A collaborative mural will be displayed next week at Animas Valley Mall highlighting student work from Kirtland Elementary School and Ojo Amarillo Elementary School that blends art based expression with SEL and academic goals.
The project was led by Aerial Liese, gifted and enrichment teacher, who said students used research, reflection and hands on work to transform their personal dreams into art.
Those dreams and aspirations include health care, the fine arts, literature, traveling and NASCAR racing.
The initiative sought to:
“The mural was launched to integrate curriculum with self-regulation, self-expression, student strengths, and cultural identity, using the Scholar Identity Model as the guiding framework,” Liese said.
According to Liese, the Scholar Identity Model is a K – 12 framework developed by Ken Whiting that takes classroom activities and connects artmaking to social-emotional and academic development.
SIM informed the project through many ways including self efficacy, future orientation and self awareness.
Students completed interest inventories and tried new, hands-on activities such as baking, quilting and crocheting to discover strengths and skills they could incorporate into their mural contributions.
Goals were also sketched and statements were described in the steps students will take to reach those aspirations.
“The mural episodes became visual representations of those imagined futures, reinforcing planning and aspiration,” said Liese.
Teachers were also embedding problem solving scenarios and reflection tasks that helped students identify controllable actions when setbacks occurred. For example, when mosaic pieces were misplaced, students practiced corrective steps and reflected on how persistence and strategy could resolve mistakes.
“Beyond producing striking public artwork, the project aims to cultivate lifelong habits and transferable skills,” Liese said. “Through the mural process, students practiced goal-setting, task prioritization, reflection, collaboration and creative problem-solving. Activities were designed to support motivation for academic pursuits and curiosity about the wider world.”
Rashinda Billie, fifth grade teacher at KES, said the project started for her students through another assignment after completing the book, “Wonder,” and discussing how kindness plays a part in their lives.
“Our activity for “Wonder” was this collaborative poster that each student colored a piece of and with their piece, they also included a precept that meant something to them, something they connected with personally,” she said. “I guess that really gave them the opportunity to reflect on what they value while also practicing their comprehension writing.”
By using the book, Billie said it opened up meaningful conversations among students about choosing kindness.
“How actions affect others, both here at school and in everyday life, life at home when they’re not at school and I think that just made it a lot more personal for them,” she said.
When given a choice like with the mural project, Billie said she also saw much more engagement and enthusiasm from students.
Students had many ideas around their research, according to Billie, and were also sharing concepts with classmates.
“When they first started sharing ideas, because they had so many ideas to share, and everyone wanted to talk at once, so that’s why we had split up into groups of three to four students,” she said. “The discussions that each student each group was having, you had students talking about different roles that are at the circus. So people were talking about animal trainers, they were talking about being a trapeze artist.”
Liese said another goal of the project is to boost community engagement by publicly displaying the student work, elevating student voices and achievement.
“I hope they remember that learning doesn’t just have to be paper pencil. It can be meaningful and enjoyable, and each student is capable of doing hard things,” Billie said about the takeaway from the mural at the mall. “Yes, these assignments may be hard, but they can do it when given the proper support.”