The Sartorialist as a model for looking at the world.

I'm constantly posting videos on my class site that I think will inspire my students. They love the youtube and I think video is a good way to get to them, to show them stuff on the side that I think will effect how they see the world. I love this one, in particular, because many of the girls I teach read The Sartorialist blog often (so do I), so he has some pull with them already. I also love anything that allows my students to see people talking about how they came to be creative beings and especially videos that show creative people in the act of seeing the world and creating their work. How DID we teach art before Art 21?

Steve Mumford...journal drawings.

In preparation for a project about heroes with my Intermediate Drawing and Painting students I came across this great link to Steve Mumford's journal, both written and visual, from Baghdad. I had never heard of Steve Mumford before reading Inside the Painter's Studio, by Joe Fig (another great classroom resource, by the way, which I plan to have my seniors read this spring)...and I probably wouldn't have given him much thought in relation to my own work. But, whenever I do this heroes project the subject of war and the military always comes up and I rarely have artists to show and talk about in relation to the subject. I remembered his name and started researching and came across these wonderful journal drawings. His story, being an artist embedded with the troops in Iraq, captured the attention of my students...for them it felt current, relevant, exciting, and real. We had some good conversations about his daily drawings and his more finished paintings and the relationship of his work to photography. It was great for them to see a new way (but really an old way I suppose) that art can "work".

Click HERE to see the project sheet I gave them. Click HERE to see the slide show we looked at and talked about.

If you have any great art about war to share please leave a comment.

Graphic description of curriculum design.

Found this while snooping around online the other day. It's a visual explanation of the bauhaus curriculum. I love the idea of having a visual like this that explains a student's experience over the course of several years and feel inspired to try to create something similar for my classes. More soon.

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Are sketchbooks outdated?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.

movies as inspiration for teaching.

i've seen three movies (up, the fantastic mr. fox, and avatar) in the past couple of weeks that have made me think seriously about my teaching and the kinds of projects i do with my students. i spend a lot of time having them explore themselves...where they come from both literally and figuratively...developing images that relate to their identity and to their surroundings. these movies were all so poignant and imaginative...otherwordly...but rooted in the problems and stories of real life. they made me wonder if i spend enough time preparing my students to imagine other worlds.
are teenagers today prepared to think outside of themselves?
do you have to understand yourself before you can be asked to imagine someone/somewhere else?
the wheels are now turning as i think about how to incorporate these questions into future projects designed to stretch my students.

eavesdropping on nyc school teachers...

i'm in new york city for several days and tonight riding home on the subway i was standing next to a group of 4 nyc public school teachers, all female, all over 50...and they made me happy and hopeful. first of all they were over 50 and they didn't look or sound tired, bitter, or cranky. second of all they were riding home at 11pm on a school night and they didn't look or sound tired, bitter, or cranky. third of all they didn't look or sound tired, bitter, or cranky.

but what was so exciting was the story one woman was telling the others. the staff at her school had been discussing the inauguration next week and trying to decide whether the students should see it at school and how. the school has 1300 students and they don't all fit in the auditorium and they don't have the technology to stream television in there. she explained the various scenarios they'd discussed and it seemed nothing would work.

then one of her student's parents offered to have the entire class over to her house to watch it on her tv. so this teacher got permission slips signed for each child and is planning to walk her class to this students house next tuesday to watch the inauguration. 

apparently, other parents heard about this idea and now almost every class in the building is taking a field trip to one student's house to watch the inauguration which leaves enough room in the auditorium for the classes that don't have hosts. 

THIS is how we should be solving problems. THIS is thinking outside the box. plus i love the mental image of a pile of 3rd graders gathered around a tv in someone's living room watching president obama's speech.

getting student feedback

mary and i talked about teaching over coffee and a cookie at flour this weekend. she said i should watch how to draw a bunny which i put in the netflix queue and will report back on. i told her to check out this blog and hopefully she will.

she also told me that at bennington, halfway through the term, there is a day when the teacher leaves the room for a certain amount of time and the students discuss how the class is going. one student is assigned to take notes and submit a summary. 

i was immediately intrigued.

i wondered about my students and whether this would be helpful to me in anyway. 

would the students feel too empowered by doing this?

would they actually give me helpful feedback or just goof around while i was gone?

should i be allowing this?

like any dutiful painting instructor i always require my students to make 3 thumbnail sketches before they start painting. i make them these cute paper viewfinders like i used to use when i was in high school. my quote, "your first idea is usually not your best idea". 

but today one of my students asked if she could use her camera as the viewfinder. she wanted to take pictures to literally find the painting she would make of the still life she set up. i couldn't think of a reason why this wouldn't be ok. the lcd screen on the back of a digital camera if literally the best viewfinder i could think of. not only that, but they usually fight me on making 3 sketches. these girls, however, took at least 10 pictures slowly and thoughtfully and we were able to cover the screen with a sheet of paper to see how the composition could be different. 

maybe we discovered something new today.

some ideas about scheduling and routines

our schedule, although at times frustrating, really feels like a gift to a former public school teacher like me. i see my students four days a week, three of those days for one hour and one day for two hours and ten minutes. in new york i learned that routines are my friend and i continue to use them here as much as i can.

my intermediate drawing and painting class meets monday, wednesday, thursday, friday. so i decided each day would have a separate purpose. and since monday is all on its own at the beginning of the week...and the fall of 10th grade is dangerously close to 9th grade and they are still let's say... hmm hmm..."maturing"...i thought something should happen on that day that doesn't have to tie in directly for us to get going on wednesday. so the schedule i created goes something like this. 

on mondays we "drop everything and draw", also known as d.e.a.d. (they like that). 

on wednesdays i introduce a more in-depth drawing or painting project. 

on thursdays they have their 2 hour block and they dive into the more in-depth project. 

on fridays they decide how to use their time best, either to work on or improve homework assignments, finish major projects, or make up d.e.a.d. assignments they might have missed due to absence.

my ultimate plan is that i will use wednesdays to introduce a new project each week for about 6 weeks (half the term). the projects will take longer than a week to complete so by the middle of the term they will be working more independently. the focus is on the final portfolio of works rather than on individual assignments. we all start together but we finish at different times (at our own pace). no due dates. things can always be worked on more. 

i started to think about doing this when i was visiting my friend julie who is a middle school montessori teacher last fall. i visited her school and she told me how they don't really hold class per se. the students move along at their own pace and i thought...duh. maybe i could do that in my classroom. now, montessori students have been "trained" to do this, but i have small classes and the support to try it so here it goes. 

will they be able to handle it? i'm not sure. last friday was a little rough. what i've alrady discovered is that the stronger students are moving more slowly and the weaker students are moving more quickly. i'm not sure i like that. 

i'll keep posting the tactics i develop to combat...socializing during the time when they should be moving ahead, tracking their progress, having critiques with people at different stages, etc.

scenes from my office.

this is a page from the new york city teaching fellows calendar from quite a few years ago. i was not a teaching fellow but i love their ad campaign. this hangs on the wall i face while i'm working.