After checking out the websites/blogs this week, I started thinking about this question when I looked at the blog, Eye Level.
Here's what they're about...
"Eye Level is a blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The name Eye Level imparts a sense of clarity to which the blog aspires. The name refers to the physical experience of viewing art, but it also plays on the many roles and perspectives that make a museum a reality—roles that will come into focus here."
What caught my eye (haha) was the following sentence...
"The name refers to the physical experience of viewing art(...)"
What's so fantastic about art is it's ability to make you think, but I started wondering what a visit to a museum would be like if I concentrated on how I physically (through my senses) took in the art and the space of the museum? I'm often not aware of my physical experience of viewing art, but at the same time, the person's working in the museum are very aware of that physical experience. In fact, they're so conscious of the space, I imagine they've set it up so I don't have to think about it.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Bring on the Blog!!!!!
Okay... so it's my turn this week to lead the discussion for this weeks readings in cyberpedagogy.
Well, I need to begin with explaining that when I chose this week to lead the discussion I had no idea what these blogs/websites were about. I had decided to pick them by title and could not resist the first of the three (and my personal favorite out of the three we viewed this week), called The Carrot Revolution. My first thought was carrots and I thought of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea; some of my favorite film and book series since childhood. When I actually got to visit the website the header had the title and then a quote by Paul Cezanne "The day is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution"; this was nice and then my thought-process led me to one of my favorite bands, The Modern Lovers and their song entitled Girlfriend when he sings about Cezanne in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Okay well, here we go to the actually blogging.
The Carrot Revolution
http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/
As noted earlier this was my favorite reading of the three we had this week. I am just going to lay out for all the websites the way I navigated them, trying to follow my top five theme.
1. I almost always first and foremost try and figure out what this website or blog I'm looking at is all about. So, my first instinct was to read the about located in the top right of this blog.
- The Carrot Revolution is an art education weblog and a resource page for art educators, art students, and artists in the digital age. Our goal is to fight the tyranny of the ordinary and to liberate from the status quo.
2. Instead of scrolling down the homepage, I moved to the left of the blog and checked out the Disciplines.
3. The first that I checked out was animation and I found this fantastic blogpost titled The Rant. But more importantly, I found this great new video.
4. Digital Flipbook
5. The idea generator app. for your iphone was such a neat teaching tool (of course if you have an iphone). Here's the info: Do you have any projects that include storytelling? The Idea Generator also has an itouch app, great for coming up with writing prompts. This has worked very well with my film and video classes. There is also a Movie Idea Generator, but I've found the suggestions here too convoluted to be developed into workable.
There were many other fantastic posts on this blog under the disciplines, but it is time to move on. But please, leave your thoughts and tell me what you liked or disliked about this blog.
The second website we visited this week was for the Pros Arts Studio.
1. It's a very simple website with a lot of negative space but very easy to navigate. They had everything laid out right on the top of the webpage.
2. What do you know... the first thing I looked at was the history, however on this website it is also the first tab as well. So, here's a bit of the history...
- Pros Arts Studio is a multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual, non-profit organization dedicated to enriching individual and community life through the arts with a primary focus on the inner city Pilsen/Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago. Founded in 1978 by professional artists, Pros Arts began during an Arts-in-Education Residency at St. Procopius (known locally as St. Pros, thus the name) School. Thirty years later, Pros Arts continues to bring the arts - visual, media, and performing arts - to over 20 community centers and schools.
3. In school:
- * The Art of Change integrates the visual arts (clay) into earth science curriculum and performing arts (circus) into astronomy and will be implemented in 24 classrooms in four schools, funded in part by The Chicago Community Trust and the Polk Bros. Foundation.
* Drama Integration with Literacy engages grades 1-5 in an ambitious curriculum weaving together drama and language arts, with an added inter-grade mentorship component in its third year at Cooper Dual Language Academy funded in part by the Fry Foundation.
