Christmas Party videos...go figure..

"One must from time to time attempt things that                                              are beyond one's capacity." Auguste Renoir I decided again this year, since I was scheduled to teach on the last day before our Christmas  break, to treat my students to a wee party.  I brought in Swiss Miss hot chocolate and a box of Gansitos (small chocolate covered cakes with filling).  I told them they could work on their art or sit and talk, but no games.  In the midst of this "inactivity", a couple of the students actually got  out their work and spent some time on it.  I took the liberty of recording about a minute of each of these students at work.  The sounds and music you hear in the background is just my ipod hooked  up to a speaker.  Enjoy.

I showed you SaVonne's work in an earlier blog post.  She is now using ebony pencil to capture the
essence of DYNAMIC lights and darks in her drawing.  When the period was over, she packed her
drawing up with a couple of spare pencils and took it home to work on it over the holiday.  Can't wait
to see it when it's finished.


Jennifer just began working on this floral drawing the day before.  We had looked together at some
value drawings of flowers and she decided she liked this approach.  I enjoyed watching her spend her
time slowly building the values.


Crystal found a book I had brought in on drawing and was captivated by the section on hands.  She
had drawn a few hands up the side of her paper.  We talked about how she was going to deal with the
larger composition.  She said she wanted to draw a larger version in the center.  I gave her a piece of
transparency, she put it on the overhead, and traced the larger hand.  Here, she is beginning the process
of creating a value drawing of that larger hand.  This student has not, in the past, seemed very motivated to work on her projects.  I get the feeling that this is one she will stick with and do a good job with.

I'm off for Germany for the holidays.  I may or may not post while I'm gone.  Chances are I will because
my daughter Angela will probably bring up something, we'll have discussion, and it will invariably lead
to a post.  If not, see you next year.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

A Delightful Drawing

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

Walt Disney  

Isn't this a very nice drawing by Raymond Ortiz in my 3rd period class?  Raymond took this home and worked on the floral subjects after a discussion on Monday about bringing out the interest in the composition by using strong gradations of dark to light.  Then today we discussed various alternatives to enhancing the composition by creating a background that would show off the floral arrangement.  Next thing I know, Raymond is presenting me with his finished artwork for a final critical analysis.  I gave it two thumbs up and asked if he would mind exhibiting it for awhile in the classroom.  So now it hangs near the door for all to enjoy.

Way to go Raymond!

On Friday we will have a little pre-holiday celebration along with our regular class activities.  I will provide some warm beverages and a small snack and the students may bring in something simple for all to enjoy if they want. I don't care to disrupt the learning/creating process too much, even during these times of the year.  We have little enough time to create.  On Friday, then, I am going to try and shoot some photos of other finished works since many of the students will want to take their work home to either give as gifts or continue working on them over the holidays.

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle..."

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye..it also includes the inner pictures of the soul"

Edvard Munch. 1863

Today,just a short little video of a student working on a drawing she did a lot of work on at home.  In the past, I very seldom allowed students to take home current art work to finish it or work on it.  My reasoning was simple.  I feared two things: 1.  The student would finish the work, bring it back to class and then I would need to find something else for that student to do while the rest of the class was still working on that assignment, and 2.  the student would take home a piece of work that had been kept nice and neat in his/her drawer and portfolio, work on it at home, and bring it back all rolled up, wrinkled, and the "worse for wear".  THEN how would it look up on display for all the world to see next to all the very neat and nice work of the rest of the students.  Nothing doing for THIS control freak.

So what's different now?  First of all, since it IS their work and THEY are the ones who will be grading it, deciding whether or NOT to display it, and hopefully feeling good about their work to the point of taking extreme care of it and ultimately hanging it in their rooms at home, I tell them they may take the work home at ANY stage.  If they DO finish it, more the better, because then they will have time to pursue other work they now have time for.  I don't need to FIND THEM work since they are in charge of deciding what it is they are doing.  I just need to remind them to investigate, research, read, and "try out" whatever suits them.  What fun!

"Gentlemen, and Ladies...START YOUR ENGINES!"

"I do not consider my self as having mastered the flute, but I
 get a real kick out of trying."

Sir James Galway   December 8, 1939

I was wanting to shoot just a little footage today of student "work in progress" so I went over to SaVonne's area and saw that she was just far enough along to accommodate this activity.  I wish I had pursued it a bit further with her, but I know you will get the point of the discussion.

