TED Talk #2

Reflection on Shekhar Kapur: We are the stories we tell ourselves

I found this short video to be validating and lilluminating.  I won't be discussing this video in a linear fashion - I will pop around a bit because it has my mind bubbling.

I liked how Shekhar Kapur talked about chaos and how it is needed for creativity. My own classroom is chaotic at times and I can tolerate it well if I know my students are working. I get self-conscious if an "outsider" is in the room because others expect quiet organization. If the students are off track, I implement "order " and then talk to the students about why I made the choice that I did.

Also as a teacher I picked up that Shekhar Kapur was thinking really abstractly for a seven year old. Asking his father about and getting emotional over ontological questions so young only reinforces evidence for his giftedness. This portion of the video also had me thinking about the Wrinkle in Time series, and how questions about physics can be understood so young and still be relevant when a person is older.

I listened attentively to his waxing poetic over the need to create panic in order to get out of his mind and connect to the greater universe.  I have had panic attacks since I was eight years old. I dare say that panic gets you out of your mind! I know that Shekhar Kapur was discussing an induced and less dramatic panic. I have also heard that panic attacks are symptomatic of unexpressed creativity. Thinking about panic makes me panic! Is that a good thing?

I like how he had a conception of the big bang happening again and again. This thought came to my mind when I was in a high school biology class, of all places. Before I had heard of Stephen Hawking or his theories. It is neat how different people in different places can come to similar conclusions.

Do some of us love books so much because the stories hep define our identity?

But it was Shekhar Kapur's dialogue and romanticism about story and storytelling that had me eating symbolic cookies on a bender. In college I was told that narrative in photography was not acceptable and not "art." Ever since then I have been rebelling by creating narrative art and researching the use of storytelling and fairytale in different cultures. This TED talk also had me thinking a lot about Big Fish, one of my favorite movies. "We are the stories we tell ourselves." "Story is the relationship we have between who we are and the infinite world." Shekhar Kapur talking about translating the stories into film made me think about how communicating stories about who I am into still photography would be a valid project to start this summer,

TED Talk #1

Reflection on Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

 I am writing this in the context of just learning that MU is suspending its undergraduate Art Ed program. I did not get my undergraduate in Columbia and I know there are many other art ed programs out there. However, if such a big university takes this action, will others follow suit?

So, within the context of arts advocacy, the video opens with Ken Robinson saying that public education has two main purposes: economic and cultural. Society needs to prepare its youth to complete in the economic climate of a rapidly changing society. Societies also want to communicate  regional cultural identities to children in the context of globalization. 

 

Students need a tool box of skill sets and thinking skills to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing society. Art education has its place in developing skill sets and thinking skills in a different way than other curricula. Art education also helps transmit cultural identity while also looking at traditions of other cultures. It is inherent to what we do.

 

Another part of the video that stuck with me is when Ken Robinson talks about the students who feel alienated by traditional education. The main intelligence that is valued is academic in nature. Those who don't succeed in academics feel dumb. This is such a narrow presentation of gifts and talents. What if people realized that the visual-spatial kiddos who are messy and think "too far" outside the box could surgeons, engineers, and revolutionaries in the technology field? Instead, they lose interest in school, and at best, go to trade school. Art education helps validate talents that may not be reinforced in the regular classroom.

The video goes on to explain how students are growing up in an increasingly visual information age, yet education tends not honor this fact and continue to teach in ways the students find boring. Instead of giving students aesthetic experiences -  in which students are most fully alive and engage all their senses - education tries to anesthetize students to function within standardized learning environments. I have found this to be particularly true. I have students say they come to art class to "do." In most other arenas they are taught at and do not get experiences they get in art.

The last part of the video I want to highlight is how education kills divergent thinking. This ties into a segment I heard on NPR on the drive home: How to see a galaxy in your toilet bowl. http://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/ Children are born as little exploring scientists. Their habits can be annoying to some, but should be validated since exploring is how they learn about how their universe works. We, as adults, may try to subdue divergent thinking in children, but we should really try to encourage it. Art class is a safe place for divergent thinking. The art class is an environment that can, even though it sometimes does not, help encourage the preservation of divergent thinking.

 

Week 5 Response to Ashley

Hump Dayyyy.....

Ashley, I am feeling that way, too. This year had no honeymoon in it, and the only respite I get from my job is interacting with the students when they are in my room. My complaint is that we are expected just to deal with all the new changes and expectations, and have no safe professional place to vent. It is like a big rock fell off the mountain and fell onto the teachers at the bottom.