* Pilsen Arts Partnership integrates the arts into the curriculum at Walsh School and also in the community at large. Teachers and artists develop units that integrate the arts with the Open Court Basal Reading series. In addition, the Partnership presents several cultural celebrations with its community organization partners. Initially funded by CAPE (starting in 1993) the Partnership program draws support from various sources.
* Multi-Arts Performance Residencies will be conducted at three Chicago Public Schools using the drama, visual arts and music to support social studies and language arts culminating in a stage production. PS Wish You Were Here! with 5th graders at Cooper Academy; Distant Drummers: a Civil War Story with 5th graders at Saucedo Academy, and Fever in Philadelphia 1793 with 7th and 8th graders at Walsh Elementary School. These residencies are funded in part by grants from the Arts in Education Residency program of the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
* “Changing Perspectives” Professional Development Institute will TRAIN a mixture of CPS personnel including classroom teachers, fine arts and science specialists on how to deliver and assess integrated arts and science curriculum enhanced by a presentation from Dr. Barbara Greenberg, author of “The Art of Chemistry and the Chemistry in Art”.
4. Community:
- Youth Arts Programs are provided at our home Dvorak Park and other partner sites. In a typical week we welcome 200 students through our doors, exposing them to experiences in the performing, visual, and media arts, after school, in the evenings, and throughout the summer. We also offer paid internships and apprenticeships for up to 75 teens each year. Youth Arts Programs include: Kidz Circus, Media, Hip Hip Open Studio, Ideas en Arcilla: Community Clay Program, and other special programs.
- Cultural Celebrations are held each year at various sites and bring the community together for innovative activities marking the neighborhood’s Mexican heritage: Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead (Oct/Nov), Carnaval (Feb), and Dia del Nino/Day of the Child (April). Pros Arts teaching artists provide workshops prior to culminating events (parades, performances, interactive exhibitions ) drawing an average of 300 community members.
5. Performance:
- Performing since 1979, the Pros Arts Ensemble presents its shows in English, Spanish, Italian, and Clown, and has performed in theaters, libraries, classrooms, and playgrounds, on Main Street in rural Illinois and on the street corners in the barrio. Pros Arts Studio is on the Illinois Arts Council’s ArtsTour roster.
Clowns!!!
Moving on...
We are at the final reading called YouthLearn. It's a great title for a website.
1. The about us (of course)...
- Inspiring young minds through technology-enriched learning
Ever since the Morino Institute launched the YouthLearn Initiative as a pilot project in 1998, we've seen that after-school instructors and classroom teachers are hungry for relevant, creative materials that can help them make good use of new technology and help them turn good learning programs into great ones.
The YouthLearn Initiative, consisting of this comprehensive website, a growing online community, a free electronic newsletter, and an extensive manual called The YouthLearn Guide, goes a long way toward meeting that need. In 2001, the Morino Institute and EDC entered into a strategic partnership to help ensure the long-term growth and advancement of the YouthLearn Initiative. EDC now champions YouthLearn as a national center of excellence on youth, learning, and technology anchored around the original Initiative's approach.
2. Learning:
- Teaching
Regardless of what topic you're teaching or the age of the kids you're working with, you'll want to make certain teaching techniques a standard part of your routine. By internalizing these fundamentals until you don't even have to think about them, you'll become a better coach, leader and teacher.
Perhaps most important is that you understand and master sound modeling techniques. Kids learn much more by watching you than from anything you say. Good teaching is intentional, and it should be reflected in every thing you say and do.
Some other techniques described in this section include activities to do every day to reinforce learning objectives and create continuity; pointers for reading aloud and sharing ideas; and advice on using journals, a tool we find extremely helpful for kids of all ages.
Entire books have been written about classroom management, but a few simple steps can make a big difference in maintaining an energetic environment and keeping kids focused. Also check our basic information on ages and stages to help you plan, teach and lead different age groups.
