Of all the things I hope to do as a teacher, one of the most gigantic convictions I hold is the need for educators to open students to the outside world. Too often, the walls of school become places of control and formula that leave students separated from all there is to be discovered in the big world outside. There are a myriad of resources available to teachers and students that get us all outside the classroom, but unfortunately, it seems most teachers/administration lack the creativity or bravery to take advantage for fear of insurance risks, or the complications of field trip politics, or the limitations of funding. However, I really think that with a little creativity and determination, there are a lot of meaningful experiences we can provide for our students that will affect them in significant ways for much longer than traditional classroom instruction.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do just this for the student I am tutoring this summer. Luckily, the student's mother is more than willing to provide every opportunity for her son to succeed and was willing to drop him off at an ice cream shop across from the university. We then walked down the street, observing signs and advertisements, discussing what real estate is and how to figure out where we are on a map based on street signs. Because I am still a student, I have many connections and knowledge of all the resources there are on campus and was able to set up a tour of the advocacy office for Latino students, El Centro. As the student I am working with has a very strong Hispanic background, this was an excellent way to engage him and will hopefully motivate him to do well in school. As we've been planning our trip to campus, he has often mentioned a tutoring program he took part in at the University a few years ago-- obviously, this was an experience that he enjoyed and remembers well.
Think about your own experiences in school. Which ones do you remember the most? Are there specific trips or opportunities provided while you were in school that opened an area of passion in you that you never knew you had? I remember in high school taking a trip to the university in the town I grew up in to see a Batik exhibit before starting a similar project in my own class. I still remember the beauty of the dyed-fabric images of Italian cities, being awed at the complexity of a medium based in fabric dying. Being exposed to the work of such an artist at such an age definitely gave me an inspiring glimpse into what I could be as an artist.
A significant component of being able to expose your students to the accomplishments of others and the resources available to them, teachers need to be utilizing and aware of them themselves. It is shocking to me to find out how many students there are even on campus that know little about the town in which we live. As teachers, we need to be living lives that put us in a position of learning so that we have ample life experience to offer our students. If we rely upon the curriculum and resources that only come from inside the school, we are robbing our students of the knowledge they need to lead meaningful lives. Additionally, we are modeling a way of life for our students that avoids true and meaningful learning.
What are some of the resources that you have found to expose your students to the real world? What are some of the reasons that teachers neglect this?
11.7.08
Literacy Resource 4: Oragami and Paper Airplanes
A great resource I have discovered for working with creative students reluctant to apply themselves to reading is activities such as origami and paper airplanes. I found a simple book in the Juvenile non-fiction section of the library giving directions on many different types of paper airplanes. In attempt to draw out some more visual and artistic interests in the particular student I am working with, I also brought along a selection of markers to decorate our creations which. There is something about the opportunity to add decoration to something that makes people feel more at ease-- a lesson I learned through the many class presentations in my art education methods class. The nice thing about books on paper airplanes is that the directions are not as complex as traditional origami books, which makes the process a bit less intimidating.
5.7.08
Literacy Resource 3: Logic games
After the discovery of how successful Mad Libs are at engaging students as well as the realization of all the learning opportunities involved in this fun puzzles, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble in search of more games like these and found a wealth of mind-stretching activities that are fun ways of building literacy. Here are a few books and activities that I found especially valuable:
"The Everything Pencil Puzzles"
"Martin Gardner Perplexing Puzzles"
"Gladstone's Games to Go"
"The Everything Word Games"
"DistrAction"
"USA Today Logic Games"
Some of the activities included in these books and others are as follows:
Logic games
Picture Puzzles
Story prompts/ endings
Scramblers
Fill-in Cartoons
Picture story-prompts
Rebus puzzles
Cryptograms
Word Searches
5 Minute Mysteries
Word Ladders
Chronograms
Riddles
Twenty-questions
There are ample resources online for these types of games that can be found with little searching. If you have some money to spend, Barnes and Noble has a fantastic selection of books in various formats, or most of these books can be found on Amazon for as little and $0.01 plus shipping. You can also have students make up their own.
These can be great activities for ELA students in part because of their use of cultural or common knowledge that can help build vocabulary in areas cultural understanding. I find that a major barrier in reading is a misunderstanding of these social conventions that native speakers take for granted. These are also great resources to keep on hand in any classroom and any content as they can be great educational time-fillers for those students that get done early or for days when the lesson plan runs a little short. Students can also build social skills through working through these activities by working together to solve these puzzles.
"The Everything Pencil Puzzles"
"Martin Gardner Perplexing Puzzles"
"Gladstone's Games to Go"
"The Everything Word Games"
"DistrAction"
"USA Today Logic Games"
Some of the activities included in these books and others are as follows:
Logic games
Picture Puzzles
Story prompts/ endings
Scramblers
Fill-in Cartoons
Picture story-prompts
Rebus puzzles
Cryptograms
Word Searches
5 Minute Mysteries
Word Ladders
Chronograms
Riddles
Twenty-questions
There are ample resources online for these types of games that can be found with little searching. If you have some money to spend, Barnes and Noble has a fantastic selection of books in various formats, or most of these books can be found on Amazon for as little and $0.01 plus shipping. You can also have students make up their own.
These can be great activities for ELA students in part because of their use of cultural or common knowledge that can help build vocabulary in areas cultural understanding. I find that a major barrier in reading is a misunderstanding of these social conventions that native speakers take for granted. These are also great resources to keep on hand in any classroom and any content as they can be great educational time-fillers for those students that get done early or for days when the lesson plan runs a little short. Students can also build social skills through working through these activities by working together to solve these puzzles.
16.6.08
Literacy Resource 2: Spooky and Disgusting Fiction
In attempt to build my literacy experience further, I ventured out to the local library to seek the help of a children's librarian and was brought back to the middle school world of Goosebumps and Captain Underpants. When the librarian brought up these books, I remembered being 12 and not being allowed to read such literature being instructed by my mother to stay away from things so disgusting and ugly. But the librarian was very adamant about how popular the books were with her own children, who refused to read before discovering the thrillers.
I'm sure at some point in even my own middle school life, I disdained literature written for 12-year-olds as juvenile and unsophisticated, but am now gaining a new appreciation for the genre and the authors who wok hard at creating wonderful plots in simple language.
So, I am not sure if these books are yet too intimidating for the student I am working with, but I feel more confident about presenting some material that is at his level in hope that he may yet be enticed by it.
What sorts of books have you used successfully with reluctant readers?
I'm sure at some point in even my own middle school life, I disdained literature written for 12-year-olds as juvenile and unsophisticated, but am now gaining a new appreciation for the genre and the authors who wok hard at creating wonderful plots in simple language.
So, I am not sure if these books are yet too intimidating for the student I am working with, but I feel more confident about presenting some material that is at his level in hope that he may yet be enticed by it.
What sorts of books have you used successfully with reluctant readers?
Literacy Resource 1: Board Games
All though right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the challenge of my tutoring assignment for the summer, I imagine that by the end of the season, I'll have built a bit of a repertoire of resources and I think I will post them here as I discover them.
This morning, in a flash of genius and desperation, I remembered all the times that I've been told that board games are excellent resources to keep in the classroom for down-time or time fillers and realized that perhaps using fun as a purpose for reading, I might get this student motivated after all. After coming to this realization, I then remembered that the only games that I own personally are Scrabble and Balderdash. True, these are both reading games, but are not quite appropriate for this student. And then-- my third memory-- I have little to no Money.
So I ventured out to my favorite local thrift store and was shocked at the selection of games that they carried. I came away with at least a few really great games for about five dollars. And the best part? The time flew by as we did Mad Libs, played scrabble and made our own sentences with wood blocks. As soon as I emerged from my car with arms full of games, I could tell from his eyes that it was going to be a good day.
Never underestimate the power of a good game...
This morning, in a flash of genius and desperation, I remembered all the times that I've been told that board games are excellent resources to keep in the classroom for down-time or time fillers and realized that perhaps using fun as a purpose for reading, I might get this student motivated after all. After coming to this realization, I then remembered that the only games that I own personally are Scrabble and Balderdash. True, these are both reading games, but are not quite appropriate for this student. And then-- my third memory-- I have little to no Money.
So I ventured out to my favorite local thrift store and was shocked at the selection of games that they carried. I came away with at least a few really great games for about five dollars. And the best part? The time flew by as we did Mad Libs, played scrabble and made our own sentences with wood blocks. As soon as I emerged from my car with arms full of games, I could tell from his eyes that it was going to be a good day.
Never underestimate the power of a good game...
14.6.08
Convincing students that reading is worth the work...
This summer I find myself working for the school district's ELA department as a 1:1 Tutor for a sixth grade boy. When I found out that I actually got the job, I was excited about the opportunity but am now seeing why a majority of the people hired for this position are ELA certified teachers: this is hard work and requires a lot of brilliance AND resources.
It has been interesting to see all that I have read in literacy books about students who are a) reluctant to read b) don't understand the letters they are decoding and c) don't see the value in learning to read, materialize in the form of this exuberant boy.
I find myself having to make the decision between laughing and crying when my student explains all the tactics he has developed just to avoid reading. If he wants to know what a news article is about-- even if it is something of interest to him-- he simply finds the one with the most pictures. If he wants to use the family's video camera, he simply asks his brother to explain it. If an error message comes up on the computer, he would rather take the risk of loosing his work than reading and understanding the message. What to do?