At the beginning of the period, in order to possibly influence some of the students to move along with their artwork, I spoke of an analogy.  I told them how much I enjoyed coming around to their places and seeing what they were doing, making suggestions, and asking them questions.  I said that some of them reminded me of that "fictional" race car driver sitting in the pits.  As a coach, I can suggest how fast to drive, where to turn, when to pass the other cars, etc.  But you have to "be in the race" for me to be able to do that.  If you are sitting in the pits with your engine turned off, the only advice I can give you is,
"start your engines" and move out onto the track.  THEN I can do my job of helping you in any way I can so you can be successful.  To be honest, however, some of the students are just taking more time to prepare their designs at the sketching stage...but they STILL need to get started on their final works instead of being so elaborate at this stage.

Had a very nice compliment for the program today, although unspoken.  I needed to be out of the room for a few minutes.  While I was away, my supervisor/evaluator stepped in for an informal observation.  I came in, said hello, went into the room and moved among the students as I usually do.  When he was finished with his notes, he handed me the form, smiled and said, yes when I asked him if he had ever had the chance to read my blog.  The notes on the observation form were all positive.  I especially liked the check marks for "engaged" and "student directed activity".  I complimented my students when he left for being on task even though I wasn't there and helping to verify the strength of the program.   Very cool!

Ruminations on Relaxation

"The air is like a butterfly
 With frail blue wings
 The happy earth looks at the sky
 And sings."

(Alfred) Joyce Kilmer   December 6, 1886

It's funny how thoughts occur to me through some odd set of circumstances or situation that is totally unexpected.  

I'm sitting in the chair getting a pedicure the other day when Amy asked me, "So how are you getting along with that new art curriculum you told me about?"  This is at the beginning of what would be an hour session, so instead of a cursory, "oh, fine", I set off on a monologue of how what I've been doing compares to what I've done over the years.  Not from the standpoint of how much more the students are learning, how much better their artwork is, or how much more they seem to enjoy learning about art.  I have already told her (and you) all of that.

What occurred to me was how different my everyday experience has been with my art classes.  I have found my class time to be so much more relaxed than ever before.  That made me wonder about why that was.  In reflecting on the kind of teacher I have been and the way in which I have conducted my classes, I would have to say that I'm a bit of a "control freak".

I guess I don't think of that as such a bad way of being, since my philosophy has always been that you can't teach anyone anything unless you have their attention and you can't have their attention if you have a chaotic environment.  "Classroom Management" is the altruistic concept.

Since I do feel the need for order in the classroom, I have always needed to be organized to the hilt.  I would pass out supplies (or have selected students do it), set up assignments in a logical order, set deadlines, and make sure there were few, if any, wasted moments during the class period.  This meant my being "on top of it", in terms of seeing that needs of students were met, etc.  I have wondered at art teachers who seem to somehow welcome chaos in their class rooms.  Seeing students all out of their seats, crowding around a central media area waiting to grab supplies, noise levels off the charts, directions screamed out by the teacher over the voices of the masses.  I know I would just not like it.

So my answer to Amy was, "you know I find it rather relaxing to not be in charge".  Then I thought, WOW!  Here I have 30 students doing 30 different things at the same time and I find that RELAXING?  It's because I have placed the burden of their learning on their backs and relieved myself of that responsibility.  By taking the time to set up the organizational structure and following through on all its ramifications, I have an environment where all I have to do is remind the students of their responsibilities, answer questions, make suggestions, ask them why they feel a need to change what their doing, and praise them.  Of course, I still demonstrate media and technique, show them videos on artists and concepts, give them examples of art work through slide shows, and discuss with them aspects of art they need to know.  All that's a given.  What I enjoy now is the relaxing feeling that everything is in place and I can truly enjoy the experience of watching the students learn.  Good deal!

Dynamic Light and Shade

"The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul."

Wassily Kandinsky   December 4, 1866

Since the students are dealing with the concepts of VALUE and EMPHASIS this cycle, I decided to scan in a book of images from a book titled, DYNAMIC LIGHT AND SHADE.

I showed this slide show to them on Friday and discussed the ideas of focal point, etc. with them after the viewing.  I figured that everyone would enjoy this slide presentation, so I converted the slide show into a movie format and posted it to youtube.com.  Here is the video to the theme music from "Somewhere in Time".  Hope you enjoy.

then MASTERY...

