AT: Week 15

My final project proposal was to revolutionize the way visual art is taught in my district. It was suggested this might be too large of an undertaking for this class project. So I scaled back to just outlining a curriculum. You know, biting off just enough to chew. I tried to let go of this idea, I really did. In fact, I set up some experimenting in my room with iPads thinking that would be a perfect tie in to this end of semester project. And although I have done some wonderful things, I am not too sure it counts as a culminating project. And to be honest, I have nooo time to write that detailed of a lesson plan that was wonderfully provided by Kathy and Melissa at this point. Some day! in the future I am using that format, just not today fine people. (If you are curious to see some of that, please join our edmodo group - code da0wy4. url: http://www.edmodo.com/home#/join/83ffba1c8a2e6fb2702d9d226be52335)

So what I want to share with you are my beginning musings on the topic. I started to sketch out a Popplet early on in this course on this topic. I have since been adding to it and thought I would share.

I have also been putting together a Pinterest board recording some of the items from this class I want to remember and archive in my brain as I begin to tackle this Herculean task in the near future.

This idea for a project is actually quite a bit more to me than theoretical. I want to see what I can do to encourage the development of teachers in my district to start thinking for the future. I have the position to make change happen and I want to really make a difference with that. So, this is constantly spinning in my mind. Where would I begin? How could this happen? How do I start other teachers thinking down this path? We don't have to agree on everything (98% would be fine...;) )but a sincere dialogue is what I am wanting.

I think my head is going to continually be spinning with thoughts that originated from this course. I am constantly referring back something I heard or read from our course load and dialogue here.  I would be interested to hear from anyone, everyone how this course continues to change their thinking as time goes on. I feel like I am seriously forever changed by the rabbit hole of thinking this has taken me down. Thanks Muddy!

AT: Week 14 - Read & React

Readings:

Hetland: Chapter 8 - Learning to Express

Oliva Gude: 2 articles - Principles of Possibility AND Postmodern Principles

My thoughts as a I react to the readings:

Hetland Ch 8. - Learning to Express. Okay, and uh-huh. I read this before bed and was hoping something more deep to say would come as I slumbered. Nothing yet. So in hopes of making some connections from this to the Gude articles subconsciously, here are my thoughts on the Gude readings. (Going back to this after airing my thoughts on Gude...I'm kind of done with this book and glad it is our last reading assignment. I was kind of disappointed with it. Although I am walking away with some interesting thoughts on what areas to structure a curriculum or unit plans around, I think I was hoping for some more straightforward teaching strategies or narratives instead of case studies from art teachers at what I thought were atypical art schools.)

Postmodern Principles: I have seen the original OMG speak at numerous conventions and I make a point of never missing her speak, whether it is a solo performance or if she sits on a panel. Her approach to art ed is refreshing, inspiring and reinvigorating. Whether it is the incredible breakneck speed at which she speaks or the fresh ideas that she is proposing we infuse into art education that energizes me, I am not certain.  What I am certain of is that she motivated me to inspect how I was teaching and the way my students were responding to it. I was noticing a couple of things as I began moving through my teaching career and how students were changing. I found myself in the midst of what I believe now was a cultural, generational shift. A subtle shift from the Gen Y-ers to the iGen student and what I found was they responded differently to the educational environment of the day and needed a different way to learn. Gude's Postmodernism helped me begin to explore this. 

   As I read this article (which I hadn't read before now), what I kept thinking about was, "How can I share this thinking with my colleagues?" Most of whom have been teaching longer than myself, and are very entrenched in their personal way of doing things. I remember just starting my teaching career and finding it difficult to convince them that we should be using DBAE to ensure students were being exposed to the E&P, art history, aesthetics, and criticism and not just arts & crafts and/or media. That seemed like a giant struggle at the time and a major shift in thinking. Then the district went to making everything "common" and standards based and my colleagues were forced to change. Back to my thinking...As I read the article I couldn't help but think of an observation my husband and I both made early in our teaching careers. We noticed that teachers tend to revert back to frames of mind, and some behaviors even, of the grade level we teach. Being surrounded by so many minds of a certain developmental level for so much of our day, for so many of our days, it is kind of hard not to...It reminds me of the VTS practice where VTS facilitators need to experience VTS in order to grow in their aesthetic development. I was hoping I'd be able to escape it, having recognized it in others but I could tell as I wrote my National Boards papers a couple of years ago, that alas! I, too, could feel my vocabulary slipping and my perceptions altered. So, as I read Gude's article I noticed that she writes very academically. Although insightful and potentially so very beneficial to 21st century art learners, I couldn't help but keep thinking about how academic she sounded. How inaccessible to the everyday public school art teacher she was in this article. Now maybe I am doing my fellow teachers a disservice, but Gude is afforded the luxury of thinking about these things in a philosophical way that most teachers do not have the time to do. Or the energy! These are some deep thoughts about art education and her students. And when the everyday teacher is faced with not only teaching art,  but also assaulted with behavior and classroom management issues, thinking about these new ways of approaching visual culture can be down right daunting. To move towards the way Gude proposes we teach, would take some time talking about these things with our colleagues, some time to expose ourselves to these ideas, to let them soak in, to play, to stretch, to explore within these ideas. But first, you need to be open-minded to these ideas and feel supported in shifting to these ideas and not feel restricted by the boundaries and mandates put in place by administrators. Oh, do I sound like I'm talking from personal experience? Perhaps I am...

Principles of Possibility:
"The essential contribution that arts education can make to our students and to our communities is to teach skills and concepts while creating opportunities to investigate and represent one's own experiences - generating a personal and shared meaning." 
 This quote is one that is resonating with me because I am in a situation to guide and direct the new revisions to our district's curriculum as we move into preparations for Common Core and 21st Century Skills. I can't help but read this article and the previous Duncum article from the perspective of one searching for supports in revamping a status quo. I see a lot that I am in support of. The idea of looking to what general students will need as the go out into the world, not all of them going off to be artists, but as artizens - members of our society that will need to be visually literate and able to make decisions about what they see. I see a change in what students need as they are taught. Something that Gude doesn't necessarily address, but what I've seen in my class is that formal ways of teaching art does not make learning rigorous or relevant to today's students. In fact, I believe that it builds obstacles to building relationships with students in some cases and prohibits learning. I think that by taking Gude's insights into account, we as 21st century artist educators will be better equipped to prepare a literate, prolific, world citizen. 

