I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin
School may have started already, or, as in NYC, it is just about to start. Getting the room ready, setting up your files, your lesson plans, backward planning your curriculum map (what do you mean, what’s that?), putting up the new bulletin boards outside your rooms, hanging up this or that, taking inventory of the classroom library: all this and more. You’ve been to the store a few times, at least, and you’ve most likely come close to spending a lot of your own money that will not be reimbursed for the coming year.
You gab with those you haven’t seen all summer, gossip with those you have, and already start thinking about where to go Friday after school for drinks. Don’t deny it. Plans for vacations will probably come up once or twice too, and the kids haven’t started yet.
Now, that’s if you’re in an area that puts something into the schools.
Now, I have been a school teacher in New York City. I’ve seen first hand the overcrowding. I’ve heard the complaints about no funds for copy paper, new books, material, and more.
According to the link above, this is ONE classroom of an elementary age school. Siblings of various ages are put in the one room, with one teacher. ONE TEACHER.
Should we not expect the best for the children of the world?
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein
What’s my point? Yes, we want the best, the cleanest, the newest, the ability to have the most resources for our students.
It’s not going to happen, unless everyone gets behind the Educational System, and not only go beyond the care of the aesthetics of the school (the bulletin boards and such) and really get back to what is important: allowing education to happen. Concentrating on how to reach and engage the students more than buying the right color choice?
Can that one teacher lead those in his or her classroom as effectively without the frills and gadgets? Yes, of course. Those things are only gloss and the razzle dazzle. Test scores as the only means of assessment are only razzle dazzle. They obscure the basis of what is real: finding the way to reach students that are getting more difficult to reach, and in some cases, more difficult to manage.
What Would YOU Do With This Empty Classroom?Is The Room More Important Than The Student?
“The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic…music, dance, painting, and theater are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.”
– –William Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education
As much as we want there to be dedicated instructors of all the arts disciplines in schools, we have to face the current financial reality and the mindset of the policy makers: it’s going to take a lot to get new programs in the arts going in schools. This has happened before, and it will happen again. The arts are among the first things to get cut when things get tough, and when education is attacked.
Test scores become the only means of assessment that mean anything to the policy makers. Scores are fairly tangible. They can be put into statistics. They are understood by business minds. They present pretty graphs and charts and can be easily defined. The policy makers don’t have to work hard to understand anything other than numbers and line charts. They don’t see the value in other means of assessment.
They do need their eyes opened to other ways so the children in our schools today are not harmed further.
Until we get back to the practice of supporting the individualistic arts in our public schools (and bless the school leaders who have retained the treasures they do have in place and have kept them), Arts Integration should be on the minds of all parents and educators.
Most teachers already do art integration without acknowledging it or realizing it’s part of their plans. How many dioramas, Readers Theater, play readings, recorder lessons, science fairs, etc. has your student gone through. Presentations are often accompanied with fine art, music accompaniment, dramatizations and more. It’s more prevalent in Elementary school. Role playing in discussions happens in the later grades as well, as does art. Dance is subjective, but a good physical education program incorporates body movements (synchronized anything). Dance incorporates Math and easily explores literacy as another means of interpretation.
The core subjects are enhanced and reach more students when introduced in interesting ways. When I was leading the American Voices project for the NYC Department of Education (integrating Theater Arts into 8th & 11th Grade SS curriculum), I personally heard students say that this was the first time they actually enjoyed learning Social Studies. I saw students in many schools interact and show great interest in a subject that they normally were not engaged in. That last from the teachers who participated in the program.
They were introduced to the time period they were studying, the socio/economic/political structure of those eras, through great American plays of the time or that spoke for that time. They had art, music, dance, theater, history, literacy, math and science tied into the units.
The best part: they learned and were interested.
“We need people who think with the creative side of their brains—people who have played in a band, who have painted…it enhances symbiotic thinking capabilities, not always thinking in the same paradigm, learning how to kick-start a new idea, or how to get a job done better, less expensively.”
