Let's talk motivation..

No matter how many resources, demos, centers, tracking sheets and supplies that I put out, my students still need to find the motivation. This part truly scares me because my kids can be a little rough around the edges, but I believe in their abilities, even when they don't. Many have very different life experiences, some first generation American born some recently from their own country. Personally, I find that a motivating factor of making, but they might not. Many times when I ask them to tell me their interests they shrug and tell me nothing. I worry that my older students won't push themselves to explore. While I was reading Lessons without Limit by Falk & Dierkling I came upon a sub-section on motivation. They state that people are highly motivated when:

1. They are in supporting environments.
1. Every term I make it clear that the art lab is a place for supporting others ideas and helping out our fellow artist. This can be seen in peer teaching, which occurs almost naturally. 
2. They are engaged in meaningful activities
1. I think this is my opportunity to provide them with the space and materials to explore their meaningful ideas. 
3. They are freed from anxiety, fear and other negative mental states.
1. This goes with the supporting environments comment but this is difficult because generally middle schoolers really care what others think because this is their time to 'fit in'
4. They have choices and are in control of their learning
1. The more I mention having control and designing their own projects, the more excited they get. They remember too! They bring it up and ask for it, but this is still Elementary school and middle school is a whole other ball of wax. 
5. The challenges of the task meet their skills.
1. Many of my students worry that their skills aren't up to par and then make a comment because mine is 'better' than theirs. I simply tell them that if they keep practicing than they can be even better than me! 

I worry that my middle schoolers will be timid or will not enjoy the way the studio runs. While we can always make improvements to the routine or demos, how do we reach those students who simply believe they aren't artistic and their time to learn has passed? I constantly encourage and try to motivate them but am I missing something? How do I reach those who seem unmoved by anything that is presented? You'd think that by having a choice it opens up a myriad of possibilities for each student. I want them to be intrinsically motivated by their personal desires.

I'm excited, nervous and motivated to seek the answers and observe the way this classroom structure works. Can't wait to make my signs, menus and resources next week.

Resources for centers

One of the things that I have always felt was lacking in my classroom was the book resources in my measly little library. I had inherited an abundance of books that were anywhere from one to 30 years old from years of donations. Every year or so I go through them and hope to find them useful or find a way to incorporate them into my classes.

This year I have a new purpose and approach and wanted to try and make the most of the good books and weed out the useless magazines and auction booklets. What I found was an abundance of books that would go right over my students heads but kept them anyway in the hopes they might find some use.

The auction booklets proved to be more interesting and I started to cut out different works of art that caught my eye. I plan to use them to make my bulletin board for the summer with a theme something along the lines of art coming in all shapes, sizes and styles. I also thought that it was pretty cool that someone owned those auction booklets and many of them had pricing for the pieces. I think that could turn out to be a good conversation about what art costs.

At the same time I have been reading the TAB yahoo group forums and found a thread about resources for centers. I was excited to find books that my students could use and might even be a little more user friendly for them. On my list of books to order from amazon are:

• Journal Junkies Workshop
• Beautiful Stuff
• Soap Carving: For Children of all ages
• Painting & Children
• Color by Betty Edwards
• In the Paint by Patrick Ewing

I think that these books will be helpful and that my students might even find them more interesting than what is already on the bookshelves.

As I learn to use the forum I am reading threads on the many aspects of TAB and even being able to communicate with wonderful educators all around the country. This is the last week of school for my kids and next week the building is closed so I will have time to CLEAN and MAKE many of my posters and informational resources for each of the centers. Pictures to come!

What I feel like I've learned.. so far..

Choice-Based Learning is an approach to teaching that allows students to choose their subject, material, and pace. Students develop their own ideas based on their interests or passions. Through a tight classroom routine, students are encourages to work on their ideas and explore new materials if they choose as they are introduced through 5 minute demos at the beginning of the class.

The Choice-Based classroom is designed to be child and user friendly where the supplies are accessible. It is set up in centers of stations where students can focus on a material or making method. Students are allowed to move freely between centers to work on their project as long as they clean up after themselves.

Along with demos in materials and other artists, important skills like writing are incorporated through the development of artists statements. These statements helps to put some child artwork into perspective and allows you to learn about the students train of thought about the piece. Many times show pieces include an artist statement.

