Eisner made several great points in chapters 3 & 4. I felt like he was going over a list of basic but essential ideas and attitudes that they teacher needs to embrace (also a great reminder). I once again found myself ping off things we had talked about in Studio class or things that would be beneficial to me in the studio class. I really enjoyed Eisner's evaluation of the materials we use, "This doing represents a transformation of a material into a medium. Materials become media when they mediate... They mediate the aims and choices the individual makes." (Eisner 2002) When I make art other than for my students I don't typically let the supplies lead my art making decisions, but after a lot of thought in this matter, I am interested to see what changes I can make in my curriculum by simply changing the medium, and how this decision will affect the outcome of our projects.
For a good portion of the reading I kept thinking how I would enjoy being a fly on the wall of other's art rooms... see how they speak with students etc. "What a teacher says to assist a student can either advance or undermine they student's ability to solve the problem at hand."(Eisner 2002) I am constantly interacting with my students, but I am concerned that sometimes conversations we have may lead them in the wrong direction. I know that this knowledge comes with time, I feel that I'm much better than I was when I started three years ago, but i also remember how I felt when the conversation didn't go well with my teachers in school. It would be interesting to see maybe a documentary simply on the discussion of art with younger students, outside of VTS.
Eisner also offered an interesting thought process on what kinds of environments we create for students, we need to create an environment where they can create, risk take and learn from their failures. His example of using Mars as a creative place for students to think about being, allows students to create without a lot of preconceived image of "exactly" what something should look like- they can be more creative without that fear of failure. The last thing that really stuck with me was this quote: "We need to treat teaching as a from of personal research." (Eisner 2002). This part of the chapter was interesting about how teachers find ways to make their job professionally easier and then get stuck in a rut, well this describes 1/2 of my department well, many are not risk takers, they are waiting for retirement-ers. It is has be so important to my journey as an artist and especially my journey as a teacher to stay fresh on the new things happening in the art world. I like this idea of treating my career as my education- forever learning. This idea may need to be given and remind so many teachers out there about the gifts of teaching.
More from the reading to come later- I need to make better sense of the late night readings before I post.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Read & React day 1
What a great first day, and tonight my brain is hurting in a good way, let the fun begin!
The Eisner text was so rich with information, art advocacy that I found it hard to speak to only a few of the points. Many of his points need to be displayed in the art room!
The first point that Eisner made over and over was how art is this essential part of life, how we all need it. For example, "Experience is central to growth because experience is the medium of education." (Eisner 2002) and "For young children the sensory world is a source of satisfaction, and imagination a source of exploratory delight." (Eisner 2002) Both of these speak to art being a basic need and how important art is for young children. When you speak of a world of sensory delight, I immediately think of K1, my kiddo that I discussed a lot last summer. He is legally blind, but as the year progressed he was able to even identify colors. But often times while we are working, we have to remind him to look at what he is doing, he still very much relies on all of his senses except vision and absolutely loves art.
Many times while reading the text, I felt that Eisner was making a references that are very relevant to what the common core is trying to do (which we have been doing all along), "The inscription of visual images makes vivid certain relationships. They help us to notice and understand a particular environment and our place in it." (Eisner 2002) and "Similarly, if students are to learn to see and talk about visual qualities, they need occasions for such seeing and talking. (Eisner 2002). When students are given the repeated opportunities to talk about something and really take in the information given they are going to be so much more successful. Much of the first two chapters screamed for the need of Mary and VTS!
After our Symposium I'm hooked on Gude, but the Learning in a Visual Age article brought up many great points for the need for visual arts. The most important being that we bring to the table what most other classes do not. "They are also taught a remarkable array of habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools. These habits include observing, envisioning, innovating and reflecting " (learning in a visual age). As art teachers we need to know that we can provide students with tools that they will be looking for in the job force, creativity and innovation were brought up as important things that employers seek.
One last very important quote spoke to me for many reasons: "Gude has created public art that represents school curriculum and community values. She wonders: 'Why shouldn't every high quality school itself with products of student creativity?" (learning in a visual age). This speaks to the ideas we are discussing that art also needs to be presented. We need to give students the time and space to share and discuss and defend their artistic thinking even at a very young age. This also reinforces my own schools need to ignore what my administrator says and hang art EVERYWHERE! I have been pondering on the idea that we would take art walks through the school and use them to discuss our art, as well as others. Use that time to identify where we see art that we wouldn't think we see art, such as taking a google street view walk and seeing what kind of art is in the city.
