VTS 1 Week 14

Portrait of Possibility Revisited

Well, My story-teller friend moved at about week 8 :( It was hard to see much growth, but I really feel like this opened up a new avenue of communication for him. He was great verbally, but not written, and I think he would have become great with the written side as well with more practice. My hope was that this would help his peers understand him better, but he really struggled with focus factor on a few of the last vts sessions he was with me for. I still feel with more time his communication with his peers would have developed as well.

Mr. Self Confidence.
In some ways his self confidence did go up a bit, he is more willing to speak out and give responses especially during VTS sessions. The only thing is, he typically is repeating what someone else says and doesn't not seem to be able to voice an opinion of his own, he also has a hard time providing the evidence for his opinion during VTS. I'm not so sure that my plan is successful... YET- I still have hope that VTS will do great things for his self confidence.

Scaffolding and differentiation-
I think that VTS would be great in both areas for both of my boys. They need to build the language and schema for art. I also feel that VTS adapts itself to both thought processes- One very backwards way of thought and the other of not thinking for himself. I think VTS gave Mr. Story-teller the ability to explain himself in a way that others could better understand, While it is still working on helping Mr. Self Confidence learn to support his answers, and eventually he will be able to speak his own opinion.

 

AT 1 Week 11

My artistic process-
I cannot force this, it has to smack me upside the head. Currently I do very little art making, outside of k-5th lesson examples. But if I was to work on something in my studio, I usually get the urge when I'm driving. I like there to be some kind of noise in the background, either wordless music, or I used to listen to twister over and over. Something that is not distracting. I also do not like others to be a part of my serious personal art making. I prefer the door to be shut and we talk about it when I'm done. I usually get ideas from many compiled ideas, so there is going to be a lot of images of scraps of inspiration laying around. My studio is pretty well organized now, with bits and pieces of things that inspire me all around. One of the biggest parts of my artistic process is walking away for a while. May be a couple hours, days, or months. I find it always helps me to come at it with a fresh mind, especially when I'm nearing the end. I think the funniest part for me, is that I am never inspired when I am close to my studio or supplies, so I have little sketches and notes for ideas that will hopefully get used. My process is simple, I either have the idea and drive, or I have nothing and I need to wait for another day. The more relaxed and less busy I am the more the ideas flow. When my schedule is way to full and stress is on overdrive, I am not great with ideas. I work better in a clutter filled studio, when it's clean and organized, I am afraid I will mess it up and tend to be less free with myself. Piano playing is another part of my creative process. My piano is at my parents house, but I still like to go back home and play by myself. When I was younger, they music would lead me to ideas and help me de-stress my mind.

This is my studio, boxes, shelves and work spaces stacked with different projects/supplies. And in my chair is Pete, one of my studio assistants :)  Not my favorite colors, or good lighting, but it helps me get the job done.


Working in my un-artistic process way:

 I have not watercolor painted like this in a while... but it was nice to sit down and just work. The view off my back porch from my kitchen table.

 Wow, it still kind of worked for me, but i know my work would have been different. I am a multitasking type and today's scenario laid out perfect. I sat at the kitchen table while my sister-in-law worked on a cake in the kitchen. Periodically she come in and look at what I was painting, commenting as I worked (opposite number one). Then I worked with silence, (opposite number two)  with nothing else going on or working on (opposite number three). I was surprised at how much I cranked out in 30 minutes. I'm usually making examples at work and can hardly get anything done in 30 minutes due to the constant interruptions. Immediately I connected with my students, what is there ideal work environment. I know that my noisy social classroom like at my work, would not work for me. Wouldn't it be quite the utopia to have the perfect environment for each of our kiddos. They cannot have their electronic devices out at school, so it's not like they could listen to music, and they cannot agree on a style of music, so their background noise is conversations. I wonder what their work would be like if I could let them work in the hall or the courtyard and separate out, listening to music, or silence??? I also gained the insite that unless you have no one at home (for me at least) and could lock yourself away with no interruptions, there will always be something that messes up your perfect balance... In other words, we have to be able to adapt, be creative in multiple environments.