At the end of each class students are encouraged to talk about their work and even participate in critiques. I used to find it completely amazing that so much could be completed in one class but with a routine and schedule that students expect, the way the time is spent becomes more efficient.

I think that this will work really well in my environment as long as my kids can pick up after themselves. That is always my struggle. To help myself I have made charts to track clean up by center and by group for each week. This will help me keep them accountable. I think that given the ability to make their own decisions about their work will motivate them to either explore their topic more or even create series. I think that this will be successful because it gives students a voice at various times of the making process (artistically through their choice of materials and subject, artist statement and talk time). I feel that all children are learning when they are involved with something in which they are personally invested.

This whole time through Methods, I wanted to focus on how to develop problem solving skills and how play can be incorporated. I'm learning that play and problem are naturally occurring a choice based learning environment. Play happens when students try a new material and are unsure, they begin to naturally explore it and this is called the 'scribble stage'. The real art making occurs when they have learned  how to use the material enough to use it with an idea or in a project. Students who are motivated in their work are more likely to work through their problems if they get stuck. I think this part will be interesting to observe and will be one of the questions during talk time.

1. Did you get stuck at any point?
2. How did you move on?
3. How did you fix it? What was your solution?How did you come up with the solution?

I look forward to really trying this out on my class and seeing the results. The weeks that I give them a choice they are excited and the following weeks they ask for more or to finish their work from previous weeks. Their enthusiasm motivates me. 

Scavenger Mode

Lately I have been rummaging through my cabinets and generally being more aware of containers and how they could be used in my classroom. I have been taking all the giant paint bottles that are empty and cutting them in half. Then that turned into containers from my house and then the jug that my windshield wiper fluid came in and now people are bringing me more containers! Things I can actually use are starting to pile up and I am thankful because it will give me a way to organize materials when I create my centers.

Due to the HUGE bucket of unwrapped broken crayons and this amazing wax melting palette I bought from dickblick I think I can have an encaustic station when the time is right. That makes me really happy because we are using left over supplies in a new way. I might even throw in a candle making week for the much older kids. Already experimenting, which I have to say is my favorite part of my job. Having continuous piles of supplies and trying to make sense of them which usually turns out into some really cool pieces.

Some of my kids have taken to doing side projects and one of my teens is having a book fascination. She tears apart old books the librarian gives her and has turned it into this fantastic tree sculpture and a pretty sweet purse. Another teen is busy creating a sketchbook and rewrapping the cover in some new fancy fabrics that were just donated. It only reinforces my hopes that when they are intrinsically motivated, they are more willing to work for longer periods of time and are concentrated on their work.

All for now, going back to reading. The Unfolding of Artistic Activity arrived yesterday and my interest has been piqued.

The Learner Directed Classroom- Jaquith & Hathaway

I recently decided to take a break from Engaging Learning through Artmaking and have started to read The Learner Directed Classroom by D. Jaquith and N. E. Hathaway. I just wanted to switch over so I could wrap my head around some of the studio aspects like routine, demos and the first few centers to open. I scanned the book before reading it and realized that each chapter was a different educator/researcher writing on different classroom/studio environments. I am reading this book differently that I would normally [from front to back], instead I pick and choose which sections I think apply most to what I'm aiming for.

The chapters that have interested me the most or been most similar to my own future project were Chapter 3: Engaging Middle School Students Through Choice-Based Art: A Personal Reflection by L. Papanicolaou and Chapter 7: Testing the World Through Play and Art by G. Szekely.

Chapter 3 was most useful because it is the same age group I am planning to target when I conduct the research project. Also because much of what I read is set in an Elementary school, it was inspiring to read that this same format functions in middle school. I think that I am excited and scared to do this all with middle schoolers because middle schoolers have the ability to reflect on more complex ideas BUT they also are more concerned with others perception of their ideas. This often suppresses good ideas for fear of it not being accepted. At this point in their lives they just want to fit in. The positives outweigh the negatives and I think that if an accepting environment is created ideas can be freely shared without fear.

