School Bell

I just finished reading an article by S. Paul Reville in Education Week titled “Stop the Narrowing of the Curriculum by ‘Right-Sizing’ School Time”. This article speaks to one of the issues that I have thought long about in an interesting way: the time that school is in session. From as near as I can figure school sessions are determined by a hold-over from when we were an agrarian society and the travel/vacation industry. School days are determined by bus schedules and teacher contracts. The one thing that seems to be left out of the equation is what is best for a child’s education.

Paul’s article speaks to yet more issues affecting the scheduling of schools, No Child Left Behind Act, and standards-based reform. These two issues also seek to control school time by forcing teachers and administrators choose between time for achieving proficiency in the core subjects and other untested subjects like art, music, social studies and foreign languages.

With the advent of web 2.0 classes are no longer bound by the walls of the school or the time of the bell. Students will be able to attend classes on their schedule and when they are ready to learn. Collaboration can happen between students in the same class but other schools. Teachers from other areas could tutor long distance.

I think that we need to rethink the way that school time is scheduled. Schools should be look at round the year calendars. Evening and weekend classes should be offered through out the grade levels, students should not think of learning only happening between 8:00 and 2:15.

Rain Rain Rain

Oh my what a deluge today. It started raining today on the way to work then got harder when the buses started arriving. Students were coming in late because of power going out. I had to delay my art assessment today by 15 minutes because of late students. I was so flustered that I decided to make an announcement about the delay in the test and I made it right in the middle of my principals talk on the morning show, boy it just gets better and better The test went well in spite of the rain and late students. All the kids behaved well and took the art test serious.

2007 FAEA Conference Review

Wow what a great 4 days! I came back to school today excited and renewed. Ok I did go to bed early last night but I woke up early this morning ready to get to school and see the kids and show them some of the things that I did/learned.
Carol Norman and the teachers of Orange County Public Schools did a great job preparing for the conference.
The speakers were very interesting and presented their vision of a very exciting and creative future.
If you went to the conference send me your comments about the conference and the workshops you attended.

Jive Foil Puppets

Presenter: July Davis

This fun workshop involved designing and producing a marionette-like puppet out of heavy foil, various paints and markers, beads and wire. Although the initials impression was that it would be an easy project. This was not in fact true.

The project used heavy foil that we used to cut out parts of our marionette. After the parts were cut out we connected them with wire and beads. After they were together we painted them and some also embossed the foil with designs. The end product was very cool but it is not something that I would do with my kids with out major modifications.

Drawing from the Students Perspective.

Presenters: Gena Brodie-Robbins, Amy Taylor

This was one of my favorite workshops. The pair started the class by explaining in a humors and entertaining way their way of approaching the art of teaching drawing. Gena and Amy added to this explanation research from many books.

The hand on part of the workshop was very interesting and covered four different approaches to teaching drawing.

If Gena and Amy offer this workshop next year I would recommend taking it, I know I will.

a recommended link: Click Here

How to Create Large Public Artworks for Children.

Presented by Paula Allen and Raquel Ache Leonard

This was a very cool workshop that combined individual works of art with a collaborative background. The diversity of media allowed for everyone’s strength to shine.

We started by making a doll using a muslin blank doll with bendable arms. For this we used many different materials, Sharpie markers, acrylic paints, fabric, beads, yarn, wire, and other things from a grab box of found objects.

For the background of the mural we used a 5x15 foot bolt of muslin. For creating the picture large sheets for hand made paper were provided. We tore and cut the shapes to form a scene of the natural environment of Florida.

FAEA State Conference day 2

Yesterday was very interesting. After the meeting in the morning I attended a workshop given by Karen Harris. the title was "The 'Upwardly Mobile': Sculpture in Motion. This was a very interesting workshop and the presenter gave us many good ideas on teaching children about the art of mobiles. during the workshop I recorded a podcast of the beginning of the workshop. you can find that with my other podcast at my podcast page. I also have some handouts that I will post at t later date (when I can get to a scanner). Later last evening I attended the gallery hop in downtown Orlando. There I met an glass artist by the name of Isriah. Isriah ia a glass blower and is also seven years old. It was very interesting learning about the art of glass blowing from a very knowledgable seven year old. After a little haggling we agreed on a price and I am now the proud owner of an Iariah original.