–Annette Byrd, GlaxoSmithKline
There are a number of sites that have lesson plans for educators already set up. The best, in my opinion, is ArtsEdge from the Kennedy Center. When I was just starting out and planning my curriculum map for the year, ArtsEdge proved to be among the best. It gave me units to work with, lesson plans that were easily modified for my individual classes, source material, printable diagrams, and more ideas for other projects. I used a number of them, and a number jump started me into creating my own curriculum ideas.
What’s great is it has lesson plans for ALL grade levels, extending into Middle and High School ages. The range is extensive and can help any teacher who feels they want to try something new.
I strongly support trying new things, for yourself and for your students. It’s a new school year. Find a new way to engage and still work towards the goals of the test. I think you’ll be happily surprised.
Do you have other Arts Integration sites you love? Share them here. I’ll be happy to post a follow up.
I was recently, in a joking-not-joking manner, called obstreperous by a friend. She was talking about my refusal to call Twitter messages “tweets” (my counter: if they wanted me to call them tweets, they should have called it Tweeter, which, in my mind, makes a whole heck of a lot more sense. I call them Twits, and that is what I feel about Twitter to begin and end with).
My best friend, when I told him this, laughed loudly and extolled how right she was. To him, at times, my standing to my guns, to NOT be controlled, is “wrong”, and has been my “downfall” in more administrative ways then you want to know.
I don’t play the game well, if at all, and this has amounted to a number of times he and others have shaken their heads at me. I truly feel that when a rule or policy is not in the best interest of the students: why do it? “Because I told you so!” or “We’ve always done it that way” just makes me crazy. Those are not answers but symptoms of the larger problem.
McMurphy: But I tried, didn’t I? Goddamnit, at least I did that. (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)
“To Sir, With Love” is the movie that comes to mind of a teacher/educator who won’t play by the rules, who realizes that to reach some students, you just can’t go with the flow. You have to be stubborn, you have to resist the control of the system. I saw the movie when it came out, and young kid or not, I got into the whole thing. Sure, at first it was because of the song by Lulu that was playing all over the radio, but I enjoyed, even then in 1967 (I was eleven; geez, a lifetime ago), the difference between a teacher who just went through the motions and such to one who fought to get the attention of his students, to go out of his way to care for their future.
Looking back, it’s easy for me to formulate why this movie resonated with me then. I hated school, hated most of my teachers (yeah, really, really hated them), and just zoned out in elementary school as much as I could. I was smart enough to pass along, but not dedicated to what drivel they were handing out. I WANTED a teacher like him, who was interesting, who would make me sit up and learn, not be made to feel like a nothing, like I felt most of the time under the gaze of disapproving teachers. I wanted this teacher.
Don’t you?
Don’t you want a teacher who will fight to do what is right for your child, or even if you don’t have school age children (or any at all)? Don’t you want our future leaders and everyday people to have an education that will benefit them, which in turn will benefit the world? Don’t you want to entrust our lives-the children are our lives-to people who care as opposed to waiting to get tenure, who only wait for the weekends, only for vacation and summer breaks, and then wait to retire?
I guess what I’m asking here is: fight for the right to have educators who are obstreperous for the students, and any who come under their gaze.
“We look at parents as partners. We’re partners in working towards their kids’ success. The last thing we want to do is to get in this adversarial relationship, but when you’ve exhausted every available option, there must be some bottom line, and there must be some point where you say you must obey the law.”
Education of and for the children is 24/7, 365 days a year. Period. It does not happen solely in the school building, or whatever “institution of education” you subscribe to. If a parent is NOT involved, then they are not doing their job. It’s a shame so many have to work with hardships (financial; little to no familial support; etc). I do empathize. BUT…once you’ve brought a child onto this planet, YOU have a commitment that has to override everything else: take care of the kid, show him/her discipline, focus, love, and leading a proper path (which to me is do no harm to yourself or others, and work to the best of your abilities..and then go one step more).