 "Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know"

Rembrandt Van Rijn

When we began today, I brought up the video we saw in our last class on Gabriel Orozco.  I wondered aloud whether any of the students noticed anything peculiar about him as he worked on his various artistic endeavors?  What I noticed was that he was extremely focused and heavily concentrated on his actions while he was creating.  He wasn't just standing on a corner, talking with friends with his camera pointed out into the street snapping pictures.  Of course, the analogy of this sarcastic bit of dialogue was to emphasize this need to focus and concentrate on our work here in the room and not think that our work will turn out just as well if we play at it while sitting and talking to our friends.  The title of this blog, "then MASTERY", refers to that second factor in the concept of intrinsic motivation.  The FIRST is AUTONOMY.  I have provided that factor in spades.  The students have had all the autonomy one could possibly have, save being able to stay home and not come to school at all.

  

The idea of mastery is simply that it is a PURSUIT, not an end in itself.Those that are serious about learning know that they will never achieve this idea of mastery, but as they spend their lives pursuing it, they become the artist they hope to be.  This concept is universal and can be applied to every area of learning.  I think that using the term PRACTICE as it applies to the medical and law professions is probably the most appropriate.  I think that we need to apply this idea to the profession of teaching as well.  We use the term "practice teaching" when we are first leaning about the profession while still in college.  I guess after that we NOW are masters and know it all.  Maybe that's why some teachers who have been in the classroom for 25 years have really only taught one year 25X in a row.  Maybe it isn't surprising to see teachers who have been "spoon fed" their education spoon feeding their students in the same way.  I believe that for our educational system to ever get on the right track, some of us need to break away from this mode of operation and re-invent our methods, re-think our goals, and modify the process.

So, what do YOU think?

Gabriel Orozco discusses his SAMURAI TREE...

GO TO YOUTUBE, TYPE IN GABRIEL OROZCO, AND ENJOY MANY DISCUSSIONS AND EXAMPLES OF HIS WONDERFUL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION.

Celebrating Variety in artistic expression...Gabriel Orozco

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions"

Claude Levi-Strauss

I'm beginning the post today with a short, two minute video I made last December in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art.  The exhibit was by an artist named Gabriel Orozco.  This little segment was a monitor set up with a series of designs that had only a slight change to each design, that of color.

As you will see, a lot of change takes place in a design with a small color alteration.  I showed this video today to my classes following a 15 minute film on Orozco documenting his work and artistic attitude.

More on him and the film after the video.  Enjoy

The movie we watched on Gabriel Orozco was very interesting.  He works in a wide variety of media.
He started out just walking around shooting pictures of interesting anomalies in his environment, such as cracks in the sidewalk, niches in walls, potholes, and "accidents" in the street.  He got up next to a dumpster and discussed the need to "get intimate" with things around him.  His wife discussed his placing items in the grocery out of context making them more interesting...box of cereal on fruit scale, potatoes sitting on writing tablets, and cat food sitting on watermelons.  The kids got a kick out of that.
We watched the movie, took notes, and I had the students share with one another their favorite part of the presentation.  Following is a series of 4 photos as I zoomed in on the designs shown in the video that hung on all four walls of another room in the gallery from floor to ceiling.  Each design is about
9" X 12" in size.

"Pre-Holiday break" prep and lesson outline

"Do not ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Howard Thurman

As you may have read in the last post from New York City, I spent 5 days visiting my daughter and grand-daughter there last week end till yesterday.  Had a wonderful time.

Left the classroom chores to a substitute teacher who adequately took charge and it seems as though all the classes went very well.  She commented on the program and was very impressed, asking to by contacted if in the future I might require an absence.  Duly noted.  I asked my 3rd period class, whose judgement I trust in such matters, if they would like to have her return.  A resounding YES was sounded.  Very encouraging.

A couple of interestingly good pieces of information came to my attention today.  One of my students asked me about a particular grade he will be receiving.  I said that since he hadn't received his report card as yet, how did he know?  He said his mother had a computer site she could go to and see how he was doing in all his classes.  How cool is that?  I knew that this thing was in the works, but didn't know it was already possible.  Great news!  The other bit of info had to do with a comment made on this blog about a video.  I posted one recently which had a brief scan of a couple students finishing up their projects.  A blog follower, who  had posted comments in the past, commented on this one in such a way that I suspected that it might be one of the parents of one of my students.  I asked this student about it today and he told me it was actually him.  Now I know there are two connections to this blog...one parent and one student.  I find that extremely encouraging.

