Student Panel Presents Benefits of Choice Art at the Art Educators Conference

This was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.  Last year a group of my high school students hosted three sessions at a middle school in Dover, Arkansas.  It was all started by the middle school art educator- Jocelyn Alvey.  She was paying attention to what we were doing in our ChoiceArt program.  Jocelyn contacted me through my IG  (schultz_life) and requested if we could Skype with her classes to help them connect to more authentic art making.  I figured we could do better than that.  I surveyed a few of my students and we planned our traveling workshop.  Soon we loaded a bus very early in the morning and headed to a town over an hour away to help art students understand the power of ChoiceArt.

Our workshop consisted of presenting our art portfolio’s on Sway.com and showing students how we develop, research, document, write, and present our ideas.  We broke off into small groups and shared our actual works so students could touch and ask questions about how it was created. We then demonstrated a few new techniques that they could start to use in their art work.

One school year later…. we are presenting our experiences at the Arkansas Art Educators Conference.  We had four high schoolers and four middle schoolers that had a lot to say about how the experience changed the way they create art.

As it goes…hear it from the “mouth of babes”.  My students were captivated and impressed by what the middle school students remembered.  They all had individual stories that recalled what the high school artists did or said that impacted them directly.  The middle school artists shared actual works of art and also shared their elaborate sketchbooks that demonstrated color mixing, compositional layout ideas, and written thoughts.  My high schoolers truly realized the full impact of their workshop.  The middle school students were so poised and clear in their voice and how much they appreciated the inspiration my students delivered.

 

After the students wrapped up their presentations, the art educators looked at the art work close-up, thumbed through the sketchbooks, and asked specific questions.  Other art educators asked Jocelyn and me more questions about how our programs got started.  I was happy that a few times my students answered the questions for me.  They were so proud of the ChoiceArt program they have created in our studio.  After a while I had some time to visit with the middle school students and it was clear to me that they were transformed.  Clear vision of what art means to them, how art can deliver powerful ideas through a visual illusion, and they want to be creators for life.  We exchanged IG’s and we will continue to help inspire each other.  It’s my hope that all the students realize their full potential and pass it forward and inspire more students.

I’m hoping to post the recordings of the students own voices through the ChoiceArt FB page so you can hear how amazing it truly was.

Starting a New School Year

The postings on the Art Teacher FB pages are buzzing with new classroom decor ideas, purchases, and ideas.  New educators are asking for icebreakers and best practice ideas.  It will be my 29th year of being an art educator.  I still get the before school start dreams/nightmares.  I love adding some new artifacts to my studio and also editing old things.

I have been busy all summer educating other art educators about new techniques to offer in the studio and ideas on how to create a Choice Art studio to their current environments.  I also completed my Google Level 1 training this summer that compliments my methods of delivering my studio content though my Google Forms and my LMS.  It feels great to have some established systems in place and the buy-in from my school population on my ChoiceArt practice and my desire to host a student driven program.

There is a lot of front-end loading to prepare for when serving a blended studio program.  You have to create a solid method of content delivery for a diverse set of skills, media, content, research, and submission process.    I’ve worked with different methods but now I have settled into using Sway for studio documentation, Screencastify for presentation recordings, Haiku Learning Management Platform for my resource content, and Google Suite for submission forms.

I just revamped my older forms to streamline my questions and to freshen up the old ones.  I created a new Powerpoint to present to my new students and to remind my experienced students how to prepare for an Artist Proposal Submission.  I am currently reviewing my past ice breakers to come up with new twists for each of my different courses.  I am able to do all of this in the comfort of my home all online.  NO paper! It’s seamless and I love it.

I have one more Professional Development presentation to complete with about 40 LRSD art educators to complete before I get to start my own inservice prep for the new year.  I did spend some time in my studio straightening up my storage room but with a ChoiceArt program the studio doesn’t require loads of redesign.  My students maintain a good studio flow and it works for all of us.

New additions are two nice new computer stations loaded for my studio to create films and photography.  Plus- my keyboard garage sale find will make an appearance to add a musical component to the originality of our presentations.  I have a motivated group of AP art students and a enthusiastic group of student artists ready to turn the year into one of the best years yet.