When you baby your babies, you are doing them harm. When you force the school systems to baby your babies, you are really doing them harm. When you support your child’s laziness and bad habits, you are doing them harm. When you threaten but do not follow through with ANY type of consequence, you are doing them harm. When you reward your baby for doing what they are supposed to do, you are doing them harm. When you create an adversarial relationship with your partner-THE SCHOOL & TEACHERS ARE YOUR PARTNER-, you are doing a tremendous amount of harm.
If you don’t see any of the above as actual problems in your parenting style, then you are REALLY doing them, your babies, your children, your charges, your wards, your life… harm.
There are many parents to applaud. I do really believe that, with everything I write. I also believe that there are many teachers, administrators and school systems that are applaud worthy. I do. They need the press MORE than the negative ones that make me and others like me vent.
We should Celebrate more then rehash our venting, so…
I HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR ALL OF YOU:
Write a paragraph or so and send it to me about an AMAZING parent/teacher partnership; an amazing parent/school partnership; ANY outstanding Parent/Education partnership.
I really want to write about these things and post them, especially as we are soon ready to enter the new school year.
Let US know. Send me that email and YOUR story, or another, will become it’s own posting.
Questions I had/have/will continue to have, and answers I’ve been getting. One of the key things that I feel needs to be done here is to provide a forum for voices, on either side, and that dialogue will happen.
The other thing is: I hope it causes even ONE person to get off their complaining duff and DO SOMETHING. That was t
The whole point of yesterday’s Che quote: if you can even spark something in one person, who knows where that lead.
I do kinda sorta expect something to come out of all this. I’m in the process of making connections to do just that: DO SOMETHING. I want to find a way to take this blog to “the streets” and help facilitate some change.
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. Bertolt Brecht
Thanks to this blog, I have had the GREAT fortune to become acquainted with Ms. Sharon Holzscherer Principal, Mississippi School for the Arts in Canada. I have really treasured our correspondence and phone discussions, and I plan to go to Canada sometime in the Fall to see her school in action. In regards to sharing her personal info here, Sharon said: “I am across the border and safe from witch burnings!”
(Sorry, but I had to do that! Well, I’m not really sorry, but…well, you know…if it floats like a duck…)
1. Why do you care about the educational system of today?
Education is the foundation of society. If we neglect the children then we can only imagine what kind of adults they will become. Education is the medium whereby we pass on history, culture, social mores, and skills. Without education each generation starts from the beginning as raw animals. Education, by the way, does not happen exclusively or even mainly in schools.
2. What is your background (short bio)?
I have been a teacher for over 20 years, in the private sector. I have, just recently, completed my Masters of Education. I am principal of a small private arts high school in Canada. I am also the very proud parent of 4 adult children, all products of my own educational views, and doing great!
3. What do you feel is an overriding problem(s) educators are facing today?
Educators are being asked to take over more and more of the responsibility for the raising of children as parents either abdicate their responsibilities or are too busy to fulfill them properly. Parenting is a full time job. Along with all this responsibility, teachers are being given less and less freedom and power. They are also attributed all the blame when society goes off the tracks.
4. How do you feel this problem (these problems) can be solved?
Teachers need to be respected for the professionals that they are. They need to be given the power and freedom to teach. However, they also need to have better training in pedagogical practices, apprenticeship programs for beginning teachers (at least two years), an independent self-governing body (like doctors and lawyers), and lose the union. They cannot have all the perks and safeties if they really want the freedom to do their jobs. No one can have it both ways. We turn our children over to teachers who have often had barely two years of training for lesson plans, etc. and minimal practical experience. Doctors and lawyers go to school and article or intern for several years. Are their professions harder than ours?
5. What changes/paradigm shifts do you feel are necessary?
Sir Ken Robinson!!! School is not a factory or production line. It is a garden where children grow, exposed to the best in all fields that our society can offer them. We need to rediscover the individual while instilling a respect for others. Nurture the single plant to support the whole garden.