When I attended the two hour training session before I met with this student(which, unsurprisingly, was dominated by instructions on how to administer pre and post exams), they told us that for the duration of the eight to ten hours a week we spend with the student should be dominated by practice in reading, but should not feel like school. So what do you do with a student for three hours a day that will do anything to avoid reading? To say the least, I think we both find the time equally excruciating.
So what to do? How do I help this boy understand that reading is a beautiful and essential skill to hold? When I left his kitchen on Wednesday, he was fairly upset about my weekend homework assignment: finding one piece of reading material that was both school appropriate and something he would be interesting in reading. Somehow he gave me the impression that such a request would be unreasonable.
So... I don't even know if people read this blog, but if you do and you have any ideas about activities that might interest an eleven-year-old boy who wants so badly to be about 17, but unfortunately is quite intimidated by the sight of text, please share your ideas. I know that this scenario is not unique nor unusual, so please do share your own experiences. I'm looking forward to learning a great deal this summer, but am still waiting out the learning curve.
It has been interesting to see all that I have read in literacy books about students who are a) reluctant to read b) don't understand the letters they are decoding and c) don't see the value in learning to read, materialize in the form of this exuberant boy.
I find myself having to make the decision between laughing and crying when my student explains all the tactics he has developed just to avoid reading. If he wants to know what a news article is about-- even if it is something of interest to him-- he simply finds the one with the most pictures. If he wants to use the family's video camera, he simply asks his brother to explain it. If an error message comes up on the computer, he would rather take the risk of loosing his work than reading and understanding the message. What to do?
When I attended the two hour training session before I met with this student(which, unsurprisingly, was dominated by instructions on how to administer pre and post exams), they told us that for the duration of the eight to ten hours a week we spend with the student should be dominated by practice in reading, but should not feel like school. So what do you do with a student for three hours a day that will do anything to avoid reading? To say the least, I think we both find the time equally excruciating.
So what to do? How do I help this boy understand that reading is a beautiful and essential skill to hold? When I left his kitchen on Wednesday, he was fairly upset about my weekend homework assignment: finding one piece of reading material that was both school appropriate and something he would be interesting in reading. Somehow he gave me the impression that such a request would be unreasonable.
So... I don't even know if people read this blog, but if you do and you have any ideas about activities that might interest an eleven-year-old boy who wants so badly to be about 17, but unfortunately is quite intimidated by the sight of text, please share your ideas. I know that this scenario is not unique nor unusual, so please do share your own experiences. I'm looking forward to learning a great deal this summer, but am still waiting out the learning curve.
5.6.08
Entering New Worlds
I walked through the doors of Lincoln Jr. High School for what felt like the 100th time on Monday-- except this time it felt a little closer to being real. As I settled into a seat in the lecture hall, I looked around and thought to myself, awed, There are real-live teachers all around me. Strangely, I felt like I was standing on the Red Carpet in Hollywood or something-- all sorts of my own heros were all around me and I was one of them.
This summer, I am working for the school district as an One on One ELA tutor. I am scared out of my wits and stoked out of my mind. I was "hired" without interview and with little information about what the position would entail, but in a nutshell, I'm broke and will take any experience I can get. Typically, the people they hire for this job are ELA-Certified teachers. I'm a "Teacher Candidate" with a content area in Art. But I got it anyway and here I am.
I don't know what this summer will hold and all that I will learn, but I think it will be definately a great learning experience, if not an exciting one. I let you know how it goes!
This summer, I am working for the school district as an One on One ELA tutor. I am scared out of my wits and stoked out of my mind. I was "hired" without interview and with little information about what the position would entail, but in a nutshell, I'm broke and will take any experience I can get. Typically, the people they hire for this job are ELA-Certified teachers. I'm a "Teacher Candidate" with a content area in Art. But I got it anyway and here I am.
I don't know what this summer will hold and all that I will learn, but I think it will be definately a great learning experience, if not an exciting one. I let you know how it goes!
21.5.08
Conversations about Passion
Yesterday I interviewed for an was offered a job working in the school next fall. No more wondering how I am going to land a job in a place I don't want to work and still be happy about it. This interview was the second or third education-related interview I've had in both the last three months as well as my entire life. As I've sat in these interviews, I couldn't help but excitedly think to myself that the questions I am asked are actually questions I get to answer with my whole heart. As I was driving to my appointment yesterday, I realized that whether or not I even get the job, I enjoy going to these interviews with people because I get to have conversations about the things that really get my heart burning. It felt good to know how to answer questions about classroom management and differentiation and the freedom of creativity, now that I know what that means and I've actually had experience in the classroom dealing with these things.
Although I really struggled throughout the semester to see it, as I observe who I am this summer in relation to who I was last January, I see growth in my own stature, my face, the way I stand. The never-ending job search doesn't seem as difficult and I am less intimidated. I feel like I have more of a right to ask for a job than I have before-- I am more confident in my abilities and qualifications. My resume has changed over the last five months, but so has something in me.
I've been thinking about risk-taking, you know, the steps that you have to take to delve into something you've never done before. Like putting eye drops in your eyes-- you know it is going to change how you see everything (haha) but the idea of putting a foreign object in your eye seems to scary to actually do. I like to say that I'm an advocate for trying new things, new experiences, but I'm finding these days that I'm not so eager to put myself out there as much-- I'm too tired, my arms too weak. Perhaps the steps that I'm taking these days are much smaller and it makes me feel as though I am defying my own advice simply because the risks are small enough that they seem invisible. Yet I am trying to remember that in the long run, the smallest steps add up into some wonderful growth.
Although I really struggled throughout the semester to see it, as I observe who I am this summer in relation to who I was last January, I see growth in my own stature, my face, the way I stand. The never-ending job search doesn't seem as difficult and I am less intimidated. I feel like I have more of a right to ask for a job than I have before-- I am more confident in my abilities and qualifications. My resume has changed over the last five months, but so has something in me.
I've been thinking about risk-taking, you know, the steps that you have to take to delve into something you've never done before. Like putting eye drops in your eyes-- you know it is going to change how you see everything (haha) but the idea of putting a foreign object in your eye seems to scary to actually do. I like to say that I'm an advocate for trying new things, new experiences, but I'm finding these days that I'm not so eager to put myself out there as much-- I'm too tired, my arms too weak. Perhaps the steps that I'm taking these days are much smaller and it makes me feel as though I am defying my own advice simply because the risks are small enough that they seem invisible. Yet I am trying to remember that in the long run, the smallest steps add up into some wonderful growth.
16.4.08
selflessness
I am daily being reminded that teaching must be a selfless profession. The things that I study, the time I spend, the energy I conjure-- it is not for me. I find that daily I am faced with decisions that affect more people than me-- kids who are depending on me, looking for me. My choice of what to risk, new doors to open are more for the benefit of those I will impart my experience to rather than simply my own life. There is something about that that keeps driving me, forcing me to keep going, even when I am so tired. When my eyes do not even stay open on their own.
I'm finding that I am more tired this semester than I think I've ever been. The light at the end of the tunnel just blends with everything else that it still speeding up. I was thinking today-- this semester started up immediately, no lull before the storm, I hit the ground running. And I'm still running.
I've found myself being able to identify in new ways with people who give out in the end. I've always held myself to high standards, always been driven to be the very best, but this semester, it seems it takes everything I have simply to keep up. I'm behind on a lot of things and am too tired to care. For the first time in my life, I don't care waht grade I get at the end of the semester as long as I pass. I've never really been in this position before and it is strange. In some ways it is frightening, in other ways, it is freeing.
But lately I've found myself pondering fears like-- what if I am this tired as a teacher. How will I ever make a difference?
I'm tired. Sometimes I wonder if I've ever been this tired in my life. The end of myself is very near and I feel my eyes doing their best to scan the horizon for what could possibly next, how things will be provided when I feel so small-- I feel as though I've given everything and yet still so much more lies ahead.
I'm finding that I am more tired this semester than I think I've ever been. The light at the end of the tunnel just blends with everything else that it still speeding up. I was thinking today-- this semester started up immediately, no lull before the storm, I hit the ground running. And I'm still running.
I've found myself being able to identify in new ways with people who give out in the end. I've always held myself to high standards, always been driven to be the very best, but this semester, it seems it takes everything I have simply to keep up. I'm behind on a lot of things and am too tired to care. For the first time in my life, I don't care waht grade I get at the end of the semester as long as I pass. I've never really been in this position before and it is strange. In some ways it is frightening, in other ways, it is freeing.
But lately I've found myself pondering fears like-- what if I am this tired as a teacher. How will I ever make a difference?
I'm tired. Sometimes I wonder if I've ever been this tired in my life. The end of myself is very near and I feel my eyes doing their best to scan the horizon for what could possibly next, how things will be provided when I feel so small-- I feel as though I've given everything and yet still so much more lies ahead.
12.4.08
"In the end the experiment failed... but the experience of thinking a project through and trying it out was an educational success. What the teacher needs to focus on is how students need to think in order to get the results they did and what they learned as a result. In assessment and evaluation we need to penetrate the surface features of activity to get at what lies beneath it. As long as the visual arts are regarded as occasions for students to make things for the refrigerator door, they will be marginal in our schools, and if they are taught as if they were simple occasions for making things for the refrigerator door, they should be marginal."
