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“Woe is Me”: A Response to Life in Farmington During COVID-19 Isolation
Get PDFArtist Statement:
As an artist, I want to be flexible.
I’ve sat in front of this screen for about ten minutes, terrified to write a single word because an “artist’s statement” feels like something I’m not allowed to change. But as I change and grow, my art should change with me.
When I first began studying book arts, I did not think of myself as an artist. I thought of myself as a writer, and I did not think that the roles could be one and the same. I think I was drawn to book arts (and later printmaking) particularly because it was a form of art that combined visual design and text. Book arts felt like a “practical” art, because books are not just to be looked at, they are to be opened and read. I could use technical skills I learned in my Book Arts class to publish my own writing in just the way I want it, without going through anyone else. I was raised thinking of art as paintings or objects that were pretty, but book arts is the medium that showed me that art is more than that.
Now, I admire books for their multidisciplinarity as well as for the fact that they exist in multiples and require movement. The multiplicity of the book is something that also exists for prints. Both books and prints are made in editions. The artist creates more than one. This allows for greater access to the art/text/book, as more than one person can own the book or share it with their friends. The movement of the book is something unique to it. In order to experience the book, to see it or feel it, a person needs to open it. The book itself requires human interaction.
The three elements of my Honors project (an essay, my Wilson project, and an artist’s book) have been brought together due to the fact that in the time of this Coronavirus pandemic, human interaction is not possible. This led to me having to be flexible, and having to accept that what I meant to produce may not come to be. From the time my Honors project was conceived to the time it was completed, the project evolved from being product-based to process-based. This, I feel, was ingrained in the project from the beginning, but I just failed to see it. The texts I had written for Printing Farmington were all about process: taking words from other people and refining them and refining them until I got something new, and something strange. Taking after Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons, I created poetry focused on sound and word play rather than being narrative or lyric poetry. I started to experiment with my poetry, and that also led to experiment with the concept of a book.
But what even is a book?
A book, to me, is a container for information (whether that information is words, text, images, music, feelings, colors, anything) that is bound somehow (thinking of “binding” more loosely than with needle and thread) following or in context of or while thinking about the history of the book and book arts. This makes it difficult to think of the book outside of the codex form, which is the most common and generally “standard” book form. It is part of my wants as an artist to experiment with and stretch the book as a form.
It is hard for me to think of books as doing/being more than containers. If books do not contain, then they at least hold things. Books are things held together by a binding. But “binding” as a concept can be loose. Heck, I’m a person that left business card-sized WOE prints around a town and called it a book. What bound the prints together was the town.
Another link between the elements of my project is the town of Farmington. I chose not to leave Farmington when the Pandemic became serious and a stay at home order was released because my work on Printing Farmington was so ingrained in the town. Staying in Farmington led to the essay, A Change in Plans, as well as the artist’s book, WOE, which was quite literally bound in Farmington. But a concern of mine throughout my project was the accessibility of it. Taking people’s words and making it into experimental poetry, while poetry is already a medium people are intimidated by, made me afraid that the people it was made for (people who love and know Farmington) would have trouble with it. But the texts of Printing Farmington share with the poems in Tender Buttons two things that make them more accessible: they take the shape of prose (and are not lineated like most poetry) and they have humor in them. Just the writing of the poems themselves was what I imagined for the entire book: bringing together academia and the town, two separated things that exist in the same space.
As an artist, I want to be flexible.
My work this semester has taught me to be willing to change plans. My usual approach to my study and my work has been overturned by the COVID-19 pandemic. But before the university campus closed in March, I was already learning to be more flexible with myself. When making my technical examples of a pamphlet-style binding, I made sure I had enough paper for extras. This was beneficial, since I ended up needing to replace a marred book with a new one. I discovered how to cut Japanese paper with water and that I shouldn’t underestimate how long it takes to fold pages for a stab-bound book. The books I had meant to make as part of Printing Farmington have changed because of my loss of access to work space and materials. How I understand myself in relation to book arts now is that book arts, like all arts, reflect in them the lives of the people creating them. As I change, as the world around me and the place I’m living changes, my books will change and my concepts of what a book is could expand, too.