6. What is your view on Process vs. Product?
Economics is not the basis for life. (Heresy! they scream. Burn her at the stake!) Truly, people, when everything is based on its monetary value then we are reduced to products. Production is a by-product of people being healthy, happy, and inspired. Bored, obese, resigned employees produce the minimum necessary to get by. Focus on the process and the product will take care of itself.
7. Do you believe Arts-In-Education are important? Yes or No, can you please explain why you feel that way?
Arts-in-Education are crucial. They not only pass on and develop the culture of a nation, without which a nation dies, but also stimulate creativity. Innovation is the tool of the future. It is always what has made America great – from its innovative approach to governing to its vision of reaching the moon. Imagination has much more power than complacency. Look at your history. When nations stopped doing new things and just strove for more and more of the old, they declined.
8. If you believe we should replace the Standardized Testing process, what form of assessment do you feel the students would benefit more from and the policy makers would be “happiest” with? If you agree with Standardized Testing, could you please explain why?
Standardized testing is a tool. It can be used for an appropriate reason, such as seeing if students need additional help or are too advanced for the proposed curriculum. It has got out of control whereby policy makers no longer care what is being tested as long as Americans score in the top two or three. This need to assess is based on a mistaken belief that teachers are wasting taxpayers’ money in classrooms. The money is being wasted at the bureaucratic level and they should be held accountable. When a doctor gives one a test, the doctor is not then assessed himself and the patient is not assessed against other patients. Let teachers, with their professional training, assess the children and discuss it with the parents. No one else should be concerned. As for the spending of taxpayer money, follow a dollar and truly show how little of it makes it to the teacher’s hand.
9. What role do you feel parents/guardians should have with the schools?
Parents are and always should be responsible for their children. Their job is to partner with the teachers and schools so that their children can be given the skills and knowledge that they cannot give. Schools should deal with academics and cultural experiences. Parents should deal with behaviour, mores, prejudice, respect, and responsibility. Parents should do their job and let the teachers do theirs.
10. You can create the ideal school: what THREE things must be in place that are non-negotiable?
1. Absolute control of the curriculum. 2. Absolute control of hiring and training the staff. 3. Clear understanding of the expectations of teachers and parents and students.
11. If you have one, what is your favorite quote dealing with education?
So many of them are negative that I have yet to find a really positive one that I like. I would welcome suggestions since I collect sayings )
12. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Until teachers leave the safety and comfort of their secure union jobs and truly demand the power and respect they need to do their jobs, there will be no reform. Teachers are the only ones with the knowledge and training to achieve relevant reform. “Life shrinks or expands in direct proportion to one’s courage.”
Thank you Sharon. Comments are Most Welcome!!! More of the Q&A to come!!
So…you open your mouth, not even so much in condemnation, but with inquiry, with suggestions, possible solutions…
Oh, wait… that type of person, educator or not, is often frowned upon. Branded a trouble maker, not having Team Spirit, not following the herd, well, you better run, duck and cover… it’s a bumpy road ahead of you. That is, if they don’t fine a way to get rid of you, somehow.
Keep to the status quo, stay silent, vote the way we want you to vote, don’t upset the apple cart, and please: We’ve always done it this way! What are you? A radical?
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms. Che Guevara
I sent out an interview/questionnaire to a number of people who have voiced concerns about the state of education today. Some, I never heard from. A few tell me that what I’ve asked is too much (12 questions) for them to devote any time to (that one I don’t get). Others are in the process of writing, with research and more. A few have asked to remain anonymous.
Before you cry “chicken” or “Stand and Deliver!” or whatever, understand: there is a lot of petty revenge that goes on in school administration and with policy makers. They can be vindictive, and jobs can be threatened (and right now, with our tanking economy, I understand the need to protect yourself but still want your voice heard. I have shot myself in the foot a number of times over the years, but I don’t suffer fools gladly.