Pick a spark
Many of the sparks I was thinking about for myself personally, especially for our studio class, what a perfect time for these. But the one I chose for my students was "Yes and... never say no to an idea." I have chosen this spark for several reasons, I feel it will help my students get past their over awareness of how everyone including themselves, may judge their work. I also feel that my students are too often focused on if it is going out in the hall and once again how others will see this art. First I would start with "ideas" that my students and myself have been randomly putting together. Each child will pull an idea from the hat and no matte what, they need to make art about that idea, no matter how weird or silly this idea seems. This exercise repeated over time will help my students stop worrying so much about what others think, I also think they can sometimes have a hard time coming up with what they think is a good idea. This activity allows them to be more open to ideas in the future, allowing their creativity to flow without that protective block, it allows them to say yes to more ideas that are suggested by their peers.
The Eisner text was so rich with information, art advocacy that I found it hard to speak to only a few of the points. Many of his points need to be displayed in the art room!
The first point that Eisner made over and over was how art is this essential part of life, how we all need it. For example, "Experience is central to growth because experience is the medium of education." (Eisner 2002) and "For young children the sensory world is a source of satisfaction, and imagination a source of exploratory delight." (Eisner 2002) Both of these speak to art being a basic need and how important art is for young children. When you speak of a world of sensory delight, I immediately think of K1, my kiddo that I discussed a lot last summer. He is legally blind, but as the year progressed he was able to even identify colors. But often times while we are working, we have to remind him to look at what he is doing, he still very much relies on all of his senses except vision and absolutely loves art.
Many times while reading the text, I felt that Eisner was making a references that are very relevant to what the common core is trying to do (which we have been doing all along), "The inscription of visual images makes vivid certain relationships. They help us to notice and understand a particular environment and our place in it." (Eisner 2002) and "Similarly, if students are to learn to see and talk about visual qualities, they need occasions for such seeing and talking. (Eisner 2002). When students are given the repeated opportunities to talk about something and really take in the information given they are going to be so much more successful. Much of the first two chapters screamed for the need of Mary and VTS!
After our Symposium I'm hooked on Gude, but the Learning in a Visual Age article brought up many great points for the need for visual arts. The most important being that we bring to the table what most other classes do not. "They are also taught a remarkable array of habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools. These habits include observing, envisioning, innovating and reflecting " (learning in a visual age). As art teachers we need to know that we can provide students with tools that they will be looking for in the job force, creativity and innovation were brought up as important things that employers seek.
One last very important quote spoke to me for many reasons: "Gude has created public art that represents school curriculum and community values. She wonders: 'Why shouldn't every high quality school itself with products of student creativity?" (learning in a visual age). This speaks to the ideas we are discussing that art also needs to be presented. We need to give students the time and space to share and discuss and defend their artistic thinking even at a very young age. This also reinforces my own schools need to ignore what my administrator says and hang art EVERYWHERE! I have been pondering on the idea that we would take art walks through the school and use them to discuss our art, as well as others. Use that time to identify where we see art that we wouldn't think we see art, such as taking a google street view walk and seeing what kind of art is in the city.
Pick a spark
Many of the sparks I was thinking about for myself personally, especially for our studio class, what a perfect time for these. But the one I chose for my students was "Yes and... never say no to an idea." I have chosen this spark for several reasons, I feel it will help my students get past their over awareness of how everyone including themselves, may judge their work. I also feel that my students are too often focused on if it is going out in the hall and once again how others will see this art. First I would start with "ideas" that my students and myself have been randomly putting together. Each child will pull an idea from the hat and no matte what, they need to make art about that idea, no matter how weird or silly this idea seems. This exercise repeated over time will help my students stop worrying so much about what others think, I also think they can sometimes have a hard time coming up with what they think is a good idea. This activity allows them to be more open to ideas in the future, allowing their creativity to flow without that protective block, it allows them to say yes to more ideas that are suggested by their peers.
Monday, December 10, 2012
AT Week 14
Gude!
Quote: Consider whether ALL your curriculum projects engage students in making meaning through meaningful making
What are the classroom implications for this statement? Describe how this might relate to your classroom experiences or how you predict this affecting classrooms of the future.
I agree and disagree. I agree that my students would hugely benefit from being more meaningful art makers. This would help with their creativity, willingness and openness to self expression, and self confidence as artists. I also feel that this would help them become better at art discussions. On the other hand (and this might simply be from inexperience) I'm not so sure that all curriculum needs to be meaningful. What about something taught for the simplicity of the technique or for just plain fun? This is one of those thoughts in which you most ponder on for a period of time, and I feel the more I learn, the more I will lean towards totally agreeing with Gude.