Developing a Craft:
Proposal- I have had this idea for a particular painting based off an image I love and a quote I enjoyed even more... Let me start off with the warning: I am a sappy romantic and enjoy making art about love... sorry if that's not something you enjoy, but I do!
So let me start by explaining the basics of the idea- it's been in the works for 2 1/2 to 3 years now. I hit a road block about every six months and then ditch the piece until the mood strikes me again. I think part of the reason I have ditched the idea so many times, is that as my life changes and love grows, my idea of what the piece should be changes.
The start, I saw a painting at BB&Beyond that I loved- beautiful blue/turquoise background, with white flower, similar to a dogwood, but with hints of oranges and pinks. Then I found this quote "the greatest love story ever told... I your own"  and I knew I needed that somewhere in the house. Well, I still enjoy the quote but am in search of a potentially different quote, and the flowers with their color scheme have changed so many times I want to burn the flowers idea... Looking potentially for something more figurative, or city scape or both. So that is where I am at. More to come as I now have a homework assignment to get into my studio! Yippee! this seems to be the only way I can really force myself to complete a project! Excited- why yes I am :)

Studies- I am thinking focusing on the use of literature with art, to elevate it, and the use of color with color exploration --- more to come as I decide.

Reflection- to come as I work.

Read and Reflect-"the stark reality is that today's kids just can't do one task without wanting to do a bunch of other things at the same time. It's a way of life for them" (Rosen p76). Well if that doesn't sum it up, I don't know what does. It was interesting to see what we can multitask vs. what we cannot multitask as much with. It makes sense that most can do the most multitasking with music, you aren't using as many thought processes with the music as you would be if you were texting or carrying on a conversation in person or by phone. In our art room, we multitask simply by working and talking. Often I remind them that they can do both at the same time. It is interesting to me that my super high-level thinkers can multitask in my room much better than those who are lower leveled thinkers. "Now the odd part about this situation is that he frontal loves of school-age children are not fully developed. Huge numbers of children, 'tweens,' and teens are multitasking with media and nonmedia tasks, but their multitasking brain centers are not working at a fully mature level." (Rosen 89). I cannot image how much better at multitasking they will be than we are by the time they are adults. This points also makes me think of my super chatty groups. I often have them drop to a whisper (many just stop talking) and they get more done. Every once in a while I will say no talking for the next 5 minutes, and then I will say, "How many of you got a lot done in the last 5 minutes." and we talk about how distracting their discussions can be. This is a tough subject, because I will never make my room no talking for more than 5 minutes. These students go all day without having much open discussion time, and it is amazing how many different ideas they share with each other. But they do get a lot more done if they are not talking. I like the idea that this multitasking is teaching them to self-regulate. If I have a student who is way behind because they are talking too much. I separate them, or have them work for a bit at recess without their friends, and we discuss how much they can do when they aren't so distracted. But I think it takes time and maturity to be able to self regulate, something that some of my really immature boys won't be able to do for years. I suppose that is where we step in and help them to understand how to regulate.

AT Week 7&8

Ibrain article- Read and React

As usual this article raises a lot of questions for me and gives some great perspective. I do feel that I am stuck between being a digital native (thus growing up in the time) but with the feelings and abilities of a digital immigrant. "Movies had a profound social, political and emotional impact on society. However, the effect on our brain wiring was relatively minimal because the exposure was limited. Most people went to the movies for only a couple of hours a week at most." (IBrain, 14) Back during my parents childhood, technology was there, but not shoved down their throats every second of every day. I am so used to be plugged in 24-7 that I actually enjoy being unplugged. I am looking forward to my vacation at the end of December when I plan to be totally unplugged and be able to just drop off the digital map for a week. Our students don't know what it is like to go a day without be plugged in, in some way or another. Can you imagine if they had been around for the ice storm in I think 2008, we had no power for a week straight. I'm not sure that today's child would know how to entertain themselves if they were totally cut off for a week. "Our high-tech revolution has plunged us into a state of continuous partial attention, which software executive Linda stone describes as continually staying busy- keeping tabs on everything while never truly focusing on anything." (IBrain 18).  I know that my personality lends itself to being much older than my actual age. I struggle everyday with the changes that society are making socially acceptable, and the way old traditional ways are being left behind. As my husband said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I couldn't agree more. I know that technology has made many parts of my life easier, but i also feel technology has thrown us into a much more complexly functioning society! Call me old fashioned, but I feel our students are missing out on so much, yet others would tell me to get on the train, because it's leaving the station with or without me. If I want to do what is best for my students I must continue to fight for the things I believe in but also adapt to the changing world they are growing up in.

