Artistic Vision
Art Education. Straight Up.Archive for Education
2009 Art Educators of New Jersey Fall Conference
I came back from this year’s Art Educators of New Jersey Fall Conference with some new things to think about. I have to admit to wondering what this year’s conference was going to be like since the State refused the petition for a waiver for schools to cover overnight stays. But, the hotel was booked and things seemed just as crowded as last year.
While my school couldn’t cover my stay at the hotel, they did cover my food, tolls, registration/membership and mileage. The mileage coverage will bring my car rental to about $2-3. (My car has 195k miles on it and the engine smokes if I drive it longer than 15 minutes. LOL!)
I have to admit that one of the classes I signed up for was a dud primarily because the instructor for the class left too much time (an hour and a half) for “playing” and “experimentation” versus walking us through doing certain techniques with the medium. To me, direct instruction in those venues seems to have more value for participants. But, that’s me.
The non-hands on wire animal sculpture session was great and is something I can immediately bring to my classes this year. This plus a couple of other events made it a worthwhile adventure.
I’d love to be able to go to the National Art Educators Conference in Baltimore next year but I can’t swing being away from the family. Plus, my school probably won’t foot the bill. I may try to get there for a day. We’ll see.
NCLB, the SATs and hypocrisy
Is it just me or is it really just hypocritical that people get bent out of shape over NCLB (No Child Left Behind) whereas the SAT has been around for (seemingly) forever? Ok, NCLB is about federal funds but the principle remains the same, right?
It all comes down to a single test being the defining piece of information about your ability to perform well in college (and, to some, life).
Yes, ignore them, but …
I’ve received a few responses to my last post concerning my students’ complaints during class (Intro to Painting, in particular). I was going to respond to them individually but I’ve decided it would be better to clarify my thoughts in a formal post.
The comments I’ve received can be summarized by Daniel over at kungfu komix—
“Ignore them. Students are always that way.”
I’m sympathetic to this sentiment. On some level I think any art teacher who deals with urban kids or kids taking introductory courses needs to be aware of this (seemingly) pervasive dismissive attitude.
I should have clarified myself in the original post that my distress is also (and perhaps more so) related to the incessant talking that occurs while I’m trying to teach. When I try to address it, the students don’t get it. Sadly, their insensitivity is what most distresses (and, frankly, scares) me.
It drains me because waiting for them to get quiet—which is what I was instructed to do by an administrator— causes my projects to take forever to get done or move forward. And, the fact that the lesson gets drawn out causes MORE complaining from my students. (Yes, they’re clueless to the fact that THEY are the root cause of the delay.)
The students’ insensitivity scares me because it reinforces to me how shortsighted they are to how their own behavior is negatively affecting their education. I’ve tried to clue them in to the fact that, unless they go into a science, medical or engineering field they would use most of the higher math they are learning. BUT, the skills I’m teaching them could be a hobby they enjoy until the day they die. Well, maybe the day BEFORE they die. LOL!
Hopefully, this fills in the gaps on my frustration regarding my students lack of motivation. Additional thoughts anyone?
Beyond motivation
This week was particularly troubling for me. Emotionally, I was drained by my students’ constant complaints:
- This is too hard
- This is meaningless
- This is so dumb
- I’m never going to use this
- Blah, blah, blah.
Albeit none of these complaints is new or surprised me. I’ll be reflecting this weekend on my personal responses as I do my lesson planning.
My painting class, in particular, has been quite distressing. They don’t understand why we’re learning drawing basics. My attempts at explaining it fell on deaf ears.
What do you do with students who position themselves beyond motivation?
I met with my media specialist yesterday. I wanted to discuss with her the possibility of taking 3-4 students out of my painting class and giving them writing assignments. One of the kids has been asking for this from the beginning of the year because he hates art. (He failed art last year.) We came up with a couple of ideas. We’re going to meet again next week.
New students, same attitude
The first month of school has passed. Over the summer I thought through what I would cover in the new classes I got approval for teaching.
Unfortunately, while I can change course content I can’t change my students’ hearts. This year, like last, is proving no different with regards to that. I was hoping my frustration level would have matured but my disappointment is already peaking.
I started teaching the kids about the Elements and Principles of Design by tying it to a nonrepresentational abstract drawing project. I showed examples of other black and white abstract works and talked the students through an initial; taking the definitions of the Elements and Principles and describing how I would write about it for that piece of art.
I read through some of the papers and many were poorly done. Because I decided to have them write once a week on a different piece—describing how the artist used the Elements and Principles—I realize now that I will have to provide them with an actual writing sample.
I’ll keep you all posted.
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