This was not a hard choice, Gude's suggestions are not at all how I run my studio or my classroom. She is a newer resource to me, and even though I enjoy her thoughts and points, She is very opposite of the way I was taught and currently think. I often teach my students about a style or culture of art, then we create art guided by the ideas and similarities of that style/artist. What is super ridiculous is that most of my skills were taught to me in college by mimicking style, with the hopes of learning from that experience ~ I never questioned why I was asked to learn this way! Wow- powerful moment here knowing that I was taught this way by people I respected in college, therefore I taught my students in the same manner without ever asking why!!! I wonder if this does make my students feel fraud? I cannot agree or disagree with this statement because it never made me feel fraud, like I was doing it for my teacher. It taught me techniques and strategies to my art making that have made me a better artist. I do however feel that this idea of meaningful art making over mimicking a style would be beneficial in the ways that I pointed out at the top. I think that this is an area that is not pursued enough by teachers and students, or myself.
Quote: Consider whether ALL your curriculum projects engage students in making meaning through meaningful making
What are the classroom implications for this statement? Describe how this might relate to your classroom experiences or how you predict this affecting classrooms of the future.
This would change curriculum's greatly. Currently my curriculum is based off the GLE's and standards. As Gude said these standards were made for what seemed best at the time. Now things have changed drastically, especially considering what technology had brought to the classrooms. I can definitely see curriculum's being redesigned and teachers be trained on meaningful art making. When i was young I don't recall being taught how to be a meaningful art makers. My high school art program was designed from an ancient curriculum and she still teaches the exact same lessons... almost 10 years later. I feel like I need a class on making meaning with my art, more conceptual art (woo hoo summer studio)! I can't even begin to image how different my lesson would look and my students would also function differently.
Do
you agree or disagree with her statement or stance? Provide
evidence to support or illustrate your thinking through examples.I agree and disagree. I agree that my students would hugely benefit from being more meaningful art makers. This would help with their creativity, willingness and openness to self expression, and self confidence as artists. I also feel that this would help them become better at art discussions. On the other hand (and this might simply be from inexperience) I'm not so sure that all curriculum needs to be meaningful. What about something taught for the simplicity of the technique or for just plain fun? This is one of those thoughts in which you most ponder on for a period of time, and I feel the more I learn, the more I will lean towards totally agreeing with Gude.
VALUE
ONE
engaging
mess over keeping things neat
This is the value that comes closet to aligning with my own personal art making. I love the photos from the spiral workshop of the students learning from the mess. I like to play with nature and watercolor this way. I think if I was to run my classroom in this manner, well I would drive my administrators nuts. But putting that aside, This engaging myself with mess and what comes of it, has made me a more curious artist. Implementing this technique in the classroom would do great things for some and, as usual, cause problematic struggles for others. Maybe these struggles would teach them to work through the hurdles in their own work. This would make them more adventurous learners and explorers of art.
VALUE
TWO
Value:
authentic artistic processes, over mimicking styles
- Does the project re-create the actual experience of the antecedent art?
- Am I asking students to participate in “feeling fraud?”
- Feeling Fraud: pretending to experience and represent
- Feeling Fraud: playacting meaning making for the sake of the teacher
This was not a hard choice, Gude's suggestions are not at all how I run my studio or my classroom. She is a newer resource to me, and even though I enjoy her thoughts and points, She is very opposite of the way I was taught and currently think. I often teach my students about a style or culture of art, then we create art guided by the ideas and similarities of that style/artist. What is super ridiculous is that most of my skills were taught to me in college by mimicking style, with the hopes of learning from that experience ~ I never questioned why I was asked to learn this way! Wow- powerful moment here knowing that I was taught this way by people I respected in college, therefore I taught my students in the same manner without ever asking why!!! I wonder if this does make my students feel fraud? I cannot agree or disagree with this statement because it never made me feel fraud, like I was doing it for my teacher. It taught me techniques and strategies to my art making that have made me a better artist. I do however feel that this idea of meaningful art making over mimicking a style would be beneficial in the ways that I pointed out at the top. I think that this is an area that is not pursued enough by teachers and students, or myself.
AT Final Project
1.
NAME: Kelley Schotte
2.
TITLE OF LESSON:
Artistic Exploration
3.
GRADE LEVEL (S): 5th
grade
4.
STANDARDS:
·
NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS
STANDARDS: Content standard 1:
Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes.
·
SHOWME VISUAL ARTS
STANDARDS: Goal 1.Students in
Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather,
analyze and apply information and ideas. Goal 2. Students in Missouri public
schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within
and beyond classroom.
·
GRADE LEVEL
EXPECTATIONS (GLEs):S.III.1.A.
Discuss and develop answers to questions about art, such as: Who decides what
makes an artwork special, valuable or good. S.V.1.B. Compare and contrast two
artworks on: Time, place, subject matter, Media, Use of elements, Theme,
Purpose of art in culture, Use of materials and technology.
5.