Reflect & Write Part One:

• Gude has several powerful quotes in her powerpoint presentation ripe for discussion and analysis.  Choose one of the quotes on the first page of the “Gude Notes” document to compose a thoughtful, reflective response.  Answer the following questions:

• What are the classroom implications for this statement?  Describe how this might relate to your classroom experiences or how you predict this affecting classrooms of the future.
• Do you agree or disagree with her statement or stance?  Provide evidence to support or illustrate your thinking through examples.

Seriously, how do I pick just one?
"Recipes to achieve a cool-looking project are NOT good art educational practice.  Good art projects are not simplistic recipes." 

I have been struggling with this one. In different ways. As a  beginning teacher, I wanted students to feel successful, and therefore I would feel successful. I felt that something I was good at was breaking down directions so that students could understand them, follow them correctly, and end up with the intended outcome. And yet, I would get sooo frustrated at the students that wound up demanding my time to go over how to do something - darn them for not reading my volume of directions! It took me a minute to realize that putting everything in writing, clearly available for them, was not the way to reach all my students including those that had reading comprehension problems or were kinesthetic learners, for example. So I adjusted my expectations. I felt like what I needed to do for my students was break things down that were abstract to the concrete. Then they would be able to do it and feel successful!  And what I found was that I was making things too simplistic and robbing students of the cognitive dissonance that kept them motivated and learning! Fellow teachers were struggling with classroom management issues and what I found was that as I stopped using recipes, I stopped having as many issues with work completion, behavior, and failing students. Surprise! Students liked being in charge of their own destiny! I still can not convince some of my colleagues that could possibly be happier teachers if they could let go of this way of teaching. But on the other hand, I understand why it is hard to let go. It is a bit of a struggle to do this and still get students to make progressive growth in their media skills and therefore produce "good looking" art. As I read Gude's expressionist principle I kept wondering about how she teaches expressionism. I saw some examples in the power point, but I still would like to observe it in action. I find students don't invest themselves in this practice. (Please keep in mind as you read that I am thinking of high school students -- and mostly Intro students.) They are at the stage where realism rules. And defines success. My next stage of classroom development, I think will be looking at how to stretch students skills and beliefs about this while developing media skills for them to feel successful. Efficacy and craftsmanship, you know. 
I also think that by providing recipes, you are encouraging and enabling students to believe that there is one right answer. And that goes against what the arts teach. We need to be encouraging students to investigate, and engage, and think critically. It also squelches creativity, creating a citizenry looking to others and not to themselves as problem solvers. 
I am looking forward to the symposium with Olivia Gude. I always enjoy hearing her speak and seeing examples of how she teaches. The stories she tells truly enliven the power points, no matter how great those are to begin with. 

AT: Week 13 - Read & React

Hetland: ch. 11 -  Learning to Stretch & Explore

Eliza Petri: Artistic Play in Problem Solving

Daniel Pink: Play (from A Whole New Mind)

TED Talk - Tim Brown: Tales of creativity and play

TED Talk - Stuart Brown: Play Why play is vital – no matter what your age

"Play is not anarchy." "It’s not an ‘either/or,’ it’s an ‘and.’ You can be serious and play.” (Tim Brown) 
I loved this video from TED from Tim Brown. It gave me lots of ideas and reaffirmed some strategies I've already been using to try to promote creativity in my art room. That has been a big goal of mine with my high school Intro students. We talk a lot about fear and how we silence that inner voice too often. And I thought what Brown did by having the audience draw their neighbor was a brilliant illustration of this fear of being judged. It is part of why we as teachers do what we do to create classroom community. To build rapport with students so we can discuss anything and so feedback loses its sharpness and becomes helpful to each student, not just those with a sure identity and thick skin. I think purposeful play is so important to this dynamic one should try to attain with creative students. There has to be space to experiment and freedom to try and fail. And the letting go of it entirely so that it stops being about the right and wrong and more about the journey and being in the moment - Relishing what happens in that space in between.
    I've read Dan Pink's book before and although it was a good starting point for thinking about Play, it was what started me experimenting with Play in my search for building creativity, I think for me, at least at this point in my journey, that TED video sold it home to me. The importance of it. Or maybe it was just time for a refresher and I felt like this after reading Pink the first time. It is hard to say since so much of that book was an inspiration, revelation and game changer for me. The Pink book was what started me playing in my classroom and playing with what curriculum could be. As I am being faced with a difficult career changing decision, I realize something that has been making it hard for me to make my decision is that I feel I am still experimenting with how students react to play. I am having success and I want to continue this path. I have been playing, stretching, and exploring what learning in art can look like, especially in a test-centric, standards based format that we currently have. 
Here is a presentation of what I was doing in the classroom around the idea of Play. It wasn't the lens that I was presenting though, in fact that was my experimentation with the idea of the Big Idea. But basically the whole experiment was my play. Here is the link.
    And this year I had planned on adding to it. I wanted to try the sketchbook, adn digital portfolio building and the one page portfolio at the end of the semester.  But with my work in VTS, my additions had to be put on hold while I figured out how VTS sessions worked into it all. On top of all these new things I was trying, I was out this semester for various trainings and meetings. Being absent can have a major effect on your class (in so many ways!) and I was out something like 14% of the time. It sort of skewed my qualitative and anecdotal data. I hit the sketchbook part hard and got some great results seeing how students were playing. I encouraged them to make the sketchbook theirs, creating in it not just when I gave them assignments, but any time! In fact by the time fall break rolled around (9 weeks in) I had a few students who had filled them up and needed a new one! Success! I saw these students were really much more capable of trying new things, had a more resilient attitude, and seemed to be enjoying class more than some of their peers. Hard to say though that they aren't like that all the time.
   I want to try to incorporate Play now in a way that helps build media skills. I am still having an issue with the students not being as purposeful as I would like with their play. And for me, I am still fighting a tendency to make it more concrete (for example, a xeroxed worksheet with a value scale drawn all ready to be filled in) so that they make the connections to skill building. But what I can see is that students need more efficacy in their media skills. They aren't seeing enough change in their skills and are placing high importance on those at this point ( I am seeing lots of change, but they aren't). So that is where I want to go next.
   As I am reading and watching and thinking about all these aspects of our AT class, and feeling incredibly rusty at the creative act of making "art", I realize that I am exercising my creativity almost everyday - through the act of creating rigorous, relevant lessons and units for my students. I am starting to make connections to them through digital means and am stretching myself through playing with these 21st century tools. Using iPads in new ways, trying new resources, building in Pinterest. So many new avenues for discovery. So much playing in myself as an Artist Educator (which you haven't seen and/or thought about this, you should.) and so much more to explore!