Teaching about (and with) technology offers some special challenges, especially when instructors worry that they don't know enough themselves. This article provides some pointers for being an effective coach in a technology-oriented program.
3. Activities:
- Categorizing Ideas: Helping Kids Develop Reasoning Skills in
* Literacy
* Critical Thinking
Part of growing up is developing reasoning skills, such as logical thought processes and the ability to discern multiple types of relationships between concepts. Reasoning skills are an important part of organizing thoughts for a report, constructing a story, using a reference book, conducting an interview or navigating the internet to find information.
4. This website has some fantastic resources for teachers with lesson plans available under the activities tab sorted by subject.
5. Projects that the organization has done is located on the website as well under... projects! Check them out!
Okay... so I'll go into more detail in the class but feel free to post here as well any thoughts, concerns, likes/dislikes, questions, randomnesses, etc.
Well, I need to begin with explaining that when I chose this week to lead the discussion I had no idea what these blogs/websites were about. I had decided to pick them by title and could not resist the first of the three (and my personal favorite out of the three we viewed this week), called The Carrot Revolution. My first thought was carrots and I thought of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea; some of my favorite film and book series since childhood. When I actually got to visit the website the header had the title and then a quote by Paul Cezanne "The day is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution"; this was nice and then my thought-process led me to one of my favorite bands, The Modern Lovers and their song entitled Girlfriend when he sings about Cezanne in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Okay well, here we go to the actually blogging.
The Carrot Revolution
http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/
As noted earlier this was my favorite reading of the three we had this week. I am just going to lay out for all the websites the way I navigated them, trying to follow my top five theme.
1. I almost always first and foremost try and figure out what this website or blog I'm looking at is all about. So, my first instinct was to read the about located in the top right of this blog.
- The Carrot Revolution is an art education weblog and a resource page for art educators, art students, and artists in the digital age. Our goal is to fight the tyranny of the ordinary and to liberate from the status quo.
2. Instead of scrolling down the homepage, I moved to the left of the blog and checked out the Disciplines.
3. The first that I checked out was animation and I found this fantastic blogpost titled The Rant. But more importantly, I found this great new video.
4. Digital Flipbook
parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.
5. The idea generator app. for your iphone was such a neat teaching tool (of course if you have an iphone). Here's the info: Do you have any projects that include storytelling? The Idea Generator also has an itouch app, great for coming up with writing prompts. This has worked very well with my film and video classes. There is also a Movie Idea Generator, but I've found the suggestions here too convoluted to be developed into workable.
There were many other fantastic posts on this blog under the disciplines, but it is time to move on. But please, leave your thoughts and tell me what you liked or disliked about this blog.
The second website we visited this week was for the Pros Arts Studio.
1. It's a very simple website with a lot of negative space but very easy to navigate. They had everything laid out right on the top of the webpage.
2. What do you know... the first thing I looked at was the history, however on this website it is also the first tab as well. So, here's a bit of the history...
- Pros Arts Studio is a multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual, non-profit organization dedicated to enriching individual and community life through the arts with a primary focus on the inner city Pilsen/Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago. Founded in 1978 by professional artists, Pros Arts began during an Arts-in-Education Residency at St. Procopius (known locally as St. Pros, thus the name) School. Thirty years later, Pros Arts continues to bring the arts - visual, media, and performing arts - to over 20 community centers and schools.
3. In school:
- * The Art of Change integrates the visual arts (clay) into earth science curriculum and performing arts (circus) into astronomy and will be implemented in 24 classrooms in four schools, funded in part by The Chicago Community Trust and the Polk Bros. Foundation.
* Drama Integration with Literacy engages grades 1-5 in an ambitious curriculum weaving together drama and language arts, with an added inter-grade mentorship component in its third year at Cooper Dual Language Academy funded in part by the Fry Foundation.
