The staff at GCE conducted a Picasso bull exercise. We spent time on each bull exploring the meaning of the bull. We asked questions like “What are the essential components of a bull?”. I have provided my comments/insights below on how I percivied each bull.

1.The bull looks emotionally sad, it has 6 legs (illusion?), bull appears feminine, the tail resembles a leaf, the shadows create 3-D look.

2.Legs are better defined, facial features are much clearer, the horn is whiter, the bull appears more emotionally tired.

3.The bull appears mutated and evolved.  It seems to have lost its beauty. The tail looks more like a snake. Muscles are defined.

4. The artist is geometrically breaking down the ball into parts. A framework to determined to break the bull into parts.

5.This bull is abstract. The face is strange.  It almost appear mechanical. I notice mathematically patterns such as a line that moves across the bull from the back leg to the face.

6.Tail is straight out, geometrically the same line highlighted in step 5 remains, the bull loses the head and facial features.

7.The bull appears like a cartoon character because of it’s 2 dimensional look.. The framework of the bull still remains. The tail has blown up with a bolder end.

8. The bull loses its color. It remains 2-dimensional. The geometrical line that was highlighted is still prominent (back leg to the head).

9. 24 lines were counted. The bull looks 2-dimensional. There are no more texture but rather just lines, shapes and colors of the male testicles.

10. 15 lines were counted. The bull again looks 2-dimensional. The geometrical line that was observed before does not remain anymore.

11.11 lines were counted. 2-dimensional. The few lines which remain does depict the parts which define the bull (horns, legs, body, testicles, etc). The extra details have been eliminated (texture, color, depth, muscles.

Practical Application: This exercise challenged my perspective of teaching. This helped me to understand how I can ask essential questions. At GCE, we provide inquiry based learning for students. It’s my job to help the students ask questions and to discover solutions. Some questions we can ask are:

-how to provide students experiential learning?

-what does teaching at GCE look like?

-how to evaluate students learning?

-how to create a lesson plan/curriculum to maximize learning activities?