AT: Week 12 - Read & React

Hetland Ch. 6 - Learning to Engage and Persist & Ch. 7 - Learning To Envision

Twyla Tharp: Scratching (pdf document on lore) 

• What are ways that the habits of envisioning, engagement, and persistence evident in your own work?
• How do we teach the habits of envisioning, engagement, and persistence to our students?

Oh my gosh that Twyla Tharp article! On Amazon, I always see the book it came from suggested to me based on my other purchases and I've thought to myself, "Why would this book on dance be suggested?" Reading this small excerpt, I now know why and feel compelled to add it to my amazon Christmas wish list in hopes that St. Nick will have needed a last minute gift idea. So many sections I feel like I need to have blown up and plastered on my art room walls. 

I felt a kinship to her process for generating ideas. For just about any creative endeavor I take on, I seem to go through the same process. I love the 4 components she lays out: 1) Generation, 2) Retention, 3) Inspection, and 4) Transformation. I have the hardest part with the retention part. I tend to do a lot of Inspection of an idea in my head (mostly b/c the best ideas come when it is hardest to get them recorded somewhere) and hold on to it for a short amount of time before >poof!< it is gone. I also think I am either partially dehydrated at all times and therefore my short term memory is shiite due to that or that old adage of having children and the mother giving them half her brain is right. I've had two kids so do the math there. O.o  The other side of that is what Tharp says and that good ideas generate more ideas. And for me they tend to cancel each other out in terms of holding a place in my memory banks. Unfortunately all that is left is the phantom itch of knowing there was an idea to begin with there.

    With my multi-tasking art project previously, I had felt a twinge of sympathy for my students who are made to pack up and leave. And out of respect for a well-rounded education and my colleagues, I try to have students out on time and not continuously write passes to let them stay. As the Hetland book points out, "when students are truly engaged, they lose themselves. They are in a state of "flow"" (another book on my wish list as it so happens.) I cherish those days where we all lose sense of time and the bell catches us off guard. To me that signals an extraordinary day. Even if it does send us all into a tizzy to clean up and get a move on. 

    Some of the advice, or stratagem the book give for teaching students to persist and envision are things that I do out of instinct, I think, and so do not feel very purposeful. I hadn't thought about it teaching students to persist, I thought it was more of a pep talk and don't give up! motivational talk. Interesting. I wonder if the teachers in this book recognized it as such, or if the authors were able to make those connections as they wrote. Sometimes what we do as art teachers seems so obvious after the fact. It makes me think of what Dr. Unrath said this summer about Art teachers operating on intuition, instinct and the gut - more so than other types of teachers. Its funny because I'm thinking of my Intro students versus my elective studio students (the ones I used to have before I cut back my hours) and how different they are to receive this type of teacher interactions. And how you can start to see the difference in the students who will go on to the studio classes. It gets in their bellies and you can see the fire thats there in their eyes. Not that the fire is that great-creative-artist-for-life fire, but its the creative spirit that has been re-kindled. You can see them start to make the transformation. And that is so worth all the other whip-cracking. I might have to see what I can do to share the Tharp thoughts. I will definitely need to re-read this on a regular basis. 

I'm not sure where in all my postings I should include this, but wanted to share... For my scratching activity, I kept a Pinterest board. See my scratchings here.

AT: Week 12 - Reflection

Reflection

According to Hetland, “teachers in rigorous visual arts classes present their students with engaging projects, and they teach their students to connect to the assignment personally, to persist in their work, and to stick to a task for a sustained period of time” (42).  Throughout the chapter Hetland notes several lessons embedding within this larger theme including:

• motivating and instilling passion
• cultivating sustained attention
• combating frustration
• working hard to meet a deadline
• developing the ability to delay gratification (working without seeing the endpoint)

Reflect on how strategies you use to meet each of the aforementioned ideas in your own work.  For example, how do you (or have you learned to) combat frustration and persevere when something is not going right?  Once you have described how this impacts your own work turn the table and think about how this idea could applied to your student’s work and artistic thinking/actions in the classroom.  For example – what strategies do you use to help students combat frustration?  Reflect on both the personal level and classroom extensions for all 5 points above.  