* Pilsen Arts Partnership integrates the arts into the curriculum at Walsh School and also in the community at large. Teachers and artists develop units that integrate the arts with the Open Court Basal Reading series. In addition, the Partnership presents several cultural celebrations with its community organization partners. Initially funded by CAPE (starting in 1993) the Partnership program draws support from various sources.
* Multi-Arts Performance Residencies will be conducted at three Chicago Public Schools using the drama, visual arts and music to support social studies and language arts culminating in a stage production. PS Wish You Were Here! with 5th graders at Cooper Academy; Distant Drummers: a Civil War Story with 5th graders at Saucedo Academy, and Fever in Philadelphia 1793 with 7th and 8th graders at Walsh Elementary School. These residencies are funded in part by grants from the Arts in Education Residency program of the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
* “Changing Perspectives” Professional Development Institute will TRAIN a mixture of CPS personnel including classroom teachers, fine arts and science specialists on how to deliver and assess integrated arts and science curriculum enhanced by a presentation from Dr. Barbara Greenberg, author of “The Art of Chemistry and the Chemistry in Art”.
4. Community:
- Youth Arts Programs are provided at our home Dvorak Park and other partner sites. In a typical week we welcome 200 students through our doors, exposing them to experiences in the performing, visual, and media arts, after school, in the evenings, and throughout the summer. We also offer paid internships and apprenticeships for up to 75 teens each year. Youth Arts Programs include: Kidz Circus, Media, Hip Hip Open Studio, Ideas en Arcilla: Community Clay Program, and other special programs.
- Cultural Celebrations are held each year at various sites and bring the community together for innovative activities marking the neighborhood’s Mexican heritage: Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead (Oct/Nov), Carnaval (Feb), and Dia del Nino/Day of the Child (April). Pros Arts teaching artists provide workshops prior to culminating events (parades, performances, interactive exhibitions ) drawing an average of 300 community members.
5. Performance:
- Performing since 1979, the Pros Arts Ensemble presents its shows in English, Spanish, Italian, and Clown, and has performed in theaters, libraries, classrooms, and playgrounds, on Main Street in rural Illinois and on the street corners in the barrio. Pros Arts Studio is on the Illinois Arts Council’s ArtsTour roster.
Clowns!!!
Moving on...
We are at the final reading called YouthLearn. It's a great title for a website.
1. The about us (of course)...
- Inspiring young minds through technology-enriched learning
Ever since the Morino Institute launched the YouthLearn Initiative as a pilot project in 1998, we've seen that after-school instructors and classroom teachers are hungry for relevant, creative materials that can help them make good use of new technology and help them turn good learning programs into great ones.
The YouthLearn Initiative, consisting of this comprehensive website, a growing online community, a free electronic newsletter, and an extensive manual called The YouthLearn Guide, goes a long way toward meeting that need. In 2001, the Morino Institute and EDC entered into a strategic partnership to help ensure the long-term growth and advancement of the YouthLearn Initiative. EDC now champions YouthLearn as a national center of excellence on youth, learning, and technology anchored around the original Initiative's approach.
2. Learning:
- Teaching
Regardless of what topic you're teaching or the age of the kids you're working with, you'll want to make certain teaching techniques a standard part of your routine. By internalizing these fundamentals until you don't even have to think about them, you'll become a better coach, leader and teacher.
Perhaps most important is that you understand and master sound modeling techniques. Kids learn much more by watching you than from anything you say. Good teaching is intentional, and it should be reflected in every thing you say and do.
Some other techniques described in this section include activities to do every day to reinforce learning objectives and create continuity; pointers for reading aloud and sharing ideas; and advice on using journals, a tool we find extremely helpful for kids of all ages.
Entire books have been written about classroom management, but a few simple steps can make a big difference in maintaining an energetic environment and keeping kids focused. Also check our basic information on ages and stages to help you plan, teach and lead different age groups.
Teaching about (and with) technology offers some special challenges, especially when instructors worry that they don't know enough themselves. This article provides some pointers for being an effective coach in a technology-oriented program.
