Week 4, Reading – Grateful to Contribute

I loved reading The Art of Possibility. It has given me opportunity to reflect on life at an ideal time, a time of change. As an artist, I have always felt that change was correct, even when I was younger and new places and people frightened me. I embraced change in my life. As I look back, I can even say that I was compelled to change, to move, to meet new people and do new things.

Now, I look forward. I’m very close now to receiving a new master’s degree, my second. People ask me, will you make more money? Does it get you a raise? No. It doesn’t. Then why? It enriches my life. I hope that I can use the skills, knowledge and experience that I now have to enrich the lives of others. This book presents that opportunity beautifully: the opportunity to contribute, to create the stage of my life, to appreciate the beauty of it. I will read it again and certainly recommend it to others.

Image is of some of my wonderful students working on their art projects.

Week 4, Publishing - Decided Where to Submit

Okay, I decided that I would write an article for Art Education: The Journal of the National Art Education Association. I’m a member of NAEA and have been for a long time. The public for the journal is the public that I would want to reach, art educators. The style is APA. This is quoted in the author guidelines:

What writing style should authors use?

Write in a precise and straightforward manner. Avoid passive voice (for example, instead of “it was found” use “we found”). Do not include an abstract. A conversational tone is conducive for reading. Consider engaging the reader with a question or an anecdote in your opening paragraph.

I felt like that was a more natural way for me to write. Whew! Nervous, but ready, I guess.

Image above is of the description of the magazine on the NAEA website

Week 4, Creative Ways to Use Your Elmo TT 02

I liked this video. Lots of art teachers have ELMOs. All of the art teachers in my school district have them. This teacher introduces some ideas that I hadn't thought of.

Week 4, Response to Donita Massing

Donita Massing wrote regarding her AR Project:

I actually started writing an AR summary back in April before my second cycle of research was completed. The moment seized me and I felt like writing it down. The moment I'm referring to was a simultaneous success and defeating incident.
I chose to revel in the success! Namely that one of the students in my lab that was previously unmotivated by anything in the course suddenly became engrossed in the current project. He mostly stayed in that level of motivation and finished out the year by winning our portfolio show!

He invited me to his graduation celebration, which I am planning to attend. How could I miss it? The purpose of my research has really been about finding some way to motivate the unreachable ones. I realized that it varies so much for each person that it is difficult to find a single magic key to motivation. Through my data, I determined that the best course of action with regards to motivation was to address the multiple intelligences with every lesson (as much as possible.) As a result, I basically recreated my entire course. I have learned so much about effective teaching practices that I'm surprised that students learned anything before I started this AR project!

I have already posted my AR summary page, but I'm continually updating it and revising so that it best expresses the research. I found that it's difficult to put all of the experiences in writing! I'll be the first to admit that I didn't particularly care for the AR blog assignments we were given in each course, but now I am SO thankful for them. I had forgotten so much about the process that re-reading my posts was essential to realizing the results of the AR!

Kerry Marquis wrote:

Donita, I’m so glad that you are reveling in your success and the fact that you have recreated your course means that you have taken it to a totally new high as I’m sure you were an outstanding teacher before.

Your project being about finding a way to motivate your unreachable students parallels mine of reaching those teachers yet to incorporate technology into their teaching. And your realization that each is different also parallels my project. In mine, I actually surveyed to find what teachers would and would not do with technology in their classes. It was interesting; then I could design lessons for teachers to deliver that incorporated lots of what they would use and small amounts of the parts that they shied away from. I found much greater success with my successive lessons that I thought I would.

I wonder what would happen if you surveyed your students at the beginning as to what they liked or felt was useful to them or something along those lines. Not on current assignments or the class as it is – you’ve done great surveys on that – but what they actually find interesting in their lives or plan to do as adults. I wonder what would turn up? 

Week 4, Technical Difficuties

Whew! Today was rough. I've been combing through my website, working out how to do my final presentation. At one point I decided to do two, a presentation and a paper. Needless to say, I've been a little anxious. Suddenly, I looked over at my webs in iWeb and it was all red. Having had problems publishing before, I hit the publish button immediately. I got the spinning beachball in response. Several times. Then I notice that my scale at the bottom of the page was saying I had used all of my space. I knew I hadn't. This chilling scenario continued as I searched and deleted and worked on debugging. Finally, a couple of hours later, I got my web saved and closed down the computer. When I came back up, it was as if nothing had happened . . . I really don't need this right now.

Week 4, Publishing

In looking through the many journals to which I might submit, I would most like to have an article in School Arts. It is not as formal as other journals and is aimed, not so much at researchers, but more at art teachers. It is art teachers, with mud up to their elbows, that I attempted to reach in my action research project and art teachers that it is all about.

I’ll be reviewing past articles to see if I can’t write something about my project that will fit.

