Amen Ken

 

6th grade Styrofoam print - learning to get the inking "right"

Ken Robinson is endlessly inspiring for me. The following quote came across my "desk" (aka art teacher Facebook groups) today (thank you TAB facebook and No Child Left Behind ). Just when I was ready to quit Facebook and pursue more space in my life/brain/eyes too. I guess this is why I stay "plugged in," gifts like this one pop up all the time. 

@SirKenRobinson: "That's why I always say that teaching is an art form.  It's not a delivery system. I don't know when we started confusing teaching with FedEx.  Teaching is an arts practice.  It's about connoisseurship and judgement and intuition.  We all remember the great teachers in our lives.  The ones who kind of woke us up and that we're still thinking about because they said something to us or they gave us an angle on something that we've never forgotten."
 
- Sir Ken Robinson, Learning [Re] Imagined (2014) http://learning-reimagined.com/sir-ken-robinson-learning-reimagined/

6th grader modeling the apron he designed and sewed to wear when he cooks with his grandmother

Mad Helmet Skills

The 6th-grader who designed and built this helmet was enthralled. Enthralled with the plan, enthralled with the process, and enthralled with the finished creation.

Finished helmet along with photo/reference and arm cuff, for extra power.

Once the process was underway, 48 minutes a day to work on it during art class was not enough. This project took dedication- lunch periods, recess, after school, even once or twice it took sneaking away from some other class, just to check on it and fix it up a little. 

I, too, was enthralled: with this boy's dedication to his idea, his careful attention to detail, his passion and developing skill, his ingenuity and focus. Remarkable.

Trying on the helmet when it was nearly done

Parting Thoughts

As I gather my thoughts and belongings at the end of the day, I can't resist peeking into the kiln to see how last night's firing went.

Look what I found! This woven bowl was made by an 8th grader. She "invented" clay weaving last year (I say "invented" because although she is not the first one in the world to weave with clay slabs, I did not teach or show this technique in class). Last year this student made a few small pieces using this idea that she developed. This large, ambitious, beautiful piece is a testament to this student's ability to employ the studio thinking habits: "engage and persist" and "develop craft." The fact that she started this line of artistic inquiry last spring and continued with it this fall is a tribute to the structure of a learner-directed ("choice-based") art program where students can engage with ideas and skills in their own time and at their own pace and to stay with an idea until they are "done."

This student has art class for 2 1/2 more weeks, and then is done with middle school art. Or middle school art is done with her. I hope she has internalized many of the studio thinking habits practiced in the art studio, has "fallen in love" with some idea, technique, tool or medium, and continues to make art and artmaking a part of her life.

"I'm Very Excited About This New Skill I've Learned."

It is delightful to overhear statements such as this. It is also rewarding to discover that the skill learned was accomplished outside of school, but brought in, with the student, and applied when needed in the art studio.

One-Sock-Doll Mini-Center

In this case, the skill learned was braiding and was just the thing to make a perfect tail for a brand new "one sock doll" (thanks again to Ellyn Gaspardi for sharing this idea and instruction sheet). Learning something in one setting and applying it in another is an example of "transference," something we hope to teach for. 

One of my favorite activities in the studio is to be alert for what pops out of students as they work. Here is my favorite from this week: "You don't have to have lessons to learn" (captured as it tumbled from the brain of a 7th grade boy).

Mosaics for 8th Grade

After having Choice-Based art with me for four years, some 8th grade students are off and running, just reaching their stride.

Others start to run out of gas a bit and need a little pick-me-up, artistically speaking. Brain research tells us that middle school students enjoy and seek novelty. So, I've been keeping an ace-in-the-hole, a little something special in case I notice interest flagging.

Last year, I pulled soapstone carving out of my sleeve, "for eighth graders only." This year, mosaics - ta dah!
 
 I was disappointed last year when more students did not fall in love with soapstone carving. In fact, few chose it, and even fewer stuck with it. The students I hoped to engage did not even try it.  

So, imagine my delight when nearly a whole class jumped on the mosaic bandwagon!

 

Next I showed one group of students all I know about grouting, channeling my friend and mentor John Martin, who taught me everything I know on the subject. 
My students were then able to take it from there. 
 
I was very impressed with the students' "can-do" attitude and their willingness to give it a go.

The First Few Weeks of School: A Retrospective

When student council asked for pictures of the first few weeks of school to add to a slide show for later today, I sent off the ones displayed here.

 

The current students I have in class now are not new to our choice-based art studio. I am currently working with 6th and 8th graders only (next semester I will see the 5th & 7th graders). These veterans know their way around the studio and returned to school with ideas and ambition, ready to start in where they left off last spring. 

 We have had about 5 weeks of school. How is it possible that all this varied activity is packed into so short time frame?

The answer is: Choice
That, and an unusually warm September, which allowed our studio to expand into the backyard on many occasions.

In these first few weeks of school, students have chosen to explore new media and techniques and have returned to favorite materials, tools and resources. They pursue both new and familiar subjects and/or practice to improve skills. All of these creative styles and approaches are evident in the photos included here. 

Sometimes I am too busy to take photos, and miss the opportunity to illustrate really good learning. In one 6th-grade class today a student learned to use the sewing machine for the first time and another finished a small woven pouch that has been a work-in-progress for days and days, Near-by an exuberant friend-group found they had to problem-solve what to do with papier-mache' helmet-masks too soggy to try on ("we NEED them for TONIGHT!!!")

While all that was going on, across the room, two students tested the etching press and another engineered and tested paper-straw arrows so they would fly true from his redesigned hand-made cardboard bow.

 

Wool carding continues, this time with alpaca. Students are getting better at using the drum wool carder independently. 

My next class is on a field trip, which give me a moment to look through these captured moments and see that we have a lot of learning and growing going on around here since school started!

Art is Not Sequential

It's like being a juggler - choice-based art. As the teacher/mentor/artist-in-residence/lackey in our studio-classroom, I have a lot of balls in the air. I love this part of the job.

Flip book artist's scrap pile, discovered by me after the class exited the room

 My favorite thing is when students are off and running in pursuit of their own ideas, directions, interests, needs and talents. That's when I can really go to work.

My response to finding the above flip book scrap pile - get down my flip book collection and make a note to either share these resources with the one or two students who initiated flip book art yesterday or design a "Five Minute Demo" for the whole class. This topic introduced in a whole class demo will bump what I had originally planned to introduce Monday. Is flip book art "whole-class-worthy?"

The one problem is, while observing and interacting with students helps me to generate ideas in my mind for what to introduce or what to respond to, it can be difficult to decide which of these to address "next."

Given the web-like, rhizomic nature of our lively learner-directed program, there are many "things" (directions, ideas, concepts, materials, opportunities) competing for "next." 

As I jot down notes and start to make plans for next week, I rely a bit on an old Vermont expression: "let's see how it all sugars out."