Articulate

Students participating in the Articulate program are between the ages of 14-25, and the studio is a place for them to develop artistic, social/life, and job skills.

Students are beginning work on paintings that will be exhibited as a part of the VSA exhibit Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. The theme of this exhibit was selected for Jude and his class. Students will have two months to complete their work, after which it will be displayed in the gallery with the intent of being sold. Jude assists in guiding students work based on their artistic strengths and his artistic interpretation of the designated project. When developing ideas for this project, students are to explore two things: students personal notions of beauty, and cross-cultural ideals of beauty.

My first impression of Jude and his classroom was positive. As other people have observed, he has an easy-going manner and seems to genuinely care for his students. The students mostly kept to their work, but, from time to time, would joke with their teacher.

An interesting difference about this class is the emphasis on production. When we first arrived, Jude shared his critical-artistic musings on how to approach a topic so broad as Beauty and he also discussed the challenges of producing work that will have market appeal. For these students, neither the process nor the artists fullest sense of self-expression are the focus of the work. Instead, this program presents some real life challenges to working as a artist whose intent is to sell their product.

Arts and the Aging

My last field observation was at the IONA Center for the Aging in Tenleytown. The center provides adult day health care including, fitness and computer classes, Alzheimer's care, counseling and support groups. Depending on the day, the center brings in different activity leaders which include art activities and art lectures. In addition to these lectures and activities the center also has a full-time art therapist. On the day I visited, I observed an art history lecture. It was interesting to see the varying factors in participation. The first was that it was nearing the end of the day and many of the seniors in the lecture were quite tired. The second was that it was a group of mixed functionalities, some were quite coherent and involved in the conversation, while others I was later told, were further progressed into Alzheimer's and dementia. The third was that the topic was clearly one of interest to some members while other were merely there to pass some time before being picked up by their families for the day. I personally thought that this would be a very difficult task, managing to teach adults of varying abilities of comprehension, let alone teaching to people who have had 60+ years of experience and learning prior to that class. I hope to be able to go back to the center to observe an art therapy course and expand my horizons of what's out there in arts education.

Corcoran Docent training

Today I met Linda in the Education Department to do observation on the Corcoran docent training program.
I had the pleasure of watching the Corocoran Docents perform their final test in front of their peers before passing their training. Docents met in the main building and where allowed fifteen minutes to cover three rooms in the gallery. Even though they where covering the same material it was fascinating to see how each of them has there own style and managed not to reiterate any facts. The main galleries where closed so there where no people and things being worked on which was a little disruptive and I hoe not to nerve racking to the docents but from what i was able to observe things went smoothly and I have no doubt that they will receive a pass! It was nice to see how supportive the teem was of each other and how they all were working together for the benefit of the team as a whole.
The Gallery is filled with objects and it is the docents job to make them come alive and coming to the training program made me realize that it is only through each unique educators ability that the context and information is conveyed. I look forward to next week where we will go on a tour of the malls Vietnamese memorial for a field trip

Last day at SEEC

Thus far in this course, I have blogged directly after each session of observing. This time, I thought I would give it a little distance between observation and articulation. So, two weeks and one Spring Break later, I'm thinking back to my time at SEEC.


I would like to preface this analysis by say I only saw very brief, restricted, infrequent windows of life and learning at SEEC. The program involves many more lessons, themes, activities, hours, and years than I have been able to witness during my time there. Therefore, the following generalizations and sweeping summation of the program is admittedly very ignorant.


SEEC appears to be a program that is far more activity-based than object-based, and more play-based than creation-based. During my time there I watched different classes, one of four-year-old and one of fives. I activity observed about 20 kids and a rotating batch of instructors. I could never really decipher who was the lead teacher, the co-teachers, the assistants, or the drop-in museum educator/story teller/substitute teacher.

I am not sure is the student knew who the lead teachers are, or even if there are consistent lead teachers. Though I did notice an inconsistent lack of enforcement of safe-play. The students seemed to get away with a lot of negative behavior. On one occasion, three different kids were crying between two unrelated events. From what I could tell as I watched it all culminate, the crying students were victims to aggressiveness and light-weight bullying. But how did it escalate that far?

It seems bad behavior like bullying, gentle hitting, yelling, and supply stealing fell through the disciplinary cracks. Many teacher-figures noticed the behavior, but did not act. It seemed like each was assuming the next 'authority figure' would intervene. They didn't. Crying, flushed-faces, and pandemonium reigned. Without a clear lead teacher or authority figure, who is ultimately responsible for the welfare of the students?

On a (hopefully) related note, I did notice almost of the instructors (let's call them adults) were consistently stressed and frazzled over the three Tuesdays. My first day at SEEC the director told me the a sickness was going around, but I was surprised to see the children recover so quickly while the adults were slow-moving for weeks.

Another interesting aspect of SEEC is it's play/activity-based learning structure. I have seen similar structures in other classes and schools before, but SEEC did not seem to run as smoothly as the others. Generally, I would say SEEC is unregulated and therefore chaotic. Students are dismissed to "choices" without any instruction, that I witnessed. They were not reminded of rules before going (which became particularly disturbing during the Olympic Games activities and caused the crying hysteria).