I am incredibly guilty of being unable to make myself do something that I am not intrinsically motivated to do (this can be seen clearly in my undergraduate transcripts and MU's grand experiment in making us take 3 class the opposite our major.) Luckily for me, I am naturally curious and a life long learner. That is a real gift as an artist because it keeps me looking and continues to inspire the thoughts behind my work. I feel like as an artist, you have to just be motivated and have passion, you can't manufacture it. It has to come from inside of you. That spark come from inside. However, external forces can kindle it. So you can go looking for it. So, I don't feel like I can always provide passion for my students. What I can do is work to motivate them, create an atmosphere that is inspirational, give food for thought that starts gears turning, do my part to nurture motivation and not squash it. That is a teacher's role. We should get out of the way to allow students to find their motivation and discover personal passion. Now the next four I think a teacher has more control over and a good art teacher will help students develop these artistic habits of mind. However, coming back to this idea 24 hours later. I'm not sure how I do this. Nor how I do it with my students truthfully. I am usually just a really good cheerleader and try to design lessons that will leave room for personal interpretation, pique their interests, leave them room to be curious and explore. When things don't go quite right in the production of work, it is usually myself or another student that prompts further investigation that will keep students working. If someone figures something out that unravels this whole mystery, will you be sure to drop me a line? Just to elaborate though, I am constantly looking for quirky (or even not so quirky) things that will shed new light on what my students are thinking about. I'm a big believer in artist resources, visual examples, looking at other artist's and their works, and basically examining the worlds around you. I'm not so good at holding students to creative deadlines (other than the final one before grades are due). I believe that students at this stage need to be given time to explore creative self without the added stress of deadlines (although we discuss schedules and how much class time they will have to work, scheduling time, etc.) On top of 6 other class' responsibilities, the unrealistic time frame of only working for 45 minute spans, and an extrinsic motivator I feel students also need to be given the opportunity to work further if they so choose. Deadlines, schmedlines - - depending on work ethic. Deep down I think if as a teacher you design an experience that is rigorous, relevant, and you have a good relationship with your students you can meet the five ideas presented. On top of that, as artist educators, we have to be careful to structure assignments that also enable growth and students to see and feel like they are making progress in media skill development but also sometimes in the area of idea generation. 

And seeing as how I am now currently working hard to meet a deadline, I will end my post here. :)

AT: Week 11 - Read & React

Read & React:
   Rosen Ch. 4 - Multitasking Madness
   Hetland Ch. 5 - Learning to Develop Craft & Ch. 9 - Learning To Observe

Let's wrap this Read & React up fairly quickly, shall we? I have some art to make.

1) Mutitasking - I'm guilty of doing this too. But I am a Gen Xer/ Y (whenever that cut off is officially, I straddle it and each one's habits) so apparently sometimes I text and sometimes I email. I notice I'm doing this more at work meetings when it is okay to have a computer. But I confess, its b/c Im bored.
I recognize when I do it in certain situations that I am missing what is going on to some extent. I recognize that I am not being fully present. Maybe that's just a benefit of age. Being able to tell when one should focus or needs to focus. Sometimes I can tell a student's level of true engagement based on the proximity of their mobile device in class.

2) I like this idea of looking at the different Habits of Studio Mind. But I can't help but always be a little overwhelmed by the fact that we as art teachers have so many plates spinning in the air as we design lessons to teach. Its more frustrating when you are supposed to have a course map and as a group decide what would be best taught when, with what, always in the same order and to have to give a common final that holds you to this. When you work alone, as a progressive teacher, you can try these new things as experiments and if they fail the first time, chalk it up to something new and learning and adjust how you evaluate students. Then try it again better the next year. I want to try this combination of craft, with practice, with meaning making, with freedom to individualize creation, but then I feel beholden to make sure they are prepared for this darn final that winds up being the most insignificant 20% of their grade. So frustrating. After trying these new lessons for a couple of years now, I wish I was making more progress with what Hetland defines as Develop Craft: Technique. Too much play that is too unstructured. I need a happy medium between this free play and exercises. I usually figure what i could do for this right after I teach something, then I forget what I wanted to do by the time next year rolls around. Its a conundrum. If only my long term memory was better. Or if I had integrated digital technology so my brain would access bookmarks to things I've seen and read when I think of lessons in my mind. Ha! Speaking of, I will have to remember the idea of the view finder and how the other teacher used a still life to teach perspective. I like the idea of investigating a technique and then figuring out how to apply a skill to it. It seems a little more concrete than draw an imaginary street, room, buildings, etc. I've always wanted to do this Chair drawing assignment to teach perspective. Maybe I can combine those two ideas. The chair symbolizing who we see ourselves as. Like in Goldilocks or Van Gogh's portrait of himself and portrait of Gauguin as chairs. how descriptive it could really be and employ good technique and craft. Hmm. I will have to take note of that somewhere I can access it next year. Oh, Siri...

AT: Week 11 - Observe & Developing Craft Assignment

1. Reflection -

• What are your personal working preferences for artmaking?  In at least 250 words, describe what your creative process is like.  Here are some aspects you might address: Do you methodically plan out everything and then go for it or are you more spontaneous?  What about the space in which you work?  Do you take time to organize your supplies or clear clutter before you begin – or does visual clutter feed your muse?  What creative rituals do you engage in – drinking your favorite tea and rocking out with your ipod, or do you prefer to work with the door closed, late at night, with no distractions? 

Art making, you say? 

So much of this class has been introspective and reflective about ourselves as teachers. And for so many of the last few years of my career, I have been focused on improving myself as an art teacher, about teaching art better to better serve and reach my students' needs. Like so many teachers, we find ourselves pulled by so many things in our lives. Part of me longs for those undergrad years where all I had to do was soak it all in, absorb the knowledge all around me, participate in this extravaganza of life. Granted, I always thought life would be a little more enjoyable with a little more money and a little less ramen, but it is all relative, ya know? I'm at a point now where I have a house, a husband, two small children and a complex position in my district where I wear far too many hats for the amount of time in a day. If only I had Anna, the ladies maid, to help me transition roles throughout the day. Perhaps one day Siri can fill that part. Anyway, I long for that day when I could create art on a whim, laying out all my supplies and let them sit any which way as I flittered from creative impulse to impulse, muse to muse. I didn't take enough advantage of that. And now I have no personal space in which to create and so little uninterrupted time. I like to know where my supplies are, and in my mind, I am organized. But looking to my best friend, Susan, who is truly so very naturally gifted and talented as well as having the mad skills to keep her life orderly and organized, I am sooo not disciplined. I find I am somewhere in between. Organized and yet chaotic, tight and yet undisciplined. I struggle with my work ethic and silencing the voice inside my head that doubts. I think back to the year before my son was born when I was part of an art collective. A group of artist friends and I were basically squatting in a warehouse that was going to be demolished any day as soon as the debate in the city council committee was resolved, and we would laugh, and debate, and critique, and create, and inspire each other as we worked on our art in this crazy dilapidated space. I was having trouble landing on an idea, hemming and hawing... and the friend that had inspired and started all this craziness, just looked over from where he was working and said, "Just f*cking paint something already. Stop talking about it and get to it." Then went back to the mess he was slopping on his canvas. And that was my problem. I had to have a plan before I could act and I couldn't commit to anything that seemed worth my while. I felt I had such little precious time that if I did anything it better be amazing. I still feel like that today. On most days. I put too much pressure on myself to get to it, to create something that I can be proud of, and in turn, create nothing. Ridiculous, right? So what is my creative process? Currently, I have to have a deadline, and outside pressure to get it done, to make myself carve out time to create. I could really use a class with assignments that would set boundaries and deadlines. There is freedom in restrictions for me. 