My art can change as I do. And with any kind of change in plans, it means the product may not be what I expected. But that’s alright. What’s most significant about my Honors project is what I learned and accomplished during the process of drafting each element. In writing the essay, I practiced discipline, writing two pages every day for five days. While working on Printing Farmington, I communicated, appropriated and experimented. In making WOE, I got out of my comfort zone while placing art around town and expanded my thinking about the book as a medium. All of these things are experiences I can take on in my future practice as a writer and artist
An Analysis of Teacher Certification Testing: How Maine Can Expand and Diversify Teacher Certification Requirements
Get PDFThis argumentative essay analyzes the effects that current teacher certification state testing requirements has on our education system. The primary test scores focus on Maine certification requirements. While research on the topic is fairly limited among Google Scholar, much of the data and surveys collected hold a diverse variety of subjects in both geographical and socioeconomic case study terms. Each study analyzes current practices within the last twenty years and how specific standardized testing affects aspiring educators and where they end up: private schools, charter schools, public schools, or choosing an alternative career pathway. The summary of this research dives into educational philosophies and best practices towards implementing a well-rounded and diverse accommodating certification track in which policy makers and school districts can use standardized testing data of each teacher applicant as just one way of assessing their competency in teacher readiness and content knowledge
Analysis of William Carlos Williams ”Blizzard”: Part 1, reading of poem
No full textTwo part multimedia project doing a close reading of William Carlos Williams poem “Blizzard”. Part one is a reading of the poem. Part two one consists of the author\u27s life and a close reading of his work
Analysis on Mending Wall: part 1, poetry reading and analysis
No full textA discussion on Robert Frost\u27s Mending Wall , I talk a lot about the meaning of the poem, as well as how this meaning still applies to people today.I also spend some time talking about Robert Frost himself as poet, and a little bit of his life. There are two parts: 1. the reading and analysis and 2. Thoughts about Mending Wall
Teaching and Supporting Authentic Math Experiences in Grades 6-12
Get PDFThis qualitative study was designed to understand the experiences of middle and high school
educators in teaching mathematics that is authentic and relevant to students’ lives. With many studies in the literature review confirming the importance and effectiveness of authentic opportunities in math learning, the study looked at what holds educators back from these teaching practices. In-depth interviews with five mathematics teachers of various levels of experience offered insights into processes, barriers, and support needed to develop students’ classical, critical, and community knowledge in mathematics. The study revealed a theory of the systemic shifts necessary for teaching authentic mathematics in grades 6-12
Co-existence between humans and nature: Heritage trees in China’s yangtze River region
No full textThe negative consequences of increased urbanization on native biological and cultural diversity have received considerable research attention. Biological and cultural diversity can be sustained by counteracting various processes of floristic homogenization and by reestablishing connections between humans and nature. However, effective instruments to help people reconnect with nature can be lacking, especially in cities. Green spaces provide cultural, aesthetic, and ecological services and can represent a critical component of native plant diversity in urban environments. We examined the species composition of heritage trees and the tangible and cultural values of these trees in 11 major cities in the Yangtze River basin of China. Our analysis explored the similarities of three arboreal types, namely heritage trees, urban greening components, and natural plant communities. Heritage tree species are diverse, containing 310 recorded species representing 159 genera and 64 families. Their tangible and cultural values are mainly medicinal (221 species), followed by timber (186), culture (134), traditional courtyard planting (131) and food (124). Notable geographical differences in heritage tree species composition identified in our analysis could be explained by cities adopting mostly species native to the locality or province. Heritage tree assemblages were similar in composition to undisturbed natural plant communities, and the two populations experienced comparable progressive decline with geographical distance. Urban greening components indicated negligible decline in similarity beyond the 1000 km threshold, indicating common sharing of exotic species across disparate locations. Heritage tree species associated with notable tangible and cultural values, superior genetic constitution, and adaptation to local growth conditions present suitable candidates for urban planting to improve tree performance and urban biodiversity. Their long history of association with local culture and rich cultural values can be enlisted to strengthen the connections of urban communities to nature and history, and to promote nature conservation within cities. Given increasing biological and biocultural homogenization, especially in urban areas, protecting heritage trees and using them in urban greening can slow this trend and enrich stocks of urban biodiversity
