ENG writting prompt 1

I am going into early childhood education, and working on a minor in visual art. Originally, I chose the visual art minor because I wanted to take drawing classes, photography classes, painting classes and feel justified. Choosing art as my minor has changed my entire perspective of how I interact with my students. In all truth, I would probably not start a writing workshop in my classroom. Early childhood is for children younger than third grade, and my ambition is to teach preschool. Most of the students I would be working with would be 3 and 4. They cannot recognize all of their letters and their attention span is short- really short. In my preschool classroom I would implement an art workshop for a few minutes each day. I would want it to be set up similar (almost identical) to the described writing workshop, but I think with 3-year-olds an art workshop would be more effective.
In High school I took a creative writing class. I learned so much about the game of writing and would consider it a writing workshop class. We meet for about two hours either 2 or 3 times a week, and we wrote. There were a few prompts and some teacher suggestions, but most of the time was spent writing. It was set up rather similar to the writing workshop described in the reading prompts. We could listen to our iPods, sit next to our friends, and each of us had our own notebook. I remember when students would share their work- I was always taken back. In the classroom there were obvious clicks (we were in High School). The emos sat in one corner; the rest of us sat on the other side of the classroom and divided ourselves into socially acceptable and socially rejected. We never did cross into another group’s zone, but I can remember reading our work out loud. It was the one safe time for us and them to share how different our lives were. They wrote things my imagination had never dreamed of. Their images were dripping with descriptions that my mind had never seen. Their words painted thoughts I had never believed were real. It changed my reality because writing became a competition, not a fight mind you, but a sophisticated game using language.
As a teacher my priority is to make my student brave. In my high school creative writing class we all wanted to share; even if we did not read in front of the class. I can remember watching students who I did not believe could care, holding their pencils so tight that their fingers turned white as they poured out all their thoughts into their notebook. We wrote in those notebooks because it was a time when we felt like what we had to say was important, even if we only said it to ourselves. I did not share my writings, because I was too afraid. No matter how proud of a poem or story I kept it safe in my notebook, and awed at the courage of the other students. I let me teacher read them though, and she gave me feedback. One time she told me that she enjoyed reading my notebook because it was like seeing into a map of my brain. I felt pretty sly after that, and I began to share my poems with the girl who sat next to me. When I am a teacher I want to emulate my English teacher. She helped me to be braver, to dare to believe in myself and what I had written. I want to help my students learn how to become brave.
The approach that I would want to use in my classroom would be to set up artistic time. Children are eager to express themselves, but they are still learning the tools of expression. Even when I work with 3-year-olds they want to express something beyond a pretty drawing. Art is different than writing, but I would use similar approaches. I think that the best time for an artist moment would be five to ten minutes after recess. That way the students would not be as fidgety, but it would give them enough time to calm themselves down. We could listen to music, watch a video, or read a story before I would allow them to gather up their art folders. In the classroom I would have different art supplies: markers, crayons, think paper, construction paper… I think that to keep it organized I would rotate the art supplies every other week. Then I would start drawing and use what I was creating to help them think of ideas. One day I could work on a collage, another day I could make an outline of myself. I think that by not directing what they should create I would get a better response from my students, but that if I demonstrate ways to use art and express they can learn. Even a child prodigy draws scribbles, and the purpose of doing the activity is not to make miniature Deviancies. I would have to ask them questions, lots of questions, about their art work. In the book the author suggested making a list of students and when they shared their work, and I would make a similar list- every day I would have two students show their favorite piece to the class and encourage the class to ask questions and comment on their art work.
I think that a workshop works well for other subject besides writing; I obviously want to use it for art. If I teach older students- even Kindergarteners I would implement a writing workshop because students who know how to use language as a tool of expression is life changing.