Student Artists' perspective vs. Art Teacher Perspective

The student show comes down tomorrow at EOU. I slipped over there one day during the PE Health thing at lunch and took some photos of my students' art hanging at Loso Hall. I was excited to show the kids how their work looked in a real art show, but they really weren't in to it, and mostly looked at it, it seemed, to be polite. They were off on their current project.

There I go again, thinking that my students have the same attitude about art that I do. Silly me. There are a few who get on fire about their art, but at that age, it is easy to have the fire die out when the project is over, and there are so many other things to be on fire over when you are in high school.

So I just enjoyed looking at how nice all the work looked hanging on that white gallery wall. I know how hard it is later on as a professional artist, sometimes, to get on those white walls. So, looking at it from that perspective, it seemed huge to me that the students were "hanging." But I suppose it was no different than a ball game or a track meet or a mock trial. And that is great!! I am pleased that students have so many opportunities to experience various competitions in so many areas. But this is my first student show, and it will always be a "benchmark" for me.

Let them teach you

I had my fifth graders teach me all the classroom rules quickly today. The peace sign means just that, a peaceful classroom. It works, and takes less than 20 seconds for everyone to get quiet.

I had them split into groups to illustrate a silly poem about the old woman who swallowed a fly. We talked about points of view, and how to look at and draw from perspectives other than their own. So I have groups of flies, spiders, birds, cats, dogs, cows and horses, all brainstorming about how to illustrate the poem from their own (fly or spider, etc) point of view. The only crying and whining was when I assigned the groups instead of letting them be with their cronies. One group couldn't even seem to sit down next to each other to work, they were so far out of their comfort level. But that is part of what the project is about, thinking about and dealing with others' perspectives. So Wednesday I will get to see what is inside their heads, and if they are able to deal with the group dynamics.

Ineffective anticipatory activity

Tyler had a blog post talking about it being hard to find strategies that didn't work or weren't effective. (I am guessing for question # 4 on the Literacy Final.) His take on it was that it was more how you applied and implemented the strategies than the strategies themselves. I think he is right on.
While working on the Literacy Final, I jumped on a strategy described in the book that used quick writes, 3 way interview, and found poems. Aha! This would never work in art, way too verbal, I thought. But when I thought it through, I actually used it for the example of what I would use. There would be some great ideas for art if students went through their quick writes and underlined the important words and phrases, used them for found poems, and took those ideas to visual interpretations. And the three way interview would have them saying and listening to ideas to and from other students. More chances for inspiration, and some literacy thrown in for good measure.
Coming up with strategies is not that hard if you look at what others have done, and imagine tweaking possibilities. Substitute art terms for vocabulary, and artist for author, and the creative juices start flowing!!

Cooperative Learning

After our session this week in Sharon's class where we evaluated our "Essential Nine" Strategies, I spent some time thinking how valuable the students' cooperative learning was during my work sample.
While watching TV this morning, I got fired up about introducing some current media culture in my art classes. Doing a group project geared toward marketing a product or advocacy would perhaps get the students to relate art to their lives. After our PE Health workshop, a marketing campaign in a health related topic could have multiple benefits, maybe?
A cooperative project like this would have kids brainstorming, thumbnailing, sketching, storyboarding, and maybe using photography, digitizing images, making videos..........ok, here we go!!
Benefits:
1)Students would get to experience the process of illustrating concepts and written materials, and see that art is not just painting and drawing, but literally multimedia.
2)Students would be drawing inspiration from pertinent issues related to their lives.
3)Potential cross curriculum with health, social studies, language arts. (math??)
4)Shift their focus from "just making images with a drawing tool" to evoking responses from an audience.
5)Beats a poster project all to pieces
6)Students get ownership of project: media, presentation, topic, etc.
7)Students will create their own rubric, do self assessment

Whoooo hoooo...........can't wait to get back to school and lay this on my cooperating teacher!!

I really would appreciate some feedback and ideas from all subject areas on this. Thanks, to all the "gang" of MTE's for sharing "stuff" not just in blogs but all year in class. I will miss seeing everyone. (will not miss driving every other week, transporting my home office to campus, or homework, but will miss the interaction and inspiration)

Elementary school commando?

This week my university supervisor, who taught first grade for 35 plus years(imagine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) talked to me about classroom management. The half hour time frame, as I said before, makes me crazy. So instead of establishing procedures and teaching them, I have been just rolling in and getting to the art. Well, that is not working. I guess I thought that because the classroom teacher had trained them in behavior, and was in the classroom when I was teaching, that the fifth graders would continue with those procedures. Nope, not happening.
So, my supervisor suggested that I find cues that work for me, and teach them to the kids. Countdown from 5 for get quiet and get seated, or clapping hands to start the kids clapping hands as they scurry to their seats (geez, after the PE health thing on clapping.........) or blinking the light off and on, or something. Any ideas on this one? I would like to do something that works at any age level, since I run back and forth from k-12 throughout the day.

Here is a thought provoking site that gives some questions for teachers to ask about their teaching, their program, and their effectiveness. It is written for art programs, but the questions are about broad concepts narrowed down to the art area. Sort of like backward design, but evaluative.

http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/artsed/g8arts_ed/g8evlae.html

This next site is "chock full 'o info" for art teachers, and people who may be interested in the value of art in education.

http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/front_arts.htm

Here is an excerpt from the site:

The Arts are Nice, But . . .

by Stephanie Perrin

The study of the arts supports a view of the world that is idealistic, and strives for higher meaning. This is an essential quality for citizens of the 21st century to have. Further, since artists have to work so hard to become accomplished, they know that ideals are hard to reach and are meaningful only if acted upon.