Chapter 7 struck a chord with me because I feel play is a component to learning that shouldnt be forgotten through the progression of grades. Playing encourages exploration and idea development. It encourages creation and involves decision making and problem solving. This chapter is mostly targeted to younger students but I think that I can apply it across the board. Also to show that play is allowable and encouraged in class is important. Many times students are worried that they will get in trouble for playing but as long as it is done in a nonharmful/non destructive that shows respect for materials being played with, I dont see a problem. I also know that Szekely writes on play often and I hope to read more of his work soon.

The last few days I have been discovering an abundance of blogs from other educators on choice. I have been having a lot of fun reading about their own instructional choice-methods and how they make it all work. I find it interesting that there are so many fiber arts centers. That is one thing that I can never remember doing but I still want to try. Since we are in the cleaning and planning for summer stages I have been finding awesome odds and ends to make my classroom work. I found over 50 of the plastic eyelet stitching 'sheets'. I got a little excited because now I had a start to a future center.

On one of those blogs I came upon the mention of 8 Studio Habits of mind. I didn't know what they were so I dug a little deeper and discovered they are by Lois Hetland. They are:

• Developing craft
• engage and persist
• envision and express
• observe
• reflect
• stretch and explore
• understand art world

I want to learn more about these and how these habits can encourage my members to have artistic tendencies.

Still waiting on my Unfolding Artistic Activity book. I'm looking forward to reading it because it was published so long ago and want to see how it applies to choice today. I'm excited about my growing collection of books, websites, and blogs. 

End of the School Year

As we begin to wrap up the 2012-2013 school year I keep thinking about my upcoming switch to choice-based learning. I'm getting a little nervous that some members wont take to it and I'm trying to plan ahead to cover all my bases. I try to talk more about it to prepare my members, many of which will be attending during the summer and the following school year. The first week of summer will be interesting because so many of the members attend a school based site during the school year and it is totally different than being in the main campus building. The number of children I see on a weekly basis basically triples during the summer, the days and block times are much longer as well. It is a completely different environment.

I cant physically move anything in my classroom because on June 1st they will be removing EVERYTHING in my classroom to strip the floors and re-do them.(the custodians HATE my room because I have SO much stuff- but that's the art room) I have been trying to label and organize things as a go in order to make the transition a bit smoother. I have made a few floor plans in hopes to help me organize the space itself as well as a tracking sheet for my future students. This will help me keep everyone in order and track their center, learning and attendance. My hopes are that at the end of the term there are enough really amazing works to have a small show. I think this will be a good experience to recognize all the artists.

Today I am including a picture of my most interesting and complete floor plan. I hope that this will work out and will really find out when I get to move all my furniture and tables back in June 3rd.

At the same time I continue to read on Choice-Based learning. This time I've been on Knowledge Loom- TAB. I recently ordered a book "Unfolding Artistic Activity" by Henry Schaffer-Simmern and am looking forward to getting that in the mail.

If you tilt your head to the right the picture might be easier to see. (I haven't learned to rotate things in blogger yet..oops) The entrance is on the left. It isn't to scale which worries me but it is just an idea of where I think things will work best. I also have to compensate for the fact that I will also be teaching a three hour painting class once a week and that I should have an area big enough with tables close enough that can be pushed together or moved easily for use.

I'm still feeling inspired but a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information. I keep trying to remind myself, one step at a time.

Classroom as it is..

As promised, here are some pictures of my classroom before the ultimate transformation. I have been cleaning so things are in semi-order. There are a lot of projects to be completed before the end of the school year.

 Standing at the front door and looking at the 'back wall' this is the view. All the tables are organized against the wall to maximize space and teach whole group lessons. This is going to change dramatically. I have started to inventory all of the furniture and dream up where I'm going to store things like the screen printing machine. This small table at the front with the stool is my 'second desk' mostly like the prep table where I keep supplies and things are mostly necessary for me. (think: attendance, supplies and randoms.)

 This is the back wall and my only window to the outside. I'm hoping that I can place my drawing station here so there is some inspiration either on or outside the window. The cubbies on the back wall will serve as space for drawing and collage resources. Exactly how has yet to be decided. The table in the front holds large projects that are currently in progress or need to be away from younger members.