--Elliot W. Eisner, "The Arts and the Creation of Mind"
I don't think I could have said it better-- but somehow I feel as though I've said almost exactly the same time somewhere before....
--Elliot W. Eisner, "The Arts and the Creation of Mind"
I don't think I could have said it better-- but somehow I feel as though I've said almost exactly the same time somewhere before....
27.3.08
The New Questions
This week I started a new job working with Kindergarten class at a local school here and as I observe the school and its culture and each of the students, I can't seem to organize all of my questions and thoughts, but I hope that I can sort through a few here.
I've been doing my fieldwork at an IB Junior High known for its high population of minority and at-risk students-- openly and obviously the school with the greatest diversity in the city. The elementary school I am working at is also an IB school, but certainly does not have the diversity of the Jr. High.
Each day, there are parent volunteers in the class, helping with small groups and classroom management. Earlier this week, I was grading some homework and overheard one such parent talking to the teacher about her 5 or 6 year old son, who is "getting confused because he is reading too many chapter books at a time." There are two students in the class who came in without knowing any English-- it is exciting to hear them saying two and three word sentences now. You can pick out the girl who is the socialite-- always organizing relationships, always seeming to know just the right thing to say. There are the kids who may be a bit developmentally delayed. The student who is in constant need of attention-- not getting in trouble, just being a bit disruptive. Even in Kindergarten, you have the social structure. You see immediately the kids who have everything, the students (I will repeat in kindergarten) discussing who has their own phones.
I have to confess my own bias, my own tendency to get angry or judge. I was one of those kids who had support from my parents-- I was a child who had access to books, reading, writing, learning at home. But I don't like kids like that because I wonder if they will ever learn to see the kids who don't have it. I hate to see it when students are saving seats for each other at snack time for reasons outside of true, heartfelt companionship. I hate it when children fight over who gets to sit next to one particular student. Sometimes I walk into a class of kids and one of the girls will look up at me with her big, adoring eyes and say, "I think you're pretty." (Trust me, it's happened more than once). And although I want to be open and approachable, I never want to be liked or admired just for that. We have this system in our society that seems to build in admiration for surface while the marginalized get lost.
I don't know what to do with this cumbersome thing that is division. I suppose I just need to give up on "fairness," but I hate this group of privileged elite that don't see that disadvantaged that are there, ten feet away. This sense of disconnect between the haves and have-nots.
Even in the two days that I've been spending time with this young class, it is impressed upon me the reality that this is the place where these children are being introduced to society and the way the world works on the most primary levels. These kids are learning not only how to read and write, but social realities, hierarchies and norms. Kindergarten is the place where children are beginning to see how the world works. And I just wonder, how much of that social education is colored by the academic aspect of learning. Will the students who have parents to give them extra worksheets at home ever learn that this does not have to create a distinction between them and the other human beings in the classroom who may happen to only have access to books at school.
Do the students who ride the bus home have the opportunity to be known by the students whose parents are actively involved in their schooling and are there to pick them up each day?
I was thinking today as I noticed the brand new TV and DVD player present in the kindergarten class how different this IB school is from the IB Junior High that I am at in the morning, with old technology and awkward classrooms. I found it slightly jarring to realize firsthand the inequality between schools within this small city, within schools that both proudly adhere to the standards of IB. How different things are. As I looked at these two wonderfully creative spanish-speaking girls sitting on the floor, disoriented by a room full of language they hardly know, I almost felt sick to my stomach thinking about how unfair it is. Struggling not to be angry at these precious, intelligent children, who do not even understand the gifts they've been given in parents who can afford to focus on them.
I have been struck by the reality of what it must do to a child to be thrown into a school without understanding the language. What a disadvantage they have. While the other students are struggling with cutting, gluing, handwriting, these ESL kids are dealing with language. I watch them as the class sits in a circle listening to stories and having discussions, and hope that their eyes will somehow loose their gloss, that somehow they will be able to understand and engage. What brilliantly intelligent kids these are! And how heart wrenching it is to be unable to connect to it-- how tragic it is to hardly know the sound of their voices.
Although I am not planning to teach at the elementary level (although that may change) being able to be a part of this class has been wonderful in its display of the earliest foundation laid for students in education. This is the place where we get to see exactly how much of a head-start students have or how difficult the road is going to be ahead for them. It is exhilarating and heartwrenching, all at the same time.
I still have this question though-- what do you do with the inequality? How do you, as a teacher, help students keep from walking over each other or feeling the invisibility imposed by prior knowledge or intelligence? How do you help intelligent students understand there is more to them than what they know? How do you keep advantaged students from separating themselves from those who could benefit from their experience? How do you set up a community of learning in your classroom that bridges the gaps between those with resources and those who simply have less? How do you communicate to the marginalized, the disadvantaged that they are wonderful and brilliant, just like everyone? How can you empower them, even as 5 and 6 year olds-- to be all that they can be? Is it really possible to teach a system that does not place value on what you know, but rather creates a community where everyone has beauty and value? Here-- an even bigger question-- how do you help those parents who are involved in their children's education see that they may be perpetuating system in which some students are getting marginalized? How can we get parents to be resources for other students who may not have that same parental support rather than encouraging their children only to build relationships with other students who are like them, with kids whose parents they may know because they are at school too.
So, ther are a few of the same old questions that are still there, waiting. Lurking in the shadows. What do you do when you can see it, but human beings are a bit more complex than a simple fix?
I've been thinking this week that maybe the challenge/ struggle/ intrigue of teaching is the breadth of complexity there are in human beings and teachers are the people who get to sort all that out. We are the people to try to make at least a little bit of sense out of what makes a person become who they are and then jump right in the middle of the mess. Its a paradox of love and hate-- exhilaration and difficult, difficult struggle. Am I up to the challenge? Oh, Lord, I hope so.
I've been doing my fieldwork at an IB Junior High known for its high population of minority and at-risk students-- openly and obviously the school with the greatest diversity in the city. The elementary school I am working at is also an IB school, but certainly does not have the diversity of the Jr. High.
Each day, there are parent volunteers in the class, helping with small groups and classroom management. Earlier this week, I was grading some homework and overheard one such parent talking to the teacher about her 5 or 6 year old son, who is "getting confused because he is reading too many chapter books at a time." There are two students in the class who came in without knowing any English-- it is exciting to hear them saying two and three word sentences now. You can pick out the girl who is the socialite-- always organizing relationships, always seeming to know just the right thing to say. There are the kids who may be a bit developmentally delayed. The student who is in constant need of attention-- not getting in trouble, just being a bit disruptive. Even in Kindergarten, you have the social structure. You see immediately the kids who have everything, the students (I will repeat in kindergarten) discussing who has their own phones.
I have to confess my own bias, my own tendency to get angry or judge. I was one of those kids who had support from my parents-- I was a child who had access to books, reading, writing, learning at home. But I don't like kids like that because I wonder if they will ever learn to see the kids who don't have it. I hate to see it when students are saving seats for each other at snack time for reasons outside of true, heartfelt companionship. I hate it when children fight over who gets to sit next to one particular student. Sometimes I walk into a class of kids and one of the girls will look up at me with her big, adoring eyes and say, "I think you're pretty." (Trust me, it's happened more than once). And although I want to be open and approachable, I never want to be liked or admired just for that. We have this system in our society that seems to build in admiration for surface while the marginalized get lost.
I don't know what to do with this cumbersome thing that is division. I suppose I just need to give up on "fairness," but I hate this group of privileged elite that don't see that disadvantaged that are there, ten feet away. This sense of disconnect between the haves and have-nots.
Even in the two days that I've been spending time with this young class, it is impressed upon me the reality that this is the place where these children are being introduced to society and the way the world works on the most primary levels. These kids are learning not only how to read and write, but social realities, hierarchies and norms. Kindergarten is the place where children are beginning to see how the world works. And I just wonder, how much of that social education is colored by the academic aspect of learning. Will the students who have parents to give them extra worksheets at home ever learn that this does not have to create a distinction between them and the other human beings in the classroom who may happen to only have access to books at school.
Do the students who ride the bus home have the opportunity to be known by the students whose parents are actively involved in their schooling and are there to pick them up each day?
I was thinking today as I noticed the brand new TV and DVD player present in the kindergarten class how different this IB school is from the IB Junior High that I am at in the morning, with old technology and awkward classrooms. I found it slightly jarring to realize firsthand the inequality between schools within this small city, within schools that both proudly adhere to the standards of IB. How different things are. As I looked at these two wonderfully creative spanish-speaking girls sitting on the floor, disoriented by a room full of language they hardly know, I almost felt sick to my stomach thinking about how unfair it is. Struggling not to be angry at these precious, intelligent children, who do not even understand the gifts they've been given in parents who can afford to focus on them.
I have been struck by the reality of what it must do to a child to be thrown into a school without understanding the language. What a disadvantage they have. While the other students are struggling with cutting, gluing, handwriting, these ESL kids are dealing with language. I watch them as the class sits in a circle listening to stories and having discussions, and hope that their eyes will somehow loose their gloss, that somehow they will be able to understand and engage. What brilliantly intelligent kids these are! And how heart wrenching it is to be unable to connect to it-- how tragic it is to hardly know the sound of their voices.
Although I am not planning to teach at the elementary level (although that may change) being able to be a part of this class has been wonderful in its display of the earliest foundation laid for students in education. This is the place where we get to see exactly how much of a head-start students have or how difficult the road is going to be ahead for them. It is exhilarating and heartwrenching, all at the same time.