I received a note from the teacher I share my classroom with today.  He told me that someone from one of my classes had stolen an airbrush from one of his students' lockers.  Of course it had to happen when I wasn't there, as if that would have made any difference.  When I told my first period class about it and told them how disappointed I was to hear it, one of my students came up and shared with me that a fellow student in another class had shown her the airbrush last period on Tuesday.  One contact led to another and potentially the student will get her airbrush back tomorrow.  I suspect the very same student of stealing my ipod touch earlier, but chances are pretty slim he would cop to that also.  But I AM very glad about the student's property.

Next week we are off for THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY all week.  I am posting this little note along with this cycle's lesson on VALUE and EMPHASIS.  When I get back and classes start up again, I'll again start posting activities to this blog.  Till then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Ferry thnking...

"Use what talent you possess - the woods would be very silent

 if no birds sang except those that sang best."

Henry Van Dyke

Just sending in another post while I'm here in New York City for the next few days.  Having a wonderful visit with daughter, Kateri and granddaughter, Mathilde.  The weather has been perfect for the middle of November.  We took an evening ride on the Staten Island Ferry yesterday, watching the lights of Manhatten getting closer as we stood on the open deck in front.  The video is going out and past the Statue of Liberty at sunset.

As we walked from place to place yesterday, I had some time to ponder my program and think about a couple of students who I have had "talks" with about their attitude toward the class and their apparent lack of interest in what we're doing.  I'm told that if I'm even reaching half of the students with this type of approach, I am succeeding; and if some are not "getting it", but are still learning about art, so be it.  I don't disagree with the logic.  After all, this idea of self governing their learning is new to all the students.  So there is bound to be a couple that just wouldn't be interested no matter what approach I used to teach them.  But it DID make me think through the way in which I have approached the lessons and the projects themselves.

I may have been so intent on not influencing the students to do things a certain way so that ANY idea was THEIR idea that I didn't adequately prepare them with enough background first before I expected them to make informed choices.  The demos that I did were cursory enough,  I felt, to whet their appetites without steering them in any one direction.  I was hoping that they would be curious enough to glean information out of the texts, the art books and magazines, and the other sources of information, i.e., websites, etc. that THAT ALONE would be the impetus for them to proceed with a personally motivated direction.  I'm happy to say that this IS true for most, so, again, perhaps this will come and I need only to be patient.  

Since I'm not necessarily a patient person, however, I believe this cycle I will intentionally show the students some more elaborate video footage and demonstrations that some may go ahead and decide to try out if they have less curiosity than the others.  I guess I can still consider it "self directed" if it's what they want to do, regardless if it wasn't altogether their own idea.  They will still have the options of media choice and expression and size choices and length of time to work on it.  This IS a journey, as it were, so I suppose small little ventures off the main road of travel might be in order.  Of course, what I'm hoping for is that ALL of my students find the class not only interesting, but are able to find what they personally are doing to be interesting enough for them so they end up with a feeling of accomplishment.

90 Slides of Shape and Rhythm

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed"
Napoleon Hill

I finished up the cycle a class period early so that I could get grades into the computer by Friday.  I'm flying out to New York for a few days and so needed the last day of the cycle to introduce the next lesson.  I wanted the students to have the information they needed to proceed without my supervision as they begin the next lesson.

This time I had the students leave their work out for me to photograph.  I'll return it to them Friday.  Some will want their work displayed.  Others will want to take it home.  This gives me an opportunity to share with followers and casual visitors to this blog a wide cross section of work stemming from a simple lesson in Shape and Rhythm and Movement.  I was very pleased with not only the work evidenced here, but also the connection/engagement the students had toward their individual work.  I even shot pictures of some work still not finished.

I added a little Charles Mingus music to the slide show.  It's only a little longer than 5 minutes.  I hope you find it interesting.  Enjoy.

To the untrained ear

"Kids' views are often just as valid as the teachers'.  The best teachers are the ones that know that"

Morley Safer

Sue and I were at a party last Saturday night hosted by one of the artist participants in the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour.  The folks invited were, like ourselves, other artists on the tour.  It gave us a chance to get to know other folks on the tour a little better.  At the end of the evening, with just a few of us "hangers on" still talking, I happen to bring up my newly founded art curriculum.  One of the artists, who is an art teacher at a Community College and teaches Art Appreciation, first asked if these students were "special", meaning advanced in age and ability.  I assured her that my students were just your average, mostly 9th graders, high school students in an inner city school district.  No matter what I said, or how I said it, there was the distinct feeling that what I was describing just couldn't work..."they all just do 'hearts'?...surely there are a bunch that you really have to 'sit on'?  The reason I bring this up today is that each time I find myself describing this program, I feel a little more convinced that it is the right thing to do, because the arguments against it just don't hold water.  In the end I gave them the name of Dan Pink's book DRIVE and told them they needed to read it in order to fully understand the validity of my program.  We left it at that.  I will be interested to see the next time I see them whether they took my advice.  Hope so.