RATIONALE and GOALS FOR
THIS LESSON:
·
Why is this
important to teach? It is important to teach students how to
“scratch” and where to scratch for ideas. This project leads them through this
process, while educating their peers about the art that interests them.
·
What do you hope to
accomplish? I hope to show students
that they can easily teach one another. I also hope to accomplish excitement
for art exploration that is based on the students’ interest.
6.
ENDURING BIG IDEA:
(Define the BIG IDEA)
·
What is the big idea
that is being investigated in this lesson? Artistic exploration based on the students artist/time period/style
choice through research
·
How will you connect
the big ideas about art and artists’ work with the art making part of this
lesson? Students will learn the
connection between the artist/time period/style they choose with the art piece
they make. They will be learning the in’s and out’s of that process and making
their own art piece to reflect what they have learned from that artist/time
period/style.
7.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
·
What questions guide
the lesson? Students need to be
asking, “What am I interested in as an artist? What inspires me? How can I show
this through my art?”
·
What will students
discover and investigate? Students
will investigate the artist/time period/style of their choice. They will also
investigate how this choice can inspire their work.
·
What will you ask
that will guide the purposeful exploration of materials that will produce
meaningful content to the creative production? “What is it about this artist/time period/style that
inspires you? What have you learned from it that can be applied in your work?
Is there a particular message or idea that you want your art to convey?”
8.
KNOWLEDGE BASE AND KEY
CONCEPTS:
·
What will students
learn and KNOW about art and art making from this lesson?
o
Information and
background on their artist/time period/style.
o
Need techniques with
the media of their choice.
o
How to present information
to their peers.
o
How and where to
scratch for information and inspiration.
·
What will they learn
from the art history and criticism discussion?
o
Students will learn to
actively engage with other art by provide constructive criticism of their
research and art work.
o
Students will be
engaged in the learning about one particular artist/time period/style and all
of its history.
·
What will they learn
from the art production part of the lesson?
o
Students will learn new
techniques in the media of their choice, while using their inspiration to
produce their own piece.
9.
OBJECTIVES:
o
TSW research an
artist/time period/style of their choice.
o
TSW present information
to their peers using voice threads technology.
o
TSW create an artwork
inspired by their research using the media of their choice.
o
TSW learn about their
peer’s choice, as well as view their art, give constructive criticism through
the use of voice threads.
10. VOCABULARY:
·
Voice Thread- online
interactive presentation classroom.
·
More vocabulary
opportunities will arise as they research, they will be addressed at that time.
11. LESSON VIGNETTE: Ideally the art teacher as well as
the computer teacher would actually carry out this lesson. During computer
specials, students will learn how to research their artist/time period/style.
They will then learn how to step-by-step use voice threads to create a
presentation and respond to others presentations. Both the computers teacher
and myself will be actively working together as well as providing feedback in
real time and on their voice thread presentation.
·
Anticipatory Set-
o
Students will view a
voice threads presentation from the teachers’ choice of artist/time
period/style. They will also be able to view the teachers’ art created from the
inspiration gained in the process.
o
What questions can
you ask the students that will engage them and lead them to an understanding of
the ideas in the lesson? Look as
some of the examples of art around the room~ what do you like and dislike about
them? Which ones inspire you? Which ones make you curious to know about their
story/artist/history?
o
What questions will
you pose about the art they view? When
you are looking at the art, I want you to answer this question, “Could this
artist/art work inspire me to make my own art?”
o
What questions will you
use to put students in a position to understand the concepts, skills and
techniques involved in your studio activity? As you find the top 6 pieces that interest you, ask yourself the
following questions: What do they have in common? Are they made during the same
time period? Are they made by the same artist? Are they the same style of art?
What do I enjoy about all these pieces, their color choice, subject matter?
With these things in mind student and art teacher will sit down and pick one
specific artist/time period/style for the student to further research.
·
Body of lesson-
o
Day 1 Computer lab- begin research to learn more about your choice of
artist/time period/style.
o
Day 2 Computer lab- Learn how to create a voice thread presentation.
Homework to research at home, finding at
least 4 facts outside of class time.
o
Day 3 Computer lab- research further saving picture and information
that you feel need to be in your presentation.
o
Day 4 Computer lab- Complete voice threads presentation. (Required
minimum length- 2 minutes, using at least 7 different slides with picture and
information about your artist/time period/style.
o
Day 1 Art- Brain storm how your artist/time period/style has
inspired you. What would you like to make? How will your art reflect what you have
learned and how the artist/time period/style influenced you? What art supplies
do you need to carry out this project? One on one check in with the art
teacher.
o
Day 2-5 Art- create a piece of art that is inspired by your
artist/time period/style.
o
Day 5 art- complete artist statement
o
Day 4-5
art homework- view at least 10
classmates’ presentations. Commenting in a constructive manner somewhere in
their presentation.
o
Day 9 Computers-Type artist statement.
