Saturday, September 8, 2012

VTS Week 4

Assessing, Reflecting and Planning- I'm playing a little catch up here, getting used to a different rotation this year and still having plenty of time to make art, means I have to really consider where I'm putting my VTS.... But I think I might finally have an idea of where we are headed.

http://vtsweb.org/lessons/g301#  this was our image.

I must start off by saying, that my little think tanks are surprising me more and more with VTS! There has always been something I absolutely loved about the 4th graders (each year) and now this age level is proving perfect for this class! My pilot class had 26 kiddos in it and it's a packed house. I invited them to scoot up, but many chose to stay at their spots, some in the back as much as 20 feet away. Note to self, next time have them move closer. I had a great participation from about 18 of the kids, wanting to keep adding more, but there were those few that never said anything, several of those in the back. We actually had to stop after 16 minutes, I think they could have kept going!

Discussion- Several students would just list until they were able to Ping off another students idea. In the beginning they were all on the idea line of the woman in bed being sick, then it moved to what the relationship was between the people in the painting with the people in the photographs. Eventually ideas of money,  and jobs came up. We did have to stop and review that it was okay to disagree, but that they needed to raise their hand. One of the kids said " I think there are feet under the bed"  and about half the class said out loud "I disagree" "no it's not" etc. But after my reminder, they were much better about waiting their turn and then saying "I disagree because." Our discussion concluded with me saying that I would take you (pointing to the last three hands up) and then we will have to stop for today. After we were done I asked the kids, "how many of you thought we would be able to talk about this piece for 15 minutes?" and no one raised their hands. So I congratulated them on really looking at the piece and having a fantastic discussion! They all seemed surprised and proud. This observation tells me that my kids are starting to realize how much they can find and learn about a piece from looking at it and discussing it for a while with others.

Reflecting- When the kids walked in the door, I remembered right then, that they were going to VTS the image I had looked at thennight before. So I didn't want to waste time, and I had them get pencils ready and their pictures out from their previous visit. This allowed me enough time to sign into my account and get the image up. Lesson learned because then I felt frantic and needed to be more focused. Next time get it ready to go before my day starts, since my classes are back to back and I don't have time to find it before their class comes in. Once we got started it went well overall, I didn't have any "quiet time" in fact it was hard to get to all of them as their hands kept shooting up without them getting frustrated for not being called on yet. I used our three questions, but forgot to say "what more can we find" until about 7 minutes into the discussion.... they kept raising their hands so I didn't need to. Eventually I remember and this felt redundant to me, but I did notice that new hands were showing up when I used the last question. I struggled a bit with paraphrasing, and was totally surprised by one of my little story tellers response. He gave this like 2 minute long answer and I tried really hard to get everything paraphrased and then closed with good, he says, "And there was the soup thing" so here is a kid who noticed the one thing I left out of his paraphrasing.... lol I just said, "yes, and this looks like it might be soup, good" and he gave me the head nod of "okay I'm good now."  This just proved to me that there are kids who really pay attention to and appreciate the validation that the paraphrasing gives. Also keep in mind this is a kid who cannot go 15 minutes without a neighbor tattling that he is bothering them or making noises. And he almost never pays attention to directions. He was totally sucked in the entire time and silently thinking! I am working so hard on being neutral, and keeping "good" as my ending to each child's response, but every once in a while something different slips out. Working on that one.

Planning: To be more prepared for future VTS lessons I need to work on the following:
*Spending at least 15 minutes studying the work, to really be ready for the paraphrasing and pointing.
*Getting my beginning speech set to memory.
*Staying neutral.

Overall I felt it went great, and my kiddos and I still have a lot to learn with VTS. I'm very proud of them :)

Friday, August 31, 2012

Artistic Thinking: Classroom Reflection


Which attributes are most important? Why is this attribute relevant to the art classroom/art education? What are ways I could teach to or include this attribute in my classroom?
1. Technologically driven Technology gives easy quick access to multiple examples of art and ideas. Use their love for technology to design a research project, that can be created in any technical way they know how.
2. Global citizens Part of art is teaching about other cultures. Students are more knowledgeable on the world and what is happening. Teach cultural units. Feed that thirst for outside knowledge and exposure.
3. Participants in virtual social worlds Students are more excited about openly sharing opinions and ideas, especially online. Setting up and art discussion blog that gets students and parents involved in art discussions and more excited about art.
4. Customization Art can easily be customized to the learning styles of students. With the use of technology these different learners can customize their projects outcomes to be created in a way that works best for them.
5. Connected yet disconnected Students struggle finishing a thought, have a real face to face conversation, etc. Spend time focusing on one area for students to not only become an expert at but they also practice communicating about this area, using art, writing and teaching.