3. Activities:
- Categorizing Ideas: Helping Kids Develop Reasoning Skills in
* Literacy
* Critical Thinking
Part of growing up is developing reasoning skills, such as logical thought processes and the ability to discern multiple types of relationships between concepts. Reasoning skills are an important part of organizing thoughts for a report, constructing a story, using a reference book, conducting an interview or navigating the internet to find information.
4. This website has some fantastic resources for teachers with lesson plans available under the activities tab sorted by subject.
5. Projects that the organization has done is located on the website as well under... projects! Check them out!
Okay... so I'll go into more detail in the class but feel free to post here as well any thoughts, concerns, likes/dislikes, questions, randomnesses, etc.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Literacy
EVC and Street-Level Youth Media offer some really creative ways to establish a relationship between young people and critical literacy.
Documentary film is great to give children new ways to express themselves creatively.
Students don't have to be in front of the camera to say something important; they have the opportunity to share how they see the world without saying anything at all but it's still significant.
More importantly, it's not necessarily just one student's voice or idea it can be a groups. What a great opportunity to give students to work collaboratively with their peers and educators.
I'm excited to learn more about video media and how I can use it with my students.
Documentary film is great to give children new ways to express themselves creatively.
Students don't have to be in front of the camera to say something important; they have the opportunity to share how they see the world without saying anything at all but it's still significant.
More importantly, it's not necessarily just one student's voice or idea it can be a groups. What a great opportunity to give students to work collaboratively with their peers and educators.
I'm excited to learn more about video media and how I can use it with my students.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Five Steps for Building an Arts Community?
How Many Clicks Did You Make Today?
Community Arts Network or CAN is "building a bridge to the future."
The Community Arts Network (CAN) supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists.
CAPE'S MISSION
CAPE advances the arts as a vital strategy for improving teaching and learning by increasing students’ capacity for academic success, critical thinking, and creativity.
After reviewing this weeks blogs for cyberpedagogy class, I got to thinking about how to combine these two missions as I move forward into the field of arts education. After all, who wouldn't want an art classroom that could provide "intellectual nourishment and social benefit through increasing students' capacity for academic success, critical thinking, and creativity"?
As a first year teacher I'm afraid it will be no easy task to develop a rich classroom based off of this framework. While I sit in front of my computer I am challenging myself to come up with five vague steps at working towards this ideal. Hmmmmm...
(One must note, these perhaps are trite and obvious and not too profound, but hey it's something worth working towards, I think, regardless)
1. Trust --- okay, what does that mean? How can I let students know they can trust me as their teacher and trust the art classroom for new ideas as a safe place starting day one?
2. Which brings us to another step... Safe Place --- the art classroom should be a place where ideas can be explored without shame and support should be given thoughtfully.
3. Innovation --- here comes that intellectual nourishment. I hope to encourage students to ask questions and push boundaries (hmmmm.... how might that be problematic as the authority???). Either way, I want to teach to think.
4. Collaboration --- what would be social about isolation? Let's work together!!!Let's build a community arts classroom!
5. Finally, (my fav)... Dialogue --- setting the classroom up to be a place to have a whole bunch of transference happening. It's good to learn from other people; it widens our self awareness within a social context. Also, it gives students a feeling of empowerment when they feel their teaching a new idea to their peers.
Alright guys... start adding on.
Community Arts Network or CAN is "building a bridge to the future."
The Community Arts Network (CAN) supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists.
CAPE'S MISSION
CAPE advances the arts as a vital strategy for improving teaching and learning by increasing students’ capacity for academic success, critical thinking, and creativity.
After reviewing this weeks blogs for cyberpedagogy class, I got to thinking about how to combine these two missions as I move forward into the field of arts education. After all, who wouldn't want an art classroom that could provide "intellectual nourishment and social benefit through increasing students' capacity for academic success, critical thinking, and creativity"?