Q&A #1
1. Why do you care about the educational system of today?
I am a teacher - I care about kids and the future.
2. What is your background (short bio)?
I was an unhappy student, and initially a reluctant teacher. I am now quite inspired and fulfilled with much of that job. I teach a variety of theatre arts classes in an urban magnet school grades 6 – 12.
3. What do you feel is an overriding problem(s) educators are facing today?
Apathy, cell phones, internet. Kids will do almost anything for a grade but don’t value their own learning.
4. How do you feel this problem (these problems) can be solved?
I don’t know.
5. What changes/paradigm shifts do you feel are necessary?
Experiental learning over testing – a given. But that’s easy…
6. What is your view on Process vs. Product?
Yes, I work hard to create a great product but I would toss that away for a rewarding process any day…it’s all about the journey.
7. Do you believe Arts-In-Education are important? Yes or No, can you please explain why you feel that way?
Yes!! You can learn almost any core subject from a book, the internet or TV. The arts help you to learn about yourself as a creative being, as an individual with a voice, as a member of society.
8. If you believe we should replace the Standardized Testing process, what form of assessment do you feel the students would benefit more from and the policy makers would be “happiest” with? If you agree with Standardized Testing, could you please explain why?
I do believe that Standardized Testing should go. Not sure on an alternate form of assessment.
9. What role do you feel parents/guardians should have with the schools?
A school should be a community with parents being a essential voice within that community.
Q & A #2
1. Why do you care about the educational system of today? As an overall human, it is the means by which we are creating our next generation. I have gotten into discussions with others about the funding of education and I maintain that while my wife and I will never be able to have children, we will benefit from a good educational system. I’d rather live in a society that is better educated than mine. As an educator….well, if I don’t care about the educational system then I am living a lie. I am an educator because I was put on this earth to be one and help others.
2. What is your background (short bio)? Arts for many years. History Teacher through a non-traditional licensing program.
3. What do you feel is an overriding problem(s) educators are facing today? Bloated and misunderstanding/selfish management struggling with “higher expectations” and smaller funding. The “education crisis” of today cries of the same worries about our educational system in the 50′s after Sputnik and the 80′s when “competing with Japan.” The newest wrinkles include economic recession(s), a chip on some shoulders that an earlier generation was wronged when in school and a lack of understanding from prior generations that the world/business model has changed. The old methods cannot work anymore because the job market has changed so drastically. It isn’t an academic link but this video made quite an impression on me a couple of years ago and it is still powerful (I’m going to have to send the link separately – it won’t let me without erasing everything else).
4. How do you feel this problem (these problems) can be solved? Stop trying to fix things with a broad, simple brushstroke. Swallow some pride and look in and outside of America to see what works. These are problems that need to be worked on by EVERYONE (politicians – though most major decisions need to be made on a very local basis as needs change from place to place, administrators, teachers, all of the adult family unit). The family unit is so important in the early cognitive development. We cannot regulate what goes on in the family, but educators need to reach out to the families in a more proactive way. I have seen too many times when families and educators view each other as the enemy. There are school systems that work well with the communities and those are usually the ones that show higher scores in testing.
5. What changes/paradigm shifts do you feel are necessary? In addition to the above there are too many teachers that simply give reading assignments, handouts with fill in the blank from those reading assignments, power point lecture with the answers to those fill in the blanks and give a (most of the time multiple guess) test over those hand outs. Educators cannot go about things with the same approach at all times. Besides, our students need to learn to reason, life is not multiple guess.
6. What is your view on Process vs. Product? Both need to be assessed at all times. The results of the process should be seen in the product and the results of the product should assess the process.
7. Do you believe Arts-In-Education are important? Yes or No, can you please explain why you feel that way? Yes. This is another area where “groups” should be working more closely. One can find most if not all of the “academic” classes in every medium of the arts. Both “arts” and “academic” educators need to find these connections and find a way to work together. Repetition is very important in education and being able to find where these intersections take place will only be beneficial to the students. Besides, it will help when overlapping learning styles.
