Throughout the last two weeks, the students at ACH participated in multiple activities such as painting, drawing with oil pastels, and even bracelet making. However, one activity that stuck with me more than any other was called Storming Clouds and was based on the psychology of art therapy. The Storming Clouds activity consisted of the students writing down anything that caused them to feel negative emotions on a piece of paper, then destroying that paper to turn it into a cloud, and then finally, attaching rain drops where they wrote down feelings that would emerge after they let go of this negativity. Overall, the purpose of this activity was to provide a method for the students to release negative emotions through a creative outlet.
When I first participated in this activity, I thought there was no way I could use this in my future high school classroom. However, on reflection, I realized I could implement the Storming Clouds activity perfectly into the classroom and even lessons. High school is a confusing and stressful time: students’ lives are filled with unanswered questions, insecurities, and drama. Often students don’t necessarily know how to handle all this, and as a result, they become even more overwhelmed in one way or another. This was why I believe the Storming Clouds activity would be perfect for a high school environment. First, it allows the students to release some of their negative emotions. But additionally, it could be connected to various lessons within the class. For example, it could be the introduction activity for instructing poetry, for poetry is often seen as an emotional outlet for the author.
My goal when educating is to have my students not just remember the information but understand why it is significant, and the best way of doing this is through connecting it to their own lives. When I am teaching someone even now, I always encourage the individual to combine their assignment with their interests, experiences, or life goals because it is so much easier to write or learn about something you actually feel dedicated towards. The assignment changes from the students only doing it for a grade, to doing the assignment in order to further their knowledge, because it’s fun, or my personal favorite, because they want to.
Building Bridges 