Run With It

What you get when you give kids a large-scale project and simply say ‘run with it?’  Some very socially conscious pieces.

One point of contention for me this year has been my kiln.  I wrote a grant for a new kiln.  I got the grant and I have the kiln, but it still isn’t hooked up.  The school is doing the best they can to get it hooked up, but it sits waiting to be hooked up and used.  I had been looking forward to focusing on clay and we were full steam ahead using clay.  The quarter has ended and none of the clay projects have been fired.  So I did what any self-respecting teacher would do.  I changed direction.

My friend was in ArtPrize again and I got the opportunity to go and experience it again.  The best part about ArtPrize, for me, is bringing back images to show my students.  They got very excited about the possibility of creating a large-scale sculpture.  So I set  some general guidelines, gave them project planning sheets, and had them sketch their ideas and they responded with a work ethic that I had not seen from this group.  They have hit the ground running with their ideas.  They have picked out spots around the school to display their projects.  Most of the projects have some kind of social, cultural message, though this was not a guideline I set for them.  One group is doing a giant football helmet for concussion awareness, another is doing a large, yet skinny piggy bank to represent poor school funding in our state, and one is writing out a statistic on suicide with ways people commit suicide.  I have giant art supplies being created for arts awareness.  I am all in all pretty impressed by their projects and their ideas.

I guess we must be doing something right at my school because our student body as a whole is very socially aware.

Be Inspired…

One day a quote appeared on my white board.  I’m not sure which one of my students did it, but it has stuck with me.

Be inspired to do your very best.

How profound for a high schooler.

It has made me think.  As a teacher am I doing my very best?  Do I care about my students, not just as a number on a graph for student growth, but as a person?  If you are a teacher and are looking at your students as numbers, then maybe you should reevaluate your profession. Teaching is one of the most important jobs.  I would like to think that I have impacted my students in a positive way. Of course I am sure there are those that I have failed.

I care.  I care too much.  The subject I teach allows me to get to know my students on a more personal level than other subjects.  I form relationships with the kids that many other teachers don’t get to experience.  For those that miss out on forming solid relationships with your students, I am sorry.  In turn my students also know me.  They know my art.  They know funny stories about my kids.  They know my successes and my failures.  So when teachers throw their hands in the air and say I don’t care, I don’t care about these kids any more, I get upset.

*Gets up on her soapbox, voice screaming and fist shaking*

Seriously! If you don’t care about your students then WHY are you teaching?  This is not a 9-5 job and we don’t get paid well!  If you’re not in it for the kids then why are you in it?  You might not actually mean that you don’t care the first time you say it.  You might not mean it the second, but if you begin to say it too often eventually you will begin to believe it. 

*Slowly gets down from her soapbox*

I know why I teach.  I teach because I care about my students.  I teach because I love art and want to share it with others.  If I didn’t love the kids, if I didn’t love art, if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t waste my energy trying to do my very best.  Breaking my back everyday to create a meaningful curriculum, to create new evaluation tools, to unwrap standards, to keep up with grades, to serve on committees, to do extra work that will enrich my school is not worth it if I don’t care about my students, my school, and my subject.

I hope that as I go throughout my day I inspire my students to do their very best because they inspire me to do my very best.

Weird Al Wednesdays

At the beginning of the year I started showing my students one Weird Al Yankovic video a week.  I have dubbed these days Weird Al Wednesdays.  Some of my students love it and look forward to it and others do not (or pretend not to because they’re too cool!).  I personally believe that many of those who grumble and groan about my silly ways really do like it, but don’t want to admit to liking something so silly or they just don’t get the humor in them.

You may be wondering why I would play satirical videos?  What does this have to do with art?  I had a student ask me the same question. Well, um, I don’t really have a good educational reason.  I like them.  I do think that introducing them to Weird Al’s parodies will make them think more.  I told them it was just for fun.  They were okay with that reason.  Isn’t it okay to sometimes just do something for the fun of it?!  I think sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves and our students to be serious.  I believe that it is okay to be silly and if that means taking a few minutes out of our rigorous curriculum to have fun each week than by all means we will take a break and have fun!