At previous play-based sites, I saw the children selected for activities based on good behavior and how many kids could fit at each station. The instructors also avoided social problems by separating trouble students. At SEEC, one instructor said that they let the trouble students group together because "it's not like they're going to behave [well], anyway." Such reasoning makes me uncomfortable, but for all I know the staff there has already tried everything else to tame those wild children. I just do not know enough to judge.

After the pandemonium of SEEC, I am incredibly excited to go to Peabody next week. I hear the difference is like day and night. I could really use a session where there are no crying children or rug burns.

Re: Make-up Field Experience

Last week I went to WVSA to make-up the field experience I has missed the week before. For the past couple of weeks I have been working with Jude and his students. I have really enjoyed it. It is clearly a very special environment where the teacher and students know each other very well. I have been amazed by how responsible and self-directed the students are. Unfortunately, this week Jude had a family emergency so when I got there his class was canceled.

The SAIL staff was really helpful and placed me with Ms. Dorothy's class. The second and third graders were painting projects that they had started with Amanda last week. The students were really into painting. As an adult, I sometimes forget how cool it is to mix colors and watch the paints change. Working at Amidon, I have seen this same kind of wonder when the students discover they can create their own colors.

Ms. Dorothy's students did a great job painting their projects. They used a lot of different colors and patterns. You could tell that they were very invested in the project by the care they took in painting them. 2nd and 3rd graders have a lot of energy! I had come expecting to work in the fairly low-key environment of WVSA and left feeling really tired, but good, after working with two classes of kids. This was my first field experience with elementary students, so far I have just been observing adults and teens, and I am really looking forward to seeing more elementary teaching situations. This week I will be at Peabody so I think it is great that I was able to get a little taste of a different elementary classroom for comparison.

4th time the charm at JCC

This is the 4th time I went to the JCC to observe ( I had to do an extra to make up for a class I will be missing). I am finding that it is harder and harder to stay away, I really like these people! In fact, I missed going last week and the students were upset so I got a great welcome this time.
The project this week was making a Seder Plate for Passover (for those who don't know, Passover is a holiday coming up in about 3 weeks. We hold a ceremony/dinner for the first two nights called a Seder. At the Seder, we have symbolic foods which we display on a plate to use for the story telling. Hence, a Seder plate is a popular craft idea for students).

They way we made it was really neat if smelly. Each student was given a paper plate (actually, two together to hold up more) and we mixed up this plaster stuff. It was like paper mache meets fiber glass in texture and was lumpy and gross. We then helped them smear it on the plate and tried to get them to coat it evenly across the surface. Once that was done, we used our fingers to scoop out 6 holes from the plaster, one hole for every symbolic food that they will put on the plate. It should dry and next week they will paint them.

It worked out alright, though most people needed help with getting the surface smooth. And they really couldn't get their minds around getting 6 evenly spaced holes that were bigger than a finger print (although one guy had the cutest idea! He made his holes into a smiley face :) The upside of this was it took relatively little fine motor skills so everyone could participate with a bit of help.

We had 30 minutes left so we took the ceramics they made 2 weeks ago and painted them. I was actually shocked by something that happened. Usually when the students paint something it will all be one color and it will be the color that was put in front of them randomly. Rarely is there a student who will request a color and do more than one. Well there is one gentleman who in the past basically just sat there. When we made the ceramic bowls, his lump of clay remained untouched until someone noticed it at the end. Well his bowl was painted beautifully! He used at least four colors, asking for more. And it wasn't just splattered and gobbed on but very deliberately done. I was shocked and said so, complimenting him on it. Moral of the story: Never decide what a person can or can not do, they might just surprise you.

One nice thing happened, they offered my the lead teaching position for this program for next year. The woman who does it now was promoted to director and she asked if I could do it. I told her I don't know what my plans are for next year yet but if I can I would. Second moral of the story: It is VERY GOOD to make connections now. You never know when it could be beneficial.

SAIL, Second visit.

Behavior problems:

In a class with so many kids I guess is difficult to keep up with the working plan when some of them have behavior problems and attempt to bring the whole class attention over to him or her instead the planned activity. What is the right thing to do in this case? Is the kid trying to tell us something that is upsetting him or her from school or home? Is it a game of power between the kid and the teacher?

I am thinking about this because in my second visit to SAIL the teacher had a situation with one of the kids in her second class. We they arrived two kids tried to sit on the same chair in one of the tables and the teacher separated them and said: please move away from the chair and sit in another one. One of the kids moved away and sat in another chair but the other kid involved in the conflict ran outside the class. The teacher continued introducing the activity to the class when the kid came back, got two flashlights, and was reflecting the light over the class matter. It was bothering some of the kids in the class and the teacher asked the kids not to allow him to spoil their time of learning new things and put attention on the activity. Ms Dorothy called another teacher through the phone to come to pick that kid up. Five minutes after the teacher came and took him with her out of the class.

At the end of class, I asked Ms Dorothy about this situation and we discussed the methodology that in general the school applies. Personally, I think the situation was well managed by the teacher but I still think that it has to be a better solution to be applied in similar situation. Because, this one only recovered the control in the class but it did not allowed the kid to communicate the real issue behind this miss behavior. As a result, he could not get over his personal problem or profit from the class.