The average person can look at a house and marvel at the lawn and the white picket fence. The artist worries about a tornado coming down the street and destroying the house. - attributed to I Forgot Who.

Reflection on the Reflection:

Do art teachers feel things differently than other teachers?

Week 5: Teaching Self

How would you describe your teaching self? Share a teaching experience which illustrates this.

I interpreted the first three descriptions of teaching self as levels of motivation and emotional engagement.

Teaching as work: the teaching self of survival mode

This would be my teaching self at 8:55 am (first class is at 9) when I am feeling overwhelmed at school and at home. It is the day it should have snowed so I could have had a day to catch up on projects and work in my robe. 

Teaching as profession: the teaching self of lesson planning

When writing lessons and planning activities, I am, in part, serving "established practices and norms." I am choosing what I think are the right tools for the right students, but in the language of instructional planning that I think fit the activities. The way I present a lesson to 28 students requires pedagogical guidance and some system of progression.

Teaching as vocation: the teaching self engaged directly with students

This is the self brought forth when the students are in the room. I call it bringing my A game, which I assume is a sports analogy. The only way I can motivate the students to meet the challenges I present them is to talk with them and be flexible in regards to their concerns.

I don't understand how the authors called activist teaching and the teacher's inner self as types of teaching selves. I would have categorized them under a different subheading, perhaps as definitions of vocational motivations.

Response to Sheryl

It makes me wonder what other factors contribute to a child breaking free from the “Matthew Effect?”(p 60)

Short  Answer: Resilience

I use the framework of my GT training a lot because it - teaching the gifted and talented - focuses on what should be good teaching for every child - not just the top 5%. Sooo...let me quote some stuff from a book called The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children by Maureen Neihart et al.

Resilience can be defined as the ability to achieve emotional health and social competence in spite of a history of adversity or stress.

Risk factors and protective factors are individual and contextual variables that shift developmental pathways toward positive or negative outcomes.

...the consistent finding that the single most powerful predictor of positive outcomes for vulnerable children is a relationship with a caring adult (p.114).

Gifted children's problem solving abilities, intellectual curiosity, concern about moral issues, sense of humor, and self-efficacy contribute to their resilience (p117).

It is now that I must post links to some articles about talented women and how they develop professionally later in life than men, as a shout out to all the women 'of a certain age' that are
 enrolled in this class. Because resilience is what got us here, (or insanity).

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/PDF_files/I%27m%20Not%20Gifted.pdf

http://www.trailblazercoaching.com/articles/Gifted-Women.pdf

What if

What if the typical school week was condensed to four days, and day 5 was set aside to provide enrichment opportunities for students?

Week 5: Four Teaching Traditions

I identify with three of the four teaching traditions outlined in Chapter 5 of Reflective Teaching.

Progressive: Over the past two years, I have been revamping lessons in to units that lead, I hope, to meaning making by the students. I look for trends in student interests to guide lesson planning. I introduce units with meaning making activities more, and Powerpoints less often. I use VTS to engage students in discussions at their developmental levels. I hold conversations with the kids during work time. But I am not Ms. Hussey from the Blue Balliett books, who I imagine is the quintessential progressive teacher.

Why? It seems reasonable to engage students by employing their interests, and giving validity to their personal developmental needs. At the elementary level students are trying to make meaning of the world and naturally ask why? If we teach away the questioning and curiosity, then we teach away the ability to find problems, which gives us students who are not inclined to think creatively or critically.

Conservative: I teach at the two highest poverty schools in my district. There are some background experiences that a huge chunk of my students don't have. I do sequence my lessons for basic skill acquisition, especially in the younger grades. I provide activities and snap shots of cultural experiences that some of my students may not have experienced - theme parks, the circus,  science centers, plays, travel, etc. I also believe in explicitly teaching thinking skills that correlate to different  disciplines so that kids have a tool box of strategies to pull from. I pull in art history when it lends itself to a bigger idea, but more in terms of the experience of art making throughout human history.  I do not teach a certain cannon of artists as an essential artistic inheritance in all grades. The art world has a center - the internet - and i have a hard time focusing on a set of people to use as exemplars.

Why? In part because I need the structure, and so do the students. And like it or not, education is a socialization process.

Social Justice: This is the big one that I focus on professionally. I am a big believer in getting all of my students to post-secondary education - whether college or trade school. I believe that even the youngest students need to be told they can go to college. I began a Career Day at my school five years ago. Twenty or so parents and community partners come to our school each May and talk to the students about their jobs, and how education helped them meet their goals.