8. If you believe we should replace the Standardized Testing process, what form of assessment do you feel the students would benefit more from and the policy makers would be “happiest” with? If you agree with Standardized Testing, could you please explain why? I believe there is a place for standardized testing, but too much emphasis is placed on it. There are many types of non-traditional assessments as well that can measure what our students are learning. I understand that agreeing what types should be included and cost can become an issue, but we must have multiple methods of assessing learning.
9. What role do you feel parents/guardians should have with the schools? Educators and administrators are partners of parents/guardians when it comes to the education of the children. We are all a part of a community and all should be treated as such.
10. You can create the ideal school:what THREE things must be in place that are non-negotiable? Strong Leadership with great communication; Firm, yet flexible (when appropriate) discipline; and respect for knowledge/learning.
I know I haven’t touched on my Top Ten list of what I consider elements of my ideal school in quite a while. I hope to rectify that over the next week. With school restarts in approximately one month, things need to still be discussed.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy
When a teacher is only following, by rote, the words and actions of the proscribed, they are basically automatons that fail. They fail in their potential, they get frustrated by the strangle hold, they feel their voice is not only unheard but unnecessary…Why train teachers, then, if policy makers only want regurgitation baby sitters?
A school that does work as a team, that does work on the principles of unilateral decision and planning making can empower the teachers to be more: they can be School Leaders. Money is really not the motivator we all seem to believe in. Yes, there are too many who fall into that trap, because, in the end, what else is there for them?
They have little to no say in policy. Most are told what to do, what to say, what colored pens they can use, what they can and can’t teach, etc. You have those teachers and schools that are progressive, that remain true to the craft and the reason they set out to be teachers in the first place, but it can often be beaten out of them by the system.
You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Besides my own working experience in the NYC Schools, I have been a Teaching Artist since 1995, working in too many to count schools in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut (plus other states and in London). The variety of schools, teachers and principals I’ve encountered over the years is vast, from the unbelievably wonderful to the “get me out of here NOW!”.
I’ve also heard my fair share of horror stories about principals. Do they have a lot of pressure on them from all sides? Of course they do. Do they have to handle the bureaucrats, the parents, teachers, aides, students, paperwork, rules and regulations, ratings, scores, safety, “educational” mandates, paperwork and more paperwork? Yes, we do know that. It’s not an easy job, and one I would never in my life want.
At least, not in the way it’s being run now.
Ah, but create a team mentality, not only within the school but an extended one, where the power and pressure and distribution of the running of the school is shared and has all invested? Now, that’s different. That changes the paradigm. That shifts the power and the thinking and the creative and critical thinking, and it can make the ideals of education one that is across the board shared.
Not every principal should be a principal. Just because they MIGHT have been a good classroom teacher does not mean they have the skill to be an administrator.
Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model. Abdul Kalam
Isn’t it about ALL in the school being a great role model? The kids know when teachers and staff are disgruntled. They know when the principal is on the warpath (and yeah, I am referring to that one individual I worked for). The talk of team spirit is just that: talk. Take it to the level where the school is run as an Ensemble. No leads, no stars, supporting one another, working together for the good of the finished product: a healthy student body. Healthy in spirit, mind and in all aspects of learning.
No Matter What: It ALWAYS should be about what is best for the students!! If it makes more work but a better work environment. TEAM and ENSEMBLE building. Support instead of backstabbing. Working to better things, instead of complaining. The systems are out there: try something that works.
“CHANGE THAT EMANATES FROM TEACHERS LASTS UNTIL THEY FIND A BETTER WAY.”
Roland Barth- Improving Schools From Within
Ongoing, continual, lifelong…GROWTH.
Those should be the benchmark of ANY educator. Being a lifelong learner, striving to continuously hone a craft that tries (and too often fails) to keep abreast of all that is speeding along in our world.