It is interesting to me that we are so okay with our students functioning in so many directions at once.
"This new form of mental stress, what I term techno-brain burn-out, is threatening to become an epidemic." (Ibrain 19). I keep waiting for the ball to drop and the younger generation to get burned out and ready to try life from the perspective of their grandparents. This quote fits perfectly, "That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another"- Adlai Stevenson. If I can't figure out how to do something, my students can show me in a heartbeat. Its truly fascinating what they do understand how to do, yet there are so many basic functions that they do not know how to do. For example, I agree with my colleague Michelle, that the use of cursive handwriting is very much an outward artistic expression. Cursive is no longer taught in my school, better yet, decent penmanship is hardly valued. I struggle to read my students names who are in 4th and 5th grade. I mean seriously, when I was a kid, they told me I had to practice my handwriting (in one of those scripted books) for 20 minutes a day until it was better. Things such as reading writing and multiplication are changing.

Imagine what the world will be like in 30 years, when those who cannot write, or do simple math with great easy are running the world... Or how about communication- Technology has totally changed they way we communicate. Even I have terrible communication etiquette compared to my grandparents. "These Digital Natives have defined a new culture of communication- no longer dictated by time, place or even how one looks at the moment unless they're video chatting or posting photographs of themselves on MySpace. " (IBrain 20).  Now it is okay to communicate with multiple people at once, in short spurts of words that rarely make complete sentences. "People are not solidifying the normal neural pathways their brain need to develop traditional face-to-face communication skills." (IBrain 30 ) Once upon a time we valued spending quality conversation times with those who we valued and loved. Now people won't even put their cell phones away long enough to make it through a date. "Digital natives has grown up immersed in technology that continually becomes more powerful and compact- literally, cyberspace in their pockets. They multitask and parallel process with ease, and their access to visual and auditory stimulation has programmed their brains to crave instant gratification.... Digital Natives tend to have shorter attention spans, especially when faced with traditional forms of learning." (brain 24-25) I will admit there are so many amazing things that technology has brought us, like the ability to skype with our cousin when he was deployed overseas. But watching my students struggle with basic things like writing their name on their paper and spelling things correctly, but they can easily find letters on the key board, and let spell check do the brain work for them is maddening.

Video games is typically a topic where I truly show my "old fart" attitude. I'm sure I voiced this before, I have students who literally do not understand how to tap into their imaginations. They go home everyday and play video games and watch TV for hours, and almost never step foot outside. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are good things coming from video games, but I have yet to see that positive effect on my students. "The visual and mental stimulation of playing a video game is not unlike searching a web browser or sorting through and responding to dozens of emails- two typical daily computer activities." (Ibrain 39) At least I know they can sift through information, but are they learning how to sift through that info with the ability to filter out what is important and what is not? "Scientists and game designers are developing new uses for video games that teach standard school curricula and other useful cognitive skills."  (IBrain 40) This is great, but the only times I've seen this is for toddlers to kindergartners. My parents bought me one computer game as a child, it was a math game. Yes we defeated the bad guy, but we did it with academics, not explosives. I am all for giving students educational games over the crap that half of them play. There are too many people that use these games as a babysitting tool. Limiting their use of the technical devices wouldn't hurt, have them go outside and explore.

The only way this technology will be totally beneficial is if we meet in the middle. We need to integrate the old with the new. "We need to help digital natives learn to advance their interpersonal skills and teach digital immigrants to hone their technology skills." (Ibrain 46).  The natives have a lot to teach, but they also have a lot to learn, and the same ca be said for the immigrants.

VTS 1 Week 13

DI- another lovely buzz word! This was actually brought up at my evaluation the other day... They would like to see me challenge some of my students more... My first thought was , "Are you mad, I have 560 students, when do I have time to create all those different things?!?!?"  So I have been thinking on this a lot and was extremely excited to see it was the topic for week 14 :)