·
Closure-
o
Day 6 art- Live art gallery, students will spend time looking
at each other’s pieces reading their artist statements, and giving constructive
criticism on sticky notes as they view the art.
§
Turn in the
following:
§
Research notes
§
Final art piece with
artist statement
§
Sticky note feed back
left by your fellow artists.
§
Homework- Answer the following questions and turn in the
following art class:
§
If I could do this
project again, what would I change?
§
Who/what would I
research next time?
§
What was a great thing
one of my peers did with their art project?
12. ASSESSMENT/RUBRIC:
·
Students will be
assessed on the following:
1.
Researching their
artist- participation in and out of class.
2.
Creating a presentation
with the new technology of voice thread. Minimum length: 2 minutes, 7 different
slides.
3.
Providing constructive
criticism to peers presentations, minimum of 10 posts.
4.
Creating a piece of art
that reflect what you have learned, as well as how you are inspired by your
artist/time period/style.
5.
Create a reflective
artist statement ready for presentation.
6.
Actively engaging with
others artwork and providing feedback to all peers artwork.
7.
Completing a reflection
of what if.
13. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND ADAPTATIONS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS:
·
How will you
differentiate for your diverse classroom population? Knowing my students well, I will guide them toward
the topic that will challenge time as a researcher and an artist.
·
How will you keep
students engaged? Students will be
checking in with art and computer teachers throughout the process, as well as
being partnered with someone in class to give active feedback and ideas.
·
What will you do to
challenge students who are highly talented? Those who are highly talented will be challenged to step outside of
their creative box and push themselves with new ideas and techniques.
·
What have you
planned for those who finish early?
For those who finish early, they will need to spend sometime looking at what
their peers are doing, and then going back to their piece to assess what more
can they do to their piece. If more time is still available, they will be
challenged to create a game that teachers their peers about their artist/time
period/style, for example, a crossword, word search, word scramble for
vocabulary.
14. MATERIALS, TEACHING RESOURCES/REFERENCES:
·
Materials needed for
this project include internet access with the ability to record themselves
talking, Art supplies that each student chooses to work with, clay, paint,
drawing tools etc. Students need to be able to access www.voicethreads.com. The teacher will
need to gather a lot of artwork, and label them with artist, time period and
style for students to pick their choice.
15. PREPARATION REQUIRED:
·
What materials,
tools, and resources do you need for this class? Time needs to be spent in the computer lab with both
teachers making sure they can find websites that are safe, and reliable for
students to research with. Teachers also need to make sure all the voice thread
program elements are working correctly at school.
·
What do you need to
practice and prepare for this lesson? Both
teachers will prepare a presentation on their artist/time period/style as well
as a piece of art inspired by their research.
16. TEACHER REFLECTION: How will you know that this
lesson is successful and meaningful? List indicators.
·
Constant student
feedback is the number on indicator of what they are learning and what is
meaningful for them with this process.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
AT Week 13
Stretching Exploring and PLAY!
Read and React~
Well this weeks readings make me smile- One of my books I read for this class was all about Play! I love the idea of the freedom that play provides our students. It helps them to grow and experiment, and most importantly learn. I am loving the idea of "Jason's" ceramics play assignment~ This is my assignment to myself tomorrow when I get to work, simply playing with the clay to see where it leads me and what ideas it leads me to, without the thought of a finished project idea- Just good old fashioned play :)
Which brings me to another thought that I kept having during this unit and if I don't get it out now, I will not be able to focus on the rest of the assignments at hand. So here was my thought.... What if my room was for artistic play? What if I could teach art for elementary kids in a way that resembles middle/high school level? What if my lessons were more open and not so regimented and structured? What would that look like you and I both are asking~ maybe instead of a seating chart we would simply have play stations. These stations would hold different media for students to play and become familiar with. The idea being that they I could still use my curriculum and standards to guide us, but they would not be working at the same assignment as another student. Maybe that means I would need to have video prompts with information about the particular media they are playing with, like mini lectures with the research links so that students could spend time using their brain to learn and play! Ha it sounds so Artopia- but doable...
What stands in the way? It has to connect to the required gle's etc. Can a kindergarten student handle this... Maybe with practice, or is this too much of an independent work time all year for my elementary kids?!?! Also I feel a lot of 3-d projects would emerge from this exploration, how am I going to store all of that?
This could be a really cool way for me to run my 3-5 grade classes, but it would be difficult to change out the stations everyday to prep for a totally different style of teaching for K-2.