I still have this question though-- what do you do with the inequality? How do you, as a teacher, help students keep from walking over each other or feeling the invisibility imposed by prior knowledge or intelligence? How do you help intelligent students understand there is more to them than what they know? How do you keep advantaged students from separating themselves from those who could benefit from their experience? How do you set up a community of learning in your classroom that bridges the gaps between those with resources and those who simply have less? How do you communicate to the marginalized, the disadvantaged that they are wonderful and brilliant, just like everyone? How can you empower them, even as 5 and 6 year olds-- to be all that they can be? Is it really possible to teach a system that does not place value on what you know, but rather creates a community where everyone has beauty and value? Here-- an even bigger question-- how do you help those parents who are involved in their children's education see that they may be perpetuating system in which some students are getting marginalized? How can we get parents to be resources for other students who may not have that same parental support rather than encouraging their children only to build relationships with other students who are like them, with kids whose parents they may know because they are at school too.
So, ther are a few of the same old questions that are still there, waiting. Lurking in the shadows. What do you do when you can see it, but human beings are a bit more complex than a simple fix?
I've been thinking this week that maybe the challenge/ struggle/ intrigue of teaching is the breadth of complexity there are in human beings and teachers are the people who get to sort all that out. We are the people to try to make at least a little bit of sense out of what makes a person become who they are and then jump right in the middle of the mess. Its a paradox of love and hate-- exhilaration and difficult, difficult struggle. Am I up to the challenge? Oh, Lord, I hope so.
21.3.08
How to Mount Your Own Canvas
Because I've found it very difficult to find good resources for new artists on things like how to effectively and inexpensively present your work, I'd like to devote some parts of this blog to sharing my own discoveries on this topic. So, since today I made a few discoveries of my own about mounting canvas and Masonite, I'll go ahead and share them with you. You can use some simple lattice to create an nice frame for your work-- keep in mind that your frame will only be as wide as the thickness of your lattice. I apologize for the absence of photos, but I hope this will at least give you a start.
Materials:
1. Lattice trim (you can find this at a local home improvement store or lumber yard in the trim section: look for things like molding and door jambs. You can also find lower quality lattice for a smaller price if you are going to paint it or look through it to find some good peices)
2. Hand Saw
3. Wood Glue
4. 5/8 inch nails
5. Pencil
6. Clamps
7. Measuring tape
8. Painting on Masonite or Stretched Canvas
Process (canvas)
1. Find a place with a hard floor and level ground (since I do this in my apartment usually, the kitchen is the best place for me)
2. Place first piece of lattice upright next to the edge of your canvas and another piece on top. Mark the upright piece of wood where it meets the top of the lattice on top (you want the cut edge of your upright lattice to be flush with the other lattice to create a seamless edge.)
3. Cut the first piece of lattice with a handsaw where you marked it
4. With one end of the cut wood lined up with the edge of your canvas (the other side should go past the end of your canvas as much as the width of your lattice) nail the wood flat to the edge of the stretcher bar in the center and on the ends. The front edge of the lattice should also be flush with the face of the canvas (it will look like a shadow box on the back side, depending on the depth of your stretchers)
5. Set the canvas upright with the lattice you just attached on the floor. Set another piece of lattice upright on top of the overhanging edge of the side you just nailed. You can clamp it or get a friend to hold it next to the canvas while you grab a third piece of lattice. Set this piece on the top side of the canvas. Mark the upright piece of lattice as in step 2 so it is flush with the third piece of lattice.
6. Cut and nail.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 all the way around. You may want to apply a small amount of wood glue to each corner to seal the joints.
8. At each corner, set with nails (from the outside of the overlapping piece into the end of the wood of the meeting lattice.)
9. Sand each corner to smooth any uneven joints.
10. If you want wider frames, you can also attach lattice to the front side of the work by nailing it flat to the frame you just created (and covering a bit of the painting as well)
You can also paint the lattice black (or any color you want, really) or choose a color of wood that will suit your piece. Also, be careful to measure carefully. Due to my own carelessness, I found that even if I am 1/16th off in my measurement, it is the difference between a professional presentation and a home-made hack-job. This is why I recommend measuring and marking one piece at a time, especially because sometimes stretcher bars (especially ones I make myself) can have a few irregularities that will affect the way the lattice sits on the edge.
For Mounting Masonite or Panel:
Repeat the same measuring steps as above, except instead of attaching to the outside edge, I just used wood glue to attach the lattice to the back of the panel. Again, the lattice will be sitting on the skinny edge (it creates a shadow-box effect on the back). You can use some C-clamps to set the glue or apply some small nails at the corners (if you don't mind putting the nails through your painting).
It is amazing what these small touches can do to a painting-- when you take time to present your work with a frame, it demonstrates your own care in how others enter it. This method is fairly inexpensive, depending on the wood you choose and a fairly simple process. I've done all of this in my apartment.
Materials:
1. Lattice trim (you can find this at a local home improvement store or lumber yard in the trim section: look for things like molding and door jambs. You can also find lower quality lattice for a smaller price if you are going to paint it or look through it to find some good peices)
2. Hand Saw
3. Wood Glue
4. 5/8 inch nails
5. Pencil
6. Clamps
7. Measuring tape
8. Painting on Masonite or Stretched Canvas
Process (canvas)
1. Find a place with a hard floor and level ground (since I do this in my apartment usually, the kitchen is the best place for me)
2. Place first piece of lattice upright next to the edge of your canvas and another piece on top. Mark the upright piece of wood where it meets the top of the lattice on top (you want the cut edge of your upright lattice to be flush with the other lattice to create a seamless edge.)
3. Cut the first piece of lattice with a handsaw where you marked it
4. With one end of the cut wood lined up with the edge of your canvas (the other side should go past the end of your canvas as much as the width of your lattice) nail the wood flat to the edge of the stretcher bar in the center and on the ends. The front edge of the lattice should also be flush with the face of the canvas (it will look like a shadow box on the back side, depending on the depth of your stretchers)
5. Set the canvas upright with the lattice you just attached on the floor. Set another piece of lattice upright on top of the overhanging edge of the side you just nailed. You can clamp it or get a friend to hold it next to the canvas while you grab a third piece of lattice. Set this piece on the top side of the canvas. Mark the upright piece of lattice as in step 2 so it is flush with the third piece of lattice.
6. Cut and nail.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 all the way around. You may want to apply a small amount of wood glue to each corner to seal the joints.
8. At each corner, set with nails (from the outside of the overlapping piece into the end of the wood of the meeting lattice.)
9. Sand each corner to smooth any uneven joints.
10. If you want wider frames, you can also attach lattice to the front side of the work by nailing it flat to the frame you just created (and covering a bit of the painting as well)
You can also paint the lattice black (or any color you want, really) or choose a color of wood that will suit your piece. Also, be careful to measure carefully. Due to my own carelessness, I found that even if I am 1/16th off in my measurement, it is the difference between a professional presentation and a home-made hack-job. This is why I recommend measuring and marking one piece at a time, especially because sometimes stretcher bars (especially ones I make myself) can have a few irregularities that will affect the way the lattice sits on the edge.
For Mounting Masonite or Panel:
Repeat the same measuring steps as above, except instead of attaching to the outside edge, I just used wood glue to attach the lattice to the back of the panel. Again, the lattice will be sitting on the skinny edge (it creates a shadow-box effect on the back). You can use some C-clamps to set the glue or apply some small nails at the corners (if you don't mind putting the nails through your painting).
It is amazing what these small touches can do to a painting-- when you take time to present your work with a frame, it demonstrates your own care in how others enter it. This method is fairly inexpensive, depending on the wood you choose and a fairly simple process. I've done all of this in my apartment.
First Steps
Today I spent the day framing and installing hanging hardware to a few things to submit to the Local Emerging Artists Show at FCMOCA-- although after doing all that work I found out that they moved the show until June, it still felt good to have things done and ready to go. I feel ready to start putting things out there. Something I've learned about myself is that sometimes I feel like I ought to be able to do certain things right away, but it takes me a while to really get to the point where I am actually ready. And oh, what a wonderful thing when I get to that point.
Strangely, this semester I see myself "growing up" a little bit. It is beginning to sink in that after this semester, I'll only have one more year of classes before student teaching. It's crazy to think about in a year from now, I'll be taking my last set of classes in my undergrad.
With that comes with a bit more confidence about what to do with my art, what I want it to be in my life. It also makes me feel like I know a little more about what I am doing and makes me feel more equipped and empowered to do it. I'm to that point where I am ready for a lot of things, a ready that can't be pushed, but must be waited for.
So, I'm waiting for the MOCA show, but am also planning to submit something to the undergraduate show that will be coming up very soon here!
Thanks to my ever-researching roommate, I also found a wonderful artist blog. Check it out.
Strangely, this semester I see myself "growing up" a little bit. It is beginning to sink in that after this semester, I'll only have one more year of classes before student teaching. It's crazy to think about in a year from now, I'll be taking my last set of classes in my undergrad.
With that comes with a bit more confidence about what to do with my art, what I want it to be in my life. It also makes me feel like I know a little more about what I am doing and makes me feel more equipped and empowered to do it. I'm to that point where I am ready for a lot of things, a ready that can't be pushed, but must be waited for.