In 2005, there were teachers I knew who still hated using a computer, rarely if ever checked their emails, fought tooth and nail not to look at the up and coming Smart Boards…yet, they also refused to see how their students embraced the same technology they pushed to the side.
As you’ve read on previous posts of mine, I do not advocate just tossing out the old that still resonates (Curse(ive)s, Foiled Again!). But, the times, they are a changin’, and too many in education are stuck in doing the same old thing just dressed up in new packages.
The worst part: too many look at Professional Development (PD) sessions as a waste of time OR as a day “off” from the school. My favorite teacher (then working in 6th grade) said, when she found out I was on my second Masters, that she “was done” with school/learning. Don’t you just love her? This is the same teacher who, when presented with a one and a half page Teacher’s Guide for a FREE Arts Education trip, refused to read it with the comment “I don’t have time to read.” Woe to her student who had that same excuse, though. BTW, just so you know I’m not just off on a rant tangent, she was also one of the very vocal teachers who tried to get out of going to any PD. Any.
Teachers Are Lifelong Learners
Below you’ll find a number of sites that deliver Professional Development content. I don’t feel that we should just buy into a new theory that was developed in an education lab but never really field tested in urban schools (Teacher’s College). I think we really need to look at HOW what should be taught can be done for the good of the students, not the assessment for numbers that we have in place.
The teacher AND principal who keeps in mind that they are role models, the adults who the kids see most of their waking hours, who have the ability to shape OUR future, and our children’s and theirs…and we should always be learning, to hone and embrace what we need to do to keep up with Planet Earth.
“NEVER DOUBT THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL, COMMITTED PEOPLE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD, INDEED, IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER HAS!” – Margaret Meade
Some of you are probably going “What did you do to Stu? Who are you, oh evil twin? AHA! That’s why you grew a goatee! Evil Universe Stu!”
Ahem… I’m not always a curmudgeon. I DO care strongly about the arts, Arts-in-Education, and Education in general. I feel that surrounding my rants I offer some positive thoughts/problem solving ideas to help not only generate creative and critical thinking, but to get someone to Do something. Then there are the times when I just need to vent.
Not this time around.
On Facebook, I posted the following:
“Thank An Educator That Has Made a Difference in Your Life Day!”
Yeah, no such day. But, why not? The following people posted:
Roy A. AckermanSue Katzman/Finklestein,PhD- my hats been off to you for more than 47 years.
July 21 at 8:01am · Like
July 21 at 9:09am · Like
Lisa Dennett One of my FB friends is Ira Lipton, psychology teacher in high school. Thank you Ira for being such a … person… not just a teacher.
July 21 at 9:56am · Like
Milena SherryMrs. Wolinitz. Kindergarten. I was sooooo shy and she made everything feel safe. Loved her.
July 21 at 12:10pm · Like
Lisa DennettThank you Pat Sternberg, Hunter College, undergrad, for nurturing my soul with theater for children.
July 21 at 2:05pm ·
For me: Thank you Dr. Beverly Brumm. Your notes to me on my scene from “A Man For All Seasons” from way back in 1975 still resonate, inspire, and touch. Thank you.
I would also like to thank my 1oth Grade Honors English teacher. I have NO idea what his name was, but he was really inspiration for me in many ways: I was a staff member and editor on the DeWitt Clinton HS newspaper (solely because of him) but most of all: he took us (the Honors Eng students) to Broadway and Off Broadway shows just about EVERY Wednesday (matinees) and opened up my mind to a variety of theater and movies, which we would then have to discuss and write about the next day in class.
I also have had MANY positive, memorable teaching moments of my own:
When finishing up Romeo & Juliet with a Fourth Grade Class, some of the girls left the class, crying. Their teacher was upset with me at first: explaining that they were touched and connected to the death scene, that they had reached a place where the work of art resonated with them, and then seeing the look on that teacher’s face…priceless. Never was questioned again, by that teacher, about the work I did.