Hopefull I did this part right?

Artistic Thinking Week 2

Remix Manifesto

What a great documentary! I think it was interesting to here the different perspectives, knowing where I typically stand on this topic, I must admit, I was talking to the documentary. maybe even a little arguing :) But I found myself very intrigued and almost hypocritical at times. My theories about music and art are so drastically different and for NO GOOD REASON. This was a great way to help me think of the music perspective in a totally different light. But I still think if you are going to make music, learn to do it with a real instrument first... then you'll never want to make it with a computer... you will have gained the kind of authentic appreciation that music deserves. But I do give kuddos to those who have made an "art" out of creating music with a computer, I know that they too have worked very hard to develop the skill they have. But nothing can beat the real thing!

Brainstorming:
"The rules of this game don't depend on who made the song, they depend on who owns the copyright." ~Brett Gaylor. Being brought up by a family full of musicians, this is a very disputed topic. I simply kept thinking how I tell my students everyday, "artists borrow and steal ideas all the time, then make them their own- They should take it as a compliment." In my home we were taught that you should not rip music, you should pay for it because you are taking from that artist. I am on the fence on this topic. Part of me says yes and then part of me says no. I am here to inspire a generation whose imagination was created by tv and computer graphics. Their imaginations weren't developed by playing outside, quiet time reading and drawing like mine. They have a techno imagination, and with that comes the exposure to many different ideas, many of which were copied from other ideas. Which explains why so many are perfectly fine with borrowing to their hearts content, and settling for a not so original idea. So what ideas are left? As teachers we borrow ideas daily. My whole curriculum is based off of the genius of others, but with a "Schotte Twist."  This documentary brought up a fantastic point, about how all ideas/products are based and built from other ideas. This is part of how society grows and develops, to take ideas and make them better.

"The creative process became more important than the product, because consumers were now creators making the folk art of the future." ~Brett Gaylor. His thoughts here take me to a totally different thought process - like action art. I'm not a great understander of certain types of art, but I totally create projects with every grade level specifically for the process, not the product.

"Ideas are intellectual property" ~Brett Gaylor. If you are willing to put something out there it will get used, borrowed, stolen, manipulated and/or abused, without a thank you. But as I tell my kiddos take it as a compliment because we wouldn't steal a bad idea.

Copyright has now been manipulated for profit, and to an extent, it is out of control. I feel for all those who were sued because of Nabster. "I stole this music fair and square" ~a remix artist. As an artist from many different perspective this sentence is plain and simple... and just.  But I always try to give credit for work where it is due, and I pass that on to my students each day. We cannot take credit for something we didn't do, no matter what the art. These remix artists have worked very hard to "remix" someone elses hard work, and credit for that work is due to all the participants, even if they unwilling were put in to the remix.

Classroom use: I personally feel my students are still a bit young to fully grasp the argument at hand~ this is when I wish I had older students because I could take this idea a lot further.
*Create a mesh up- using 3 famous art pieces to create your own art. Example: mesh up "Starry Night" "The Mona Lisa" and "The Scream".
*Question/Discussion: When is it okay to use someone elses idea? How would you feel if someone else used your idea? How would you feel if that person won some kind of an award for their work, which included your idea?
*Still working on a third idea...

Monday, August 27, 2012

VTS1 Week 3

Woo Ecstatic Teacher Here!!!!!  If I could have posted at work and not have been blocked, I totally would have done that at lunch.

What an exciting day! My 4th grade group took their pre-assessment. It went fantastically. I quickly glanced at them and skimmed a few for content. I had word count varying from 20 words to 120 words. Most of them were well written and really payed attention to details. I gave them 15 minutes with the prompt we were given. I still had 3 that were intently looking and writing when the timer went off :) I will report back with more results, I have decided to have each group of 4th graders take the assessment. I can't wait to see how they do.

Also, I was at the tail end of a class (3rd grade) and had just finished introducing our next project (Pablo Picasso).  I need to fill the last 10 minutes until they walked out the door, so I did a VTS session on a Picasso piece (collage musicians). The kids came up close because I only had a print of the image, I quickly described a few points about VTS, and we started. Their responses were very creative, and then as someone pointed out a hidden dog in the image the conversation took off. I might have messed up a bit and am not sure if this was okay. My kids were pointing out colors, so I kinda of fed more information, asking about color families. Can we do that or only stick to the three questions?  Well it was a great way to end the class and I'm looking forward to trying it with the rest of 3rd grade this week.

