Blog revival.

image from 9th grade math classroom.

I'm thinking of trying to revive this blog. A lot has happened and is happening in the classroom and for me personally. I've done some redecorating. Thanks for coming back. Here we go...

2012 NAEA presentation.

I'll be presenting at the NAEA national conference in New York City on Thursday, March 1, at 11:00am, in Hilton East Suite, 4th floor. Click HERE to see the stand alone site I've built to accompany the talk or scroll through the presentation below. Hope to see you there!

What is beautiful?

Today I asked a class of seniors to list what they think is beautiful. Here it is in no particular order (the extra info in parentheses is directly from them)...

Mom (doesn't matter what she's wearing), the last hug, the naked body (in it's purest form; how you were born), music, snow, love & marriage, spring, flowers, silhouettes, sky, skiing, sunrise, city, meeting someone, Honduras, laughter, family time, Little Compton, 40 Beaver Pond Rd., Grace Kelly, green grass, happiness, the sun, painted toenails, eyes, clouds, lights, foliage, dessert, friendship, smell of wood burning in the fireplace, chic clothing store, classical music, old European cities, modern buildings, my room, Caribbean, Augusta National, good story, shell fish, trees, new baby's smile, sunset, funfetti cake, mountains, autumn, insects, beach, forest, night, my grandmother's hands, the top of a mountain, sunny morning after snowfall, candle light service on Christmas Eve, Vermont, waves, camp fire, rings, feeling loved, watching your parents joke around.

I was a little surprised and very encouraged by the depth of some of their responses. Music and love were listed the most often (what else is there after all?) and, in spite of the toughest, longest winter in their short lives, quite a few students listed snow. I remain hopeful about the future of the human race.

Recovering and reflecting on NAEA.

I am still recovering from a great time at NAEA in seattle. My talk went well. I was nervous. I had fun. Thanks to everyone who found some space in their brains for what I had to say. Please be in touch. I am very grateful that I came home to a second week of spring break. It's given me some time to reflect on all I saw and heard. Keep checking back for pictures of my notes from the conference, some thoughts on the frustrations i saw public school teachers facing, new thoughts and ideas about how to use contemporary art in the classroom, and my feelings about getting students out of the classroom more, among other things...in the coming weeks.

My NAEA presentation.

Thinking about time.

I have recently fallen back in love with the old-fashioned paper calendar for my students. It all started last term when I realized not enough teachers seemed to be talking to the 9th graders about how there were only three weeks left until their first final exams as high schoolers. We do so many things online here at my school, including calendaring, and I think that is a great way to stay organized and on top of things...for me. For some teenagers, though...I think they need to see it in front of them and be reminded of it everyday. I'm not big on deadlines. I rarely give deadlines for the projects we do. I let them work at their own pace, but that does not mean not being aware of time at all. There is an end at some point. The end of the term arrives. So I made some paper calendars (last term on the left, this term on the right) and I pointed to the date at the beginning of class and then made a big deal of crossing the day off at the end of class. It seems to be helping already this term, especially for my seniors who are preparing for their show at the end of the year. The end of the year sounds like a long way away, but if you check the paper calendar, it's, like, tomorrow.

Less talking, more sign reading.

Unless you teach (which you probably do), it might be hard to imagine exactly how irritating it can be to answer the same question 18, 25, or 30 times in a row. I often make signs to help me avoid having to talk about silly details, freeing my brain up for the good stuff. In the Senior Studio class I teach every spring each student is busy making their own work, so on some days, they just come in and get to work. On those days I spend my time with them one on one, and so, everyday they come in and say, "Are we meeting or can I get to work?". In response I made this sign which I can flip around to communicate with them. It's working and I can now think just a little more clearly.

The organized teacher is the happy teacher.

When I left NYC five years ago I wondered how I would organize my classroom without a good dollar store nearby. Bins are the art teacher's savior after all. Recently, I found a great, almost dollar store nearby...this picture brings me great joy.

This blog.

It has been almost a year since I've posted to this blog.
And before that there were some long breaks too.
A couple of things happened...my ideas about how to use this blog shifted, my school placed a much bigger emphasis on technology (read I'm on the computer all...the...time), things started cooking in my own artistic life, and I got a personal life. Imagine that. It's not all teaching all the time anymore.

But now...I am feeling the need to share the things that are going on in my classroom again...to create a place to put all this stuff. I'm not sure how this blog will change or grow, but I know it has some role in my teaching practice. I plan to share lots of pictures, try some more focused writing, simplify the labels, and make it less like a daily record of what we do...more big picture. Stay tuned.

What does good teaching "LOOK" like?

This term, more than ever before, I'm wondering what does good teaching "LOOK" like...literally?

The students I'm teaching this term are the most independent and self-sufficient kids I've ever taught. If I let them, they would spend the entire term on one project...and maybe I should. This behavior, which I would have given anything to have in my classroom in Brooklyn, has left me feeling a little uneasy here in Massachusetts. Are they bored? Are they unhappy? Am I doing enough? Some days it sure doesn't "LOOK" like I'm teaching very much. I anticipate this happening more and more the longer I work here. This year's seniors have been working in my room consistently all four years of high school...so they know how things work and they are busy working on their work. Good, right? I will be writing about this more and would love to read your thoughts.

Possible topics to present at next year's NAEA conference.

Are sketchbooks outdated? Blogging with students as a reflective and planning tool.