Any thoughts/idea/creative input would be greatly appreciated :)
Back to the reading. So I really enjoyed the idea of the teacher who had her kids "sketching with clay" and creating things just to smash it. Ahhh this could open some amazing doors for some of my kids, yet cause major melt downs for others. This idea of stretching and exploration is something that should be implemented into curriculum's more. I think students do this in writing and other creative classes, but as many of the speakers and writers from this week stated, everything is very serious now in education. Many believe that you cannot learn while playing, that you are simply using silliness and not gaining anything. What a genius idea to wear a white suit to a meeting, and then write all over each other... the meeting comes back with you, always there for you to refer back to, but then you can take it off "and the really work/fun begins." I once watched a documentary about an inner city school who gained a new principal and many new staff members that ran the school to be more student exploration driven~ Long story short, it was a very different feel than the traditional classroom today, and the line/wait list to get in was huge. The students were motivated by the fact that their education was made to fit their interests and needs. They were allowed to play and learn freely. Still gaining the concepts needed, but in a more self satisfying way. Wow- what a way to teach and learn :) One of the videos made the comment that when we play, we are learning in a fully encompassing way. With more implementation of play as a teaching strategies, I do believe students will not only be happier, but also better learners, and more creative problem solvers, as well as great with groups, but will learn how to be more independent learners and explorers!
Read and React~
Well this weeks readings make me smile- One of my books I read for this class was all about Play! I love the idea of the freedom that play provides our students. It helps them to grow and experiment, and most importantly learn. I am loving the idea of "Jason's" ceramics play assignment~ This is my assignment to myself tomorrow when I get to work, simply playing with the clay to see where it leads me and what ideas it leads me to, without the thought of a finished project idea- Just good old fashioned play :)
Which brings me to another thought that I kept having during this unit and if I don't get it out now, I will not be able to focus on the rest of the assignments at hand. So here was my thought.... What if my room was for artistic play? What if I could teach art for elementary kids in a way that resembles middle/high school level? What if my lessons were more open and not so regimented and structured? What would that look like you and I both are asking~ maybe instead of a seating chart we would simply have play stations. These stations would hold different media for students to play and become familiar with. The idea being that they I could still use my curriculum and standards to guide us, but they would not be working at the same assignment as another student. Maybe that means I would need to have video prompts with information about the particular media they are playing with, like mini lectures with the research links so that students could spend time using their brain to learn and play! Ha it sounds so Artopia- but doable...
What stands in the way? It has to connect to the required gle's etc. Can a kindergarten student handle this... Maybe with practice, or is this too much of an independent work time all year for my elementary kids?!?! Also I feel a lot of 3-d projects would emerge from this exploration, how am I going to store all of that?
This could be a really cool way for me to run my 3-5 grade classes, but it would be difficult to change out the stations everyday to prep for a totally different style of teaching for K-2.
Any thoughts/idea/creative input would be greatly appreciated :)
Back to the reading. So I really enjoyed the idea of the teacher who had her kids "sketching with clay" and creating things just to smash it. Ahhh this could open some amazing doors for some of my kids, yet cause major melt downs for others. This idea of stretching and exploration is something that should be implemented into curriculum's more. I think students do this in writing and other creative classes, but as many of the speakers and writers from this week stated, everything is very serious now in education. Many believe that you cannot learn while playing, that you are simply using silliness and not gaining anything. What a genius idea to wear a white suit to a meeting, and then write all over each other... the meeting comes back with you, always there for you to refer back to, but then you can take it off "and the really work/fun begins." I once watched a documentary about an inner city school who gained a new principal and many new staff members that ran the school to be more student exploration driven~ Long story short, it was a very different feel than the traditional classroom today, and the line/wait list to get in was huge. The students were motivated by the fact that their education was made to fit their interests and needs. They were allowed to play and learn freely. Still gaining the concepts needed, but in a more self satisfying way. Wow- what a way to teach and learn :) One of the videos made the comment that when we play, we are learning in a fully encompassing way. With more implementation of play as a teaching strategies, I do believe students will not only be happier, but also better learners, and more creative problem solvers, as well as great with groups, but will learn how to be more independent learners and explorers!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
AT Week 12
Envisioning/Engaging/Persistence/Scratching
As I started to read the article, I had a thought- If we don't like to be caught scratching, then why do we try to catch our students scratching?!?
All of our reading spoke to me on one level or another, as an artist and as a teacher! Loved this reading- good motivator in more ways than one. Let's start with the idea of scratching, "A bad idea in the hands of the right person can easily be tweaked into a good idea." (Tharp) This is a concept I use daily, in my own ideas but also I think I encourage this idea in my classroom by trying to foster an environment that allows my students to bounce ideas freely. They are able to work together to mold their ideas in to better more doable ideas. Two heads is always better than one, and I think this quote will be appearing in my classroom next week!