I enjoyed watching the woman and her class on you-tube. She did a fantastic job of paraphrasing. I especially like the way she pointed out how they had seen a certain number of things before she paraphrased. Then she would say,  "I'm just curious, what did you see that makes you think that was ______________"  I thought this was a great way to pose the question in a really neutral way, while acknowledging  the kids ideas.

Happy VTSing- So far- Great things are happening :)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Read & React 1

Artistic Thinking : Read & React week 1

Topics to ponder on:
What is education’s role in meeting the needs of the 21st century student?
What are my beliefs and experiences pertaining to/with the iKid/iGeneration? How might my generational grouping impact my understanding of the students I teach?
Wow talk about being a typical "net gen" kid. Currently listening to the front line documentary, the TV is going in the background, and I am reading articles while responding to everything I have taken it .... Guilty!
I have very mixed feelings about technology and what it does/can do for our students.
First of all it was totally fascinating to read about my generation, and at first I thought," I'm  not like that at all" and the more I thought about Rosen's ideas, I realized I very much fit the mold. I tend to think that technology repels me, yet I am in constant use of it. I do try had not to fall to the need for the latest and greatest of technology... But it's really only a matter of time before I typically find myself behind without certain tools.
As I'm listening to these students being tested for their ability to multitask, while I multitask, I know I'm not going to communicate as clearly as I would have liked. I noticed that this summer while away on a 2 week vacation, I really enjoyed being cut off from the technology. We seemed to be more present in the time we were spending and the amazing things we were seeing. At some hotels we had access to the web and we would communicate with those back home. But at most of our hotels we did not have access, and we were more focused on enjoying our time where we were.
As teachers we are highly encouraged to use technology in every way we can. So I do, but have we created a way of disaster for ourselves?  What if that technology just stopped working? OH NOOOOOO! Well folks it happened to me for about 3 class periods last year. All of a sudden everything on my computer disappeared, including that mornings lessons, with 3 power points. These were all new lesson introduction days, and all of my images were from the net, I had no prints to share with my class. Talk about PANIC... Eventually, I was back up and running, but because class must go on no matter what, I did a lot of quick thinking and image searches while teaching to show the visuals needed.  So the point here is, is it really a great idea for us to try to keep up with this "i kid" generations way of technology for everything? The overly busy brained multitaskers are busy enough as is right? Are they really getting everything, or just bits and parts? I'm not saying that I am against trying to learn new technologies to help me keep up with my students in their learning. I'm simply asking what if we tried to help our students slow down and learn to focus on one thing at a time? Then again, they are a very different generation, and maybe this multitasking is exactly what their thriving brains have ordered?
I think it is vital that I step up and do everything in my power to learn new ideas and technologies. Currently my role has been more of a student than a teacher. I have a hard time with the idea that we should teach a child to do something like painting with a computer vs. using the media in person. I guess my problem is that I have felt like,"hey that's cheating" you need to do it the real way... But wait to many of my students this is the real way. They have taken time to learn how to do this on a computer and this is a talent that maybe I have yet to try and grasp, which effects my perspective. If my grandpa were still alive we would probably have this debate about photography. But as I have experienced in my own artistic journey. You should take the adventure of old and new technology!
"Technology is like oxygen" Principal~ from the documentary. What a great point. What if we all cut ourselves off from technology?!?!?!  Life would certainly be different. So I am really struggling with this need for children to do so many things with their computer and phones. To me our students are not great communicators due to a lack of personal "face to face" communicators. Then again, face to face communication being a priority seems to be a thing of the past. Haven't you been out with a group of people to dinner and there is that one person who can't seem to stop checking their phone. They seem to be missing out on the here and now. I think sometimes it is hard for our students to really focus in on one thing and be present in that thought. When they leave school, they breathe in that oxygen of technology. Students are used to going in so many different directions at once, both physically and mentally, that they struggle when asked to stop and focus on that one thought. I wonder what kind of scores our students would get on standardized tests if they were allowed to use their computers to answer? Not to cheat and look up the answers, but to use the different programs to create answers that applied their relevant knowledge in a way that worked for their communication of what they know.... Hmmm.
So enough ranting in many directions at once,I'm resembling the communication and thought processes of my students. There are so many ways these conversations could go. Overall, I know that it is me that needs to stop being set in my simplistic ways and get on board. Besides, it's pretty amazing what my students can teach me with technology. Now it's time to combine our teachings together into one big awesome brain. Their technology and ideas + my techniques = a fantastic team.
Don't you think?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