The summer flies by more and more as my career advances.  My online PLN #K12ARTCHAT keeps me sane and motivated.  I’m so very thankful for their support and influence.  Soon enough I will be swimming in a sea of teenagers again so having my #HIVE to reach out to is a blessing.

Thank you #Hive #HiveMind

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Professional Development on the Flip-Side

 

I just completed a Statewide tour of Arkansas.  I was able to travel all over to areas I didn’t know and visit arts buildings to see the programs they offered the community.  I spent several nights in hotels and one magical night in a Bed and Breakfast.  I traveled with a talented artist from Arkansas who has an eclectic life story that matches her layered and fascinating art work. It was a fantastic experience and we matched up perfectly.

I have attended loads of PD in my almost 30 years of education.  I have presented at local conferences and at the National convention for years, but this was personal.

The professional development program was created by the Arkansas Education Department and it connects working local artists with art educators, to bring professional development for visual arts.  This an opportunity to engage with a local arts programs and become informed about the artist registry.

Jeri Hillis was the talented artist I was matched with for the workshop. After doing research on her, I figured that her work in collage was going to be our focus for the art making.  http://www.arkansasarts.org/artist-registry/jeri-hillis

Collage is a wonderful approach to introduce the methods of teaching how ChoiceArt is implemented into a studio classroom.  I was able to show how I implement ChoiceArt in my studio and I was also able to demonstrate to the educators how to figure out the methods that would best fit them as the facilitator plus meet the demographics of their school population, and how to explain the ChoiceArt methods to all the stake-holders. I also wanted my participants to get back in touch with the inner artist, and level up skills/techniques, and open their minds to my teaching practice.  I designed the professional development program to try to bring out the working artist in each participant with the focus on Appropriation and Collage.  It is very important to NOT jump right in but really think about how to implement this in your program.   Think about how you would educate the population in the school district.  Also, how to educate others on what ChoiceArt teaching practice will bring to the educational program.

ChoiceArt FB page  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1699665476977044/?ref=br_rs

My presentation included the way I figured out a work flow, method of implementation, how to leverage my student learning management platform, my grading process, and how to communicate to everyone.  This has been a program developed over time.  I stressed that this is how it works for my school and for my personality.  I know myself well and I know my school community well.  It took a lot of front-end loading to get to where I am.  People can see and hear what I do but ultimately, the educator needs to customize the practice to suit the situation.  If I would move to a new school and teach a different population, I would need to make adjustments.

I had several participants at the workshop who were not visual arts educators and they came to learn about how students present their process and how to cultivate individual voices. I feel they were able to collect ideas from how I also stress the importance of building community by verbal critiques,  how to implement classroom mentors, how to  engage students to present their ideas in progress, and showcase the portfolio the students created for documenting the process for final critiques.  In addition,how to use  artist proposals and written reflections as a key to developing a voice that leads to a solid artist statement.

My goal was to educate and get educators back in touch with how they feel when creating, how they organize thoughts and materials, and how their individual pace in thinking/progress happens.  We often feel pressure of our daily schedule, expectations for evaluations, and the curricular requirements.  I wanted to remind the educators about how the most important part of what we do is visual communication.  How do we support our students where they start and meet their individual needs?  Where to do we leave room for thinking, practicing, experimenting, inventing, etc.?  This is all learning and it happens during the process.

IF the student is engaged the end product will speak for itself.

Art educators are often under-appreciated for how well we juggle the materials, behaviors, studio space, and nurturing the soul of our students.  In our studio’s the space needs to be a community that is safe for everyone.  All students deserve a safe place to explore, learn, grow, fail, and succeed.  Succeed based on what the student has identified as success not by the appearance of the product.  The learning is an intrinsic value.  This is often invisible accept when there is time and a method to communicate the learning.  We need to continue to create methods to make the learning and the success from the process, visible beyond the finished product.

We need to meet our students where they are when they enter our space.  It is nearly impossible to meet the needs of everyone when we don’t even consider a student-centered approach.  I am not going to have everyone or even a handful of students become famous successful artists.