Two summers ago I worked with my principal, district administrators, and a handpicked group of teachers to develop an after school enrichment program for our students. I was sitting at a conference with my principal and asked why we focused so much on bringing the low students up, but neglect to take the average to above average students higher. Within two months we had a plan for arts and STEM centered offerings, within 3 months we were told there was not enough money. I went ahead and held an after school Spanish class for students in grades 3-5, taught by two student volunteers from the high school needing volunteer hours for graduation.

This year I had received a grant to get my students to Crystal Bridges Museum, 3 hours north of Little Rock, but was told no by those higher up than my principal. It is hard not to get depressed and bummed out being told "no" when trying to go above and beyond.

Why? I came from a single parent home that experienced situational poverty when my dad left. My mom dealt with keeping the family afloat and getting my sister and I through a good school until senior year. Plans past high school graduation were not spoke of at home - my education about things beyond came from reading and from my high school teachers.

Visual Metaphor

15"x 40"

Styrofoam insulation, paper lunch bags, Modge Podge, brown Kiwi shoe polish, plaster guaze, gesso, acrylic paint, dowel rod, sidewalk chalk, hot glue, fishing line, and the patience of one 15 year old arm model

 

(What it looks like on a dirty kitchen floor.)

Reply to Adair: week 4

Maybe you can take your idea of butterflies and surprise and maybe do butterflies coming out of chrysalises? This is a hard project to do. I, too, wanted to do a realistic rendering of my room since it has a metaphor as it's theme. I spent 3 days looking at my initial sketches until a decent idea hit me. This is a fun exercise I do with my students that you might want to try. It is called forced connections. Brainstorm a list of 10 things about your classroom. Then brainstorm another list of things that come to mind when you think of "surprise." Combine one idea from list one with an idea from list two. This process might help you make a connection you can work with.

Response to Karen's Cosmic Egg

The cosmic egg appears in many creation myths. You have a universal symbol, which is cool. Your visual language is as fluent as your written language.

I also like how you commented that you want your students to lead their own inward journeys. Knowledge of self is so important.

If you have an inner calm and direction, so will those around you. I have one teacher in the building who has this 'teacher magic.' The children pick up and and reflect the energy that you give off.

Big Fish

“What motivates the impulse to teach?”

I like this question a lot. My mind has been buzzing since I read it in the assignment, but I thought it best to finished the assigned reading before answering it.

I remember being asked to write a personal education philosophy before I started teaching. I remember thinking that I had no idea what i was writing about since I hadn't been in the classroom yet. I was carefully selecting what I thought I ought to say. Now, seven years in, I think I have my own words and experiences to help answer the question above.

My teaching narrative begins with my docent experience in my late twenties. After graduating with my B.F.A. in art, I was sorely aware that even though I could make art, I did not know how to talk about it. I was drawn to volunteer at the Springfield Art Museum. The museum educator at the time, Dan Carver, was a wonderful teacher and facilitator. He gave us knowledge that we needed, but as docents we were encouraged to do our own research, plan our own patterns of movement through the galleries, and give visitors a sense that they had ownership of the works in the museum. I played games with visitors, had them do drawings, and brought in manipulative to augment the tours. Sometimes the museum guards would flip out, but Dan told them to back because what I was doing was for the tour. (Another advocate!) I liked how I could get the kids talking and involved. I was nervous, but also quirky, so it evened out in the end.  This led me to go back to school for my teaching certification.

Some things hold true today as back then. I love to learn, problem solve, take an audience "into" a piece of art or art experience. I think having a visual vocabulary and vocabulary about visual culture are critical.

This thought also comes to my mind a lot: I see myself in my students. The enthusiastic art nerd? Check. The first grader still struggling to use scissors? Check. The student who is motivated to do a "good job"? Check. The student who wants to play with the materials and make a mess? Checkmate!

Another story, I am contemplating leaving my current teaching job, and the music teacher is my "therapist." She says to remember that were are not in-disposable.  That the students will still get an education. That statement strikes me as so WRONG. I think I bring something to the mix that the students won't necessarily get elsewhere. My narcissistic voice says I give things like hugs and high fives in the hallways that other teachers do not. I make funny faces in windows, when appropriate. I never tell a student they are not good at art; instead I explain why their fine motor skills haven't developmentally caught up with the ideas they see in their heads. When I am tough, I tell them it is tough love.