Biogeographic and anthropogenic factors shaping the distribution and species assemblage of heritage trees in China
No full textHeritage trees are recognized as elements of cultural landscapes and as keystone ecological entities in human-dominated landscapes, often bestowing high socio-cultural and ecological values. Current understanding of species distribution patterns and broad-scale species assemblages of heritage trees is limited. This study analyzed the diversity, distribution patterns, and origins of heritage trees and assessed the underlying factors contributing to their occurrence at the national scale in China. Data were drawn from published and online sources representing 561 regions across China. There were 1140 species including 105 endangered ones preserved as heritage trees. Heritage trees originated from four sources of species provenance: natural forest species 73.51 % of total species), native ruderal species (10.53 %), domesticated species (6.75 %) and exotic species (9.21 %). The origin of heritage trees differed across climatic zones. At the national and climatic zone scale, species similarity (Jaccard Index) among regions was low, constrained by geographic distance, climate (e.g., mean annual precipitation) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., population density). Mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, population density and GDP per capita were the main determinants of species provenance. Most heritage tree species serve tangible uses, especially domesticated and exotic species. Species assemblages of heritage trees were mainly associated with the local plant species pool, climate, socio-economic development status and human preference. As living heritage, the trees need dedicated protection measures based on their main tangible and cultural values for human, primary threats, and statutory protection degree at the species level. Regional culture, belief, and customary laws should be considered in formulating policies for protection and conservation of these trees
Critical Zone Science in the Anthropocene: Opportunities for biogeographic and ecological theory and praxis to drive earth science integration
No full textCritical Zone Science (CZS) represents a powerful confluence of research agendas, tools, and techniques for examining the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors located at the interface of the Earth’s surface and shallow subsurface. Earth’s Critical Zone houses and sustains terrestrial life, and its interacting subsystems drive macroecological patterns and processes at a variety of spatial scales. Despite the analytical power of CZS to understand and characterize complicated rate-dependent processes, CZS has done less to capture the effects of disturbance and anthropogenic influences on Critical Zone processes, although some Critical Zone Observatories focus on disturbance and regeneration. Methodological approaches from biogeography and ecology show promise for providing Critical Zone researchers with tools for incorporating the effects of ecological and anthropogenic disturbance into fine-grained studies of important Earth processes. Similarly, mechanistic insights from CZS can inform biogeographical and ecological interpretations of pattern and process that operate over extensive spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, we illustrate the potential for productive nexus opportunities between CZS, biogeography, and ecology through use of an integrated model of energy and mass flow through various subsystems of the Earth’s Critical Zone. As human-induced effects on biotic and abiotic components of global ecosystems accelerate in the Anthropocene, we argue that the long temporal and broad spatial scales traditionally studied in biogeography can be constructively combined with the quantifiable processes of energy and mass transfer through the Critical Zone to answer pressing questions about future trajectories of land cover change, post-disturbance recovery, climate change impacts, and urban hydrology and ecology
Baba Yaga: Evil Witch or Misunderstood Women Who Wants to be Alone?
Get PDFA short podcast discussing the good and bad of Baba Yag
A Study of How Changes to Fifth-Grade Classroom Structures Affect Students and Teachers
Get PDFThis quantitative study compared the impact of partnership departmentalization by content area of fifth-grade classrooms to traditional self-contained fifth grade classrooms. The direct impact of the structure shift on teacher morale and student achievement in the areas of mathematics and reading were examined. Findings indicated that for the majority of fifth-grade teachers, content specialization in a two-teacher partnership model appears to improve teacher morale. NWEA math scores showed an increase in students meeting projected growth, however overall achievement neither increased or decreased. Reading benchmark data from fall to winter was only available for students scoring below grade-level benchmark in the fall. Of those students there seems to be an upward trend of more students who scored below benchmark making bigger gains and fewer students falling further behind. A continuation of tracking this data over several years will lead to a more clear indication of improvement in student achievement in a two-teacher partnership content specialization model