I will have all of my students aware of their visual communication skills, how to figure out their work flow, apply the techniques and vocabulary they explored, be in touch and aware of artists worldwide, blend seamlessly the other academic areas they love into the visual communication created in the studio.  I will have young people who understand the importance of the “WHY” when creating original works of art.  I will have students that are confident recording their thoughts, ideas, progress, failures, research, and the confidence to speak and assist others.  I will have students who see the visual arts as a powerful tool to communicate effectively in the world with the balance of understanding how to wield that power on social media.  Plus, have an understanding of the damage that can be done to oneself for not comprehensively planning what they share on social media.  Leveraging visual communication is powerful but it needs to be taught how to be effective.

I communicated at the workshop that I feel that I am always perfecting my teaching practice and my studio is my lab.  It is my goal to be an effective practitioner of Visual Communication and this requires reflection and data points.  I utilize Google Forms and other digital platforms to gather and analyze how effective I am doing in my attempts.  Through my Google Forms and my student learning management platforms, I am able to collect information to adjust my practice.  I am also able to communicate with my individual students easily and to offer input and additional research, support, and plan scaffolding to increase student success.  This is work but with digital tools it makes it easier.

Wow! Didn’t think I’s write so much.  I guess my reflecting on my experience helped me clarify my own voice.  Funny…. I preach that all the time.  Again, practice what you preach.

So, glad I did this summer PD.  Looking forward to not driving and staying in hotels for a while.  I need some deep immersion into my own art before beginning my storage room clean out at school.

Happy summer to you all.

https://www.asc701.org/events/2018/6/28/taking-it-to-the-schools-iii-community-experiences-in-visual-art

How to fit in.

Interesting thoughts have been churning in my mind.  I’ve been reflecting on how many years I have been teaching and how much has changed in education.  I find myself thinking less about my career as a single subject and much more about educating and exploring individual growth of my students beyond a single subject.

As an educator approaching almost 30 years of teaching, I see my role much differently than I ever did in the past.  I’m wondering why I am feeling this way.  Is it that I am a Choice Art educator, my own multiple interests in learning, or my desire to expand?  Then I am left with questions of: How do I expand? What would this look like?  Is it possible?  In what way does this fit with my current position?  Can I push this into an actual idea? 

I do have many ideas on how it can be possible but to get the current structures of a school schedule to adapt to my ideas is very challenging.

I’m very interested in expanding into curricular areas that merge with arts in a real way.  I envision a large lab setting with outside access to nature like a field, trees, garden, and water.  I envision an outdoor class shelter with equipment available to construct, plant, and build. The educators and the students create criteria based on benchmarks that need to be met for graduation.  Students then turn to their imagination as to how to demonstrate and make their learning visible.  I see real life problems being solved and movements being carried forward; lead with student voice and choice.  I see corporations and organizations supporting and helping to elevate the students’ ideas into reality. 

I know it will be hard work but I can see my students intrinsically motivated to perform the work and that extends beyond the class period. I can envision students collaborating and creating solutions and designs to propel further good works. 

Great ideas are not created while sitting still.  Ideas percolate over time and arrive while actively creating or doing something.  Some of the best ideas happen while doing things like gardening, showering, walking, and playing.  Why can’t we accelerate that by providing larger amounts of time to focus on a concept and fiddle around with it?  Offer up a couple of educators to guide the process and support the ideas by providing experts on the subject.

Will students be more engaged and confident in striving to do the research, proof out ideas, fail and try again, apply divergent thinking, and learn how to communicate the ideas?  I believe the answer is YES. 

Does this mean we need to let go to traditional classroom physical walls and schedules?  YES.

Do educators need to pair up and organically work with each other and the community to bridge the unknown?  YES.

Do stakeholders in the school community need to find pathways to help support the learning experiences for the students?  YES.

Raising and educating young people isn’t the task of the school system alone.  We are to work as a community of parents, leaders in the area, and exceptional educators.  We need to all take an interest in what is working in the system to inspire young people.  What education looked like when their parents attended school is not how we should be doing education now.  Our schools should be one of the most vibrant hubs in the community where everyone wants to be a part of and everyone knows what is happening. Communities need to go to school functions hosted by our young people and hear, observe, and learn.  We need to do our best for the most important resource we have and that is our young people.

I have witnessed and experienced the power and enthusiasm of young people.  Our current world events have forced our young people to be more active in the world and they can do it.

I want to be a part of this kind of learning and doing.  I am much more interested finding inventive ways of creating this type of system.  I believe this is how I should be spending the rest of my career.  Now.  How do I make it happen?