I'm uploading a video I did today of a couple of students working on their art projects.  One  was in the throes of finishing his and the other is about in the middle.  He had spent an inordinate amount of time in the planning stages of his design.  Wonderful!  Also, here is a picture of Juan's finished work.

Today during first period, a student brought his painting up to me and exclaimed "this is art"..."do YOU think THIS is ART?" I looked at the work and back at him.  I said, you know, to the untrained ear all random sounds are considered music.  A baby will coo and smile at the strangest combinations of sounds...and colors.  Does that make them music?  I told him that his painting would become art to him REALLY when he was at a point where he could see it and describe it in artistic language.  When he could explain how he felt about the painting at an emotional level as well as discuss its merits on a design level; describing it, for instance, in terms of Shape and Rhythm and Movement.  Until then, to him, it probably would be just a piece of paper with some shapes and splashed on watercolor paint that somehow filled up space on a surface.  I'm not sure how long I have thought about art in this way and if anyone out there reading this blog would like to enter into a conversation about the way I discussed this with this student, feel free to comment on this post.  I will definitely enter into a conversation with you and hopefully come to a richer understanding of this so personal a perspective on what art is.

Perspective, Slinkies, and Triangles

"Art is an accurate statement of the time in which it was made"

Robert Mapplethorpe

As we wind down toward the end of this cycle and the study of SHAPE and RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT I want to simply post some of the student's artwork now that some of it is finished.

I'm going to allow them to be posted large so you can see each one more clearly.  Enjoy:

This first one is done in Colored Pencil and measures 18 X 24.

This 2nd one is done in Vine Charcoal and measures 18 x 18.

This 3rd composition is done in Colored Pencil and Ebony Pencil and measures 12 X 18.

One of our two display cases.  Just look at the diversity of these students' works.

The other display case and even more diversity.

A couple of my students have indicated they want to present a lesson to the class in lieu of the cycle test. I hope to post those videos next week along with some more final projects.  Thanks for viewing.

..."but you can't make him drink"

"The harder you work, the luckier you get"

Gary Player

I wanted the students today to once again take stock of their goals and where they were in the accomplishment of them.  We looked at our logs from Monday of last week and wrote down in our logs what we did since then to further the goals we established.

A few of the students finished their works today and we hung a few in the hall display cabinets.  I told them that they weren't REALLY "finished" like they would have been in a "normal" art curriculum.  We still have 4 class days after today till the end of this cycle and the lesson.  I reminded them of the test grading on Monday and to be sure and have that work completed.  I also encouraged them to look through the source material, i.e. the books on the counter and the art magazines in the cabinet to see if anything they see their might inspire them to do anything further on their art work.  I also said that if they should be inspired to work on any other project in the time they had left, that I would get them all the materials they would nee to do it, even if if didn't have any direct relation to the current lesson. 

I will have to admit to the need to remind students about how I feel about their behavior in class.  As much freedom of choice as I want them to have, I simply haven't the ability ( or the laissez faire attitude) to allow too much slacking off.  I want them to develop self-discioline, to set and accomplish self directed goals, and to achieve greatness. I told them saying, "you can lead a horse to water, etc."and said, BUT you can isolate the horses who keep the others from drinking.  So I re-located a couple of students to see if their new working areas were more conducive to everyone's benefit.   

I have been sort of fascinated with the progression of this composition since Natalie began it.  I have taken a few pictures of it as she has moved along and posted a couple on the blog.  We have it hanging in the hall display case at present.  I'm sorry I didn't close the door to the office and drown out the sounds of the class during this short video, but I think enough of what she said is plain enough.

Choices, Choices, Choices

How important is it to allow freedom to choose?  Today Sue and I were driving out to see a friend who needed to be hospitalized last night.  We were discussing "what was the right thing for her to do in regard to her mother's visit this week.  It made me think, oddly enough, of all the times through all the years I have taught when I didn't give my students the right to choose, ANYTHING.