SAIL first visit

The School for ARTs in Learning (SAIL) is a K-7 public charter school.

According to their web site: “SAIL works to address the needs of students with learning differences by providing creative learning environments” We have developed a specialized curriculum using the arts to help children learn in ways that match their learning styles, paying special attention to individual learning styles and specific need. Our focus is on developing the whole child, intellectually, emotionally, physically, and socially.”

The class had about 12 kids, between 7-9 years old; the ethnicity background was 95% African-American 5% Latin-American. The first thing that caught my attention was the setting where the class was taking place. It was in a basement with artificial light, no windows and no very bright color in the walls. There were a couple of shelves and tables against the walls to story the art supplies. There were also three different size tables to accommodate the kids (small 4 kids, medium, 6 kids and large 8 kids) in the middle of the room. I did not ask the teacher about the reason for the different sizes of the tables but I think that it might have some relationship to social behavior, sense of belonging to a group within a group. I guess it is part of human nature and it is something that is part of us from kindergarten until the end of our life.

As soon as I arrived at the class, I introduced myself to the teacher Ms. Dorothy she was very nice and polite. After welcoming me, she introduced me to the activity: Collage.I was preparing to participate in the activity and one of the four girls of the group at the small table invited me to work with them. I sat and started to cut pieces of magazines and fabrics to create my collage as an excuse to know the kids better and observe their behavior.
They were working and talking about different subjects (TV shows, the images that they selected for the collage, Michelle Obama, etc) we talked about our collage projects and they showed a clear interest in making me feel good and part of the group. It was remarkable the way that they communicated with each other, sharing the material and personal space in the table. For instance to ask for a scissors they said: “excuses are you using this scissors? May I take it?” “Thank you”. A couple minutes after a kid from another table came and took something from the table with out asking and one of the girls said: “this is not nice, you have to ask for things” and the girls next to her said: “yes, she is right. Apologize and you can have it“. I was amazed for this kind of reaction and the sense of self-managed individuals and in the group.

The class was about to end and it got a little loud and the kids were moving from table to table, some of the kids were completely disengaged with the activity wondering around. The teacher raised her voice and made noises with her hands that the kids responded in the same way in order to take the class under control. At the same time another teacher in the class helped to keep the order. Nevertheless, it was difficult to make these kids, finish the activity, clean up and get ready to go back to the next class in an organized way.

After my first visit finished, I was thinking about the differences between SAIL and Peabody. I concluded, that there are important factors that cannot be overlooked in order to make a fair judgment. The differences in the two programs are based on the needs of the learning group and the community focusing on the use art to achieve different goals. However, settings (classroom with natural light and windows/ basement), programs requirements(individual project development / learning social behavior and self-control), size of the class (4/13) and student’s background (middle class / social disadvantages) are very important characteristics to put under consideration in order to seriously evaluate the pros and cons of any art program and reach a positive and constructive conclusion.

Last week @ SAIL

Sorry, this post is so late, I thought I had published it to the blog but turns out I just saved it as a draft. Apologies !

This past week at SAIL was a little different. Amanda (second year MAT) taught the class as part of her thesis project. It was really interesting seeing how different a class could in relation to a different instructor. 

Amanda stopped the class at the door and let them know first that this week would be different. She let them know that they were to come in and sit on the floor to listen to a story which would introduce the day's activity. She asked them to be quiet as they come in. The students came in and sat themselves on the floor as Hernan, Ingrid, Mrs. Dorothy, and I sat in the background and watched. Storytime began. Amanda used a very intersting book I have never seen called "Salvador Dali and the Path to Dreams" The book spoke of Dali as a kid who had all these crazy dreams and later when he grew up he painted the images he saw in his dreams. The book was beautifully illustrated. The illustration showed all kinds of people, places, and objects that were imaginary and extraordinary. 

The materials for the activity were already set and laid out on the center of each table. When the story ended she explained this to the kids and explained they would be making their own imaginary people, places, or things out of these materials and Model Magic Clay (this stuff is great and comes in different colors, never had seen it before myself).  The kids were called on to go to a table of their choosing based on who was sitting quietly. 

Amanda did a great job keeping the kids in the story as she told it. She asked the questions, let them ask theirs and was good about recognizing kids with their hands up and not acting up. She kept the kids engaged in the story this way. Kids who spoke out of turn or were going "oo OO !" as they waved their hand were told something like "I only call on friends who raise their hands quietly" by Amanda, and then she moved on to a student who did just that. After once or twice this got the misbehaving kids to behave. I thought this was a good way to keep the kids in check, by not really reacting in a big way to their ruckus making but just recognizing it as unacceptable behavior and moving on, showing no emotion or much of a reaction at all. 

The project was a good one for the kids who seemed to really enjoy it. They worked well with their hands and as far as I could tell had friendly conversation as they worked. 

One thing I was surprised with was the glue gun. There were two glue guns available for the kids. When the two kids at my table needed to use the glue gun I went with them to the station to help. I was surprised that for the most part though the kids were allowed to use it without supervision. I am not sure if Amanda planned this or not, maybe it just got a little crazy with all the kids who wanted to use the glue gun and she wasn't able to control them from getting up and going to use it ? Or maybe she intended for them to get up and use it by  themselves ? 