And to answer the additional questions about environment, it depends on what I am creating. I find I need the external environment to echo the feel of the piece I am going for. Sometimes energetic music is required, other times it is peace and quiet or softly playing relaxing music. Sometimes I need the spark of caffeine and the fizzle of bubbles or just the warmth of a mug of tea or hot cocoa.

I also tend to create as a multi-tasker, only because that is the only environment I am allocated to work in these days. Either in my classroom as students create around me, or in my home as I take care of my family and home at the same time. I long for those quiet times when I could have personal space so that I could fill it with my own sounds of crazy music or the sounds of my tools working. 

   So I wonder how I will fulfill the next part of the assignment? To create in the opposite of the usual...since my usual is not necessarily my choosing, but my necessity. Hmmm....

2/3. Visual Exercise & Reflection - 

Alrighty, So I was pretty conflicted about what way to work - as a multi-tasker or uni-tasker - because I typically don't have time to create anymore and can't remember truly how I like to work! I'm thinking it is actually a pretty blended method (although that would make it multi-tasking since I am not solely creating. I see listening to music, I think, as part of the creative act and not separate. Hmmm, deeper thoughts are surfacing...) where I would normally have a quiet, private space to work with my materials laid out and some music to get the juices flowing. Since I don't have that luxury any longer, I do what I can with what I can. 
   So, in response to this challenge to do the opposite of our nature, I tried setting up studio in the midst of the chaos that is my art room at the end of the year. ( I also thought this would be good for my students, to see how I work...)  I didn't get out any tools other than my sketchbook to work in. I was obviously in my art room where media was available, but I didn't put any for thought into it and get it all laid out in front of me. I started by looking around my desk for inspiration and found a xerox copy of my hand I did as an example for a student journal assignment. Then I dug out my watercolors form my desk and washed the background, going back in to collage, and draw, and add words to the image. I even pulled out some stencils. While doing all this, I was constantly interrupted. I was called to answer student questions, look up grades, give feedback, help another teacher, fix a glue gun, had to start and stop classes (I worked for three class periods at this since I wasn't really devoting 30 minutes to the work itself,) reassess some work, explain some make-up work, answer an email, and I'm sure lots of other things I am forgetting about at the time. As you can see, not much got out on the paper with all that going on. But, what I did get out was an idea seed. A beginning that I can revisit if I so choose. I am foreseeing lots of layers to this and would like to see more collage and ephemera in it. 
   Thinking about others who like to work this way...HOW DO THEY GET ANYTHING DONE?! I'm sure I had some great visual ideas that I lost along the way. And I kind of feel for my students who are forced to create this way, in the span of a class period thoughts and momentum having to start and stop by the whim of a bell. Grr. I like to get lost in my creation and I wasn't able to do that here. No wonder sometimes their work suffers. 

Week 11 Multi-tasking artwork

 1. Proposal - 

• Consider these questions to spark your proposal:  What work of art have you been wanting to create but haven’t had the time?  What body of work have you began, but never had a chance to finish?  What techniques or artists/artwork keep flittering in and out of your head as new directions for exploration?  Choose one of these ideas and develop a short proposal for the work, or small body of work you’d like to produce for this class.  Write this description (the propsal) and your rationale on your blog.  

So, what would I like to work on? Or to place more structure / limitations on myself, what can I work on with my time limitations and space limitations? 
I'd like to work on this ever simmering idea I have of working non-objectively with color that is influenced by trends and social influences, studying color as portrayed as a commodity. And I have always wanted to work with encaustics, at this point I guess teaching myself how that works. 
And then  my students are going to be developing an upcoming project that has to do with memory. I'd like to do something along those lines with my own children, or my family going back the other way, and working on something memory related. 
Or to throw out another idea, we have an art festival coming up soon with an art auction that funds art scholarships, so I'd like to make something for that too. Hmmm....where to begin. 

2. Studies -

OKay, so I landed on the idea of trying encaustic. That is kind of complicated and seeing as how I am time bound. This is not going to work for me. But what I did come across in my wanderings for how to encaustic was a kids version of encasutic painting that involves melting crayons. So my son and I collaborated on an image. He dictated which colors and placement and added the drawing of his bear Duffy while I handled the flame. It was fun for us and allowed me to realize that even though this is cool, it has limited possibilities for the artwork I was envisioning. 

VTS: Blog #15

BLOG TOPIC 15: 

Synthesize/Summarize the preliminary findings that have resulted from your examination of the Pre and Post VTS student writings and the VTS Pre and Post Scoring Rubric for each of your students and post to your BLOG. 
• How have individual students grown/changed over the course of their short VTS experience?
• How has your focus class grown/changed over the course of their short VTS experience?
• How have you as a teacher and your teaching practice grown/changed over the course of the semester?

My students are statistically significant!!

I loved how after our 5 VTS sessions, this has become a habit of mind. In getting ready for our post-assessment, students gathered up around the image and immediately began discussing it with each other answering the ghost questions of what was going on and what they saw that was making them say what they said. It was more difficult making them stay quiet and keep their answers to themselves than it ever was getting them to talk about art work using VTS. Loved it! I almost didn't want to stop it, except that I knew it might skew the data. 

As I was tallying my students post-assessment scores, I knew just by reading their results that they would show growth. The difference between the two writing samples was outstanding. Not just the length but the new connections they were making and new observations. Even though many students were still inventorying, the descriptions were richer. Students were noticing more, not just more items (although there were) but also characteristics of the items and making connections between items, marking them as significant to something larger.