I always thought of the "art of teaching" and "teaching art" as somewhat synonymous.  I would get an idea of how to get across a concept to my students by having them create this "wonderful" work of art.
I looked around me at how other art teachers operated.  I saw "worksheets" filled with value charts, color wheels, coloring book pictures fill in the spaces with value, and other time wasters.  So learning by creating nice works of art seemed not only legitimate, but preferable to the alternatives.
Most of the time it just started with a simple idea and I would take them through the lesson one step at a time.  They would ask, "do you have any examples of how this is going to turn out?"  I would say, no, just trust me, it will be really cool.  It was because most of the time I hadn't worked out in my mind how it WAS going to turn out.  I thought of that as the "art of teaching" and justified it as such.  So really I was creating art through my students.  I thought that was a pretty creative thing to do.  Some of the students did better at following directions, having hand/eye skills, could use the tools more effectively, and were well disciplined enough that their works came out REALLY nice.  I gave them high grades.  At the other end of the scale were students who didn't pay any attention to the directions, messed up their papers by going a different direction entirely, and weren't interested enough in the assignment to care about finishing it.  They received lower grades.  To be fair to myself (and why not?), a lot of my students did like what they accomplished, took the works home and framed them, and told me years later how much they enjoyed my class and that they still had those works and were proud of them.

So now I look at the works my students are doing with this new idea of ALL  CHOICE EVERYTHING and look back at examples of art from my old way of teaching.  Are these better?  Are these more sophisticated, professional looking, mature, or creative?  Should they be?  Will observers of my displays comment that my former students work was better?

My answer is that students need to be appreciated for who they are and where they are in the scheme of learning.  I have high expectations of my students and encourage them to do their level best.  What I DON'T expect of them NOW is to perform at some professional level.  What I am seeing from the finished work is pure individual performance.  No direction following, teacher suck up, play to the audience works of art here.  Will people look at my displays of art NOW and pat ME on the back?  Ask me if I care.  I'm not even sure how many of the works will actually be displayed because I have given the students the choice to display or take them home when they are finished.

As I continue this journey through Art Teaching 2.0, I want to take time now and then to reveal who I am...good, bad, and ugly.  I've touched a lot of lives in the last 40 years of being in the classroom.  I know for a fact that the ones I touch in the future will be a lot better off from making their own choices.

Lessons 1 and 2

Happy Halloween...I decided today to post a couple of lessons I originally posted at the other blog site.  Originally I wanted to put those "logistical" elements somewhere else to keep this blog focussed on the actions of the day.  I think that some who have read this blog may want to actually see HERE what I have asked the students to concentrate on during the cycle.  So today the blog will consist of the first two lessons posted here.

The first lesson was very successful in that the students seemed to enjoy getting out their still life objects, setting them up into their own compositions, and then drawing from them.  I had never given students this flexibility before...always deciding what objects, how and where they were to be placed, and requiring each student to draw the same setup.  I justified it by knowing they each had their own perspective and each work would be different in that way...even though they would all be using the same size paper, drawn the same direction, and using the same media for the same length of time.  When I decided the time was up, the work was "finished" and the setup came down and we moved on.  Oh, do I like this way SO much better.  Here is the current lesson on Space/Rhythm and Movement.

One thing I did differently this cycle is dealing with the test.  I gave the students a test/guide question sheet on each of the concepts and asked them to fill them out as they read.  After reading their first "self tests", I thought that they might need a little help figuring out what might be important information to remember about the lesson.  We will see how that works out next week.

"And the students have spoken"

I had a chance to talk to the issue of GRADES today while 2nd periiod was at lunch...my ramblings..

"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next".

Jonas Salk

I had a great talk with my daughter, Kateri, last evening about this blog.  She brought a couple of things to my attention and suggested a couple of things that I found insightful and interesting.  I'm planning to incorporate some of her thoughts and ideas into my future blogs.  I believe you will enjoy them as much as I will.

Kateri said she would really like to hear from the students how "things are going" with this new type of class we're doing.  You know, I have never bothered to ask my students how they felt about what we did.  I don't know but what I must have thought that if they weren't enjoying my class they would let me know and just left it at that.  But today I decided to ask.  I said, "write me a few sentences that lets me know how you felt at the beginning, in the middle, and now that we are nearing the end how you feel/felt about this lesson.  As I read their comments, I was BLOWN AWAY by their responses.  I'm going to scan some in and post them to this and some subsequent posts.  I also plan to continue using this format to elicit this kind of response throughout the year.

As you can see, the students sound as though they are enjoying the lesson and having a feeling of real accomplishment out of creating their artwork.  I couldn't be more pleased.  Perhaps I'll include one of these notes in each of my blogs for the rest of the lesson.  In the meanwhile, I did take some pictures today of a couple of works that are finished or very close.