If they were my kids at home, the same age, I wouldn't let them use it by themselves. And the one time I let a kid use it themselves while just watching, my hand got burned! 

All in all my time at SAIL was an informative one. Also as I already noted, it was interesting to see a different instructor with the same class. Time to see what post-spring break has in store for us!

Pictures of some of the kids pieces from the last class (sorry, not the greatest photographer)

Peabody Esteem and Perserverance

I am going to reflect on the role of art education in promoting self-esteem and perserverance. To some extent I will repeat what I said in Tuesday's meeting. I hope, however, that at some point someone will provide Maryanne with a more critical perspective on the Peabody or the Reggio Amelia system, nothing is perfect. (and VSA has had its share of criticism-from me as well as others)

Several of the students in Ms. Mclean class have developmental issues. Several students have or will repeat Kindergarten for second and third times, some have visual issues, some have processing issues. (This relates to the brains ability to translate information. i.e. copy from a board, verbalize answers, etc.) For these students, having the chance to succeed in non-academic ways is a way for students to feel a sense of pride and self-worth. This is not a new idea, but it is a significant argument for art education. Even when students do thrive academically, the art room is a place where individual difference and talents can be celebrated. This is particularly important when working with adolescents.

Self-esteem is a hugely significant feeling for a human being to own. Without it, a felt sense of joy, and/or material success is impossible. As an art educator, in my conceptual teaching world, there are real opportunities to identify and to reach students who need support in this way.

Perserverance is something that Ms. Mclean takes pride in teaching her students. She said that when the children first come to her classroom, the work is hard, they give up more easily, and they will ask her to finish. By the time they get mid way through Kindergarten, students show more determination. The students learn to take risks, to trust in their own ability to meet a challenge (esteem building), and they develop resolve that will serve them in pursuits much further than the art room. Again, not new ideas, but valuable things to keep in the back of the mind.

Continuing at WVSA

I unfortunately missed this week of field experience due to the stomach flu but prior to that I have been having a really good time at WVSA. It is clear that it is a really special program. There seems to be a high level of warmth and connection between the students and the teacher. The small class size really helps; giving both the teacher and students time to interact with each other.

I am impressed with the level of self-motivation on the part of the students. For the past two weeks they have been busily working towards their show which opened last Thursday. Each student seems really focused on his piece. They are given a lot of freedom to talk, move around, listen to music but nobody seems to abuse the privileges. They seem to be really connected to their teacher laughing and joking around with him but everyone seems to know what the boundaries are and they alway return to their work.

I have to say it is pretty impressive. At first glance the physical environment seems chaotic. Supplies and artwork are everywhere. The students are frequently laughing, singing or joking but underneath the surface this classroom seems to have a very organic structure that keeps it together. My best assessment at this point is that it stems from the mutual respect between teacher and students. The students in this program are treated like working artists and, as such, they seem to assume the responsibilities that go along with it. This program has made an impression on me and there are definitly things that I would like to try to incorporate into my own future classroom.

SEEC

The Seec Program is a preschool program with an object based model for learning. The classroom was tucked away around the American History Museum and enjoyed a most arresting view of the Mall and the Washington Monument. The space is probably not as a ideal as the program had to accommodate it as opposed to the other way around and there was plenty of room for the children but not partitioned in any fashion. There where three teachers per class and the classes are coordinated so that they are usually coming and going from the museums to avoid overcrowding. There was plenty of opportunities for different modes of learning and choices and they all looked thought out and inviting. the unit that was being discussed was dinosaurs and the teachers used different areas to give children to learn in the mode which appealed to them. The Table-top activities had plastic dinosaurs and a water pond for the children to play in and the reading area had several books on the subject, and the children would get to visit the natural history museum! The circle time was enjoyable and it was educational to watch the teachers weave different learning experiences such as practicing and sounding out letters into the discussion. The language that the teachers used encouraged children to make the right choices and they were quick to redirect children that where disruptive or needed support. SEEC is a great program and is a wonderful addition to the mall and the community.

Open-Option Class #2

After a 3 hours of action-packed fun with 6-9 year old art-lovers on Saturday, I was pumped for 3 more hours with 10-13 year olds. However, they were not as excited as I. The second class, for slightly older artists, was a version of the class for the 6-9 year olds. Theoretcially, the gallery conversations would be more eloquent and thoughtful and the project would be more elaborate and innovative. However, this was not the case.

The preteen class was quiet, unconfident, unpassionate, and unenthused. Only a few comments were made or questions answered during the gallery talk, and most of the respondent were the same few kids. They were inexplicably more inhibited, both conversationally and artistically. Perhaps their shyness is because this age group is slightly more inclined to thinking things have to be right and good. That is, they are realizing that if one cannot do something well in school (i.e. answer a question in Social Studies), he could not try it at all. Whatever the reason, the tweens were quiet as mice.

Once in the ArtLab, they opened up a little. They began to speak to one another. Still, they were more concerned on (what they thought was) social success than artistic growth. They were fairly reserved when we came around asking about their concepts and processes. Overall, their projects were good. However, there was a larger range in effort and 'goodness' than with the younger class. Some students tried harder, some tried noticeably less hard, and some were in the middle. I must admit, I expect this class' results to stand out more from the previous class', even if only because of the differences in motor skills. I should emphasize that the projects were still very good.

