The thought occurred to me personally in a recent 8-hour meeting on lesson planning. Madeline Hunter was once again touted as the goddess of all lesson planning. From all I recall in Art Education, Madeline Hunter's format is of the devil. I can see the value for linear planning, and addressing standards that are so conceptually deconstructed that anyone could walk in and teach the prescribed standard; check, got it, you've shown your proving behavior, now let's move on to the next to-do item. However, does demonstrating a trite proving behavior actually prove learning? So, because Hunter's format is "of the devil" in ArtEd., we avoided it.
At this meeting, though - with our WASC process beginning this year, I asked myself "why?" ... "Why does Hunter break everything down to the millionth iota of information?" "Why are other content standards written like checklists?" and the most dangerous one from the Art Ed perspective... "Why doesn't Madeline Hunter's format fit for Art Ed?" I feel like I'm painting myself in a corner with questions. Here comes the great debate over the Art lesson plan - lessons plans are supposed to be for a say/week - this is for a unit of instruction, you're teaching too many things at once: color theory and how to hold a paintbrush should be different lessons." All these thoughts and questions... and the great Hunter debate has not yet an answer for me.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
teach me to think
I've discovered that most of my students share my disdain for being 'told' by an authority what is good, and what isn't - what's good art, what's not. Mine is not the voice of approval for style, or legitimacy of an image as art in the classroom. Excellent! We begin with a victory, a grand neo-post-modern victory.
Now, to get the fourteen-year-olds to say what's what, and back it up.While teaching people to make and support a judgement, often younger ones will want to take the lazy way out; "I just like it more than the other one, I don't know why." I adore using Visual Thinking Strategies to assist in creating narratives and risk-taking without judgement. A few good rounds of VTS will usually break the ice in beginning to recover imaginative thinking skills and evidence gathering. Now, to take that and bring it to the next level of creating an argument and backing it up.
I'm hoping that my new strategy of collaborative blogging will help inspire the students to really drum up some good discussions and thoughts about how we value what we see, and experience.
Now, to get the fourteen-year-olds to say what's what, and back it up.While teaching people to make and support a judgement, often younger ones will want to take the lazy way out; "I just like it more than the other one, I don't know why." I adore using Visual Thinking Strategies to assist in creating narratives and risk-taking without judgement. A few good rounds of VTS will usually break the ice in beginning to recover imaginative thinking skills and evidence gathering. Now, to take that and bring it to the next level of creating an argument and backing it up.
I'm hoping that my new strategy of collaborative blogging will help inspire the students to really drum up some good discussions and thoughts about how we value what we see, and experience.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
resources, resources
I love collaborating with my colleagues.
Google Docs is a widely used tool for us in this arena. It makes so little work of having to form documents as a committee, take presentation notes, work on a policy with many people all at once, and also to share resources. The process eliminates so much wasted time. It's almost like a work-based chat room, but with the focus on creating and refining the document smoothly and efficiently. Kudos again to google!
Another resource shared today from our Science guy is Thinkfinity! We received an introductory training session, and two hours later, we're still playing with the applications on our SMARTboards. While the Art content was directed toward inclusion of Art education in other content areas :( the information is relevant, helpful, and timely.
Google Docs is a widely used tool for us in this arena. It makes so little work of having to form documents as a committee, take presentation notes, work on a policy with many people all at once, and also to share resources. The process eliminates so much wasted time. It's almost like a work-based chat room, but with the focus on creating and refining the document smoothly and efficiently. Kudos again to google!
Another resource shared today from our Science guy is Thinkfinity! We received an introductory training session, and two hours later, we're still playing with the applications on our SMARTboards. While the Art content was directed toward inclusion of Art education in other content areas :( the information is relevant, helpful, and timely.
legal documents and gMail
For those of us whom have multiple e-mail accounts; hotmail, work, professional society accounts, etc. Most e-mail services are now allowing you to import your e-mail from other accounts, and to send from your original account too!
This is probably old news for many people, but it became a great help for me today. I have 100mb available on my work account. Inbox, Sent Mail, and anything sent to the Deleted folder - it can all only total 100mb. E-mails from parents and/or students can be legal documents - and you never know when they will be necessary!
I signed up for a gMail account from google. This is the e-mail google offers, and you no longer need to be invited to join. My hotmail accounts, and work accounts are now forwarded to there, where e-mail isn't deleted, but archived! I also have 8000mb for use with all my e-mails. At the end of each semester, I can archive the work e-mail and burn a back-up disk, whereas I did not have the ability to do that from our work e-mail system.
Of course, of course, all this is limited in most schools by a very strict firewall and highly limited access to the internet. However, if you do have the access and ability, make it easier on yourself!
This is probably old news for many people, but it became a great help for me today. I have 100mb available on my work account. Inbox, Sent Mail, and anything sent to the Deleted folder - it can all only total 100mb. E-mails from parents and/or students can be legal documents - and you never know when they will be necessary!
