Boots on the Ground

Our project is challenged by working in two very different contexts. In California we work mainly with generalists (classroom teachers) while in Nebraska the work centers on the collaboration between specialists and generalist. Further complicating this issue is the geographical distance of 1500 miles. The Department of Education have asked us to present about ways we resolve the conceptual and geographical distance effectively.
This is where technology is enormously helpful, and I am always technology happy. Experience have taught me though that technology can have only a supporting role in a project like ours. I believe very strongly that professional development can be most successful when we understand each others context and practices. Further, there is no way to understand context and practice without sharing the same contextual space, seeing students, classrooms, and interactions.
As a former soldier it is a "Boots on the Ground" approach. Beyond understanding the context I believe that deep professional development the kind we know makes a difference is about relationships of trust shared experiences and even friendship. Such relationships can only happen in face to face meetings.
We travel from site to site for more than just a 4 hour PD we visit classrooms, and when budgets allow we take teachers with us so they can learn from the different contexts and practices.
Technology used on top of that can help maintain the relationships created during face to face meetings but not replace them.

Not Just Friday Afternoon

We gathered on a Sunday a few weeks ago with some friends and their friends. There was this teacher-thread throughout the group. One was another primary grade teacher at an arts focus elementary school in another area of the state.

Arts LINC, etc. came up in the conversation (imagine that!) and the teacher from afar was excited to tell me that each week they give their seven and eight-year-olds a prompt and related instruction with the end 'assignment' to write a five paragraph essay. They are given time each day and have until Friday to finish it. However, if they are finished early, say Wednesday or so, they can do art that is related. The kids that take all week to write don't have time to do art (my comment: don't get to).

The arts program there includes a focus on an artist and composer of the month, a two-year cycle (so the kid will get same artists/composers in K, 2, 4) and the time designated for that is Friday afternoon. They also have a “club time” one afternoon a week with things like guitar club. I’m guessing that this is a program example that plays out in some other schools across the country.

It is becoming clearer each day that I am involved in Arts LINC that we ARE about INTEGRATION and not about ENHANCEMENT. I started to explain the difference to her, but then decided to save that for another situation. At least her students were getting something from a teacher that was enthusiastic and committed to including the arts.

I have always so off-handedly given an example from my own childhood as a differences to the philosophy, strategy and research of Arts LINC. (The example I use: "You may write about your summer vacation and if you have time, you can illustrate it.") I know now that an example like that is still real. So....the next article we write should be titled, "Not Just Friday Afternoon".

Thinking Like an Artist

There is a growing pattern in the professional development of teachers to move away from an emphasis on pedagogical skills to thinking like domain experts. In many ways the idea is not new, yet the application is intriguing. Science teachers spend the summer being scientists working in university lab- thus learning the fabric of science. Math teachers spend their time learning and working math. Perhaps the most established of such ideas is the Writing Project. In the Writing Project each participant is encouraged to write and see herself as a writer, as a result, the logic dictates, she is more likely to teach writing, understand her students process, and finally help them identify themselves as writers.
The question that started emerging in our work is whether that is also true for teachers who are charged with teaching the arts in their classroom? We envision trying to foster Studio Habits of Mind with teachers as a way of transforming their practice. I think this may be a transformational piece for classroom teachers who are not formally trained as art specialist. For them (and me in all honesty) the last time they were engaged with any sustained effort of art making was in school (K12).
There might be a catch that must be considered: can elementary teachers who are asked to teach all, or almost all, subjects be domain experts in all these areas? Can we really expect depth of understanding and real experiences in Math, Art, Science, Writing, History etc.? I am excited about this idea but as I look at the larger context and being able to scale such practices up- I am sure we can scale our pedagogical ideas up (VIEW) but as for teachers thinking like artists, I am not so sure anymore.

Back in Action

A few weeks ago I watched a presentation on a video podcast out of TED Talks. In this particular one the speaker stated that the apparent failure of instructional technology in making large achievement gains is linked to the fact that most studies are conducted in "high achievement" schools. His point was that in such schools technology cannot make much of a difference. In struggling schools, however, it may make tremendous difference. It started me wondering whether that was true about arts integration too.
That is, does arts integration help students in lower achieving schools? In a way it's an empirical question we'll be able to answer this year.
On the other hand the arts are very different from technology. Class and professional status influence exposure to technology much more than exposure to the arts, especially creating art. My sense is that middle class/professional parents are much more likely to expose their children to technology than arts (sadly). So, the question is still open waiting for some data to shed light...

Thinking Statewide

Just before I go on vacation I had the chance to work with the teachers on the Sheldon Statewide project. The teachers who showed up were fantastic to work with. Ideas flowed and I am interested in seeing the lessons in action. This year I hope we can actually video classrooms in action and record teacher thoughts immediately after they engage with arts integration. The idea is to get as close as possible to the action without being in anybody's way.
At the same time I was looking around the room and observed how essential the conversations between content teachers and art teachers were. What we tend to forget is that we speak very different languages and have a very different view of the classroom. In many ways we do not see the same kids as some of our students act very differently in the art room and the classroom. For us to be able to make integration work in our schools we must make these partnerships more permanent. The effort of understanding each others language and emotion will pay off only if we continue interacting.
If you have any ideas about sustaining collaboration I'd love to her about it.
The blog will be back the last week of August- ready to start another year of arts integration.

Arts Wall

I was invited to participate in the process of developing ideas for the Sheldon statewide art education program.
The language arts focus will be on poetry but that's not what I wanted to write about this time. In the discussions the idea of using word wall to focus students' work in the language arts. It struck me that we can in units use a parallel arts wall. So what can be part of the arts wall? Well it really depends on objectives and accumulated ideas.
The arts wall can have basic shapes lines or textures, color wheel, a list of techniques (for example tissue, taping, and salt in a unit using water color as medium). The idea is to represent things on a an arts wall using both words and artifacts- so it does not just become a word wall of arts words but actually something different.
Another part of the art wall can be reproduction of art that fits with the subject matter, for example scenery when discussing foreground, middle ground, and background. If for example students are exploring a museum (in person or online) they can bring examples to the classroom arts wall and explain to their classmates why they think it belongs (oral rehearsal). I like even better reproducing parts of art in a way that allows a focus on technique o detail.
Moe about the statewide will probably emerge after the workshop on July 28th and 29th.

Music in the Heart of summer

Monique left last weekend. We've worked very hard and achieved a lot during the past few weeks. I really appreciated her thoughts every time we met, which was quite often even if not as often as I wanted to. Our conversations about music was a strand we followed all five weeks since it is a part of our grant, it is starting in earnest next year, and of course because Monique was participating in a music ed course.
I don't think we still know everything we want to do next year, but here is an idea we started developing. One thing you have to know Monique and I are very concrete albeit in different ways. That is why our conversations moved from big theoretical approaches to the nuts and blots of a unit.
In this case its a life cycle unit focused on the butterfly. The idea is for the students to integrate music in a meaningful way that supports learning about the butterfly, life cycle AND music. For example students can be set up in pairs, with a music instrument (ORF based but also keyboards etc would work). Each pair would be responsible for creating music to fit the stage in the life cycle of the butterfly. Each pair would record the music (on paper and/or tape) and play it to the group explaining why they chose this representation (Oral Rehearsal) . It could also be used for a game where the rest of the class tries to guess what stage it is and present a reason why they think there is a fit.