Don't Just Sit There...



I found this "quote" in a blog titled Thriving Too, which was one of the Daniel Pink's blogroll blogs.  I felt that it spoke to my concern for the process of creativity, which demands a certain amount of discipline.  I realize that most of the students "get it" and are engaged in their work.  I felt that at this point in the cycle, they all needed to be encouraged to analyze their work to this point and ask themselves honestly if they have spent enough time on it, or whether they have investigated alternatives to making their work better.  I reminded them, for example, of a short video and demo using colored pencils.  Some of them have used them as they might have used "map colors" in the elementary grades, coloring in a map lightly.  The video and demo addressed the use of the colored pencil by shading and glazing using a variety of colors on top of one another.  I also pointed out an alternative to finishing their crayon work, using watercolor resist.  From their reaction and work during the period, I think I was able to motivate them all in some way.

Speaking of getting in gear and doing something.  My daughter, Angela, suggested that I embed a counter which will tell me how many "hits" I have on this blog.  I was saying that I don't get many comments and can't tell how many people are actually paying any attention to what I'm doing.  Not that it matters, since this is, after all, mostly for my benefit.  But since I was curious, I did find a way to do that.  So over on the right, you wll see the number of times someone has stopped by to take a look.  I think most of them are probably me, since I look in every day to see if anyone left a comment.  Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, Ang.

I'm going to post this from my computer at school and then add some photos later from my home computer.  If you are looking at it now, come back later to view some great student work in progress.

Learning to Like Learning

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary"

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone"

"Ah, good taste!  What a dreadful thing!  Taste is the enemy of creativeness"

Pablo Picasso (born this day 1881)

Over the weekend I had lunch with a friend, Bill Morgan.  Bill is a founding partner in a large accounting firm in Dallas.  In a discussion about this curriculum, Bill shared with me how he learned to like asparagus.  His mother required Bill and his brothers to at least eat one at the meal.  His brother liked it, so Bill would sneak his onto his brother's plate.  One day he decided if his brother liked it, maybe there was something about it he might like.  He cut off a tiny part, put it into his mouth, concentrated on the flavor, and found that, indeed, the taste was quite good.  Now it is his favorite veggie.  Later in life, after completing his college degree in accounting, Bill found that he intensely disliked BEING an accountant.  He finally decided that he needed to apply the same philosophy he used to learn to like asparagus.  He put away his watch, totally focussed on the problem in front of him, and got caught up in the "process" of solving the problem.  He found the time going by without notice and that he had actually learned to love the process of accounting.  From that day onward, his motivation became totally INTRINSIC as he proceeded to attempt to MASTER the art of accounting for the GREATER GOOD of his clients. I told my students Bill's story today at the beginning of class.  I also told them of something I participated in concerning DANIEL PINK and his posting of each of our "sentences". 

In his book, DRIVE, Dan describes what he calls our SENTENCE.  Describing in one sentence one most important thing for which  we would like to be remembered.  He has asked us to video a response to this question and email it to him at dhp@danpink.com.  I sent mine in last week.  I said, "I hope I have instilled in my students a lifelong desire to learn about art".  When I talked to my students today and relayed this to them I said that if I would change it I would stop at "learn".  I told them about Henri Matisse, whose last words were, "I wish I could have drawn better". 

In applying today's lesson to the overall goal of this curriculum, I told the students that they could take this attitude about learning and apply it to all of their classes.  It's the ACT OF LEARNING that is important, not necessarily the subject being learned.  If they can learn about art, even though they don't like art, they will have accomplished more than if they actually liked art to start with.  They can then apply this attitude toward all their classes...math...language...history...science.  Priding themselves on the fact that they learned something will become THE MOST IMPORTANT ACCOMPLISHEMENT they will take with them from their years in school.  That feeling will carry them successfully through life.

Now, for you visual readers, I will share a few more photos of works in progress.  I hope you enjoy them.

Mid-Cycle Grade reports

"Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself"

"We only think when we are confronted with problems"

"Failure is instructive.  The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

John Dewey (born yesterday, 1859)

Among other necessities, we averaged our SELF GRADING forms for the last 5 classroom days so the school can decide whether to send the students a notice of potential failure next week.  Except for one student who has never been to class for the last 9 weeks, and one who comes but chooses not to participate, all of my students are doing quite well.  The grades they give themselves aren't all that high, but they are all passing and seem to be enjoying what they are doing.  What more could a teacher ask?