DI-with VTS- woo! Way to kill two birds with one stone!
To me VTS gives all of my different thinkers the ability to think on their level, but also be a part of the thought processes of students who are on high levels of thought. My focus group does not contain a large spectrum of learning levels, only about 4. But I am happy to see that some of my basic thinkers are able to listen to their peers (especially the high leveled peers) and begin to understand what they are thinking. They are also actively participating and connecting to these ideas. What a great example for these basic thinkers to have.
For example- I have a student, student S, and she rarely participates in the discussions, she only wrote 2 sentences for her pre/post vts assessments. Basically she does the bare minimum to get by and tries to fly under the radar and not get noticed. Then there is student C, she is a very high level thinker. When she responds to the questions, and usually has more than one response to provide for each vts session, she has a well thought out answer with a lot of evidence of  her thinking. She is also a very outside of the box thinking, high achiever, and for the pre/post vts writing assessments, she practically filled both pages. Well during one of my first lessons I was VTSing this image:
http://vtsweb.org/lessons/g301#
sorry could only copy a short cut, but it is from VTS curricula, Grade 3-5 first year, lesson 1, the image of a person lying in bed.
So student C gives her opinion of the image, and one of the things she points out was the photos on the wall, and the dresser. She believes that the 2 photos on the wall are the girl in the beds grandparents. Then the picture on the dresser is the girls husband. She explains ow this is her mother taking care of her and that she is sick. and that the little boy by the foot of the bed is her son. Then all of sudden student S raisers her hand and says I agree with student C, but I don't think the girl in the bed is sick, maybe her husband died and she is sad in bed. That would make sense for the mother to take care of her and her son to want to be with her too. I have to say, I really don't think student S would have been able to come up with that answer, without student C helping her connect some of the dots.
Another example would be when I decided to VTS with my first grade students for the first time... during the end of a class that I was being evaluated for... why I thought this was a good idea, i don't know, but at least it didn't totally train wreck. I will add my image that we VTSed latter, it's on my work computer.
But the basic overview was a painting of 3 Native American men on horses, but the horses were just standing in the middle of the water. The first few kids simply listed off things they were seeing, but then one students say he thought that the Indians were heading home and maybe got lost, when I asked him to provide evidence he said because they all seem to be looking in one directions like they thought home was that way, but that he thought they were lost because it didn't make sense that they were just standing in the middle of water. This totally opened up our discussion, tons of hands shot up... the next one said no they are hunting, see his spear in his hand, and they must be looking at an animal over there, and I think the horse is helping them, because he is looking down at the fish swimming around his feet. At that point the possibilities kept growing, but it took a high level thinking to show some of the others that there was a possible story in the painting, not just things.

I'm still working on the whole DI idea, because to me I was differentiating my instruction all the time to all the kids, I had not been making things more challenging for my students who needed it. I think my biggest problem here is time. My class is only 50 minutes, and getting around to everyone at least once is difficult because I have a lot of students who seem to struggle with taking steps without my opinion. "mrs. schotte does this look okay, is this right, like this?"  and I am trying so hard to break them of this need, but wow they are really consistent with this need. I think my 5th graders are the worst, maybe it's their developmental stage, but it can really cause trouble with me making it around to help all my students. I would love any suggestions you might have. I feel like my students are not quit self sufficient enough for me to really be able to push some of them (without great help and explanation)?

 

 

VTS 1 Week 12

Scaffolding- Wow how had I forgot about this education technique (buzz word)! We do all of these things, but I definitely liked the tie to the idea of vocabulary. In the movie, he was able to use that vocabulary word "palette" to help aide in the students knowledge and discussion. When I first started VTS I was afraid to do this, now I have tried to be better about using this conditional language and vocabulary with the hopes that it rubs off on their brains!

Here is the link to my last VTS session with my 4th graders:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4amcXpUTgc

I used my teacher's choice image from weeks 9 & 11. Overall it went very well. I have noticed that they seem to be getting burned out on VTSing so frequently, so there were so cheers as I told them this was the last time I would be video taping and that we would soon be slowing down on the frequency of VTS. I feel bad for not spending as much time, but we don't have a lot of art making time, and that what they really enjoy doing. A few new kiddos chimed in on this lesson, I think it is simply based on interest in the piece, and others that usually have great input were quiet.
*On a side note, my little story telling friend from this group moved a few weeks ago, and I wish we could have VTSed this image before he moved. I bet he would have had a great narrative!
I still feel that this image was appropriate for my students, considering their learning stage. I do however feel it would have suited better to use during my "Chinese New Year" unit. I think the biggest challenge for them was the idea of weather or not the dragons were alive. They kept getting stuck and respectfully arguing why they thought it was a parade or not. Unfortunately this led to a lot of repeated ideas. I do feel that this repetition of ideas did act as a scaffolding for myself and the students, repeating the ideas, the pause and review, as well as repeatedly pointing out specific details.
I really enjoyed VTSing the image and I'm interested in using with 3rd grade as well during our Chinese new year unit.
We VTSed our image at the end of class, so that had to clean up a few minutes early. I think that this changed some of their attitudes and focus ability. This class seems to do much better at the beginning of class.