I find myself as a teacher, using more open ended questions more frequently. Even when creating art work and asking them about their own pieces and what they are seeing in their own images. I love how VTS is teaching my students to think deeper about not just what they see, but about their own artwork and the creative process. I am definitely going to keep up with this second semester. It will be interesting to see how they develop through additional sessions.

Here are my students assessments.

Inputting my data...

STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT RESULTS!

VTS: Blog #13

BLOG TOPIC #13:  VTS Through a Differentiated Lens

Consider the Tomlinson & Johnson articles through a VTS lens

• In what ways has VTS provided differentiation for students of all abilities and needs in your focus class? 

Students have a way of accessing the image from wherever they are as a learner. If someone can only take note of the items in the picture than they start out the class by contributing that information. If they are able to piece together parts to construct a narrative, then they share that with the class. The students contribute to each others meaning adding to each others' understanding and building upon what they learn form each other. Vocabulary is improved through new exposure and even sometimes additional use. Also, for visual learners, associating content with a visual image (the artwork) makes connections that are more likely to adhere to their knowledge banks. 

• What have you observed in your VTS teaching that makes you say that? (In other words, provide 2-3 thoughtful, reflective, and concrete examples!)

One student in particular, I think is very excited to share what he sees, but he recognizes that he isn't as "smart" as some other kids in class. He is obviously very proud of himself when he is able to start off our conversations with his observations about what is in the image. And he seems to really like to hear what the others have to say that he doesn't see at first. It will be interesting to see what he writes at the end of the semester in the reflection I have students do about class likes and dislikes. 

    I also like to compare what they write to what they say out loud. Because they dislike writing so much (in a non-writing class) I still feel like I am getting a different view of what they do versus what they CAN do or are capable of doing. They are having such rich discussions at this point, it makes me wonder if they are still so dependent on the group interactions to formulate their ideas or if they just choose not to write down all they are thinking about. Speaking of this, I love how VTS really allows for those students who aren't confident in their writing abilities to articulate their brilliance. IF they were only allowed to express their thoughts in writing, I would miss out on a lot of what they have to say about art. 

    The students are hearing so many different points of view and perspectives that they are learning from, adding to their cache of knowledge for the future. How many students knew Victorians wore caky white makeup that made them look pale before a student made the connection to another student's observation about the subjects being "pale like vampires"? Although ridiculous at first, it rose to gave meaning to their personalities, and a time period, and allowed students to hook on to some understanding about the meaning behind the piece. 

   The scaffolding inherent in the VTS process also allows for so much differentiation. I think VTS uses all 6 of the scaffolding article from Rebecca Alder in Edutopia. They Show and Tell by seeing the art work and then talking about it. Students tap into prior knowledge to make sense of what they are seeing, often telling tales to go along with the justifications for what they see. Students are given time to talk things out, working out their own thought processes and ideas. They are given the opportunity to pre-learn the vocabulary through seeing its use in practice. They are using the artwork as a visual aid to help them remember concepts and techniques. And finally, they are pausing. being asked questions. pausing and then reviewing. So many students are learning such great visual literacy skills by VTSing! 

Peer Coaching #3:

My session I responded to Carrie's Blog #12 and her Teacher's Choice Image:

Carrie,
I also struggled with wanting my students to make certain connections to the images I was showing. Either to the content, or to the concepts in a project we were about to do. What I realized later (of course at the end of the class when all was said and done)that what seems to be the goal with VTS is the thought process they go through and not the ' what' of what they say. In other words, its the journey and not the destination. As long as students are making observations and thinking critically about what they see, supporting their answers with evidence, that that is when students will grow and I will see the most bang for my buck in spending time on VTS in the Intro class.
I, too, was faced with a decision about which of two similar images I wanted to VTS (Rockwell's Freedom from Want and David Bates' Thanksgiving Dinner - http://www.modernblog.org/?p=621). I wonder what would have happened if you had VTS'd both images (the original Napolean and the Wiley). I was really conflicted and decided just to do the source image so that afterwards I could discuss and reference that image they had spent so much time looking at. I was hoping when I pulled up Bates' artwork a lightbulb would go off and someone would say, "Hey, that looks a lot like the one we saw earlier." As luck would have it, yes they did make that connection, but unfortunately we weren't able to have an informal conversation about the Bates' image that was as meaningful as the meaning they had constructed about the Rockwell (either b/c they were tired of the Rockwell or b/c we didn't VTS, I don't know.)
Anyway, I wonder what would happen if the discussion you are trying to have about the power of these pieces comes at a time that is totally separate from the VTS session.

VTS: Blog #14

BLOG TOPIC #14: Portrait of Possibility RevisitedDuring Week #5, you were asked to identify a particular student for whom you believed VTS might be a help, a challenge, or both. 

• You identified  VTS attributes that might have been beneficial to this student. Was this assessment accurate?  Why or why not?
• You developed a plan or strategy for addressing the needs of that student specifically with VTS.
• • How did that plan or strategy play out?
  • Was is successful or unsuccessful? Explain.
  • Reflecting on VTS as both a scaffolding mechanism and a differentiation strategy, did VTS serve either (or both) of these purposes for this student. Explain.

It is hard to tell about *Smith at this point for me. I don't feel like I got a very accurate reflection of his abilities in the psot assessment. For one, he has been having a hard time at home dealing with some issues with his father, and two, he was the only student who actually wrote less the second time around. And this was due to his heavy interest in finishing the production of a piece that he had started independently. He is the type of student that works on his own, and on this day he was seriously inspired and needed to create. I am wondering actually if I should give him a second chance to respond since i also made it part of their final exam grade (Not a great writing sample.) I'm also wondering though, if the lack of effort came from "I did this once already, I've moved on - so should you" sort of attitude. I did see his willingness to speak up increase. I've also seen his metacognition increase, working on things he will talk things out in order to make sense of what he is seeing in his head. I think that VTSing artwork was the best way to get Smith to look at artworks that can build prior knowledge for his creation of work and has built a good store house of images for him to reference in the future. 