 This is technically the 'front wall' but really isn't any more since  I changed the orientation of the classroom. My main desk is in the far corner. Next to the bulletin board is the large 4' x 8' public mural we are working on through a partnership with a restaurant. This is number 2 of 4 and they are all sports themed.

The picture below is the entrance to the class and along the back wall is the one VERY tiny sink. I try to do projects that minimize hand washing because this itself is a 25 minute process. (I never knew kids were so determined to have nice nails, even the boys.) So that is my classroom as it is right now. I'm already making sketches about where I plan to put new centers and resources. I'm trying to keep the back wall sort of free so we can have share time in front of the hanging gallery. It will also be a good place for a 5 minute museum talk.All those empty cubbies along the entrance wall will be the storage for portfolios (or so I think it will be at this time).

 

Lesson Learned: Keep Reading

All the questions I had in the last post were answered in the next chapter on the drawing center. If I had just kept reading for 10 more pages.. well, lesson learned, keep reading.

So the drawing station:

Keep the basics on hand and accessible to students for normal use.

Materials:

1. Pencils
2. Crayons
3. Colored Pencils
4. Markers
5. Erasers
6. Rulers
7. Stencils

Resources:

1. Drawings books
2. "What artists draw" board
3. Tips and tricks for materials
4. Idea Boards
1. I have this nifty idea in my head by starting each semester with the making of a new portfolio that keeps their work and serves as a brainstorm board to keep their ideas. Any time they are stuck they can refer to their portfolio [or the resource library] for inspiration.

The 'special' drawing supplies (pastel, charcoal, pen and ink) are kept separately and introduced through their own 5 minute demos as additions to the drawing center. In my own version students must fill out a plan sheet including their required materials and then they will be given the special supplies. This will also help cut down on waste.

I'm also wondering if I can keep the plan sheet and add self evaluation to it. At the bottom I've already added a corner that tracks whether they completed the project or if it was abandoned. Projects may not be abandoned without discussing it with me.

In Engaging Learning through Artmaking, the second center/station to be opened is simple painting. I dont know if that is manageable for me at this time. Currently our studio uses acrylic paint and tempra paint pucks. I guess the paint pucks are an option to start with but collage seems more logical and manageable.

On a side note: I had a horrible experience yesterday that made me cringe when thinking about implementing choice. I passed out pastels [brand new in the box, mostly unbroken, brilliant pastels] and when I came around to collect them one of the girls had drawn all over them with her pencil and then used pastels to color other pastels. I about lost my mind. So in looking back I am trying to think of reasons for her inappropriate behavior and lack of respect for the materials. She wasn't engaged with the materials and she didn't like her project, so that was what she did to take up her time. So now I know next time to approach it differently. I'm still stuck on whether to trust her with the new materials, so is it wrong if as a consequence she must work in something else? like crayons? In some of the readings so far it has mentioned closing of a station when the materials are mistreated. I will have to see how this goes.

And I am hoping to load pictures of my classroom in its current state before the transformation so that should be coming soon... as soon as I find the charger to my digital camera.

So many options for centers.. where to start

After completing one book (Choices without Chaos by Anne Bedrick) and being about a 1/3 of the way through the second (Engaging Learners through Artmaking: Choice Based Art Education in the Classroom by K. Douglas and D. Jaquith). I'm learning and thinking about the logical order in which to open and introduce centers.

It seems almost obvious that some kind of drawing {materials?,subject matter? style?} should come first but even within that there are so many different options. Do you show students pencils, colored pencils, markers,  pastels, charcoals and pen and ink all in one 5 minute demo?! It dont know that its possible, so do we assume that they can handle the basics on their own and only need intro to charcoal, pastel, and pen and ink? Is pen and ink too much at first? Should that be a demo all on its own?

I really think that the only way to figure it out is to try it out. It might depend on the students themselves and their prior knowledge of materials. Being so new to this, I think it is important to start slow and really watch how the students react to the materials and the structure of the class. I think that will allow me to reflect on the ways the students interact with the materials and how they go about developing their ideas using a material they have just been introduced to. This way I can take notes and make changes along the way.