So, I'm waiting for the MOCA show, but am also planning to submit something to the undergraduate show that will be coming up very soon here!
Thanks to my ever-researching roommate, I also found a wonderful artist blog. Check it out.
18.3.08
Wondering What I Read?
For those of you who are interested in what I read, you may subscribe to my Shared Items here. I'm required for my technology class to read and share information about education and/or art and have been learning so much. It is amazing how we are being asked to take part in the ways that our students collect so much information each day. I can hardly get my regular homework done because I find so many interesting things this way. Take a look! (I'll also be posting a feed on the sidebar if you would just like to look there.) Enjoy!
13.3.08
Another Reason to Continue Marginalizing Art Education
This week's reading for my Methods in Art Education class comes from the article, "Negotiating 'Fit' in Student Art Work: Classroom Conversations," which discusses the art educator's dilemma regarding how to negotiate with students in how they approach and complete their artwork (see citation below). The author sets this discussion in the context of a field study and a specific example of one student's approach to the assignment of an "Expressive Painting," involving the representation of how people are or are not relating to one another. The focus of the study is on how the student and the teacher may interpret the "requirements" of the assignment differently and how these two differing approaches may affect the outcome of the project.
Although the article deals with important aspects of student-teacher conversation about the work, I found it frustrating in its failure to address the importance of keeping students from dwelling in their comfort zones and challenging them to take risks so that learning takes precedence over product in the classroom. Throughout the narrative, the teacher is working with a student to decide between a concept that features a generalized over-head view of a crowd in a stadium and a face-on representation of the same group of people. When the teacher asks which sketch would best express his idea, the student advocates for his bird's-eye representation by saying, "It's just that i like to draw more like this, like stadiums and structures than people's faces." The teacher didn't press the student much further, but in a later interview with the researcher, the student said the following:
The teacher ended up allowing the student to work in a more generalized way because she recognized this was "the way he liked to draw," but I find it very strange that she did very little to probe the student further on the reasons why exactly he liked working this way. Based on his later interview (and some common dialogues that artists must fight concerning fear) it seemed fairly obvious that his decision making came out of his product-motivated beliefs about his own abilities rather than even addressing the question posed by the teacher: Which idea better conveys the idea?
As I've been discussing already here and pondering quite extensively as I move about my day to day life, I find a primary problem with this way of teaching and working in its dependence upon product rather than process. Throughout the article, interviews with students and the focus on the teacher's interaction zones in on the issue of requirements. The teacher provided various methods of creating certain expressions, the how of the assignment, if you will, but most comments made by students revolved around what the teacher asked them to complete. Furthermore, the crux of the article seems to fall on the ways that teachers and students negotiate technicalities of how the project can be fulfilled. The question is not how the student can improve, learn, or move out of previous patterns, but rather how the student is able to move inside the boundaries already set by the teacher to create an object they feel comfortable with at the end of the unit.
The problem that I see here is that there is an important requirement missing that should supersede the entire class. Based on the format presented in this single assignment, it appears that the class is built around a structure in which the teacher dictates a a series of certain parameters and the students must navigate their way within this perimeter to manufacture a "successful" product. Although this structure makes sense in terms of class organization, it stifles a more important goal: challenge and learning. Although the class may be technically abiding by the rules, it ignores a more important rule the teacher should be following: never allow fear to keep students from learning how to best communicate what they have to say.
If this teacher had questioned the student further (and dare I suggest she employ some insight as a thinking adult) she probably would have discovered that the student made a choice based on past experience that told him that he has produced something successful before and therefore could do it again, rather than the motivation of how to most effectively communicate his message. I find it interesting too, that she didn't seem to notice he didn't even answer her question at all-- She asked which idea better conveyed his idea and he responded with a defense of the way he liked to work. It is as if she asked, "How do you feel about war?" and he responded with, "Well, I just love the color purple."
The problem with the way people are taught about art is that it often perpetuates the idea that realistic art automatically means good art (a notion that naturally develops in the upper elementary grades and often serves to squelch the natural creativity of children and causes many people to quit making art altogether). Many people who draw on the identity of "artist" throughout school rely on old schemas of making that have gotten them praise and attention before and fear risking the demolition of assurance of their success, and therefore never push through to learning how to really say things that are meaningful. The problem, I think, is that art has become about earning kudos and shallow searches for identity rather than communication. As artists, we want to find our identity in our image as "art-maker" rather that allowing our art-making to flow out of who we are outside of the studio. Maybe this is why some self-portraits of artists in their studios seem so prosaic and circular. Maybe this is why it frustrates me so much when "art-people" dress quite abnormally in order to express a creativity that is not really present in their artworks.
Imagine this: Visual communication is the same as writing a novel or giving a speech. Do you give a speech just so that you can call yourself a "Speaker"? Or do you speak because you have something to say? How many people do you know who go around proud of their ability to emit sound from their vocal chords that actually sound like words? Or is it more important that they actually communicate ideas worth listening to? (I suppose there is one stage that the ability to form words is quite a novelty, but last I recall, that ends at about age two or three). And then there are those people who talk just to hear the sound of their own voice-- they are a little annoying, aren't they? So then why do we encourage people to make art that only proves that they have mastered eye-hand coordination? Perhaps the person who speaks for the love of their own voice is the vocal equivalent of "art for art's sake."
I wonder what would happen if we began to teach students that art has this incredible capacity to provide the means by which we can say deeply meaningful things to one another. And I wonder what would happen if we stopped trying not to step on toes so much and start giving students the power to push through their fears to speak in the best "words" possible. We don't avoid helping students write better sentences for the sake of their handwriting, do we? When we ask students to increase their vocabulary, we don't allow them to excuse themselves, saying, "No thank you, I'd rather just keep using these same five words because I know they sound really good in my voice." That would be absurd, yet we allow students to settle for small visual vocabularies for the sake of their feelings.
When we challenge students to push through their comfort zones, we aren't asking them to change what they have to say, we are just asking them to communicate in a way that other people can understand them. I've heard many people say they have decided not to study art formally because it will "destroy their natural creativity." They claim that an institution will somehow keep them from saying whatever it is that they want to say. And, I suppose, as long as teachers keep pussy-footing around "what students like to do," this will be true. Students will never gain the benefit of the criticism that hones their ability to speak powerfully.
The problem I see with the example in this reading is the failure of the teacher to give this student the power to really speak. Instead of finding out that the student just was afraid of the failure he may when he tried to draw faces and giving him the tools to learn it, the teacher let him stay in an old comfort zone. As teachers, our jobs are not to let kids keep doing what they already know they can do-- that is just a waste of time. If we are creating classrooms where we are more concerned with having enough finished masterpieces to hang up at the year-end art show than we are passionate about sending brave, risk-taking students out into the world, we are doing a service to no one. Not all of the students who pass through our classrooms are going to go on to become artists, but each one will be valuable members of society with important things to say, and it is up to us to instill in them the value of pushing through obstacles to lead their most meaningful lives. We do no favors by allowing them to settle for mediocrity for the sake a few minutes of pride stuck to their parent's refrigerators.
The power of the art classroom is only maintained by the transcendence of deep and concentrated thought over a shallow dependence upon end result. When students are allowed to do "what they like to do," instead of challenged to more effectively say what they want to say, we communicate that they are powerless, incapable of doing what they ultimately want to do in the world. But we will never endow our students with this power until we give them freedom to explore, make mistakes, and make discoveries without regard to the "cleanliness" of their product. No matter the "museum quality" a work of art is, no product will be more valuable and long-lasting than the lessons in self-discovery and risk that take place throughout a process of true searching and risk.
Until we do the hard work of digging into our own fears and experiences, we can expect the arts to continue to become marginalized white-noise-- speaking simply for the pleasure of the sound of its own self-soothing voice, rather than for the sake of the healing words art speaks to both the viewer and the maker.
--Hafeli, Mary. "Negotiating 'Fit' in Student Art Work: Classroom Conversations." Studies in Art Education; A Journal of Issues and Research, 2000, 41 (2), 130-145
Although the article deals with important aspects of student-teacher conversation about the work, I found it frustrating in its failure to address the importance of keeping students from dwelling in their comfort zones and challenging them to take risks so that learning takes precedence over product in the classroom. Throughout the narrative, the teacher is working with a student to decide between a concept that features a generalized over-head view of a crowd in a stadium and a face-on representation of the same group of people. When the teacher asks which sketch would best express his idea, the student advocates for his bird's-eye representation by saying, "It's just that i like to draw more like this, like stadiums and structures than people's faces." The teacher didn't press the student much further, but in a later interview with the researcher, the student said the following:
"She was asking me which sketch I like better. And I guess I said the one with the faces because it brought more people's faces.. And I said since we were all, like, in one stadium, we didn't know each other, that's why I didn't put faces cause I can't put each one's face, so there was nothing really. But then, I wasn't good at that kind of thing. I like drawing, like, structures and overhead views and stuff, so that's why I did this one." (emphasis mine)
The teacher ended up allowing the student to work in a more generalized way because she recognized this was "the way he liked to draw," but I find it very strange that she did very little to probe the student further on the reasons why exactly he liked working this way. Based on his later interview (and some common dialogues that artists must fight concerning fear) it seemed fairly obvious that his decision making came out of his product-motivated beliefs about his own abilities rather than even addressing the question posed by the teacher: Which idea better conveys the idea?