VTS: Wk 12 - Video #3, Blog #12

BLOG TOPIC #12:  Assessing, Reflecting, Planning

Lesson #5 Image 1:

Lesson #5 Image 2: 

Videos

This last session went longer than the others, lasting 38 minutes for both images. YouTube only accepts 15 minute videos so I've cut the session into 3 parts. I apologize if there is overlap between videos.

Video #3 part one of three

Video #3 part two of three

Video #3 part three of three

Post your Lesson #5: Teacher’s Choice image on your BLOG.

• Reflecting on Yenawine’s article on image selection, was your Teacher’s Choice image an appropriate choice for your students, considering their age, stage, interests, and needs at this time? Explain why or why not.

This seems redundant to my last post, but Yes, I believe it is an appropriate choice for my students (see post #11).

• In what ways did the image challenge them?  Was the challenge too great, too little, just right? Explain.

This image seemed to challenge their ability to go deeper. Most of them (especially in their writings) responded with "It's Thanksgiving." Done. that's it. But eventually they were able to look for what more was going on in the image and see more than what was on surface. It seemed to be just about right, but I think they liked it more when there was just a little bit more mystery.

• What features/aspects of the work of art and its narrative did the students notice? What intrigued them?

Mostly they noticed the people, paying attention to the "stuff" only later on in the conversation. They seemed to be intrigued with the number of the people at the table versus the table settings. The second image they were intrigued by whether the person in teh far background was male or female (unsure).

• What opportunities for SCAFFOLDING did this image provide? How did you and/or students address and support those during the VTS discussion?

We were able to scaffold from the obvious in the image to what more could be lying uner the surface. Such as the idea of material possessions, work vs play, and family tradition. Especially after the conversation when we started working on the project and referencing memory, students used these images to acaffold conceptual meaning into their work.

• Were there any surprises?

Surprises, I was surprised by the fact that students did construct more of a narrative to these iamges. It seemed a little inventorial (is that a word?) still. I was expecting students to be stretching their creative muscles more as we did this and therefore constructing stories from what they saw.

• Would you use this image again with a similar class of students?  Explain.

Possibly. It would depend on the level of the students and their accessibility to figural imagery. I liked how the student asked about a theme to this work, I wish we could have dove into that question more but in the midst of VTS-ing I wasn't sure how to reframe a question to answer that.

VTS: Blog #11

Blog Topic #11: Preparing for Teacher’s Choice

Norman Rockwell
Freedom from Want
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

Paul Mathey
Woman and Child in a Room.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

• Why did you select this work of art?

I was really thinking about the way VTS sets up the images for its elementary curriculums. And about how they have staged the images to not just be appealing and interesting to each age group, but how they have selected images based on how long they have been VTS-ing.  You may notice that my second image is a VTS image from the elementary curriculum. I was looking at the images on the website and was thinking how well this would team up with my memory unit as well as the fact that it incorporates space. I was setting up a unit on memories and how we remember events. I was also hoping to raise student media efficacy, teaching them some drawing skills as they pertain to creating the illusion of space. I wanted my students to see examples of artists that show memory, space / depth, and discuss what they are looking at. I was curious to see if they would actually pick out any of these details.

• Why do you believe it is appropriate for your students, considering their age, stage, interests, and abilities?
• Why is it a good choice for the content/curriculum you are currently teaching?  How do you expect for it to support/supplement your teaching of the content/curriculum?

My students are 97% white suburban high school students ranging in age from 15 - 17, beginning viewers, with various interests and abilities. I wanted to tap into their idea of memory, so the primary image (Rockwell's Freedom from Want) was selected to be viewed the day after returning from Thanksgiving break, and the secondary image was selected because it was a smaller child that they could then think back to when they were kids. I also tried to select images that could have some abiguity and have additional discussion points (such as familial roles and / or class / affluency). There is also a sense of depth and space at work in these images that I was hoping that they would discuss. My intent is for their project to show an interior room in perspective, using the 6 depth techniques to illustrate space.

• In what way(s) do you believe it will challenge your students?

I think these images may challenge my students by the fact that they are more straight forward and that they might try to stop thinking / discussing at the first obvious answer. I think that by using the VTS format, they will be forced to examine the image more closely and hopefully see more than what meets the eye.

• What features/aspects of the work of art and its narrative do you believe students will notice?  What might intrigue them?

Obviously, the turkey will scream thanksgiving to them. I think they will notice the people situated around the table. In the Rockwell, I think the person's face in the bottom right corner will intrigue them. He seems to be looking out at the viewer instead of being engaged in the activity in the center of the room.

VTS: Wk 10 - Video #2, Blog #10

VIDEO Lesson #4

Video #2 part one

Video #2 part two

BLOG TOPIC #10: Assessing, Reflecting, Planning
Student  Engagement Learning:

• Describe student willingness to participate in the discussion. Are you witnessing change?
  They were willing to participate, becoming more used to doing this in class. THe consistency has been key to breaking down the resistance.
• What did students notice about the featured artwork?
  And of course, I love that the first few comments sound totally ridiculous but yet, they can back up why they made those connections. They are building connections to prior knowledge and connecting subjects and genres (movies, history, etc.). The students are noticing the people in the artwork (the subject matter) and slowly pulling out narrative elements.
• Are you seeing more careful observation and deeper noticing?
  I did see some deeper noticing, but when I've discussed this artwork in the past (not using VTS) there has been more of a story true to the artist's intended meaning emerge. I wonder if because with VTS it becomes a group discussion, that the topic of discussion is driven by a type of group think. What I love is that in the video you can even hear that they are making more connections based on sharing observations ("Oh I didn't see that...") 
• Are students expressing their observations conditionally as they gain experience looking at art?  (i.e. “It could be…” “It might be…” “It’s possible…”  “I wonder if maybe…”
  I haven't heard as many conditional observations in this group, but with another hour the students seem to be moving in that direction more so than this group. I did observe the student who had to use the restroom state that maybe it was "a family get together" and then a student who doesn't normally talk ever adds to it!! (I was neutral at the time, but pretty excited he chose to speak up.) "Maybe it is like royalty..."
  In the beginning of the conversation there is less conditional thinking, but then as we go, there seems to be more.
• Are students demonstrating more flexible thinking? (i.e. “At first I thought, but now I think…”  “It might be…, but it could also be….”)
  Students demonstrated more flexible thinking with the second work of art. It seems like the students definitely have to warm up their thinking.  Maybe it was because there was more ambiguity in the second image than in the first (although I think there is all sorts of mystery with the Velasquez piece.)
• Describe student interactions during the discussion.  Are they linking their own responses? Are they respectful and democratic as they construct meaning?
  Students are definitely linking to each others' thoughts, and sometimes their own responses. They are becoming more respectful (after tightening the management and structure of the process) of each other in their responses (for this group - I'm not sure if I would categorize this group as "respectful" in general.)
• Were you able to vary the questions from time to time without altering the meaning?
  I've been focusing on using the three questions with fidelity, so I didn't notice that I was varying the questions too much. I did extend the questions sometimes as far as What do you see that makes you say (fill in the blank). Here and there I made small alterations but not too much it seems.
• What do you think students learned from this discussion?
  Students are definitely learning to notice, to make connections, to support their thinking with evidence. They are building story and making meaning from images. They are also learning to discuss as a group.
• What did you observe that makes you say that?
  I have to ask students to think quietly at first, and not jump into sharing right away. Its funny, most often I see what they learn in application to their artwork or when we are discussing the creative process for the following project. In the follwoing project students worked on, they brought back up details they saw in the images.

Reflective Practice:

• How did the VTS discussion feel and what did you learn by facilitating the 4^th lesson with your students?
  It is feeling way more comfortable and students are also able to jump right in. I am learning the more I am doing this, the more they are getting out of it. I am seeing growth in their justifications and connection building. They are making so many more connections.
• Are the questions and prescribed teacher behaviors becoming more natural and comfortable? A lot more comfortable the more I use them.
• Have you tried to reword the questions without changing their intent/meaning?  Did the change impact the discussion in any way? Not too much. Usually if I do it is very instinctual and I might not even notice I have done it.
• Were there any surprises?  Will these impact your practice moving forward? No surprises. I try to keep in mind that it is not about where I want the conversation to go (no intended destination) but rather it is having the conversation itself with the dialogue between students and supporting their thinking that is the goal of VTS. It is about being able to refer to the experience later.

Planning:

• What do you want to work on as you plan for future VTS lessons? How do you think you can accomplish that? I want to try to select works that incorporate good use or examples of the elements and principles that we are examining so that we are talking about them with out specifically having to look for them. I'm curious to see hwo the students see these before and after instruction.

VTS: Blog #9

BLOG TOPIC #9: Teacher’s Choice Proposal 
First of all, here is a link to my Pinterest board that I have started to keep track of images I may wish to use to VTS with my students: http://pinterest.com/mdridlen/vts-image-ideas/ 

• Select ONE of the 4-6 art images you found that might lend themselves well to a VTS discussion with your students
• Post the image on your BLOG (include title, artist, & sources.)

Norman Rockwell, Freedom from WantNorman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts

• Briefly describe your focus class and why you think this image would be a good choice for them.

My image choices: Well I'm still trying to decide amongst my images. I want to pick something that is relevant to what we will be doing at the time (space and depth) but also to our big idea of memory. Right now I am leaning towards a Rockwell piece (Freedom from Want) and Faith Ringold's Tar Beach.  My focus class is my rowdy class. I didn't know that when I picked them. Truth be told I picked them b/c they were  my smallest class and typically my smallest class (and my 2nd hour) tend to be my better classes. Not so this time. But, they tend to discuss well enough and as long as the image can be tied back into what we are doing in the project, they are content. I'm also thinking about doing the similar work by David Bates' Thanksgiving Dinner.  

Okay, I have selected Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell. I want to use David Bates' Thanksgiving Dinner as I teach to use to compare the idea of memory in artworks. Since it will be after Thanksgiving, I want to spark the idea of memory. And even though this artwork seems at first like it has a straight-forward meaning, I think at this stage students will construct multiple meanings and I am curious to see if my intuition about this is correct. I also think it is a good introduction to thinking about how we construct our identities and what we as artists use to influence our inspirations. 

• View images posted by your fellow classmates and critique their choices.

I selected class mate Carrie's blog to post my feedback about her selection. Here is the link to her blog.

Carrie, 

I'm curious to know how this image goes over with your classes. I love Wiley's work. Seeing a room full of his portraits in Brooklyn this past spring was pretty awe-inspiring. I wonder if there is enough action though to "hook" your viewers. Although they may be able to identify with the young man depicted, will that be enough to get them talking? 

According to Yenawine, this would be agood match because it seems like you are selecting a work that is diverse, yet represents your student population. And as we have discovered, with HS students being able to connect it to the studio work that is being done is also important to get "buy-in." 

I wonder about the action because of what Yenawine says about younger viewers. From the readings we've been doing, I'm starting to wonder if age is fairly relative and if the principles relate based on experience viewing. So for example, even though our students are high school age, if they typically have very little viewing experience, will that mean they are comprable to the Younger viewers in Yenawine's research? And so, from the reading, "Overall, the pictures should be fairly obvious and simple to allow for students to discuss them insightfully in terms of concrete observations--which is the arena in which they operate. They are not naturally inclined toward reasoning, seeking out levels of meaning, or pulling back and reflecting." But Carrie, you would know your focus class and be able to determine if they are able to discuss works in a conceptual sense with various levels of meaning. Each class dynamic is different and some are at a level where this could be possible and therefore make this a very successful image. 

For my classes, I imagine this would be a great image to look at and for me to lead a conversation wearing my expert hat, but not my VTS hat. For my students, I'm not sure they would relate to the cultural significance and would this would lead to stereotyping. Also, thinking of my students they would need more tutelage in the identity themes embedded in this work before being able to tackle it on their own.