 I also get the love of the students in return. They in turn are patient with me when I lose a necessary supplies. They help me organize if asked. They are honest in their questioning of me, which I consider the highest honor, that they trust enough to ask.

 So in a nuthshell, I guess my final narrative at this point is

1. Relationships

2. Part of being a lifelong learner is being a teacher

3. Nancy Drew complex - always wanting to solve problems

“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.”
― Stanley Milgram

My Personal Favorite

I lurve this little diagram. It is such a simple diagram for viewing things a little more holistically, from a gumball machine to a classroom environment. Every time I find a reason to use it in my GT classroom, I giggle, and the kids know what is coming.

Taba Model of Concept Development

I am putting notes in by blog about some strategies I want to use for myself and my students to encourage reflective practice. *Over the past few years I came across some diagrams and strategies that help me pinpoint concepts and bigger ideas. I think in pictures, and my mind is not linear. I often need to see the big picture before I can tackle the little things. These strategies help survive in a linear sequential world.

The Taba Model is the framework I am using myself to organize and reorganize the information for my 'family tree'.

http://www.rfwp.com/samples/conceptdevelopmentp1-15.pdf  : for an in depth explanation of the model.

 Source: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Taba_teaching_strategy_model

Paul's Reasoning Web

 

Paul's (1992) Elements of Reasoning

Paul's (1992) Elements of Reasoning is a model for critical thinking and emphasizes the following eight elements: issue, purpose, point of view, assumptions, concepts, evidence, inferences, and implications or consequences. Teachers may wish to introduce these terms to students, using a familiar issue such as something being discussed in the school or community; teachers should then encourage the use of the terms and the model in approaching problems and issues.

Source http://education.wm.edu/centers/cfge/curriculum/teachingmodels/index.php#reason

Growth Plan

 Areas for growth

1. Organization and Structure in the Classroom

• identify my currents patterns of organization and structure
• evaluate the reasons for these patterns and structure
• distinguish positive effects of my current system  from negative ones 
• evaluate the effects of my organization on the students, my classroom, and my efficacy
• create modifications to the organization and structure of my classroom
• evaluate the modifications to the organization and structure.

2. Fostering the habit of reflective thinking in students in grades 3-5 by addressing my weaknesses self-identified in the Maranzo Teacher's Scale

• Routinely providing students with rubrics
• Having students track their own progress
• Letting my classroom rules and procedures go lax mid-year
• Student review of new information in small groups
• Students verbally summarizing new learning
• Reviewing content consistently
• Explicitly using groups to support learning
• Asking students to verbalize their insight into how they revise knowledge
• Have the same expectations for low students as I do for the high ones

Week 3 Response to Kate

Your first Q & A made me smile. It reminded me of a comment I made to one of my first grade classes last week. I asked "First grade, why do have to keep acting like first graders?" (I use humor a lot as a coping mechanism with my younger kids.)

On a more serious note, whenever I notice I have made a mistake with my students, I own it the next time I see them. I'll say 'I have been thinking this over and this is my decision because....' or 'When this happened, I couldn't teach and others couldn't work because....I want to be fair. How do you think we should solve this problem?" Letting your first graders have movement, especially during times of indoor recess is a great idea. Have you also thought of implementing centers that students rotate through on the days you know they are going to be wound up (indoor recess, assembly day, unusual weather patterns, etc) ? At one of my schools I have a set of Kapla blocks and learning activities that go with them. The blocks are a nice break sometimes because the kids have to stand and move in an organized fashion, as well as think in three-dimensions and contemplate cause and effect. The students love manipulatives, and it  allows me a time to take notes about their behaviors, thinking styles, and level of elaboration with a given material.

Week 3 Response to Michelle L.'s What Ifs

I like the idea of a high school class about being a reflective practitioner in life. High school students are developmentally ready for addressing meta cognition. The only flip side is that as a whole they don't characteristically think 'like adults', and there is a developmental reason for that. A class on reflective practice for adolescents would have to honor the fact that even though they can be analytical, they can also be impulsive, etc. Maybe if such reflective teaching were built into student assessment practices across the curriculum, and at the end of four years the students could have a digital student portfolio that chronicled their reflective growth as well as student course work.

I also want to respond to students and teachers being colleagues in intellectual quests. Research in talent development points to students needing mentors in their fields of interest during the high school years. in my opinion, the current structure of high school education is in urgent need of reform. Students don't need to be taught 'at' for another for years. Especially in an age when most students have a smart phone and can google content. Students need to be guided in skills and processes that allow them to develop projects that are relevant to them. Some traditional teaching still needs to be done for new information, but students need to have more ownership over their education and learning. It would help develop generation of problem solvers as opposed to consumers.