VTS 1 Week 2

Last weekend's class was great. I'm glad that I was able to be a part of practice with everyone. Due to an insane schedule and extra things piled on to the beginning of our year, my colleagues were not able to help me. So I will talk about our class session last weekend. Since i had not tried VTS before it was a bit nerve racking to try it out, but glad to see that others were also inexperienced with me. I must admit, it felt like teaching at home, you were just a bit taller with more knowledge ;)  I received positive feedback, and was glad to hear that even though I was nervous, it didn't show too much. It was so interesting to feel my brain going in so many directions at once. I was concerned that I would struggle a lot with the paraphrasing, but it kept getting better as I went. I noticed my brain was not only paraphrasing, analyzing what had been said, analyzing the art, but also it was thinking actively about how I was responding to everyone. As soon as I told one of you, "great job", my brain freaked and I thought wait, I've been saying good, I have to stick with one thing! This is such an actively engaging process for the students and the teachers. I really enjoyed the way we were all feeding off each others ideas, sometimes channeling our entertaining students, and learning from the way that each of us facilitated the discussion! Go Team :)


Well a little of an update on my group. I wanted to make sure I could see them twice before I picked a specific group. I am super excited about the group I have chosen to work with for our video sessions. I am still waiting on a few permission slips. I did run into a bit of a problem with the video. It is my district policy that no child can be video taped unless it is for national board certification, no exceptions. So I will only be able to video myself, but we will still be able to hear the kids responses. I was able to get most permission slip signed at curriculum night! They stated that parents were "acknowledging the fact that I was filming myself for my college class. Hopefully the rest show up Monday... fingers crossed. But this group is perfect for many reasons. All of these students are former students. No one has extreme visual impairments in this class. And they are already stepping in line to show what great listeners they are... as well as great conversationalists. I have a few story tellers in this group, but I did that on purpose :)  I can't wait to see what they say!  I will be giving my pre-assessment on Monday and then get to see this group again on Friday and we will conduct a live VTS session! Woo hoo   I love my 4th graders!  I have also decided to make sure to pre and post assess all of my 4th grade groups (4 classes total), to have great data to share with my staff next year as we begin to implement VTS school wide.
More updates to come!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

VTS 1: Week 1

I apologize for my late blogging, I finally found my info to get back into my blog :)

I teach K-5 art at an elementary school in Blue Springs, MO. I have about 525 students this year. Due to the changes in enrollment and the fact that I haven't met all of my classes yet, I have not made the final decision on the exact class yet. My basic idea and hope is to VTS one of my 4th grade classes. My classes are 22-25 students. I have only been working with the students at my school for the last 2 years. I know that VTS was "supposed" to be touched on by the teacher before me, but I believe she only did it with the older students, who have moved on to the middle school. We have done some art discussions, but 4th grade is where I typically start presenting the idea of art discussion "how to" and deeper discussions. As for art making most of these students have been making art with our school since Kindergarten.

These students will see me a total of 40ish visits this year. Their visits are 50 minutes long. Due to an extra "Friday Rotation" I will sometimes have the opportunity to see them twice a week. My classroom is hooked up with great technology tools. I have an interactive white board that I use often. My room id long and spread out. The student furthest from the board is about 20 feet away. This could pose a problem when paying attention to smaller details. I do not have enough room on the carpet in front of the team board for all their bodies. I am thinking I will offer those in the back to pull chairs forward, or sit on the floor. I have a lot to look at in my art room. I display many prints and hope to be better about changing them more frequently this year.

I am choosing 4th grade for several reasons. This seems to be the grade that I am most comfortable talking about art with. They are mature enough to discuss these ideas and have enough schema to help with the discussions. I also have noticed that my fifth graders seem to be more silly in their discussions about art. I am the VI (visually impaired) school for the district. Currently 4th grade has the least number of VI students, which works out best.

My assumptions are that this group will do well with discussions, just as they have in the past. I also assume that it is going to take some time for the students to become comfortable with the VTS techniques. I am also anticipating a challenge with my limited technology experience, especially with video taping. Time to learn something new! I am very lucky to have a supportive principal. My principal worked with Mary for several years and saw the benefits of VTS in their school. He is excited for me to learn this skill. I am also nervous because he wants me to teach the rest of my building how to VTS next school year, and we will have school wide implementation. I hope to have a decision made on my group fairly soon and report back with more information on my kiddos.