The Mother of All Fails

CURSE YOU WHISTLES! *angrily shakes fist in the air*

One thing we don’t talk about is what happens when a project fails.   I’m not just talking about a ‘well, that didn’t work the way I thought it would.’  I’m talking about a crash and burn, students going into complete melt down ‘Why, oh why did this horrible project happen to me!’  When is it time to move on and scrap the project?

In my 3-D class we have been making whistles.  I have made whistles with several other classes and never had an issue before.  Something went wrong with this class.  I’m not sure what.  It could have been a different tutorial I used, maybe I didn’t explain it well enough, or maybe its just the group of students I have.  Again, this was a project that I had done before and that many of my former students loved!

This is how I taught it:

1. I showed my students an example of a whistle I had made and how it worked.
2. I showed a video tutorial of how to make a whistle.
3. I gave them a handout tutorial.
4. I did a demonstration as they were working.
5. I walked around and helped them. (Do you know how hard it is not to take over for them when they struggle?  REALLY, really hard!)

We worked for 5 days and out of 18 students 3 got their whistles to work.  That isn’t good.  The look on their faces is a tell-all.  They look desperate and defeated.   I began to dread the class.  I would end up working with 1 or 2 students the whole class and I wouldn’t get anywhere.  It is time.  They have tried and failed and that is ok.  But now it is time to start fresh.  Tomorrow, I will collect the old clay and recycle it.  I will give out new clay and have them make sculptures instead of whistles.  If they were one of the 3 that got it to work, then they can use those to make their sculptures.  My students will probably rejoice and I will be able to stop banging my head against the wall.

What does this teach my students?  You could argue that it teaches them to give up when times get hard.  I worried about that a lot before I decided to scrap the project.  In the end, I decided that it would benefit my students to cut our losses.  How can giving up be a good thing?   Things don’t always go as planned, so you have to learn to be flexible.  It is an important lesson for everyone to learn.  It is not easy to let go of something you’ve worked hard on, but sometimes it is what is best.

When you fail, how are you going to handle it?  When something doesn’t work out, what are you going to do?  How you handle the disappointment of things not working defines you.  It is something that is not always inherent, but needs to be modeled and learned.

A New Year

Last year I was struggling.  I felt as though I was floundering most of the year.  Looking back, I realized that it was one of the hardest years of my teaching career.  I didn’t realize how hard it was until I was talking to my husband about how I wasn’t sure I was cut out for teaching anymore.  He pointed out that I was miserable last year.  I wasn’t happy at all.  I think it bothered him as much as it bothered me.  You see I was stressed the WHOLE year!  I was stressed about a lot of things, but few of them dealt with the teaching aspect of my job.  Over the summer I began to doubt my career choice. I began to think about what other jobs I could do. I didn’t want to return to teaching. I wanted a job that I could leave behind at the end of the day. These feelings shook me to my core. I have always wanted to teach art (well since I was in high school). I never thought of DOING anything else. For me teaching has NEVER been about a pay check. It has ALWAYS been about instilling the love of art to my students. It has always been about helping kids. I lost sight of that for a while.  I love my students! I love art!  I love inspiring the love of art!  It is easy to loose sight of what you love though in education.  It is easy to get caught in a fog of changing evaluations, professional development, formative assessments, union responsibilities, club duties… the list could continue.  It is easy to forget what your job is and what lies at the heart of what you do.

Some of what I was feeling last year were growing pains.  I grew as a teacher.  My lessons became more dynamic.  My planning improved.  My teaching strengthened from the formative assessments, the use of an online planbook, and other professional development activities.  This year my students are benefiting from my hard work.  I can see it in their determination, their skill, and their creativity.  Yes, I’m still stressed.  I am still struggling to feel like I am ahead instead of being drug white-knuckled behind a moving train.  Ever evolving lesson plans and tutorials and presentations/ notes take much of my time but I don’t feel as lost.

As I look around my classroom this year (and yes I know we are still in the first two weeks), I see something odd or at the very least unusual. ALL of my students are engaged and concerned with doing their best.  I am sure it won’t last.  At least one of them will begin to lose intrest, but for right now, they are intent on working and doing their best.  I’m not sure if this is because of the group of kids or my instruction is just that awesome.  Whatever it is, it is making me feel like a good teacher again.  It is reinstilling my faith that this is the job I am meant to do.

I hope I don’t get bogged down with the unimportant things and am able to focus on what matters this year.  I hope I can stop questioning my career choice.  I hope I do better than I did before.  I hope to start blogging regularly again.  After all this is a new year.