Week 3 Response to Livvy

I like your suggestions for advocacy within the educational system. I have, though, used the language of administration in numerous cases, and have tied my ideas to goals of that of the administration, only to be told that district restrictions such as time and money can not be over come. Can you give an example of how you have used your strategy to overcome such a response?

My Big What If

What if all teachers had to study creativity training for a semester, and receive ongoing professional develpment in creativity training in order to be considered "highly qualified"?

I used to hate the word 'creative.' I grouped it with other fluff words such as pretty, nice, and other non-substantive descriptors. Over the past year, I have begun to define behaviors and thinking skills associated with creativity. My current understanding of creativity is that it is basically a mind-set for problem finding and problem solving.

In the overview of the work of Schon, there is a quote on p. 17 about problem finding. Basically problems to be solved do not stand up and say, "Hi!" Teachers have to find and define the problem, and follow a cycle of action and reflection.

The quote in this week's reading sounded a lot like an idea presented in Sydney Walker's Teaching meaning in art making. "...it is not enough for artists to focus on big ideas: artists must also require strategies for exploring the content of big ideas. One such strategy is to create, or construct-and then solve-conceptual problems that address the big idea," (p. 50).

Schon's quote also sounded a lot like the writing in my favorite book Creativity is Forever by Gary Davis. There are six cognitive ingredients to creativity accredited to Frank Barron that are partly genetic and partly learned (p. 100).

1. Recognizing patterns
2. Making conections
3. Taking risks
4. Challenging assumptions
5. Taking advantage of chance
6. Seeing in new ways

I think creativity training would help educators become better problem finders and problem solvers. It would also help teachers evoke creative behaviors in students who need help in developing their creativity.

WEEK 3, QUESTION 2

Open-mindedness, Responsibility, and Whole-heartedness

Open-mindedness: My birth by fire experience (first year teaching) taught me that strategies and environmental conditions are not one size fits all. What works for one teacher, may not work for another. And since I still regard myself as being in the learning phase of teaching, I am open to listening to any alternatives or possibilities that I need to improve. However, I do not go out of my way to gather conflicting evidence for thinking and practices I use. I guess my focus has always been on looking for a strategy or solution, but never on researching possible commentary about why something may not work. I see why it should be done.

Responsibility: I truthfully haven't thought during lesson planning about the social and political consequences of my teaching. I do think about the affective needs of my students, and in fostering critical thinking and creative thinking that they may use outside the artroom, but that has only been in the past two years as I have completed my training in GT - that awareness did not come from traditional teacher training or professional development. 

Whole-heartedness: I am committed to the learning of my students and to my ongoing education, but there are times when I go on auto-pilot. I think I am getting better, but nowhere near being a master teacher.

WEEK 3, QUESTION #1

(p.1) If you reflect about your teaching will this necessarily make your teaching better?

I heard something on a radio show that I have been mulling over for about a month now. The interviewee said that it is hard for people to change because we repeat our internal patterns of thought day after day after day. We talk to ourselves in a set pattern and with a certain language and don't consciously acknowledge how this affects our behaviors. So my answer is that reflection will not necessarily make teaching practice better. To implement the change that comes from reflection, teachers would need to practice a complementary set of skills in which they identify and analyze their self-talk, identify the change they want to make, and then daily make a conscious effort to change their patterns of thought and behavior.

(p. 21) Do you agree/disagree with Schefffler's position? If you agree with Scheffler's view of teachers as needing needing to concern themselves with the contexts beyond their classroom, what kinds of challenges face that teacher?

I agree with Scheffler's position that teachers need to be advocates of change and take part in developing the policies that usually happen at higher levels, then filter down. On a practical level: The morale among the staff at my school has gone down of the past year and a half, and the administrators do not know why. At our last faculty meeting, it was stated that "We are in the business of kids, and if you don't like it, come talk to me so we can discuss a better alternative for you." I think everyone at the schools loves their students, but there is so much other bologna that goes with teaching that makes it hard to get out of survival mode. The switch to common core, a new grading system, a new teacher evaluation system, a growing population that tests the limit of the physical school, and a trend in a population that is becoming more transient can all be real downers. Every change that has happened in our school has been outside the teaching staff's control. If teachers had more power over policies that affect their position, they might have more ownership and motivation for their craft. There are professional agencies in our area that try to affect legislative policies, but not many teachers I know are active in them. There is also a VERY strong hierarchy in my district, and punishments dealt for "not respecting the chain of command." Last week I discovered that my district has its own teachers' union and it is swept under the rug. The neighboring district has a teachers' union that is very vocal, and petitions the board and the community for funding for more buildings and resources for students.