Another difference between the classes was Mary. Her enthusiasm and efforts dropped slightly by the time the second class started. She expended a lot of energy with the young group, and I do not see how she could sustain those efforts for 6 straight hours of teaching. Also, I think people assume that the young the students, the harder they are to teach. I believe that difficulty peaks with adolescents, and the 6-9 class would be (and is) easier to finesse than the tweens.


I am very excited to go to the next classes in April and see what new lesson Mary has. Also, I would like to see if the behavior/enthusiasm of the age groups parallels that of last week. I'll let you know what I discover.

Open-Option Class #1

For my open observation experiences I have been going to see the Hirshhorn's Artist at Work with Youth classes. These classes are taught by Artist-in-Residence Mary Colbe. Each semester Mary teaches 6 Saturday classes based on one of the Hirshhorn's large shows. This spring the classes are inspired by the Louise Bourgeoise show and concern fears, families, and dwellings.

The first class I observed was for 26 kids (age 6-9) and their parents, who tag along. Mary and two colleagues started the session by taking the crew through the Bourgeoise exhibit. They stopped at 3 or 4 pieces and discussed the significance as a group. Mary would open by asking questions to the class about what they thought the piece was and meant, and then spoke about the piece in relation to tackling fear and embracing family. Mary and the students were equally enthusiastic, and many positive comments were made in the galleries.

Next, the group went to the ArtLab. Mary reiterated Bourgeoise's major themes. She then showed a project she made that was a home/box/cell that housed her fears. She explained that, like Bourgeoise, she could get a handle of her fears by examining them. She asked the kids to go make similar projects. They had a wide variety of materials and tools and an endless supply of creativity. We spent about two hours walking around to help the students and ask them about their projects. At the end of class, Mary had the students display their projects at the front of the room and let volunteers explain them.

The project were incredible. Each was more innovative and emotionally significant than the last. No two projects looked alike. The students worked as long as they could on the projects and many said they were going to do more at home.

To be quite honest, I was very afraid the prompt of 'your greatest fears' would end badly. I feared that those negative thoughts would upset the kids and make them dwell on negative things. However, the children all embraced the concept and all felt empowered. I believe the key to this empowerment was a direct result of Mary's incredible teaching style. She was incredibly genuine and enthusiastic and the students really fed off of her. Additionally, the young students whose parents would know about, register for, and drive them to an early Saturday morning class at the Hirshhorn presumably already feel the importance of art. Each of those students because they love art and love making art (as were the other ~60 kids on the waiting list for the class). They did not have to be convinced that what they were doing was fun. They came because they knew it would fun.

However, I wonder know how much that enthusiasm is related to their ages.

To be continued...

Round three at the JCC

Once again I went to the JCC to observe their art class for special ed adults. It was so different from last week when everyone came in late. This time we had two new people and everyone seemed to be on fire. They finished the projects before we were ready for them. The first activity was clay pinch pots. Everyone loves clay and they use the kind that needs to be fired as it is softer and many lack the dexterity for air dry clay. I worked with one guy in particular and he usually never does much of the work. He was very excited with the pot and would jab his finger at it every so often and would show it off to everyone who would look. It was cute and frustrating at the same time because I really did most of it. But it didn't matter to him so I guess it didn't matter so much because he enjoyed himself.

The second project was decorating paper masks. There is a Jewish holiday called Purim on Monday night and Tuesday. We dress up in costumes, have carnivals, and read from the book of Ester so making masks was right on cue. They were all excited about the holiday and we talked about what they were going to dress up as. They put out all sorts of materials like mesh fabric, feathers, gems, sequin, markers, puff balls, and a whole bunch of great things. The guy I worked with was very into the color red (at least he said it was red, I think he meant orange) so I would put materials in front of him, ask him which ones he wanted. He would pick it out, I would give it to him, and then I would ask him where on the mask he wanted it. He would point, I would put the glue down, and he would place it there. It worked out very well. The lead teacher then glued sticks on the back to hold and cut eye holes.

What really upset me was the lack of people to help out. I noticed that one of the new fellows kind of fell between the cracks and sat there with the lump of clay in front of him for 20 minutes. there is such a difference of ability. While my fellow was unable to use the glue himself, another girl created a delicately patterned mask which was really lovely and complex. She was actually enlisted to help another student but that doesn't happen often. I wish they had more helpers and could get some socialization going. Oh well, if wishes were horses....But the students love the clay and they love the holiday so all left in good spirits. We will see next week how they do coming of the holiday buzz.

2nd Week @ SAIL

Another fun filled day at SAIL. I am going to go with my original thoughts on this class from my first visit and say that the first visit last week was not an isolated case where the kids were just a little rowdy. This seems to be an ongoing behavior in the class. 

Once again we were invited to interact with the kids and participate with them in the art making. This was the 2nd and last week they had to work on their landscape collages. It became apparent in their art making that the intro given to the activity a couple weeks ago, was not sufficient. The kids did not seem to fully understand what a "landscape" was (or cityscape, or seascape), or very few children did. Nor did they understand what it was to make a collage. The children repeatedly came up to Mrs. Dorothy to show her their finish products at which point in 90% of the cases the children were sent back to work because "all the yellow space was not covered" (the paper given to work on was yellow). 