As a first year teacher I'm afraid it will be no easy task to develop a rich classroom based off of this framework. While I sit in front of my computer I am challenging myself to come up with five vague steps at working towards this ideal. Hmmmmm...
(One must note, these perhaps are trite and obvious and not too profound, but hey it's something worth working towards, I think, regardless)
1. Trust --- okay, what does that mean? How can I let students know they can trust me as their teacher and trust the art classroom for new ideas as a safe place starting day one?
2. Which brings us to another step... Safe Place --- the art classroom should be a place where ideas can be explored without shame and support should be given thoughtfully.
3. Innovation --- here comes that intellectual nourishment. I hope to encourage students to ask questions and push boundaries (hmmmm.... how might that be problematic as the authority???). Either way, I want to teach to think.
4. Collaboration --- what would be social about isolation? Let's work together!!!Let's build a community arts classroom!
5. Finally, (my fav)... Dialogue --- setting the classroom up to be a place to have a whole bunch of transference happening. It's good to learn from other people; it widens our self awareness within a social context. Also, it gives students a feeling of empowerment when they feel their teaching a new idea to their peers.
Alright guys... start adding on.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Five Reasons I love living in Chicago
1. The city is full of frames waiting for a picturesque view, a lot of the times peculiar and often full of elegance and class. Whether this frame is a window, two skyscrapers or the bars holding up the el tracks, I've witnessed some of the most beautiful moments while living here.
2. The food. Mmmmmmm. I love eating and this city is my craving. So many flavors to try. I think Ukraine food might be next on the menu...
3. I love spring and summer time in Chicago because people come out of their winter hibernation full of smiles out with their loved ones and dogs enjoying the sunshine. I've never lived in a place where suddenly it comes to life one afternoon.
4. Public transportation. Okay, I know, there's lots to complain about it too. BUT, for me, it rocks. I feel free and have never lived anywhere where I can travel to so many different locations with so many different vibes. There's such a lot of world to see... but already I get to see so much in my own backyard.
5. Ohhhh the resources. Just this past week I got to read about three more websites all about artist, about teachers, about collaborations of people and talent, and of course social justice. Three more to add to the list of already so many. The city is such a colorful palette of information and as an artist once said, "I want to be a paintbrush for society yet society is my paintbrush." The irony.
2. The food. Mmmmmmm. I love eating and this city is my craving. So many flavors to try. I think Ukraine food might be next on the menu...
3. I love spring and summer time in Chicago because people come out of their winter hibernation full of smiles out with their loved ones and dogs enjoying the sunshine. I've never lived in a place where suddenly it comes to life one afternoon.
4. Public transportation. Okay, I know, there's lots to complain about it too. BUT, for me, it rocks. I feel free and have never lived anywhere where I can travel to so many different locations with so many different vibes. There's such a lot of world to see... but already I get to see so much in my own backyard.
5. Ohhhh the resources. Just this past week I got to read about three more websites all about artist, about teachers, about collaborations of people and talent, and of course social justice. Three more to add to the list of already so many. The city is such a colorful palette of information and as an artist once said, "I want to be a paintbrush for society yet society is my paintbrush." The irony.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Web 5.0
What would that be like?
Last semester, my ethical/pedagogical class had the opportunity to skype with Craig Roland and it was awesome.
I really enjoyed his blog, but moreover, I support his mission to make the web and all of its useful instruments a valuable component within the art classroom.
I think that the web is a huge part of young people's lives and is accessible for most students. It could be used for a class blog, a social network, research, design components, skyping into other art classes from anywhere in the world, and so much more.
Last semester, my ethical/pedagogical class had the opportunity to skype with Craig Roland and it was awesome.
I really enjoyed his blog, but moreover, I support his mission to make the web and all of its useful instruments a valuable component within the art classroom.
I think that the web is a huge part of young people's lives and is accessible for most students. It could be used for a class blog, a social network, research, design components, skyping into other art classes from anywhere in the world, and so much more.
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