was that you can only throw the back lateral or backwards. This idea did not make sense to me because the goal in rugby is to work your way down the field by moving forward to score in the tri zone. When I first started playing I had many knock-ons which is the penalty called when the ball is thrown forward. I had a hard time understanding why we would want to throw the ball backwards. Finally after playing for a while I realized that it made sense because your team is there to support you. If you throw the ball forward that teammate is less likely to have the support necessary to ruck the ball when there is a tackle.