Bedrick opens the collage center second and that seems a little more manageable, until I start thinking about confetti sized pieces of magazine left over and hidden in between all the good paper. I think that this center will require good organization and maybe even a chart with "If the scrap is smaller than this shape, please throw it out" and it would have a shape that they could hold up the scrap to and measure. That would also cut down on the times I would hear "Miss Alexa, is this too small to keep?" Now, to use glue stick or to use elmer's glue? Elmers glue lasts longer, but takes longer to dry. Glue sticks dry almost instantly but dry out if they aren't covered properly and dont last as long? Convenience or expense? Being a non-profit we have a lot of donated school supplies so as long as those keep providing the Elmer's glue more than glue sticks I will have to ration glue sticks.

Painting is normally third but I would like to do printmaking and working with stamps. I have not thought much about this center yet though. Must read more.

I dont know that it is common to demo a material again or provide more information for those interested. But maybe go back to drawing a little and introduce other relevant materials to drawing in another 5 minute demo? Or is that a way I could differentiate between age groups? Maybe seeing it again from a different perspective would intrigue other students that weren't so motivated the first time? Like giving them a second opportunity to be inspired?

I seem to have a lot of questions again. So back to reading I go.

"No one is invisible in art class" ( Douglas & Jaquith, 2009, pg. 34)

I was in the middle of reading and this sentence closed a paragraph. It automatically struck me that this is something I have already noticed while attempting to ease my students into the idea of creating art from ther own ideas. In the short time that I have been allowing more freedom I have learned so much about my students that I would have never known if I had chosen the theme for them. I saw genuine effort and attempts at new ideas and furthing old ones. It was incredibly fascinating that a young student could recall every small detail from a Pokemon character and describe his powers and spend his time working on something that really engaged him. The only requirement for this project of their own ideas was to practice blending colors with color pencils. He did not only that but was so proud of his work that he wanted me to hang it.

Another plus, I haven't seen anything thrown away since I let them choose. It is such a wonderful feeling as an art teacher to see students learning, completely engaged, getting to know them, and being PROUD of their own work. Made my little art teacher heart melt.

This is not the only student Ive been blessed to learn more about either. It is amazing how much they want to talk about their ideas when given the time.

-Alexa

Art Room Organization

Yesterday, I left off thinking about the room organization so I wanted to go back to Choices without Chaos and go to the chapter on classroom and center set up. Centers usually accommodate materials that are often used together. This is really important to me as making the centers and observing students in them is [at this point] part of what I'm doing for my Capstone project. Some of the best tips and tricks for organization I found were:

1. Clean out and sort EVERYTHING. I remember when I first walked into my classroom three years ago, what a mess. It was a dumping ground for everything every one thought could be used for an art project. I spent hourssss cleaning it up and it seems like it is time to do that again. I need to purge and I hope that I can start doing that soon.

2. LABEL everything. Also, dont just label the thing, label the spot where it lives so that students can return it to exactly where it belongs. This behavior of returning things to where they found it is essential in a choice-based learning environment.

3. To store common materials like pencils, erasers, scissors and glue at every center or make a central location for it all? I'm not sure on this one. I think that some centers will require it and some will not. I recently read on another blog deepspacesparkle.com to ban pencils and erasers because they cause second guessing. I will agree and disagree with that because in some areas I think they need it. In centers like painting I dont think I will allow them because then they spend too much time marking up the canvas with pencil and not thinking about paint application and techniques.

In the drawing center [Chapter 4] explanation Bedrick discusses how she opens with the drawing center. I plan to do the same and simulate a full choice approach by placing different drawing materials on each table: Crayons & Colored Pencils, Markers, Pastels, Charcoal and I'll see if I can round up anything else in my classroom (would it be too soon for pen and ink?). I am planning on uploading some before and after pictures and I think the changes will be obvious. I think this will help students see how the choice classroom functions and get them used to having options. I was thinking that in order to encourage movement between stations I could create an activity with songs, where a song is played the members work in that material and when the song ends they clean up and move to another, then another song begins. Of course with songs that are current and appealing to middle school aged members. This will also get the members in the habit of cleaning up before they move to something new.

I have started to collect odd and ends and containers to be able to sort everything and display it in a user friendly way. After thinking about the design of the room, I've got to start thinking about how I'm going to display information about the materials.

That is all for now.