I also think teachers to be aware of social contexts in which the students live, but I am iffy about the extent and directness with which I feel teachers should advocate for change in the communities and subcultures of the students. My trepidation about the latter comes from an awareness that American society has a definite class system, and in some instances if the advocacy is done without tact or in an insensitive way, a rift may happen between educator and community because it may be that certain values are being disrespected even though the educator's intentions are good. Advocacy for improved social contexts at large needs to be done in conjunction with the community, and may be best done it the teacher lives in the community.


(p. 21) What obstacles arise when teachers attempt to "determine their own agency through critical and continual evaluation of the purposes, the consequences, and the social context of their calling?"

As I stated above, it can be viewed as a break in hierarchy in the chain of command. We are also in an era of pacing guides, common curriculum, and one size fits all standards assessment. Breaking from the way things are 'supposed' to be done can be viewed in a negative light by colleagues and supervisors. Everyone has a lot on their plate. In some cases, questioning the status quo can be looked down on because it is something else for people to think about or it goes against their patterns of thought. There are also the practical considerations that are obstacles such as lack of time, a need to balance career with family life and leisure time, and the availability of resources.

On the side

Dewey's process of teacher reflection sounds a whole lot like Piaget's explanation of disequilibrium in children.

A little bit of narcissism helps the day pass pleasantly....

Week 3 Question 3: Do you know who wrote your curriculum?

It is me! I write my curriculum!

In Arkansas, we have Fine Art SLEs (Student Level Expectations) that I plug into, but they are very vague and broad for grades K-2. Soon, we will have Common Core standards for the Visual Arts. (Yay! The current SLEs are have a formalist slant that I try to dance around.) Mandatory art education in the elementary schools in Arkansas has only been around for a about a decade. There is no lateral or vertical planning among the art teachers in my district. Of the eight elementary art teachers in my district, I am one of three that design 'longer' projects for my students. The other five like one day lesson plans.

I am cognizant that I am in a unique position, and I cherish it. With the advent of Common Core, 'regular' classroom teachers have meet in groups and designed curriculum for grade level subject matters. They have pacing guides that state what to teach on what given day. Even before that, I sensed that 'regular' classroom teachers have been losing freedom in the classroom. For the past 5 years, classroom teachers have been cleaning out bookshelves, and have been giving me their arts and crafts books because, sadly, they do not have time for that type of work with their students.

I started teaching K-5 five years ago. In the beginning there was major turn over of lesson plans as I was finding what fit best with what age group. Now I am developing themes/big ideas for grade levels that I am more comfortable with, and design lessons within those frameworks. For example: my kinders are Art Explorers and do a lot of material exploration and explicit creativity training. My fifth graders explore the theme of popular culture all year. The main resource for this framework would Teaching Meaning in Art Making by Sydney Walker, a text I was introduced to in Mary Francos VTS II class. The book is written more for older grades, so I did some digging for early childhood and elementary grades. The companion text that I used to help translate the Walker text for K-5 was Art & Creative Development for Young Children by Jill Eglebright Fox and Robert Schirramacher. I still rewrite lessons or substitute better ones as I find concepts and projects I like better. My population lives in a changing world, and I have to keep up with the changes to make the curriculum relevant.

I did not have art until high school, and even then I only took one course. I just did a lot of drawing on my own when I was younger, and was left alone to do it. I started teaching at the junior high level and then moved up to high school. I am very aware that I give my students in grades 3-5 upper level projects that have been broken into smaller steps. If I am googling some lesson ideas, I do not limit myself to elementary ideas. Some of the projects the students have liked best came from upper level course work.

 

Week 2 Response to Adair Stokan

I agree with you that the answer tends to lie somewhere in the middle. As a teacher, you need to have a bag of tricks to pull from that will help you adapt to different situations.

I think you are doing the right thing with your 8th graders....you have to pull back in your situation or there will be chaos. Add to that they are itching to go to HS and may have mentally checked out already.