I thought it might have been helpful if the children had a little bit more of an explanation of what these collages and landscapes were, maybe be shown some examples from real life artists. It almost seemed like it was a task given that just had to be seen to completion. 

Another thing I found odd was at least 2-3 times I saw Mrs. Dorothy explaining to the kids how to use Modge Podge. Why did her explanation not work before? It had already been 1 week since they started the project. Not that she didn't explain it the first time but apparently it did not sink in to some of the students because they were using the modge podge as regular glue. They probably didn't understand it because the class was being rowdy when it was explained. 

Also at the table I was sitting at I had to tell the kids (at least once each and a couple of them I had to tell more than once) that they were not to swing their hands around in animated gestures while holding scissors or run/walk around the classroom with their scissors pointed out. Granted the scissors were kid's scissors and pretty dull. I just would think that when you have a group of young kids (even old kids) that you would stress in the beginning that the scissors are to be handled in a specific way. This was not mentioned once to the class as a whole.

I know I sound very critical of this classroom and the instructor and I am not trying to be that way but these are just my observations. I will say that this week was a little less rowdy and loud than last week. Amanda suggested to Mrs. Dorothy (after the first class and before the second) that instead of having all the materials out on the floor for the kids to come after that the materials be passed out by the teachers instead so the kids never got up from their seats. This seemed to work well. Such a simple idea that nobody had thought of before  I guess and with three adults in the room (not including Ingrid, Hernan, and I) this was not a hard task. 

One last but important thing happened at the beginning of the second class. Two of the kids were fighting for a seat, eventually the seat was taken away and both children were told to find a new seat. So one of the boys goes for one seat and the other goes for the one across the table but then last second decides he wants the same seat the other kid chose (odd?). And they fight again.  One of the children starts to act up slamming his body against a wall and saying things about the other boy. The other boy gave up his seat without being told to and went to another chair (yes, there were a lot of empty chairs). But by this time the other boy was already being very disruptive and probably didn't even notice that his friend had given up the seat to him. 

Basically, Mrs. Dorothy told the class to ignore him, he began to play with the flashlights he had found at which point Mrs. Dorothy called his main teacher down to come and get him. In the mean time Mrs. Dorothy and everyone else ignored the boy. Another teacher came to get him, of course he didn't want to go and the teacher grabbed him by his upper arm and pulled him out of the room. He got out of her grip and I saw him run up the stairs and away from her as she ran after him.

It was an unsettling experience for me. I am not sure how I would have handled such a difficult situation but I am pretty sure I didn't like the way it was handled. At the same time I can't offer an alternative option. I wonder what I would have done had I been in Mrs. Dorothy's situation. You can't let the boy go on disturbing the class and ruin the experience of the other kids. But at the same time I wouldn't want to take away art making time away from the boy either. Obviously this kid is a troubled kid who probably has had discipline problems before. I think next week I will ask more about how they handle things like that and kids like that, both in the classroom and in the art room. 

EDIT @ 11:30 p.m.

To go back and try to  make this sound a little less critical as all the above I will say that Mrs. Dorothy does have amazing patience with the level of noise and commotion in the room. I would probably break down and cry.  And to go back and comment on what I wrote above, I did read Michelle's past reflection on her first day at SAIL during the last rotation and learned that Mrs. Dorothy has in fact presented some artists who work in collage prior to the students beginning their own. Just goes to show me I don't always know the full story!

Week 2- MLK Elementary

This week was a little unusual because of Monday's unintentional snow day. While DCPS had a two-hour delay, Mr. Hill alerted me to the fact that they had six students show up- in the entire school. As you could expect, many of the students were riled up from their day of playing in the snow. The younger students in the first two classes were drawing pictures of the snow "at night" on black construction paper using the new Crayola 'Construction Paper' crayons. The kindergarten class was SILENT as they worked. I, honestly, have never observed a group of students being that diligent about their art making. Mr. Hill seemed to have created the perfect storm of art making for that day and that class. The second group was a little rowdier, talking and a little more restless when they got to the class, they stayed that way throughout the art making portion of class. At the end of their class period Mr. Hill held up their pictures and the kids talked about what was going on in the picture. The kids didn't have to say if it was their picture, but it definitely made them feel special that everyone was talking about their art. What I thought was interesting was that Mr. Hill paid particular attention to not talk about the ones where kids didn't follow directions- but that he made clear that it wasn't because he didn't like the art but that they didn't put their name on it, didn't include snow, etc. I thought it was an interesting way of ensuring that students would try to meet the objective of the assignment in the future, without hindering the creative experience.
The third group was the third grade students, who Mr. Hill was attempting to have play pictionary. This did not work that well. The girls seemed to get the objective of the game pretty quickly, but the boys were really not understanding how the game worked. This experience really highlighted how the students interacted with each other. The girls have such a great difference in size, it is easy to see how the pecking order has been established. As for the boys, the 'cool kid' was quickly picked unanimously to go first. As the game progressed it became obvious which boys were vying for the 'second in command' position of the social hierarchy. They acted out, cracked jokes, and were generally all over the place. There were a few boys who genuinely enjoyed the game and really wanted to play- while the other boys were ruining their experience.

