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.