I do agree that there needs to be some objectivist structure in the art room. I have teachers in my building who tell their students that art is about feeling and expression. In those instances I counter that before you write the great American novel, you have to have a certain level of mastery of the English language. Creativity comes after you have enough technical competence to play with and elaborate your ideas. That competence and experience looks different at kindergarten than it does in 5th grade, to be sure...

Week 2 Response to Livvy

Two years ago, I accompanied my principal to an administrator's conference. One of the keynote speakers asked those in the room, "How many of you have told your students that the purpose of education is to make them happy?" I stopped and questioned the question in my mind. Is the goal of education to create happy people? She then lead the discussion in the direction on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and then I understood where she was taking us.

As you said, objectivism is necessary for survival in the current educational climate, Education is such a big system, being modeled on business efficiency standards. I don't think it hurts to be honest with students. Teaching them different thinking styles that they can pick and choose from when needed can help them more successfully navigate their educational culture.

Week 1 Response to Erika Atterbury

Dear Erika - I really get the idea of Chutes and Ladders! Our experiences don't always lead us in linear trajectories. Also, have you thought of doing a similar project with your students?

As for your underachieving Art 1 kiddos: there are readings and strategies you can use to build them up. Try googling Motivating Underachievers. There is also a book you can buy with the same title, published by Pieces of Learning.

Week 1 Response to Sheryl Lamme

Hugs and kisses back to you. I was happily surprised when I saw that you were enrolled in this course. Thank you for posting a comment on my blog. It is just like being alone in the cafeteria and having someone you know sit next to you for lunch.

Nature vs. Nurture: I noticed that you interpreted Lehmann's article as identifying traits of natural born teachers. Do you think some people are per-dispotioned to become educators, or do you think they are groomed? I only ask to start a conversation.

I like how you have identified some negative traits of detrimental teachers. They are necessary to have around in that they urge us to identify what we do not want to become. Kind of like adding poo to a garden. A little is good, too much is a turn off.

Marzano - week 2

Disclaimer: I wish the Teacher Scale for Reflective Practice came in different versions for different teaching situations. Specifically, one for teachers that have 600 students between two different campuses.

It seems that this rating scale seems more appropriate for teachers who see the same students multiple times during a given week.

That being said, taking this inventory was a real eye opener. I have heard of Marzano before, but never investigated his writings. I can see how a "regular" classroom teacher would want to use the outlined practices to create a student centered and reflective atmosphere. I saw some practices that piqued my interest and would like to investigate because they seemed relevant to the goals I have for my students. However, the collective of the 41 goals seems overwhelming.  Some goals I have for my students is to their own self-assessors, to be dialogical, and to have essential understandings that tie to their out of school lives. I also have to temper that with the fact that students come to the art room to "do."

I tend to be my own devil's advocate, and know that if I instituted new practices with my Ks and 1s, hopefully the new rules and procedures would, over time, become comprehensive for all the art classes.

My self-identified strengths from the Maranzo teacher scale were:

• Identifying critical information
• Previewing new content
• Chunking new information into digestible bites
• Helping students elaborate on new information
• Helping students practice skills, strategies, and processes
• Provide resources and guidance
• Maintain a lively pace
• Demonstrate intensity and enthusiasm
• Provide opportunities for students to talk about themselves
• Acknowledge adherence to rules and procedures
• Verbal and nonverbal behaviors that demonstrate affection for students

The self-identified weaknesses that bothered me were:

• Routinely providing students with rubrics
• Having students track their own progress
• Letting my classroom rules and procedures go lax mid-year
• Student review of new information in small groups
• Students verbally summarizing new learning
• Reviewing content consistently
• Explicitly using groups to support learning
• Asking students to verbalize their insight into how they revise knowledge
• Have the same expectations for low students as I do for the high ones

When I compare my self-assessment using Lehmann's 12 Great Qualities with Marzano's Teacher's Scale, I can see how my higher rankings in the love of subject matter and the kids can lend toward a strong student centered art-making practice in my classroom. I can also see how my lack of organizational skills and desire to do it all by myself leads to deficits in record keeping and loss of time to devote to student reflection. Very interesting!

Parker Palmer Reflection: Week 2

To be truthful, I comprehended some of what the article was trying to communicate, but felt mainly a lack of connection to the personal assertions and overwhelming rhetoric that the author was writing with. I had a feeling that Parker Palmer was very passionate about the subject he was engaged in. I struggled to find a context within which to understand the chapter. I really wanted a 21st century English translation of whatever it is he was writing about.