Peabody #2

Eddy left me alone with Marla and the kindergarteners. Luckily things went smoothly.

I was put on hot glue gun duty and spent my observation time participating in the class. The students continue to work on their 3-D Utopia projects. As I crouched on the floor with the glue gun in hand, I watched rainbows slink around the room. There is a sense of magic at this age (not mine, (necessarily) but in early childhood). I watched students with the materials. I observed them as they set out to problem-solve. Their ability to learn through exploration is apparent, and I like that the Peabody challenges its students to apply critical and creative thinking stategies at such a young age. At the same time, it seems like the children are engaged with the work.

I also got a chance to know Marla. Perhaps like many other people, I have a handful of interests, and at times, it has been difficult for me to choose which direction to pursue. For me though, Marla, is an example of how one person's meandering (progressive, independent) paths can happily converge. I have faith that my interests will converge anyway, but, she and the Lead Teacher have served as reminders that there are many options in life. There are many different kind of schools, many different visions, and versions of education, but that chosing what is appropriate will be a unique task for each of us.

There were two things that stood out for me in our conversation. One was how important it is to find out if an institutions philosophy on art education resonate with our own philosophies, and the other is that it is possible to create your vision, if it does not exist. Marla and the teacher at Reggio Emilia are the foundation of that school because of someone, or a group of some one's visions. These ideas are important things to remember. My desire is to be fulfilled and challenged in whatever work I do, and in order to do that, I think it is important to be honest about what my abilities, my needs, my hopes and beliefs are, and to be willing to take risks when their is necessity or promise.

MLK Round 2

The art classes at MLK today did not quite go as smoothly as last time. This could be accounted for due to the fact that they just came off an unofficial snow day, were testing in the mornings for the next 3 days, and had picture day coming up. The lesson for the third graders was stellar even though the students were abnormally rowdy. It was based off the board game pictionary and was a way for the teacher to segue into the introduction of the artist Miro. While that was the main goal of the lesson it certainly was applicable to numerous other avenues of learning that were art based and beyond. For the observers it raised many opportunities to teach character and social skills amongst much more along those lines. It was also a good day to view the various classroom management skills of the teacher since it was a day of high energy and a few outside interruptions.

Zzzzz's

Today I went back to SEEC, but the experience was very different. Last week I palled around with Mr. K's class. He acknowledged me, gave me a rundown of the program and the class' status, and encouraged me to walk around and meet the students. So, I did. In fact I made several young friends at last week's craft table. They even waved at and said hi to me today.

Today, however, was very different. Justin and I were set up with another, younger class. The lead teacher did not acknowledge us of explain our presence to the students. Nor did she offer any encourage any actions by which we could get to know students. It was quite a different environment for me, the observer, to experience.

Additionally, today's class seemed a little off. It seems all the instructors are getting sick, sick, or getting over sickness and were therefore less than enthused. To make the situation more intense, the kids were riled up, something that seems universal in schools after heavy snowfall.

The class today learned the letter Z. They learned the sound it makes and the corresponding motion. Next, they took turns writing it on a large, shared piece of paper. Hardly any of the kids payed attention to the teacher's demo, and she did not fight to get their attention. (Maybe that's a preschool etiquette thing?) The first few students wrote their Z's correctly. Then one student wrote his backwards and, looking at that backwards example, the rest of the students wrote the letter backwards, as well. Perhaps making a more prominent example Z or using individual pieces of paper would have been more productive. I guess it didn't matter because the majority of the class was not paying attention and the teacher unenthusiastically complimented them all.

After letter writing, the kids are allowed to go to Choices. Unlike Mr. K last week, this teacher did not regulate this process at all. The kids were just running around all willy-nilly. Perhaps she realized the group was rowdy and it was time to cut her losses. Or maybe this is normal. Or maybe she's just sick and couldn't give 100% today. I guess I'll see how next week goes before I hypothesize.