47. Rejection

One of my students applied for a juried art show, a BIG juried art show.  She was not accepted.  There were over 1,000 pieces submitted and between 100 and 200 pieces accepted.  While rejection always stings no matter how many times it happens, the first time you put yourself out there and you get rejected hurts the most.  It is at this point where you are really tested.  You make the choice to put yourself out there again or the sting of rejection keeps you from trying again.

The first professional show I applied to, I got rejected from.  Out of the 15+ shows I have entered since that first rejection, I have only been accepted into 4.  Rejection or acceptance into these shows really boils down to 1 or 2 judge’s opinions of your work.  It is a constant struggle for me to keep in mind that the judge may not think my work fits the show or maybe they just don’t like it.  Everyone has their own opinion.  The thing is though, I don’t let it stop me.  Yes, it hurts.  Yes, sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel.  Yes, sometimes I get angry about it.  But, I don’t let it stop me.

I share my acceptances with my students, but I also share my rejections too.  It is important for them to see how I handle both.  Sometimes my students get upset when I get rejected.  It is sweet, but unnecessary.  I do my best to model the type of behavior someone should have if accepted or rejected.  I let them see that I am disappointed when I get a rejection letter, but I don’t cry or get too angry or upset infront of them.  When I get accepted into a show, I try to show them how much it means to me without being obnoxious.

My student who didn’t get into the juried show handled it with grace.  When we talked she said she wasn’t upset.  She was excited that she was able to have that experience.  I am very proud that she tried.  I am even more thrilled that she took the rejection so well.  She is ready to jump in and try again.

New Blog: The Art Room

I love this blog.  It allows me the opportunity to discuss our educational system and gives me the chance to express my views.  While this is all wonderful, it was not my intent when I started writing this to be so generalized.  I really wanted to talk about the issues of being an art teacher.  I do that sometimes, but it may not be what educators in other areas want to read.  So I had another blog sitting on my shelf collecting dust.  I decided it was time to take it off the shelf and start writing about art, mainly what I teach.  So this new blog is meant for art teachers.  Basically, these are my projects.  I’ll try to include the standards they meet, rubrics, formative assessment I use, reflections, and student work.  That way people can steal my work!

I will continue to write on this blog.  I don’t want my other blog to get bogged down my all of my educational ramblings.  I hope you check it out!

The Art Room

46. Formative Assessments and Data Cycles

Let’s take a minute to discuss how education is changing.  Teachers can’t get by standing up front and lecturing anymore.  The whole structure of the classroom has been changing for several years.  We have to keep records and data on hand for our evaluations. (Let’s face it we probably should have been doing this already, but who has the time.  Many of us are just trying to stay afloat!)  Honestly, I use “formative assessment” all of the time.  I go around and check for understanding and critique students as they work on their projects.  BUT I hadn’t been writing it down.  Why would I need to keep a record of what my students are doing wrong?  How does writing my observations on student understanding actually help my teaching?

Formative Assessment is a key part of a data cycle.  As you are teaching you check for student understanding (formative assessment) and adjust your lesson accordingly.  You can formatively assess through a number of ways: entrance/ exit slips, classroom circulation, homework, checklists, self-evaluation, etc. The key to this is keeping a record of when, what, and how you are formatively assessing.  Why?  So you have a record of who is ahead, who is on track, and who needs a little extra help.  Once you have that data, then you can adjust your lesson to the students’ needs.

I am still getting the hang of it, but in my room it looks something like this.  (I am still attempting to get the hang of backwards planning, so don’t judge me too harshly.)  I decide on the standard and skill I want my students to learn and then I begin building my unit.  It usually begins with looking at some masterpieces or successful artists’ techniques.  Maybe a little introduction of the media they are going to be using and how it’s made if applicable.  Once I have decided the basics, I break the skill down to what exactly will I be looking for when I grade my students.  I use these skills to create a daily checklist (formative assessment) of students who don’t get the concepts.  Then I mark down initials of students who aren’t getting the concept as I go around the room and help them.  As the project progresses I should see fewer and fewer initials in the boxes, because, in theory, the students should eventually grasp the concept/ skill.  I also have the students grade themselves on the rubric before they turn their project (another formative assessment).  As you go you should be re-teaching the concepts that the students are struggling with or giving individual attention to those students who are struggling.

