art ed digested

Our third graders started their stop-motion preparations today, making backdrops, creating storyboards and dance moves for their puppets. Here’s a very quick example that using one of the student puppets and my demo puppet:

(includes what not to do- my hands make too many cameos! must practice more!)

David Warlick of Two Cents Worth recently challenged librarians to pose their “elevator speeches” in defense of the librarian’s place in a world filled with computers and internet resources.

I’m pleased with the answers he received.  I have always respected the power a librarian has to help and enrich our lives personally as well as academically, and I would be saddened to meet anyone who doesn’t agree!

I recently had the good fortune of being offered a position teaching art at the Kingsley Montessori School in Back Bay. There is nothing but joy and excitement in me for the thought of teaching in a community that is so welcoming, enthusiastic and dedicated to the art of education.

Kingsley is what I’ve been waiting for- a dream position. I cannot wait to flex my art teacher muscles again and unleash a bevy of new lessons, collaborate with their fabulous faculty, and experiment in their development office with graphic design.

To those well-wishers who have been hoping and networking for me these past two years, thank you- it worked.

I’ve been adjusting my teaching style for my new students, who are aged 3.5-4 years old. Behavior and progress are very abstract concepts to them, so it is difficult to keep a my students aiming towards a goal throughout the day.

This chart has been very helpful so far in inspiring students to try their best all day. Each dolphin starts in the sand, and is moved up a level to the coral, seaweed, bubbles, and finally jumps out of the water each time a student does a good job listening, helping friends, cleaning up etc. When their dolphin jumps out of the water they are rewarded with a special sticker, activity or job to perform.

September is always exciting to me, especially when I begin to plan my day-to-day lessons.

This year I’ll be teaching pre-school, ages 3.5 to 4.  While it is not art, I believe this position will be energizing, rewarding and challenging.  I look forward to finding new ways to present information and facilitate exploration for younger children.  This particular age seems to be effortlessly affectionate as well as curious and open to new experiences.

What more can a teacher ask for? I know I’ll be coming home from work with a smile on my face this year.

As I walked home from work this evening, I realized just how often I serenade my students.  Well, in truth, I’ll do just about anything to grab the interest and attention of a classroom.  Yesterday my gimmick involved wearing the discarded bathing suit of a pre-k girl as a hat while marching my campers back from the pool.

I tend to bridge the personas of a very serious professor and comedienne.

Art camp is progressing more smoothly lately, both in behavior and in creative energy. I’ve noticed that with the growing camper roster, each child seems more comfortable trying new things and working beyond the baseline to make their artwork outstanding.

I theorize that within a larger group dynamic, the individual egos and self-consciousness of children slowly dissolve. The spotlight is shared, and thus they feel free to improvise and innovate without the stagefright.

It’s been almost a year since I moved to Boston from Philadelphia and I’ve found the job market for art teachers slim to nil. My search last year began in Philadelphia by blanketing the area with 180 resume packets. From the 180 packets, I had two interviews. I was offered a job from the second interview, but was urged to turn it down by family who thought I would be better paid in another position. While I may kick myself now about the decision, I realize that the journey I’ve been on has made me a better teacher.

After moving, I held three successive jobs; one as a substitute teacher, one as a special education paraprofessional, and I am currently an art camp counselor. Each of these jobs, while teaching me a completely new angle on education, has only reaffirmed my desire to have an art classroom of my own again. Perhaps I was foolish, or stubborn to accept positions only in education, the jury is still out. Luckily, as a semi-recent college graduate, I still feel comfortable living an extremely frugal life.

Yet, as the time for my current job search dwindles with the daylight hours, I find myself asking some familiar questions: How does one get her foot in the door when she doesn’t know a soul in her field nearby? Will I ever have that wonderful feeling of community in a school again?

It’s been roughly two years since I taught in anything other than a school setting. This Summer, I am teaching an art camp via a United Way community center and finding it a tricky transition.

Usually classroom management is a snap- I set ground rules and boundaries, have clear consequences for inappropriate behavior and rewards for doing exemplary work. When in a naturally unstructured environment such as a small neighborhood art camp, these measures go in one ear and out the other of my students.

My current sticky widget is inspiring my students to go beyond the first few steps before they become distracted by the 30 kids playing kickball mere feet from our classroom. There are (and will always be) students who aim to please and take each art project to new heights- but those few who decide not to try at all really kill the mood. I hate to force a project on students, I prefer to “invite” them to join me as we experiment together.

The students who choose not to try seem overcome with apathy and unwilling to imagine or play- a horrible thing to witness when it comes from a 6-year-old. I’ll take these children as my personal challenge… this will take some creative problem solving.

Silliness, thou art the answer.

Feeling industrious, I opted to read the latest issue of Art Education journal on my commute today, rather than the most excellent fiction I’ve been reading lately, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I was struck in a very personal way by:

Taking The 40/40 Challenge: Sixteen Painters Working Daily To Develop a Painting Discipline
by Camilla McComb

McComb chronicled the mental struggle when asked by her students, “Ms. McComb, do you paint every day?” A simple question at face value, but if I were asked the same question, it would churn up quite a bit of guilt and also a good deal of ambition.

Art teachers are asked to wear many hats. In my mind, we need to be foremost an educator, in order to effectively manage, teach and inspire students. Second, we must have a mastery of subject matter, very rarely do I consider the artwork created in my free time part of my career.
This hierarchy seems to have served me well thus far, but after reading that McComb considered this behavior in herself to be “perpetuating artistic fraud,” I had to do some soul searching and ask hard questions of myself.

In Camilla McComb’s case, she joined her students in a 40/40 Challenge, which was 40 paintings in 40 days, painting for one hour each night. Clearing the time, and the mind for an hour of painting nightly seems a monumental task in the busy, overstimulated “leisure time” of 2006.

I admire McComb for her ability to look honestly at herself and the work habits of her students while joining them in an endeavor to actively change how they create. I would love to see how the challenge would change if it became 40 sketches in 40 nights.