As I've been discussing already here and pondering quite extensively as I move about my day to day life, I find a primary problem with this way of teaching and working in its dependence upon product rather than process. Throughout the article, interviews with students and the focus on the teacher's interaction zones in on the issue of requirements. The teacher provided various methods of creating certain expressions, the how of the assignment, if you will, but most comments made by students revolved around what the teacher asked them to complete. Furthermore, the crux of the article seems to fall on the ways that teachers and students negotiate technicalities of how the project can be fulfilled. The question is not how the student can improve, learn, or move out of previous patterns, but rather how the student is able to move inside the boundaries already set by the teacher to create an object they feel comfortable with at the end of the unit.
The problem that I see here is that there is an important requirement missing that should supersede the entire class. Based on the format presented in this single assignment, it appears that the class is built around a structure in which the teacher dictates a a series of certain parameters and the students must navigate their way within this perimeter to manufacture a "successful" product. Although this structure makes sense in terms of class organization, it stifles a more important goal: challenge and learning. Although the class may be technically abiding by the rules, it ignores a more important rule the teacher should be following: never allow fear to keep students from learning how to best communicate what they have to say.
If this teacher had questioned the student further (and dare I suggest she employ some insight as a thinking adult) she probably would have discovered that the student made a choice based on past experience that told him that he has produced something successful before and therefore could do it again, rather than the motivation of how to most effectively communicate his message. I find it interesting too, that she didn't seem to notice he didn't even answer her question at all-- She asked which idea better conveyed his idea and he responded with a defense of the way he liked to work. It is as if she asked, "How do you feel about war?" and he responded with, "Well, I just love the color purple."
The problem with the way people are taught about art is that it often perpetuates the idea that realistic art automatically means good art (a notion that naturally develops in the upper elementary grades and often serves to squelch the natural creativity of children and causes many people to quit making art altogether). Many people who draw on the identity of "artist" throughout school rely on old schemas of making that have gotten them praise and attention before and fear risking the demolition of assurance of their success, and therefore never push through to learning how to really say things that are meaningful. The problem, I think, is that art has become about earning kudos and shallow searches for identity rather than communication. As artists, we want to find our identity in our image as "art-maker" rather that allowing our art-making to flow out of who we are outside of the studio. Maybe this is why some self-portraits of artists in their studios seem so prosaic and circular. Maybe this is why it frustrates me so much when "art-people" dress quite abnormally in order to express a creativity that is not really present in their artworks.
Imagine this: Visual communication is the same as writing a novel or giving a speech. Do you give a speech just so that you can call yourself a "Speaker"? Or do you speak because you have something to say? How many people do you know who go around proud of their ability to emit sound from their vocal chords that actually sound like words? Or is it more important that they actually communicate ideas worth listening to? (I suppose there is one stage that the ability to form words is quite a novelty, but last I recall, that ends at about age two or three). And then there are those people who talk just to hear the sound of their own voice-- they are a little annoying, aren't they? So then why do we encourage people to make art that only proves that they have mastered eye-hand coordination? Perhaps the person who speaks for the love of their own voice is the vocal equivalent of "art for art's sake."
I wonder what would happen if we began to teach students that art has this incredible capacity to provide the means by which we can say deeply meaningful things to one another. And I wonder what would happen if we stopped trying not to step on toes so much and start giving students the power to push through their fears to speak in the best "words" possible. We don't avoid helping students write better sentences for the sake of their handwriting, do we? When we ask students to increase their vocabulary, we don't allow them to excuse themselves, saying, "No thank you, I'd rather just keep using these same five words because I know they sound really good in my voice." That would be absurd, yet we allow students to settle for small visual vocabularies for the sake of their feelings.
When we challenge students to push through their comfort zones, we aren't asking them to change what they have to say, we are just asking them to communicate in a way that other people can understand them. I've heard many people say they have decided not to study art formally because it will "destroy their natural creativity." They claim that an institution will somehow keep them from saying whatever it is that they want to say. And, I suppose, as long as teachers keep pussy-footing around "what students like to do," this will be true. Students will never gain the benefit of the criticism that hones their ability to speak powerfully.
The problem I see with the example in this reading is the failure of the teacher to give this student the power to really speak. Instead of finding out that the student just was afraid of the failure he may when he tried to draw faces and giving him the tools to learn it, the teacher let him stay in an old comfort zone. As teachers, our jobs are not to let kids keep doing what they already know they can do-- that is just a waste of time. If we are creating classrooms where we are more concerned with having enough finished masterpieces to hang up at the year-end art show than we are passionate about sending brave, risk-taking students out into the world, we are doing a service to no one. Not all of the students who pass through our classrooms are going to go on to become artists, but each one will be valuable members of society with important things to say, and it is up to us to instill in them the value of pushing through obstacles to lead their most meaningful lives. We do no favors by allowing them to settle for mediocrity for the sake a few minutes of pride stuck to their parent's refrigerators.
The power of the art classroom is only maintained by the transcendence of deep and concentrated thought over a shallow dependence upon end result. When students are allowed to do "what they like to do," instead of challenged to more effectively say what they want to say, we communicate that they are powerless, incapable of doing what they ultimately want to do in the world. But we will never endow our students with this power until we give them freedom to explore, make mistakes, and make discoveries without regard to the "cleanliness" of their product. No matter the "museum quality" a work of art is, no product will be more valuable and long-lasting than the lessons in self-discovery and risk that take place throughout a process of true searching and risk.
Until we do the hard work of digging into our own fears and experiences, we can expect the arts to continue to become marginalized white-noise-- speaking simply for the pleasure of the sound of its own self-soothing voice, rather than for the sake of the healing words art speaks to both the viewer and the maker.
--Hafeli, Mary. "Negotiating 'Fit' in Student Art Work: Classroom Conversations." Studies in Art Education; A Journal of Issues and Research, 2000, 41 (2), 130-145
4.3.08
Great multimedia art history resources
I found a link via The Carrot Revolution to some wonderful youtube videos that would be great for presenting art history information to students in a way that they may more readily engage in. I think some of these videos are just wonderful tools for presenting information in a way that students will be interested and will help them make connections with the material you are presenting.
1.3.08
Art as an essential enrichment
As this semester I find myself more deeply emersed in my eduction studies, I find myself combining all sorts of observations about art and what it means to people and the classroom from different classes to books to everyday conversations. Something I have also been sorting out is my own art education and some differences and similarities between the painting class I am in now and love more than maybe any other class I've taken and a very difficult (in a non-academic way) last semester.
The question that keeps emerging is this: What is it that makes the art classroom so marginalized these days and how do we as teachers go about the difficult task of making art appropriately rigorous? Often, I have struggled with the question of how do deal with the issue of talent versus skill in the art classroom-- how do you deal with the concenption that the art class is really only for students who already love art naturally?
They tell us over and over that our focuse as content teachers must go beyond content, that the walls have to come frown between contents as we teacher students to be learners. In light of this advice and my own studies, I find a lot of answers to the questions above in the difference between approaching art as product and process.
As artists in our culture, it is difficult to get away from the notion of art as commodity. We are taught that our art making must always serve as a means of selling ourselves-- students are taught to hone their skill in order to create a product that will sell just like a clothing designer or car manufacturer.
In Chri Tovani's book, "Do I really have to Teach Reading," she includes this quote from Marcia D'Arcangelo in "The Challenge of Content-area Reading: A conversation with Donna Ogle":
"Many middle and high school teachers think of themselves as content experts. When I started teaching, I thought of myself as a historian. I wanted to teach history, and I really didn't think much about how students learn. I always focused on content. A lot of secondary teachers enter the field because of their passion for what they are teaching. It's an unusual teacher who comes into secondary education wanting to teach students how to learn. Yet, if we're going to be good teachers, that's really essential."
This quote interested me because it is a strong call to teachers to consider their motives. Am I an art teacher because I want all students to love art like I do, or do I want to open possibilities to students to disvoer things that they lovesas much as I love art? It is so easy to get into a rut of thinking that my content is best without thinking about the greater level of learning in students. What is best for them?
Art become much more meaningful when we allow it to move beyond the product. When we restrict our work in the art classroom to teaching students how to make a product that pleases others, we rob art and the student of all kinds of more important learning that goes on beneath and beyond the artwork. Art is so important because of all the exploration and discovery that takes place in the process. Art making involves all sorts of risk-taking and problem solving in a deeply holistic way that is not present in other subjects.
There are some art classes that I have observed or heard about that make me understand why people view the arts as enrichment or recess-- not necessary for people who are not naturally artistically inclined. When we treat art as only a means of producing a pleasing product, we are naturally going to eliminate many students in our classrooms or else make our own lives a great deal harder. Many adults do not know how to connect to art because they were only taught to view it as a measurement of acceptance in the class.
I used to think I loved art because I am creative and I love to paint, but the more I study art making and the more I learn about education, I realize that perhaps I love art more because of all the depth and possibilities it holds for my life as a whole. It challenges me to think deeply about my thoughts and experiences and moves me into a space where I am able to communicate my own senses of life for others to see in a deeply beautiful way. I love art because it is hard and it is intellectual and I hope that as a teacher I am able to instill a bit of the passion I hold into my own students towards their own loves and dreams. When we are able to use our art classrooms as places for students to hone their skills in creativity and deeper abstract thought, then it is appropriate to call it enrichement-- I believe the exercises the mind goes through during this process (regardless of the judgment attributed to the product) is an enrichment out world cannot do without.