Senior Studio: Creating a critical and productive community of adolescent artists.

Back to Front: Flipping the introductory art curriculum to increase creativity.

Big Ideas?

From a page in my notebook written on while I was at the NAEA conference:

clean-up: leadership roles

block play...art principles

problem finding

recyclables & supplies

homework/sketchbook - ideas, blueprints, each page a project

save more stuff (supplies)

REGGIO

displays

summer - organize photos

label work in the room

check on subscriptions

check on MAEA

permission slips for pics

ART 21

shrinky-dink

Inspired Teacher.

Just back from the National Art Education Association conference in Baltimore.

Wow.

As you can see in the photos above of the notes I took while I was there it was quite inspiring for me. I guess I didn't realize how much I needed a break from the daily grind of teaching. It felt great to be surrounded by people who are interested in what I'm interested in...to be a part of the WORLD of art education for a little while. It reaffirmed my dedication to the arts in education, not just education or schools in general. It's so easy to forget there is a whole big world out there. I made some great connections and plan to spend a lot of time working some of the ideas that came to me over the four days into my curriculum.

And...it has inspired me to use this blog again as a place to collect my thoughts and writings in the hopes of proposing a workshop for next year's conference.

and now we are a math problem.

One day, Ms. Roberts and Mr. Bau take their dog out for a walk. Their
dog decided to be adventurous and befriend a skunk. Unfortunately,
the skunk did not want to play and it sprayed the dog directly and was
also able to wrap both teachers in the stench. The main chemical
component of a skunk’s odor is Butanethiol. The proposed half-life of
this chemical is 87 days. If it sprayed them with a full 15 cubic
centimeters of chemical, how much will still be on them after 60 days?

this question appeared on a test given monday. care to make some guesses? henry?

studio at school.

i made myself a little studio space in my office at school.

i've been meaning to do this for awhile now and a few days ago i finally did it.
it had been a rough morning...a kid puked in my classroom for the first time in 9 years...chaos ensued. post clean-up and in a class of seniors i looked around for a minute and every head was down, looking intently at their work. they were all doing something totally different and i had already met with each of them individually for some amount of time. i thought to myself...i'm tired and my work here is done. they are doing what i tried to teach them...working like artists. it probably won't surprise any of my friends that as a teacher i tend to hover. that being said i teach a population of kids who are a bit needy and i hear my name more than i'd like but sometimes...sometimes...they don't need me and when that happens i'm often unsure of how to proceed without feeling guilty.

so i threw a pile of stuff on a table next to them and went to work myself. something about working with the kids at school was freeing for me. i wasn't worrying about who would see the work or where it would end up. i was just playing like i taught them to do. also, i was using a lot of their cast-off's as raw materials which was hugely inspiring and gave me lots of ideas. so when they left i moved the pile in to my office and made a home for it and now i plan to try to grab a little time each day to work on it the way some people try to get outside for a walk during the workday. i suppose i should be doing that too...

seeing teaching through someone else's eyes.

carrie spent an entire day with me at school on tuesday to see what it's like to be a high school art teacher. she got some great shots around my office and of amy's classroom. it was lots of fun to watch her take in the whole experience and also made me realize how much i need to get out of the classroom and talk to other adults more. having another adult around to interact with acted as some kind of a buffer and kept me from absorbing the kids' energy the way i usually do. i came home much less tired than usual...note to self.

...and we're back.

yes, it's true. i haven't posted to this blog in over a month and i've pretty much neglected to post anything about my third term classes. there are a couple of real reasons for this like...i got engaged to a fellow teacher (more on that later) and i got a puppy which i've been running home to during all my free periods.

but my lack of posting is about more than that and i'll try to keep writing about it as it becomes more clear. in some ways i started checking out when my seniors did and in some ways it's been good for me. i have a tendency to take this job too seriously. i think i've also needed this blog less as an outlet...but i'm not sure yet why that is.

my plan for now, though, is to go back and tell the story of my classes after the fact because, in part, this blog serves as a curriculum map and journal for me and because even though i haven't been posting i have been taking hundreds of photos just like i always do. it's possible this will be annoying for those of you following along through google reader and i apologize. i'll be back-dating and writing in the present tense and that might be wierd.

third fridays.

when i worked in brooklyn, friday afternoon happy hour get-togethers were a big part of teacher life. it was a time to chat without kids around, share stories, complain, and have fun. people don't do that sort of thing here. i think it's partly because our school is in the woods and everyone drives from all over to get here.

but this year i decided to try to start a new tradition of getting everyone together the thrid friday of the month. i figured this way everyone can plan on it, put it on their calendar, get a babysitter or whatever. it's been pretty successful so far and i continue to believe that socializing with co-workers, especially in an emotional job like teaching, is a good thing.

december would have been the 4th third friday of the year but it was a snow day...not just any snow day, but really a blizzard (that endede up lasting for three days). and we still had a group of 12 people come out. two peopl eeven walked miles in the snow to get there.

when you teach at a school like mine...

...you get christmas cards like this...from kids who don't even celebrate christmas.

for the record...here and in brooklyn the most thoughtful heart-melting christmas cards i've ever gotten have all come from kids who don't celebrate christmas. hmm.

vitamin D.

so this is what happens when you don't teach a lunch class...you can get outside for a walk during the 8 hours of daylight we have these days (when we're lucky). what a difference this will make for me.