So, within the context clues I did find, and with the help of Google, I gleaned that Objectivism as a teaching practice is a one way street. The teacher is the bearer of knowledge, and the student is recipient. The students' prior knowledge or personal experiences are not relevant. The classroom is a passionless place. Students and teachers suppress their true states of being. Competition is cultivated. Reality exists outside of the classroom, and students have a detached view of it.

It seems that Parker Palmer is advocating a form of education in which the student gains knowledge of themselves and learns in a constructivist environment. The teacher relinquishes some power and is more of a facilitator. Student learning is based on experience and students manufacture their own reality over a lifetime. 

(As an aside-I did find the reading enlightening in that Parker Palmer defined obedience as listening and education as the act of helping students find their own answers.)

I take it that the character of Father Felix was tired of producing "knowledge" and tired of his students being lazy and not actively living their life in a "true" fashion that lead them to acquire and act about their knowledge. He was tired of his students wanting to be knowledge consumers.

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Short Analysis of Education Received

Just about all of my education has been delivered in the objectivist fashion. In high school, I had an English teacher who taught critical thinking and allowed for exploring personal interest. My high school art teacher was open to students picking their subject matter for projects and would do any thing to gather resources for her students. In college, the education was still mainly objectivist. In upper level art classes, students were given more self direction. I had no training or experience in verbalizing what I was producing visually. My senior year project was a struggle because I broke with my adviser's preferred style of formalist photography and chose to pursue a narrative project. My adviser didn't approve of narrative photography, so I had to stealthily find other professors who would give feedback. During my senior year I had to write an artist's statement and that was the hardest thing ever. After my senior art show, my panel of professors sat me down and asked me to discuss what my project was about as a final assessment. I was tongue tied because 1. They had the artist's statement to look at. 2. It was the first time I had even heard those questions.

 There was a shining star during my undergraduate experience. At the same time I pushing free from my adviser, I had a teacher who was in charge of overseeing the senior projects. during our first class meeting she told the class that she was there to advocate for us. If there was anything she wanted, she would make sure it happened. If we wanted the walls of our gallery painted green, but were told they had stay white, she would make sure the walls would be painted green. I was open - mouthed and floored. She was my hero from that point forward.

Short Analysis of Education Delivered

In art: In this area, I hold more of the formal knowledge. A lot of my direct technical instruction is objective in nature. I like to stand up in front of students and clear my throat to deliver juicy tidbits.However, I have been better about introducing/ informally pre-assesing in an inquiry based fashion - see notes below about GT - because it gets the students really motivated and open for peer discussions.  I VTS art pieces with my students, I tend to progress my lessons toward more open ended artworks by the end of the year. I allow collaboration when I am not trying to assess individual comprehension or skill level. I tell my older students I never ever want them to ask me if their work is "good enough." I want them to know when they have put all their effort into a piece and are finished ( I rarely have a set due date - they tend to be adjusted three or four times. I only give them when I sense a group of students need "external motivation.")

In my GT pullout: During my first year teaching GT I tried to be the deliverer of knowledge, and failed miserably. I am an art teacher foremost, and was killing myself trying to tie into curricular areas in which I had no training. It took trial and error to realize my strong areas were explorations into thinking skills, creativity training, and exploratory studies that are student guided, student produced, and student assessed. It took me a while to learn that the students should be doing most of the work, and I am there to offer guidance, tell the kids they are normal and explain their quirks, teach interpersonal skills to differing personalities, and beg for GT money for projects. These teaching strategies have been transferring over to my art classroom as well.

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Things That Get in My Way of My Passion for Teaching Art As I Wish I Could

1. Teaching at two schools. My 80% school has a full population. I teach in 4 days what the other special area teachers in 5 days because of #2.
2. Teaching GT at my 20% school. I double up grade levels in the morning so I can have enough time to meet the legal minimum with my GT kids.
3. The expectation that children should be clean. 
4. Meeting once a week for 50 minutes.
5. Teaching in a culture of fear in which my door has to stay closed. Otherwise, it would open to the outside.
6. New rules stating that pull out areas are responsible for literacy scores also.
7. My own physical health - I injured my back in all ways possible and can't jump around like I used to. I pass out when I get home.
8. Upper administrative road blocking of my fifth grade field trip. I acquired funding to take all my fifth graders from my school to Crystal Bridges. It would have paid for two tour buses since it was a 3.5 trip each way, paid for each students lunch, and tied the tour into their common core literacy lessons. I was told no because the students wouldn't be back at 3:30.
9. The chain of command that is expected to be respected at all times.
10. Myself for accepting the status quo at times.