I think one of the hardest things to do with my elementary students is to have the time and abilities to help them develop ideas- especially big ideas. A lot of our assignment are based on teaching technique, rather than focusing on being a "come up with your idea of what you want to do." In reference to big ideas- "They come upon you mysteriously, unbidden, sometimes unwelcome (especially when they become impossible to execute).".... "And if I commit to them, they will be all consuming." (Tharp). I really would love to have my students do self guided projects, but at this point I really am unsure how to transition my program to this style and frankly, I have many students who are just not ready for the artistic freedom- it would cause massive meltdowns. I do teach 5 grade students a basic concept/technique and then they guide their ideas to make the project their own. Maybe that is my job to slowly transition them to becoming independent artists- which I feel like is more of a middle and high school focus.
As an artist the following quotes really spoke to me:
In my classroom the only reason a student doesn't finish a piece is because they are absent, and that only applies to the littler ones. My big kids get grades, and even if they don't like their piece- I teach the follow through of finishing the piece. "Students learn by following through, eve if they don't like what they have made. By going through the process and coming up with something, students realized that not everything works. " (hetland)
I have a hand full of students in each of my class who really love art, and are so driven by their passion that they work on their artistic skills at home as well. These are my kids who fit this group for every project : "When students are truly engaged, they lose themselves in concentration, forgetting about time, fully focused on the moment. They are in a state of "flow" (Hetland~Csikszentmihalyi)
But getting everyone to get lost in a project at this age level is easier said than done. Finding an idea that appeals to all of them and keeps them constantly engaged is hard. But I am working to continually change my lessons to fit the artistic interests and needs of my kids every year- As all teachers need to be doing. It is vital that we work to keep them developing in their artistic ideas and actively engaged with art. In order to help them develop a passion, art teachers have to work to excite, engage, and encourage their kids- Ha it's the Three E's of art teaching :)
Scratching!
All of our reading spoke to me on one level or another, as an artist and as a teacher! Loved this reading- good motivator in more ways than one. Let's start with the idea of scratching, "A bad idea in the hands of the right person can easily be tweaked into a good idea." (Tharp) This is a concept I use daily, in my own ideas but also I think I encourage this idea in my classroom by trying to foster an environment that allows my students to bounce ideas freely. They are able to work together to mold their ideas in to better more doable ideas. Two heads is always better than one, and I think this quote will be appearing in my classroom next week!
I think one of the hardest things to do with my elementary students is to have the time and abilities to help them develop ideas- especially big ideas. A lot of our assignment are based on teaching technique, rather than focusing on being a "come up with your idea of what you want to do." In reference to big ideas- "They come upon you mysteriously, unbidden, sometimes unwelcome (especially when they become impossible to execute).".... "And if I commit to them, they will be all consuming." (Tharp). I really would love to have my students do self guided projects, but at this point I really am unsure how to transition my program to this style and frankly, I have many students who are just not ready for the artistic freedom- it would cause massive meltdowns. I do teach 5 grade students a basic concept/technique and then they guide their ideas to make the project their own. Maybe that is my job to slowly transition them to becoming independent artists- which I feel like is more of a middle and high school focus.
As an artist the following quotes really spoke to me:
- "that is why you scratch for little ideas. Without the little ideas, there are not big ideas."~Tharp
- "reading generates ideas, because you're literally filling your head with ideas and letting your imagination filter them for something useful."~Tharp
- "you can also scratch in the footsteps of mentors and hero's"~Tharp
- "Scratching is where creativity begins. It is the moment where your ideas first take flight and begin to defy gravity. If you try to rein it in, you'll never know how high you can go."~Tharp
I playing with my need to paint, my want to create the textural style painting of palette knife style, and my inspiration from an artist (Leonid Afremov) and inspiration from my previous idea of quotes. I'm still toying with the idea- but the quote that inspire the idea is very personal, and well is how I always make art- for my enjoyment- selfish artist here- I know. Once I found my artist inspiration (by pinning on Pinterest-inspiration board) I skipped the sketch book and jumped right in.
