10 Books to Include in Your Classroom – The Art of Education
September 30, 2022
BTS Arts Project on Student Identity – Community Quilts
October 27, 2022
Shannon Saltzsieder is a classroom teacher in the Canyons School District and a candidate for her Master of Arts in Teaching — Fine Arts at the University of Utah where she is a BTS fellow. These images and text explain a project made in collaboration with Kristen Benshoff, the BTS Arts educator in her school.
Our second grade class learned about character traits! We first began by creating an anchor chart as a class to describe physical character traits, as well as personality character traits. We took our new knowledge and practiced finding these character traits within the books we read in class that day.
Next, my students wrote about their own physical and personality traits. We took our writing sample down to the art room where we created personal portraits using what we wrote in class.
The students took their physical traits and drew them with guidance from Mrs. Benshoff, our art teacher. The class then lifted the flap to show inside their head, and wrote the personality traits they chose to describe themselves in their writing sample. I was in the art room with the students assisting during two art blocks to help students write their personality traits within the “inner flap” of their self portrait. We also tied our personality traits along with our school values of “CARES” which goes with creativity, assertiveness, resiliency, effort, and safety.