Holding a regional Professional Development day in my classroom, and having a Process Drama class of mine present in front of teachers from other schools. The kids just blew them away with their commitment and deep understanding.
Having my Drama Club kids perform at the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street in NYC, and then have the Director of Theater of NYC Schools tell me that he thought my kids presentation was his favorite of the evening!
A student telling me that I gave her a headache after a pretty grueling Process Drama class. She was amazing in her inquiry throughout the entire process.
One student wrote and presented a monologue so strong and moving that I choked up in class, and that’s not like me. She also got the only standing ovation from her class
That’s just five; there are many others.
What Positive Educational Moments Have YOU Experienced? Do You Have An Educator You’d Like To Celebrate?
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date . . . .”
Well, for me, Summer could trip away and make no stay…especially not the heat we’ve had this past week (and are still experiencing). The heat has definitely affected everyone’s mood and output this week, even with all the progress the kids have made.
“Since 1978, Materials for the Arts has provided thousands of New York City’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community arts programs with the supplies they need to run and expand their programs. Materials are gathered from companies and individuals that no longer need them and redistributed to the artists and educators that do. In the process, hundreds of tons are removed from the waste stream every year and kept out of landfills, helping to sustain our environment and promote reuse and waste reduction. MFTA helps artists realize their visions, provides students with a richer educational experience and furnishes businesses and individuals with a simple and efficient way to enhance the cultural life of their city. The success of MFTA and its programming would not be possible without the participation of material donors throughout the metropolitan area. If you are interested in donating your unwanted reusable items to MFTA please visit our Donor page or call 718-729-3001 and press 1 for “Materials Donation”.
At this moment, my costuming costs are as close to zero as possible. There will be some fill ins, I’m sure, and I am not taking into account the salary of the costumer and her assistant.
I picked up some wonderfully vibrant fabric, colorful and light, to go along with the previous fabrics I had “shopped” on a previous visit. Set in Mali, I am excited about the patterns and use of Earth colors that the costumer now has to work with. My cast will be barefoot, which fits both the traditional feel plus the ease of the dances. I have a lot of running, twirling, swirling, foot stomping things planned.
To the right is a picture I found online when I did my Google Images search. When I came across this, I immediately had my Oberon costume, in style if not in actuality. A little more “magical,” this outfit is already close to perfection to me for Oberon. I love the pattern and the flow of the garment. I would only add a bit of green to it, to cement it to the Magic forest, and I need it to capture the idea of Air.
That is how I am seeing this, as I am sure so many others have before: the Royal Court (Humans) are grounded/Earth; Fairy Court are Air; Mechanicals are of the Earth, but deeper and more firmly planted, even in their clowning/Everyman status.
Face Painting & Masks
For the Fairy Court, mainly, I am looking at traditional and tribal face painting to accent the “difference” of the two realms. Yes, again, nothing new, but I’m letting you into my process of total environment.
I’ve been enjoying the research, the “hunting and gathering” of what the production staff will need to help the overall artistic vision come alive. Colors play an important part of all this.
I’ll be using some masks: planned are three and I feel that is all I will do, even though I originally wanted to have more. Less is more, in all things. It should not take away or hide (mask) the work the kids are doing. Their performance should shine through first and foremost. So, Oberon will have a Dragon Mask (I’ve had for years) that stirred my actress (yes, actress) in her physicalization; the Donkey do for Bottom; and a half mask for Thisbe (Flute). All three masks are planned for removal during the show.
More info to come, and that will make up (get it? pun intended) part two of my Tech Titterings.
THREE WEEKS GONE!!! THREE TO GO!!
I’ve said it before, re: me: What fool this mortal be!
How did you trick out your show? What would you like to do?
This is a classroom in Uganda.
What Would YOU Do With This Empty Classroom? Is The Room More Important Than The Student?
)