VTS 1 Week 11

I really enjoyed the article about the 5 different stages, it's funny because I can totally categorize each stage to fit a different age group of students. I find it interesting that my students are still very much in stage 1-Accountive- list makers, but I have been seeing glimpses of stage 2-Constructive- relating to their schema. The image below is what I used for my 4th graders and it was interesting so see how they used their schema from the past when we studied Chinese new year.


The Dragon Leaps Around in the Grand Occasion

By Zhang Qing-Yi

This what I used for my teacher's choice. As I had discussed in Week 10, I picked this knowing that it has a lot going on in the picture. I also knew their schema might come in handy. They are at stage 1 as they list all the different things, but they moved to stage 2 as they tried to explain what was happening with the people and the dragons, resorting to their schema about the Chinese New Year.
We are currently finishing up our aboriginal art unit, and I really think this will give my students a different style/culture of art to view and discuss. My concern is that as they tend to do, they will get stuck on two different ideas and argue them to death. I know that the intrigue of dragons will pull in some of my quiet boys .

 

 

AT Week 9

Here is the link to my screenr of my Avatar
The program was giving me fits and i never could get it to publish after starting over 3 times! So here I am, not exactly me, but a fun likeness!

http://screenr.com/Ews7



I am pleased to say that I am not totally stuck on the idea of dislike anymore, some of what we have talked about and read is helping me to see both sides of the fence.

Possibilities-Virtual World= i do love the idea of the avatar- I also like how brooks-young brought up the point that this is a great opportunity to address web safety as well as address the idea of image. I feel like this would be a good time to team up with the counselor at the elementary level and have her do some focused lessons on both prior to students building their avatar. The Avatar I built wasn't my favorite or as user friendly as I would like for my elementary leveled students, but I think will some searching there might be easier to use programs. This would be a great time to discuss how appearance is self expression at it's best, especially with my 5th graders. Whyville sounded like a great way to connect the students while they are in a very education friendly environment with great curriculum related choices.
Gaming="Students believe that there is value in using gaming technologies in school. The top reason they give are that games can be used to teach difficult concepts and that they are engaging." (Brooks-Young 89) The structure of a game closely resembles the structure of a well designed lesson plan. This is an interesting thought to me. It is true, a great lesson gives a prompt, challenge, and feedback just as a video game does. I think the instant feedback caters to this need for instant gratification that our youth have today. I like the idea of role-playing with games. It would be cool to have students role play with their avatars maybe as the artists or the teachers, teaching other avatar students about the art subject/artist of their choosing.
Limitations-Money, time, Internet access (things are blocked at school), permission- Once you get past these limitations that I typically face in my school, there are other limitations that any teacher could face. I also feel a huge limitation is that my students are computer savvy to an extent, but i wonder how well they would do with making an avatar. My thought is, there is 25 of them and only one of me for 50 minutes, which is not a lot of time to solve problems. I think to alleviate this problem I would have to make step by step instructions with pictures for each student to follow. Potentially get a volunteer to help in the computer lab during this time. I know that time is a big limitation. My students see me 50 minutes a week. We get around 40 meeting times a year. It would be nice if I could teach them how to do it, and then assign the play for homework, but due to district policy, my students are only give grades as follows: Plus or minus for behavior and effort. I highly doubt many of them would do this homework in 5th grade. I wish I could say that parents value the arts enough to have their kids do it for homework, but its all I can do to get them to finish their yearbook cover contest homework once a year. Sad but true. It was interesting to read the "common objections to classroom use of online and video games" section. It was like finding the suggested answers to every question I was thinking!  I still feel that even with the offered suggestions, this would be a bit of a hurdle to implement, if I can get over those hurdles, it would be a fantastic learning opportunity for my students as well as myself. And hopefully some bonus points.