Is it a lot of work? Yes. Is it worth it?  Yes.  I have seen a greater improvement of skill in my students this year than any previous year.  Next year I will be able to use the formative assessments I am creating this year.  Plus it is a really good record if parents have questions about student grades.

If you want more information or have questions on how you can integrate this into your classroom please let me know!

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45. With teaching comes Great Responsibility

We live in a world that is saturated with technology.  I did not grow up in this world.  I didn’t have to deal with iPods, iPad, cell phones with internet, social media, and information at the tips of our fingers.  If this sounds familiar, I did write something on technology and how our students are affected before, so I am not going to write about that now.  What I want to say is simply this: we need boundaries.  Social media is something we as teachers have to deal with on a daily basis.  I could go one direction here and discuss cyber-bullying and how it affects our students at school, but I’m not.  Again I say we need to set boundaries.  I am not my students’ friend.  Repeat that with me… I AM NOT MY STUDENTS’ FRIEND!  I am here to teach them not befriend them.  I have to be in control. I have to be professional.

What I see today is that teachers are accepting friend requests on Facebook and other social media from their students.  This behavior ends up affecting how our students’ view us and can lead to temptation where there shouldn’t be any.  WE NEED TO STOP.  I have a rule.  I will not accept a friend request on a social media site from a student until they graduate.  I have a friend who won’t accept requests until the student graduates college.  I also have all of my social media as protected as I can from prying eyes.  With that said, I do not post anything lewd or unsavory on my pages.  I don’t write posts with foul language and I often try to censure my thoughts before I post things on an open forum.  I don’t post pictures of me with alcohol.  The thing is if I want to have a drink, I am a responsible adult, I can.  Its legal, but do I want to set that example for my students or have parents talking about what I do in my time? No.

Why do I do go through all of this trouble and safeguarding?  The answer is simple, I am employed by the public.  If I bash the school or say inappropriate things about the school or students on a public forum not only does it make me look bad, but it makes the school look bad.  I do not want to loose my job.  Honestly though, it is more because if I friend my students or word gets out that I am behaving inappropriately I will inevitably loose my students’ respect and therefore will loose my authority in the classroom.

When you are a teacher, especially of older students, it can be hard to separate yourself from them.  New teachers are often likely to fall victim to either befriending students or being too harsh.  You have to find that happy medium between the two.  I was harsh as a new teacher at the beginning, but eventually I became more laid back.  I can honestly say I am one of the most laid back teachers at my school, but I refuse to become a friend to my students.  I always draw a line between us.  I am a good role model and I am respected.  I cannot be those things if I am my students’ friend.  New teachers and even older ones can fall into a cycle with their students that they don’t want to be in.  They will talk too candidly about their lives and they know too much about their students’ lives.  Don’t get me wrong, I have good relationships with my students.  However, I am not in the role of friend, but more of the role of mom.  I have seen many teachers fall into situations that are borderline inappropriate because they are too close to their students.  We have to safeguard ourselves as well as them.

So please, please, safeguard yourselves.  Do not accept students friend requests on Facebook or any other social media site.  You are not their friend.  You are their teacher and you should be respected.

44. Hands Off

One of the hardest parts of my job is keeping my hands off my students’ art.  It would be easy for me to just take the pencil and draw it myself, but they would not learn anything then.  Last night my daughter was making her Valentine’s Day card box.  She used the glue gun for the first time to construct it.  I helped cut out the pieces, because as a responsible adult I didn’t believe that my six-year-old should be allowed to use a really sharp x-acto knife.  Then she painted it blue and I helped her draw on some of the details.  She painted the details and lettering herself.  There were several times I wanted to step in and do it myself.  I wanted it to be perfect.  I wanted to make sure it was something she was proud of, but I stopped myself.  I let her take the reins and her box turned out good.  It is not perfect, but it is something she is proud of.  She is proud because she made it.

In my classroom, it isn’t as hard.  Maybe it is because the kids are older or because they aren’t mine (Well that isn’t true because my students are very much like my own kids.) or maybe it is because I have been doing this for ten years.  I have tried over the years to make sure my students’ artwork is their own.  Something that isn’t perfect, but something that is their own.