Thanks to Justin Medved for posting this video on his TYS Tech Sessions blog (@The York School). A good watch indeed and about 10 minutes long.
We are about 2 months into school now. I don’t know about you, but I am BUSY. Swamped actually. Every year seems to grow and get busier and busier. More stuff gets added but it feels like not much is taken out. With this, I ponder if I continue to challenge my students out of their comfort zone in Art. Are they challenging themselves or simply giving me what I want for assessment purposes? Do I encourage them to experiment enough or do I rush them?
I was flipping through some bookmarked videos and stumbled across this one again (video below). Not fully related to what I am writing but it made me wonder if I am understanding my students. I can’t remember who passed it on to me, so apologies. It’s in Japanese with Korean and English subtitles. Some food for thought.
How video games are good for the brain (via The Boston Globe)
…and thanks to Daniel Pink for the Edutopia tip below.
Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games
An Arizona State University professor sees a bright future for video games in the learning process — in and out of school.
Stimulating Imagination Through Constraints is an interesting article from Psychology Today. As a specialist teacher who often visited classrooms in the past, I have seen several teachers simply ask their students to “be creative” or “use your imagination” for project tasks. Too bad it’s not that simple. Students will not usually know where to start. Nor would I.
In the classroom we need to be ‘clear and explicit about definitions, concepts and processes.’ Being creative does not simply mean to create something with no limits in mind. Usually such an open task will lead to more frustration and poorer quality of work. How will you then evaluate when all was simply asked was to be creative and imaginative? Providing some constraints can help define the problem and assist in solving the problem in creative ways.
(Read the full article through the link provided above).
I have added a few videos under my ICT Theories and Info tab above recently that you may find interesting. One has taken inspiration from the CommonCraft team and created a video on Digital Storytelling in Plain English. Another is from Alan November (Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom) and finally, the lengthy Teaching Search in the Classroom from Google.
Other interesting reads from the web:
Michelle Obama tells International audience why the Arts Matter (from Los Angeles Times)
Schools Adopt Art as Building Block of Education (from The New York Times)
From Text on Paper to Media Collage – Art becomes the next R (from Jason Ohler via The Committed Sardine)
What’s new? 21st Century Skills (by Jamie McKenzie)
Media literacy skills have been important for decades as the news media transitioned into entertainment and a few international corporations consolidated control over information. While media literacy was important in the 1960s, it was sorely neglected. It may be even more crucial today but remains unattended by many school programs.
Digital Images for Education is “an unrivalled online image library, comprising over 500 hours of film and 56,000 photos, will be available free of charge for at least 25 years to UK higher and further education institutions from Summer 2010.”
(video link here)
Since a new school year is upon us, Edutopia recently posted this. Click the link for more in-depth explanations and exampels. A brief and quick summary is below.
10 Rules of Engagement
1. Start Class with a Mind Warm-Up
2. Use Movement to get Kids Focused
3. Teach Students how to Collaborate Before Expecting Success
4. Use Quickwrites When You Want Quiet Time and Student Reflection
5. Run a Tight Ship When Giving Instructions
6. Use a Fairness Cup to Keep Students Thinking
7. Use Signaling to Allow Everyone to Answer Your Question
8. Use Minimal-Supervision Tasks to Squeeze Dead Time out of Regular Routines
9. Mix up Your Teaching Styles
10. Create Teamwork Tactics That Emphasize Accountability
Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings and connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas? (link here)
(Also archived under the “Arts, Learning & Talks” tab above)
It’s a New School Year!
For the best professional development this year, start twittering and get a strangle hold of your RSS feed/Reader. I find Google Reader the easiest. If you already have a gmail account, you are pretty much set.
(video link here)
Everyone asks me for good blogs to follow in order to get information, tools and ideas etc. Some of my choices are:
Art/Design/Culture Related Blogs:
IT/Educational Blogs:
Other Great Websites/Blogs/Nings I follow/belong to: Tuts, Art21, Flowing Data, Art Education 2.0, Daniel H. Pink,
I hope this helps and you find what you are looking for. I’d love to hear any other recommendations you might have as well.
Smashing magazine provides 50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills. It offers advice on grammar, guides to becoming a better writer and tools to use to become a better writer. Several sites are provided to help you become a better writer, blogger and are useful for both teacher and student.
