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.
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).
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
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.
Art Threat: a web magazine about politics and the arts. They write about political art of all genres, discuss policy as it pertains to culture, and showcase artists whose work inspires social change.
Better Posters: a resource for improving poster presentations.
Digital Ethnography: a Kansas State University working group led by Dr. Michael Wesch dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography.
eLeaning Infusion: some good information here especially if your considering using digital portfolios.
Above is a video created by Stephen Heppelland prepared for the Department of Children, Schools and Families to engender a debate about 21st century schools, personalisation, etc
Shouting and waving your arms at buggy technology doesn’t normally do anything useful. With these robots, it makes art. FULL STORY FROM WIRED HERE.
Lastly, the Globe and Mail will run multipart features under the umbrella “The Download Decade.” Part 1 is on Napster. (Can you believe that was 10 years ago already?!) There are a few other interesting side stories as well. GO HERE.
A TEACHER in Scotland has won a European education award for his pioneering work using computer games to help primary pupils make the transition to secondary school.
Ollie Bray’s use of gaming technology landed him first prize among 150 teachers and policy-makers from 40 European countries.
Stimulating Imagination Through Constraints