The question that keeps emerging is this: What is it that makes the art classroom so marginalized these days and how do we as teachers go about the difficult task of making art appropriately rigorous? Often, I have struggled with the question of how do deal with the issue of talent versus skill in the art classroom-- how do you deal with the concenption that the art class is really only for students who already love art naturally?
They tell us over and over that our focuse as content teachers must go beyond content, that the walls have to come frown between contents as we teacher students to be learners. In light of this advice and my own studies, I find a lot of answers to the questions above in the difference between approaching art as product and process.
As artists in our culture, it is difficult to get away from the notion of art as commodity. We are taught that our art making must always serve as a means of selling ourselves-- students are taught to hone their skill in order to create a product that will sell just like a clothing designer or car manufacturer.
In Chri Tovani's book, "Do I really have to Teach Reading," she includes this quote from Marcia D'Arcangelo in "The Challenge of Content-area Reading: A conversation with Donna Ogle":
"Many middle and high school teachers think of themselves as content experts. When I started teaching, I thought of myself as a historian. I wanted to teach history, and I really didn't think much about how students learn. I always focused on content. A lot of secondary teachers enter the field because of their passion for what they are teaching. It's an unusual teacher who comes into secondary education wanting to teach students how to learn. Yet, if we're going to be good teachers, that's really essential."
This quote interested me because it is a strong call to teachers to consider their motives. Am I an art teacher because I want all students to love art like I do, or do I want to open possibilities to students to disvoer things that they lovesas much as I love art? It is so easy to get into a rut of thinking that my content is best without thinking about the greater level of learning in students. What is best for them?
Art become much more meaningful when we allow it to move beyond the product. When we restrict our work in the art classroom to teaching students how to make a product that pleases others, we rob art and the student of all kinds of more important learning that goes on beneath and beyond the artwork. Art is so important because of all the exploration and discovery that takes place in the process. Art making involves all sorts of risk-taking and problem solving in a deeply holistic way that is not present in other subjects.
There are some art classes that I have observed or heard about that make me understand why people view the arts as enrichment or recess-- not necessary for people who are not naturally artistically inclined. When we treat art as only a means of producing a pleasing product, we are naturally going to eliminate many students in our classrooms or else make our own lives a great deal harder. Many adults do not know how to connect to art because they were only taught to view it as a measurement of acceptance in the class.
I used to think I loved art because I am creative and I love to paint, but the more I study art making and the more I learn about education, I realize that perhaps I love art more because of all the depth and possibilities it holds for my life as a whole. It challenges me to think deeply about my thoughts and experiences and moves me into a space where I am able to communicate my own senses of life for others to see in a deeply beautiful way. I love art because it is hard and it is intellectual and I hope that as a teacher I am able to instill a bit of the passion I hold into my own students towards their own loves and dreams. When we are able to use our art classrooms as places for students to hone their skills in creativity and deeper abstract thought, then it is appropriate to call it enrichement-- I believe the exercises the mind goes through during this process (regardless of the judgment attributed to the product) is an enrichment out world cannot do without.
12.2.08
Yesterday, sometime before my most difficult and most respected professor told me I was doing a good job, a thought that I had never considered before came to me: I think I may be more interested in being a teacher than I am interested in being an artist. And to write that here, in this place I have devoted to reflection about being an artist, feels a little like blasphemy. I mean, I love art and I especially love painting, but in that moment with my eyes stinging from mineral spirits, I realized that the thing I want to do is touch the lives of kids in real and direct ways-- that I don't want to be in a studio alone all day-- I want to be schools, opening the world to young people.
Yes, my drive to do well at the trade that art and painting are is strong-- but often I find myself being driven to do well for the benefit of the people who will be looking to me to help them do my best. I do not work hard in the studio for collectors or currators, I work hard for students who will come after me, for the lives that my art will allow me to pour myself into. That is what I want.
I've thought often about the near sense of repulsion I feel about a life of petitioning to galleries, painting and showing. But in light of this new opinion I have discovered within myself, I wonder if may that just means that my gift is slightly different from other people who study art. I think my desire for my art has always been to communicate, I have always been drawn to it for the joy that it brings other people and for the capacity that it has to fulfill the longings of my loyal and relational soul.
Maybe this is why we are so careful about others being pleased with the things we create-- maybe we have this innate quality that makes for the purpose of seeing joy in the eyes of other people who see what we create. Perhaps.
Yes, my drive to do well at the trade that art and painting are is strong-- but often I find myself being driven to do well for the benefit of the people who will be looking to me to help them do my best. I do not work hard in the studio for collectors or currators, I work hard for students who will come after me, for the lives that my art will allow me to pour myself into. That is what I want.
I've thought often about the near sense of repulsion I feel about a life of petitioning to galleries, painting and showing. But in light of this new opinion I have discovered within myself, I wonder if may that just means that my gift is slightly different from other people who study art. I think my desire for my art has always been to communicate, I have always been drawn to it for the joy that it brings other people and for the capacity that it has to fulfill the longings of my loyal and relational soul.
Maybe this is why we are so careful about others being pleased with the things we create-- maybe we have this innate quality that makes for the purpose of seeing joy in the eyes of other people who see what we create. Perhaps.
28.1.08
Contrary to Popular Belief: We are all in this Together
Funny how you ask for transformation and then discover it. The semester is in full swing-- unlike many previous semesters, I have not found the first few weeks of classes greeted by a lull or an anticipation of when the hammer will fall. The hammer fell at 7:40 a.m. last Tuesday when I was ten minutes late for my first class and the pendulum has been swinging ever since. I have wondered multiple times already this week if I will ever catch my breath again.
Despite the constant adrenaline supply I have discovered pumping through my veins for the past seven days, I've begun to sense a few changes in my vision. I am in the process of picking out frames for my new glasses, I think. I wrote a bit about this on Lessons in Freefalling, but I think it applies in other ways here, too.
Community again. It seems as though in the last couple of years as I have plunged into all of these community-questions, I find that every so often my view of what that means gets turned easily and suddenly on its head.
I've been thinking this past week about the issue of community in my classes and what are more aptly becoming my "professional communities." And I've noticed a radical shift in my thinking from isolated contender to team player. I am seeing my classes less as personal breeding grounds for merit-based attention and more as communities of learners-- we are all here to learn. I think it is often our natural tendency (I know it is mine) to compete. I love the concept Don Miller writes about in Searching for God knows What in which an alien comes to visit earth and finds our systems of competition absolutely absurd. "The point is just to see who is better?" the alien asks, bewildered.
The Art community is so often a place of bitter hostility-- the hurting and broken mask their insecurities under pretension and standards of what makes art "fine" and we all fall in line so quickly, don't we? But what if, like Miller suggests, we buck this cycle of self-preservation and begin to root for each other? I mean, doesn't it make sense for everyone to work towards the goal of everyone being the best that we all can be together. Wouldn't I become a better artist and teacher if I was working just as hard at helping my neighbor become a better artist or teacher too? I don't see how we could ever loose if we all decide to walk in the same direction rather than fighting each other?
If we are called to subvert culture, wouldn't it make sense to turn around this system that keeps us in isolation so that we can all discover that we were not made to be alone?
Despite the constant adrenaline supply I have discovered pumping through my veins for the past seven days, I've begun to sense a few changes in my vision. I am in the process of picking out frames for my new glasses, I think. I wrote a bit about this on Lessons in Freefalling, but I think it applies in other ways here, too.
Community again. It seems as though in the last couple of years as I have plunged into all of these community-questions, I find that every so often my view of what that means gets turned easily and suddenly on its head.
I've been thinking this past week about the issue of community in my classes and what are more aptly becoming my "professional communities." And I've noticed a radical shift in my thinking from isolated contender to team player. I am seeing my classes less as personal breeding grounds for merit-based attention and more as communities of learners-- we are all here to learn. I think it is often our natural tendency (I know it is mine) to compete. I love the concept Don Miller writes about in Searching for God knows What in which an alien comes to visit earth and finds our systems of competition absolutely absurd. "The point is just to see who is better?" the alien asks, bewildered.
The Art community is so often a place of bitter hostility-- the hurting and broken mask their insecurities under pretension and standards of what makes art "fine" and we all fall in line so quickly, don't we? But what if, like Miller suggests, we buck this cycle of self-preservation and begin to root for each other? I mean, doesn't it make sense for everyone to work towards the goal of everyone being the best that we all can be together. Wouldn't I become a better artist and teacher if I was working just as hard at helping my neighbor become a better artist or teacher too? I don't see how we could ever loose if we all decide to walk in the same direction rather than fighting each other?
If we are called to subvert culture, wouldn't it make sense to turn around this system that keeps us in isolation so that we can all discover that we were not made to be alone?
20.1.08
I've been thinking most recently about the idea that when we think we are being strong or selective or careful about what we choose, we are actually being afraid. When we (and by we I mean me) say things like, "I just don't think that showing my art work is something I want to do, it is not something I make art for, it is not something that I really have any intention of doing," the dialogue is really about fear greater than my desire. And although sometimes this may be true that it is okay to lack this desire, I must face the demons and ask myself how much of my spirit on the matter is tainted by fear.