If you have any "extra time" this is really a great site.

Art teaching sometimes is just monitoring and chasing hands, no matter what you do. There comes a time in a project when the students are in the process, and all headed in different directions on the same assignment. Today was that way. I just cruise the room and check out the progress. Students that are sailing along get a "that is working, or good decision there." Those who need help ask, and those who are indecisive get some suggestions. That is the only strategy I can share today.
I wish I could have gotten the fire lit sooner under some of the procrastinators, but we all have different styles of working through the creative process. But as I mentioned earlier, sometimes "artistic types" catch fire only when the deadline is imminent. I am one of those, so I don't come down on the kids very hard for it. I just try to help them come up with ways to get started sooner.
The lesson to learn for a teacher is to way overestimate the amount of time a project is going to take. Not only do you have to double or triple how long it should take because the class periods are short, but you have four "get out and get ready times" and "four clean up and put away times" a week, per class. Ideally a two hour studio block gives time to really get into it. Unfortunately, high schools don't have that type of schedule.

PLEASE THINK ABOUT GOING TO THE EOU ART SHOW AT LOSO HALL THIS WEEK!! 11-4 DAILY

The images are from my students

Everyone is invited to the EOU student art show at LOSO HALL. There are all kinds of art to look at. High school students from all over the region have work hanging there. The show is open M-F 11:00 to 4:00 this week!! Lunch would be a good time to go, in between classes. See you there.

Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to

Just wondering if any of my fellow interns had their students evaluate their teaching at their A placements. I had intentions of doing so, but did not. Well, as it turns out, I am back teaching half days at the high school in my original primary class and a couple of others. So the question presents itself again: should I have them assess me? And if so, should I do it now, and then again at the end of the school year? What form would work well? I have one rubric shared by another intern that I can tweak for my purposes. I know that I can manufacture some inflated self-esteem by asking the right questions in the right way, but that really isn't producing what I want to know. I am looking for some suggestions for questions to ask the students and methods of getting valuable information on my teaching, while letting the students remain anonymous. Anyone? Anyone?

Education Seminar

The Education Seminar proved to be educational. Although I have had my share of interviews in my day, I believed that I could certainly benefit from the intensive information provided at this seminar. Such was the case. There was much helpful information to be had at the panel presentation, and the mock interview format helped take the edge off prior to the "real" screening interviews. I appreciate all the time and effort put forth for the benefit of our cohorts, and the CUESTE and the lone MS candidate. (Did I miss anyone?)
Although I always feel guilty when I am not actively working on homework, and I always hate missing any time away from my students, there was definite value in this preparatory activity. And who knows? It might even help me get a job.

High School and Fifth Grade

Lucky enough to have the best of both worlds, I am student teaching my awesome Art I and Art II students at high school in the morning, and two terrific fifth grade classes afternoons. The high school class that is doing duck stamp art is getting geared up and moving. Deadlines motivate all of us, but particularly artists. Sometimes that is how you know your art is finished, because the calendar says it has to be. I would like to tell you that all are gung-ho on this project, but that is not truly the case. However, the decision making from the critique and comment session seems to have taken hold.

The fifth graders are so excited to do art projects I feel like a celebrity when I show up in their classroom. (I could get used to that!) We are doing wax resist with white crayon and watercolor. The science teacher has been doing a unit on weather, so the students are painting their skies with a weather situation. There are lots of lightning strikes and tornadoes (especially the boys) and sunrises and sunsets, mostly from the girls. Emphasis is on having a foreground, middle ground and background, deciding where the horizon will be, and determining correct scale of objects. the half hour time frame is driving me crazy. I found that I must do some demonstration, and then they have to set up, work, and clean up, store papers to dry, and be ready for math (yuck) in 30 minutes. Fortunately the teachers are flexible, but I try not to run over into their math period. So the watercolor project that should not take more than two hours tops is going on over a pretty lengthy period of time.

March 3, 2009
Currently my high school students are working on completing their entries in the Junior Duck Stamp Competition. This is a required project for them, and some are struggling with the issue of motivation. After discussing with them how they think the process of creating this work will benefit them in different ways, I got the sense that perhaps it wasn't so much lack of motivation as it was lack of direction that was slowing them down.

Some artists are inspired by images, and some are inspired by methods and media. There are lots of other inspirations, but looking to these two to start was a beginning. I wasn't seeing much enthusiasm from the students looking at photographs of different species of ducks, geese, and swans. We are looking at a pretty tight schedule here, so I thought maybe the next step might be to get them to commit to a media, and get them thinking about that. I had one-on-one conversations with each student last week, but couldn't get a commitment any better than "I think I might do pastel, but not sure." So after some more sketching days, I had a casual critique session where each student stood up and talked about how he or she would proceed on their work. Then there was a comment opportunity where all others could give support or suggestions.

I believe that stimulated their thinking and got them to make a commitment on medium and design. I guess you would call it peer pressure, but in a positive way. It wouldn't be truthful to tell you they are all on fire now and can't wait to make duck art. But 95% of these students made significant progress in the last class period.

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Teaching Art does Rock! Welcome to my blog.