I signed up for a gMail account from google. This is the e-mail google offers, and you no longer need to be invited to join. My hotmail accounts, and work accounts are now forwarded to there, where e-mail isn't deleted, but archived! I also have 8000mb for use with all my e-mails. At the end of each semester, I can archive the work e-mail and burn a back-up disk, whereas I did not have the ability to do that from our work e-mail system.
Of course, of course, all this is limited in most schools by a very strict firewall and highly limited access to the internet. However, if you do have the access and ability, make it easier on yourself!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
new growth, little sprouts
I'm sitting out on the patio of my apartment this morning, enjoying the cool weather from the high marine layer. I don't enjoy my patio as much as I ought to - it's a very public place, viewable by anyone passing by. A small brick wall, and a low hedge separate the public from the semi-private space. When we moved in, we chose this particular unit because of the beautiful maple tree that provides a leafy green shade. I'm glad to be out here now before the leaves drop in the fall.
So, this hedge has a lot of new growth. Perky leaves of a lighter green that are sprouting up from the old dark green hedge. The leaves are so new and healthy, that I'm hoping they won't be trimmed anytime soon. They're not quite baby leaves, almost full-sized, but still that gorgeous light green that radiates youth, energy, optimism.
Suddenly, I think of my incoming Freshmen students. I can't wait to meet them!
I finally caved against the ridiculous internal battle of whether to buy an easel or not to buy an easel. My table-sized easel is perfect for how I paint now - definitely not as large as when I was in school, and now with acrylics instead of oil; a change prompted by pregnancy, and now continued because 3-year olds are neither patient, nor disinterested in painting.
Having a work-in-progress out and readily accessible when returning home from the school is far more satisfying than flopping down in front of the TV, trying to dull away the stress of the day. As I sat in front of the easel, thinking I'd get about twenty minutes of painting in before having to return to chores, I felt my entire mood relaxing a lot faster than it used to. I processed thoughts internally with the paintbrush in my hands and some music on in the background. Amazingly, my three year-old became inspired and began drawing next to me. An hour had passed before we realized it, and all was calm in our home. What a difference it made in the day!
So, this hedge has a lot of new growth. Perky leaves of a lighter green that are sprouting up from the old dark green hedge. The leaves are so new and healthy, that I'm hoping they won't be trimmed anytime soon. They're not quite baby leaves, almost full-sized, but still that gorgeous light green that radiates youth, energy, optimism.
Suddenly, I think of my incoming Freshmen students. I can't wait to meet them!
I finally caved against the ridiculous internal battle of whether to buy an easel or not to buy an easel. My table-sized easel is perfect for how I paint now - definitely not as large as when I was in school, and now with acrylics instead of oil; a change prompted by pregnancy, and now continued because 3-year olds are neither patient, nor disinterested in painting.
Having a work-in-progress out and readily accessible when returning home from the school is far more satisfying than flopping down in front of the TV, trying to dull away the stress of the day. As I sat in front of the easel, thinking I'd get about twenty minutes of painting in before having to return to chores, I felt my entire mood relaxing a lot faster than it used to. I processed thoughts internally with the paintbrush in my hands and some music on in the background. Amazingly, my three year-old became inspired and began drawing next to me. An hour had passed before we realized it, and all was calm in our home. What a difference it made in the day!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
sifting through the curriculum
The new academic year presents teachers with a good opportunity for reflection on the curriculum. As Art Educators we have a bit more flexibility here then educators in most other content areas.
Personally, I'll be changing my grading policy. I'm going to try basing my own system on point values only - not weighing grades. I'm not sure it will make a difference on my end of the grade dance, but it may make a great deal of difference to the parents and students. Hopefully it will clarify the students' stance in class prior to progress reports. Even with Powerschool online grading where parents and students have 24/7 access to grades, the weighted grades confused a great deal of our students and parents.
I'm also incorporating guided blogging, where the students and I reflect together on the topics and current events in our content area. I'm excited in learning about the research: students who blog interactively with their teacher improve their writing skills at a much faster rate!
The head of our English Department requested that we teachers all bring in and have on display our own college papers, marked up by our professors. It brings a human perspective, shows where we have made errors, and where we have succeeded. We have many areas to support literacy at our small little school.
Lots of planning and paperwork to do prior to day one, but it's well underway!
Personally, I'll be changing my grading policy. I'm going to try basing my own system on point values only - not weighing grades. I'm not sure it will make a difference on my end of the grade dance, but it may make a great deal of difference to the parents and students. Hopefully it will clarify the students' stance in class prior to progress reports. Even with Powerschool online grading where parents and students have 24/7 access to grades, the weighted grades confused a great deal of our students and parents.
I'm also incorporating guided blogging, where the students and I reflect together on the topics and current events in our content area. I'm excited in learning about the research: students who blog interactively with their teacher improve their writing skills at a much faster rate!
The head of our English Department requested that we teachers all bring in and have on display our own college papers, marked up by our professors. It brings a human perspective, shows where we have made errors, and where we have succeeded. We have many areas to support literacy at our small little school.
Lots of planning and paperwork to do prior to day one, but it's well underway!
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