And I know at least a little corner (or maybe a larger chunk out of the center) of my excuses is this fear of entering into the intimacy that comes from the community involved in showing your art to other people. I've never really been a collaborative artist. For example: few people know that I am a musician. I don't write music and I'm not in a band-- I am a pianist. And in my case, piano isn't exactly a team sport. It can be, surely-- there are duets and people who add pianos and keyboards to guitars and drums, but it also is quite solitary. The bench only occasionally holds more than one. In the almost fifteen years I've spent at the whites and blacks, the recital allows your back to be to the audience most of the time. It soothes my introverted soul I think.
And when I walk into the studio, oftentimes it is face to the canvas-- I struggle alone. When it comes to my work, my natural posture a stance of defense. Somehow when I enter the studio and there are other artists there with different histories, artists who have gone to different elementary schools, I become afraid. I feel alone and I feel as though my little squrae around the easel is my own-- I hold this imaginary rule in my head that no one should be allowed to enter and I am to enter the square of no one. It is a deep intimacy that we risk as artists together.
I get jealous easily of people with edgy haircuts who wear mismatched clothes from the 1940's-- I like to call them pretentious, wearing their creativity on their sleeves to make up for the insecurities they feel about their actual artistic ability. But a voice deeper inside of me reminds me that this insecurity is actually probably my own. I am secretly jealous of their ability to flock together, to happily make art together, enjoying one another's talent. And I am haunted by the question: "Why can't I fit in there?" I like to say that these people judge me because my clothes all match and I don't make a visual spectical of myself of how surprisingly this never really satisfies.
The truth is that I want to be in these circles, something in my deepest-made parts knows I was made for community. And I think that even though I do gravitate towards an introverted self, I long for the ability to share secrets, to be free from jealousy and comparison so that I can stop fearing that judgment from other people.
I went to a concert last night featuring Laura Goldhamer, this wonderful artist who vibrantly and whimsically writes songs accompanied by stop-frame animation and puppet shows and I found myself sitting there wondering how someone is so free to just let the creativity spill all over the place and wondering where I could get this. I couldn't help but wonder how I lost this-- when I decided to hide behind the canvas and then hide it away in a closet. And there were all of these people there who were absolutely in love with her-- all these friends. And I felt really lonely, like I was standing on the outside, peering in the window with someone next to me, holding my hand, whispering in my ear, "you will never be in that circle-- you may only stand out here, alone." And somehow that doesn't seem right as I write it here, now, 13 hours later.
I often meet those people who's creativity has not been crushed and hidden away-- they are full of ideas and ideals. And I shake my head-- they do not know what the real art world is like. And I wonder if it will crush them too or if they have found a secret that I have not yet found to circumvent this terrible fate.
I used to feel this way about just about everything-- that I do not belong anywhere, that every circle is made for my exclusion and I feel as though this shell has begun to disintegrate, but it still feels firm in this area of my creativity. And maybe it is just one more layer that must be dealt with in due time.
As I write this, I wonder why I am actually confessing this here, but I suppose I have heard that freedom comes from confession and so here I am, in the booth, the faceless monitor the screen and you, the readers, my priests.
And this thing I have started perhaps is my way of walking out into the light, daring to show my stuff to all of you, and maybe with this little step I will find the courage to keep walking-- to take another step and enter those other circles. Perhaps that will be my prayer-- my walking chant for the next little while-- that this wall too would come down, that I would find community with this gift I have been given, that I will take the lid off the box and be brave enough to allow others to see what I've been hiding.
Last semester I came to the realization that if there is an artist's work that I like, I can just enjoy it-- I'm allowed to. And I decided also that I am going to make a concerted effort to start stealing. If I see something that I like, I am going to take it-- if there is something I wish I could do in my artwork, I am going to work hard until I can do and then follow that rabbit wherever it leads.
So this is my prayer-- I often ask the Father to change me, to move me, to warm my heart again to be remolded and here I need a little remolding-- Abba work on me here. Show me the steps towards the art communities that I need. Take my fear and turn it around into love. Make me brave enough to love, because this is what art and creating are about-- love: for your great pleasure, you said. So Abba, I ask in this semester, in this next leg of the journey that you would be moving me closer, take me into those communities that I need. How deeply I need you and your spirit that you have put in those places.
And I know at least a little corner (or maybe a larger chunk out of the center) of my excuses is this fear of entering into the intimacy that comes from the community involved in showing your art to other people. I've never really been a collaborative artist. For example: few people know that I am a musician. I don't write music and I'm not in a band-- I am a pianist. And in my case, piano isn't exactly a team sport. It can be, surely-- there are duets and people who add pianos and keyboards to guitars and drums, but it also is quite solitary. The bench only occasionally holds more than one. In the almost fifteen years I've spent at the whites and blacks, the recital allows your back to be to the audience most of the time. It soothes my introverted soul I think.
And when I walk into the studio, oftentimes it is face to the canvas-- I struggle alone. When it comes to my work, my natural posture a stance of defense. Somehow when I enter the studio and there are other artists there with different histories, artists who have gone to different elementary schools, I become afraid. I feel alone and I feel as though my little squrae around the easel is my own-- I hold this imaginary rule in my head that no one should be allowed to enter and I am to enter the square of no one. It is a deep intimacy that we risk as artists together.
I get jealous easily of people with edgy haircuts who wear mismatched clothes from the 1940's-- I like to call them pretentious, wearing their creativity on their sleeves to make up for the insecurities they feel about their actual artistic ability. But a voice deeper inside of me reminds me that this insecurity is actually probably my own. I am secretly jealous of their ability to flock together, to happily make art together, enjoying one another's talent. And I am haunted by the question: "Why can't I fit in there?" I like to say that these people judge me because my clothes all match and I don't make a visual spectical of myself of how surprisingly this never really satisfies.
The truth is that I want to be in these circles, something in my deepest-made parts knows I was made for community. And I think that even though I do gravitate towards an introverted self, I long for the ability to share secrets, to be free from jealousy and comparison so that I can stop fearing that judgment from other people.
I went to a concert last night featuring Laura Goldhamer, this wonderful artist who vibrantly and whimsically writes songs accompanied by stop-frame animation and puppet shows and I found myself sitting there wondering how someone is so free to just let the creativity spill all over the place and wondering where I could get this. I couldn't help but wonder how I lost this-- when I decided to hide behind the canvas and then hide it away in a closet. And there were all of these people there who were absolutely in love with her-- all these friends. And I felt really lonely, like I was standing on the outside, peering in the window with someone next to me, holding my hand, whispering in my ear, "you will never be in that circle-- you may only stand out here, alone." And somehow that doesn't seem right as I write it here, now, 13 hours later.
I often meet those people who's creativity has not been crushed and hidden away-- they are full of ideas and ideals. And I shake my head-- they do not know what the real art world is like. And I wonder if it will crush them too or if they have found a secret that I have not yet found to circumvent this terrible fate.
I used to feel this way about just about everything-- that I do not belong anywhere, that every circle is made for my exclusion and I feel as though this shell has begun to disintegrate, but it still feels firm in this area of my creativity. And maybe it is just one more layer that must be dealt with in due time.
As I write this, I wonder why I am actually confessing this here, but I suppose I have heard that freedom comes from confession and so here I am, in the booth, the faceless monitor the screen and you, the readers, my priests.
And this thing I have started perhaps is my way of walking out into the light, daring to show my stuff to all of you, and maybe with this little step I will find the courage to keep walking-- to take another step and enter those other circles. Perhaps that will be my prayer-- my walking chant for the next little while-- that this wall too would come down, that I would find community with this gift I have been given, that I will take the lid off the box and be brave enough to allow others to see what I've been hiding.
Last semester I came to the realization that if there is an artist's work that I like, I can just enjoy it-- I'm allowed to. And I decided also that I am going to make a concerted effort to start stealing. If I see something that I like, I am going to take it-- if there is something I wish I could do in my artwork, I am going to work hard until I can do and then follow that rabbit wherever it leads.
So this is my prayer-- I often ask the Father to change me, to move me, to warm my heart again to be remolded and here I need a little remolding-- Abba work on me here. Show me the steps towards the art communities that I need. Take my fear and turn it around into love. Make me brave enough to love, because this is what art and creating are about-- love: for your great pleasure, you said. So Abba, I ask in this semester, in this next leg of the journey that you would be moving me closer, take me into those communities that I need. How deeply I need you and your spirit that you have put in those places.
15.1.08
The Artist Journey
The time has come for me to venture out into the art world. After much encouragement from family and friends to get some art out of the closet, I suppose you may mark this as a beginning of sorts of a journey to face my fears and realize that I can indeed make something of myself.
I hope to use this space as a chronology of the steps I take towards sharing my art with the world, so that maybe later, some young artist like me might not feel so alone and so that while it is all unfurling, you all can watch and cheer me on. I don't think I can do it alone.
I hope to use this space to compile links and resources on art, art-making, and art-loving. I may use this space to vent frustrations and to record musings about what art is in our world and in our culture. I will most likely post some images of my own work in the near future.
So please, enjoy, and enter the journey with me. Lord knows I need you.
I hope to use this space as a chronology of the steps I take towards sharing my art with the world, so that maybe later, some young artist like me might not feel so alone and so that while it is all unfurling, you all can watch and cheer me on. I don't think I can do it alone.
I hope to use this space to compile links and resources on art, art-making, and art-loving. I may use this space to vent frustrations and to record musings about what art is in our world and in our culture. I will most likely post some images of my own work in the near future.
So please, enjoy, and enter the journey with me. Lord knows I need you.
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