SEEC to MLK transition

SEEC and MLK Elementary are both institutions that were positive but with two different ways of teaching. SEEC is certainly all about having the students discover on their own. This is not to say that MLK does not do this but they do it in a much more balanced way. MLK tends to learn much more together as a group or as a community with more of an authoritarian teacher. At SEEC it seemed to be a collection of individuals at stations that could interact with each other at various learning/play stations. MLK gave me the feel that i got from the city schools I was brought up in which held more of a "rise as one" mentality than a place like SEEC seems to. Because of this I am probably a little more biased towards a school like MLK. Unfortunately it seems that this type of learning is getting a bit of a bad wrap and a bit short changed in current education dialogue and practice. It often gets equated or lumped in with what is viewed as negative in this program and much of the dominant contemporary educational thought that I have seen. Since I have started the program at Corcoran there has been clear rallying against such practices as lecturing or telling kids facts and other strategies that are more prevalent in a MLK situation than in a SEEC situation. While at the same time at the Corcoran there has been a thorough promotion of leaving it up to the students to discover and learn on their own. While both are effective modes of learning and teaching one clearly is held as correct and the other as incorrect. An MLK institution often gets stereotyped as the realm of the incorrect style. These schools such as this one that follow more of a "rise as one" mentality are often prone to having an authoritarian teacher that many from the other school of thought do not appreciate and boil down to something much simpler than they really are. I would argue that these two different forms of teaching both get oversimplified and placed in discussions that are framed in a us vs. them format far too often. These two different modes of teaching need to be seen in the various contexts and environments that they reside and then evaluated from there. Applying the same simple prescriptions to both these schools is a constant mistake that we can see in every city and a problem the the whole field of art education seems to be unable to get past. I would also like to note that this mentality that is taken towards these two schools of thought is similar to the view of southeast and pubic schools that I have seen in this city so far (oversimplified for starters). This was my first opportunity to travel to SE and only my second DCPS school to attend. Both of the experiences had very little to do with the oversimplified accounts of both that one hears far too often. After observing both institutions I would say that these two classrooms are just about on par with each other as far as the amount and effectiveness of learning and teaching that goes on. Brian's class was extremely refreshing and gave me a great outlook on teaching and students that I had not seen since I was a student in city schools. His ability to teach and conduct his life as a teacher were also extremely admirable and hopeful. What I saw in his class reminds me of why I would want to send my kids to and teach in a public school. There is more learning going on there on many different levels than I feel I observed at SEEC due to the students that are in the room. SEEC had more of a feel of students getting groomed rather than MLK which gave me a sense of a group working through things together. This is an odd observation since I feel that MLK was more on the side of authoritative directional teaching than SEEC.

Roger

Peabody 1st visit

Hello all. Michelle and I visited Peabody this past tuesday, and I must say I was impressed with the set up with regard to the amount of students who participate in the class, the collaboration between the teachers, as well as the decoration and documentation of the projects. Thinking back to the students at SAIL, I wondered if that atmosphere would work for them. I also thought about the parent involvement at SAIL vs Peabody; is there a huge difference regarding support by the parents? I questioned the socio-economic status of the children at Peabody vs SAIL, but Marla told me that when the program started, the income bracket of the community was lower than the current population and the program ran just as smooth. I look forward to my next visit; I have more questions.

Eddy 

The School-Within- School at Peabody

Summary of the Reggio Emilia philosophy

According to Wikipedia The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education.” It was started by the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II to eliminate fascism. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach to teaching their children. They felt that it is in the early years of development that children are forming who they are as an individual. This led to creation of a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment.”

Many American preschool programs have adopted the Reggio Emilia philosophy based upon the following set of principles:

• Children must have some control over the direction of their learning.
• Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving,
  listening, seeing, and hearing.
• Children have a relationship with other children and with material items
  in the world that children must be allowed to explore.
• Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

There is a significant point in the article from The Scandinavian School of San Francisco about Reggio Emilia Method. “The world and its people are always changing and that’s why they are against set programs and methods. You can work Reggio Emilia-inspired. You cannot copy the way they worked in Italy because you have to consider the people, the environment and culture. In Reggio Emilia they have a coined expression: “A child has a hundred languages”. They try to unite and develop all these languages; innovation, construction, fantasy, art, music, dance, building, writing, talking, signing, science, body and soul… The multiple languages are used to help children build knowledge and understand the world around them. The natural environment is incorporated as much as possible“.


After visiting and observing the implementation of the Reggio Emilia method at the Peabody School, I am able to see the possibilities and limitations of the program. I can conclude that it is an interesting learning methodology with clear goals and positive results. However, I think it has also clear limitations in terms of the requirement regarding environment and commitment from the parents. I don’t think that this method could work in large group of students due to the close interaction teacher- student. In addition, the socio-economical background is a very important factor to take under consideration because kids coming from abusive or violent environments will have a hard time fitting into the group. Further more, in order to fulfill the kids development it is imperative the parents commitment to keep the same philosophy at home.


Interesting links with more information:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Reggio_Emilia/
http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/index.htm
http://www.reggioalliance.org/

Comparing Site 1 to Site 2

Comparing SEEC to MLK Elementary is like comparing apples and oranges. Their only true similarities seem to be that they are educational facilities and are run by dedicated and talented teachers.

The teaching methods are very different on each site. At SEEC the students were led in small group activities and then let loose to explore the topic as their individual interests guided them (ie through art making, playing, reading, etc) At MLK the students are guided through a lesson starting with a seeing activity (I believe based on Visual Thinking Strategies concepts) and then the completion of one activity that everyone participates in creating. The students are able to explore their creativity in a guided manner, lending structure to the the classroom dynamic.

This leads me to my second point of comparison. The students at MLK are given much more structure in the classroom. The students are not given leeway in the manner that the SEEC students decide what particular way they would like to explore an area of interest. The structure of the MLK classroom is also useful in dealing with timing of activities and the handling of disciplinary issues. For the students at SEEC, their day was freely structured with very little adherence to a schedule aside from approximate times for meals and napping. For the students at MLK a bell system keeps them on track in terms of timing. Their activity was also very structured in terms of 'teaching time' and 'creating time'.

Looking at the two side-by-side it makes me wonder if both sites could benefit from incorporating more and less structure as applies.