So I'm interested in this idea of engagement and persistence- I did start a whole new painting, which my not be the way to go for being persistent, but I feel like I am still engaged in my art and idea. And I am persistently pursuing this idea in whatever form it might take. So we are getting their, but I would agree that I have trouble with finishing projects like the 9th graders from the story did. I like to start grandiose ideas, but rarely finish them. If I'm going to finish something it takes serious motivation- usually a teacher keeping me going and I like to crank it out in a few days and be done. I am not good at revisiting an old idea and actually completing it. Maybe I need to work harder at staying engaged with the piece until I'm done.In my classroom the only reason a student doesn't finish a piece is because they are absent, and that only applies to the littler ones. My big kids get grades, and even if they don't like their piece- I teach the follow through of finishing the piece. "Students learn by following through, eve if they don't like what they have made. By going through the process and coming up with something, students realized that not everything works. " (hetland)
I have a hand full of students in each of my class who really love art, and are so driven by their passion that they work on their artistic skills at home as well. These are my kids who fit this group for every project : "When students are truly engaged, they lose themselves in concentration, forgetting about time, fully focused on the moment. They are in a state of "flow" (Hetland~Csikszentmihalyi)
But getting everyone to get lost in a project at this age level is easier said than done. Finding an idea that appeals to all of them and keeps them constantly engaged is hard. But I am working to continually change my lessons to fit the artistic interests and needs of my kids every year- As all teachers need to be doing. It is vital that we work to keep them developing in their artistic ideas and actively engaged with art. In order to help them develop a passion, art teachers have to work to excite, engage, and encourage their kids- Ha it's the Three E's of art teaching :)
Kosslyn
4
- generation: come up with the idea in the first place- I would like to really push those who are artistically driven. So let's put this in a more hypothetical way- Say I could have time for an art club- these kids would want to spend the time to generate idea. I would make having a sketchbook mandatory- but I would also entertain the idea of finding a kid friendly version of pinterest that would allow students do what I do- Pin what inspires them. This constant gathering of ideas/ things you like/things that are different/things that inspire you, is what helps to generate ideas. I also feel like teach them to be more observant in general- to see everything around them in an artistic way. Maybe carry their phone, which probably has a camera and use it as a sort of "sketch book" holder of ideas!-Artopia :) I also love the list on how to encourage students to envision on page 48 Hetland- Great list to have posted somewhere in my curriculum/room.
- retention: hold onto the idea-This is more complicated for me- but I'm interested. I think it is really important to tie the word retention to persistence- they do go hand in hand. What if you gave them the option of saying you must keep/carry out two of your four original ideas. This allows them the option to pick- but to also start learning that sometimes, it's not a good idea or not feasible at the time- I need to scrap it. Still very much learning about this aspect of my teaching- need ideas friends!?!!?
- inspection: study and make inferences about an idea- I love the idea of them really inspecting an idea- by experimenting, researching, "scratching", even bouncing ideas off others. Today's technology has given my students a great tool that we didn't have when we were little. The Internet can be a very powerful and time saving way to investigate their ideas further.
- transformation: alter it in some way to suit your purposes-This happens so often for artists-happened for my studio assignment this week. The most important thought I have with this "transformation" word is- it gives me and my students permission to change the idea for the better, rather than totally scrapping it. It forces students to still use the basis of an idea, but allows them to explore ways to make the idea better.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
VTS week 15
Synthesize/Summarize the preliminary findings : Here is all the formal information:
Paired t test results
| P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value equals 0.1632 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be not statistically significant. Confidence interval: The mean of Group One minus Group Two equals -7.40 95% confidence interval of this difference: From -18.08 to 3.28 Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 1.4506 df = 19 standard error of difference = 5.101 Learn more:
GraphPad's web site includes portions of the manual for GraphPad Prism that can help you learn statistics. First, review the meaning of P values and confidence intervals. Then learn how to interpret results from an unpaired or paired t test. These links include GraphPad's popular analysis checklists.
Review your data: |
| Group | Group One | Group Two |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | 44.10 | 50.95 |
| SD | 29.99 | 16.14 |
| SEM | 6.54 | 3.61 |
| N | 21 | 20 |
I think that overall even if the data did not prove to be statistically significant, I know my kids showed a lot of growth. If we could have scribed for our students and just let them talk it all out, I guarantee there would have been a whole lot of growth that was "statistically significant."
- How have individual students grown/changed over the course of their short VTS experience? I can see the change in many of my students, but it did not always come out in their writing. The change can be see in their willingness to join in the discussion about a piece, their use of new vocabulary. It became evident that many would see something a peer had pointed out, and then change their mind about what was happening in the piece of art.
- How has your focus class grown/changed over the course of their short VTS experience? My focus class has changed in the way they approach making art, they seem to be more thoughtful art makers. They ask more questions about their own art and others. They are discussing their creations in the group a lot more. They have also become overall more thoughtful art speakers.
- How have you as a teacher and your teaching practice grown/changed over the course of the semester? My practice has grown in the simple fact that my students have far surpassed my expectations. They have shown me that they are fantastic as discussing art. I think the way I ask questions and the way I present information has also changed. I feel I am much clearer when presenting things to the kids, and they seem to understand better as well. I am excited to see what more VTS practice will do for my kids.
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