I'm not going to say much today.  I'm going to let some of the students' ongoing art work speak for itself.  They are now about half way through this cycle, so none of the big works are finished, but some of the smaller ones are, since they need to do more of them.  Let's take a look.

As you can see, these works are definitely "in the process".  I'm very encouraged when the students ask how they can improve their work and also when they listen to suggestions and act on them.  I will post more next week and also updates as these get closer to and finally finished.

Working hard...or hardly working?

"He was sent to school, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him"

Thomas Love Peacock (born this day, 1785)

Most of the students are working really hard and dedicated to doing a good job on their artwork.  I find much more so than last cycle.  That's encouraging.  It still disturbs me when I have to keep at those students who haven't quite "gotten it".  Probably my impatience.  I have to remind myself that this IS a "whole new mind" and that for many it will take time to accept it as a way of learning.

I told them of an occurrence on Sunday evening when a few friends went to dinner.  We got to talking about a young man who had been in our pottery class at the community college where we take a class together.  It was recounted by one person that this young man had bemoaned the fact that his instructor was not interested in the "throwing on the wheel" process as much as the "hand building" methods of working in clay.  So he didn't feel as though he was "learning" as much as he otherwise might, if the opposite were true.  I didn't bring it up at the time, but in thinking about this situation, I discussed with my students that it was probably because he, like them and almost ALL students in today's education system, had been "spoon fed" his education up until now.  The teacher told him what to do, how to do it, how large, in what media, what expression, and when it was due.  He hadn't been taught how to think for himself.  The world today is an "information rich" place with more avenues to find out what you want to learn than ever before in history.  All that is missing is the DRIVE to make yourself go out and get it and not wait for someone else to hand it to you.  THAT is what this year in THIS class is ALL about!!

I have no videos or photos to share today, but I promise that Thursday's blog will be rich with them.  A number of students are just at the verge of finishing  up one of their artworks, so I decided to wait and take pictures of them on Thursday.  They will also be putting their grades into the computer on that day.

After the "PSAT" interruption

"For Thanksgiving this year, I  think we'll have flamingo"

George Carlin

Changing Education Paradigms   This is a post on Youtube from a presentation on TED that fits right in with what this curriculum is all about.  Derek Dibburn posted in on Facebook and I really appreciate his bringing this to my attention.  So I'm passing it along.

Students were very busy today working on their chosen works of art.  I discussed their work with a couple of students in my first period class and recorded it for you to see what they are up to.  The first is a girl working on a composition of triangles.  If you listen closely, you will see that her idea for choosing the shape came from her geometry class.  Is that not a good sign?  A little collaboration of core and elective classes?  The link to Youtube is Geometric Shapes 1.

A couple of other students were working right next to the student doing the triangles.  They were working on designs using circles.  They had chosen charcoal as their media.  Even though similar, the designs are each very different.  One of them intends to finish hers with colored pencil.  The link to this video is Geometric Shapes 2.

I titled this blog "after the psat interruption" because on Wednesday the students were all involved in yet another testing situation which disrupted their focus on the tasks at hand, i.e., learning.  Since we had this 3 day span from Monday to Friday, I felt that they definitely needed to spend the bulk of time on their projects.

Tuesday night we had parent conferences.  About 15 parents came by and I was able to discuss our curriculum with them.  One parent was more interested than the others and wanted to know abut "extra credit" for her student.  I said I hadn't factored that aspect in, but somehow it would be totally possible.  After giving it some thought, I told my students today that ANYTHING they did at home that they could relate in some way to the lesson we were studying during that cycle would be allowable for extra credit.  This would also apply to all work done in an artistic way for any other course they are taking.  If they either bring it in or even take a picture of it with their phone and show me, we'll make a note of it and they can give themselves a little boost on their cycle grade.  That parent, by the way, went to this blog, read it, and became a follower.  Yeaaaaa!  THAT'S why I'm taking the time to do this, by the way.

I was so encouraged by this fact that I came up with another (hopefully) motivational factor to encourage checking out the blog at home.  I am going to prepare a dozen demonstration videos that I will post on Youtube and link from this blog.  As an example, I'll demonstrate the use of plaster gauze in a figure sculpture.  IF a student watches this and comes in and wants to do it, I will make sure he/she has what they need to work in this media.  Each time I post a new video, I will tell the students about it (but not the subject) so they can go to the blog and check it out.  I'll let you all know how that goes.

Gotta go and finish getting studio ready for the weekend White Rock Lake Artist Studio Tour starting tomorrow.