Image of cover of School Arts Magazine

Week 3, Looking for a Place to Publish

In looking for a place to publish an article on my AR project, I looked at the art education journals. These are a few that I have found:

Power and Education

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/power/howtocontribute.asp

Call for Submissions NAEA

http://www.naea-reston.org/research/call-for-submissions

CALL FOR ARTS BASED SUBMISSIONS: Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy
The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy

International Journal for Education and the Arts

http://www.ijea.org/submit.html

International Journal for Education through the Arts

http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/toc/etar/3/3

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any of them are particularly looking for what I have done. I think I may need to go off on a different route of looking or change my viewpoint of my project. Interesting assignment. It has really stretched my imagination.

Week 3, Project – About My AR Summary Page

Working on putting together my summary of my action research project. This has been an interesting year. I’m so glad that we did the blogs each month. It has really helped to keep me focused. I was able to take pieces and put together a summary. It also was easy to see where I needed to fill in and document more for next time.

Next time?? Yes. There will be a next time. This time reminded me of my first year of teaching. I was feeling my way forward in the dark. My students and I (many of whom are now Facebook friends) all made it to the other side of the year knowing more and able to do more than when we started. In the years after, I became more skilled in communicating with and listening to my students as well as more refined in what I wanted to impart to them. This is what I want to do with action research. Become better and more skilled and always moving forward. This is only the beginning of this journey.

That’s me at my first teaching job with one of my students, 21 years ago.

Week 3, Reading - Lighting the Spark

There are those moments of excitement for me in the art classroom. Oddly enough and funnily enough, they are not the moments when all of the children are sitting like angels, quietly and hands folded. No. The exciting moments to me are when I look around the class and see active, happy students, smiling and engaged in cutting, gluing, drawing, weaving, some tongues hanging out of mouths and other calling out to me and friends to look at what they have done . . . This is what it is all about. This is lighting a spark. To me, this is learning. It is learning the joy of creating and producing.

Students work all day in class and if they don’t get it “right” they are often chastised or told they were not “paying attention” or “following directions.” As a teacher, I have sometimes said these things myself. But when that spark is lit, we do not have to drive or force children to work; they do it enthusiastically.

These are a couple of artworks by my students.

Week 3, Response to Trisch Marcino

Trisch Marcino writes:

The International Reading Association publishes an on-line journal, books, newspaper, and many other helpful tools for teachers. I am leaning heavily towards requesting permission to submit an article for publication. They are very strict and only accept approximately 15% of submissions.

I have read many of their published articles, particularly the ones that are research-based. Several that I have read are geared towards improving literacy among students K-12 years. For those of you interested in pursuing this avenue also, the manuscripts must be APA and as I said the guidelines are stringent. I really think I have a sound research project and I have proven the strategy works, however, I am not quite so certain if I can prepare an adequate manuscript in such a short time. To my critical friends and any other classmates who would like to offer suggestions to improve my presentation, I welcome any and all critiques. I am presenting on the 27th.

I am also preparing a Keynote that I am going to request submission to our district Reading Conference. Fortunately, there is more time to prepare for it. I will have it on my web site soon and as with the article, I really would appreciate any helpful comments anyone might like to contribute. It really is getting a little scary as we are nearing completion. It has also been very exciting to be part of such an elite group.

Kerry writes:
Trisch, I agree that you should put your work out there where lots of reading teachers can see it. You have a lot to offer. I would be happy to look at your keynote presentation or your write-up for your article.

I understand that it is getting scary as we get close to completing, but honestly, it’s been kind of scary for me every month as I scramble to figure out how to do my projects or to make the deadlines, hoping that nothing goes wrong. It has been exciting and I have learned so much. And you have done it all in spite of your computer crashing and having to use other means to get your work done. You have been an inspiration.

Just let me know if there is anything that I can do to help with your presentations.

Week 3, Response to Donita Massing

Donita Massing says:

Leading

Zander discusses his concept of 'being a contribution' and 'leading from any chair' in The Art of Possibility.

Almost all of what I'm reading in this book has inspired me; even bringing me to tears at times. The concept of being a contribution is about one's call to purpose rather than personal achievement. I've been trying to practice this since I began teaching some 11 years ago. I've always thought of my career as a purpose rather than a job. This week's reading brought it into focus and has helped me understand much of the frustration I've experienced along the way.

Letting go of the idea of achievement; focusing instead on a vision of students succeeding and giving back through their own contributions.

Kerry Marquis says:

You are so right, Donita. To me, purpose is everything. When I know that my purpose, my intentions, my integrity is right, then I know that correct actions will follow. Working with you over these past months, getting to know you and watching your projects unfold, it is obvious that you are also a person with purpose. I cannot help but wish that my own daughter’s teachers were like you, caring that their students succeed.

I’m sure that your encouragement and insight give your students lessons that they take with them for the rest of their lives.

Week 2 Reading – Not Taking Myself Too Seriously

I found myself laughing a little more often this week despite the nerve-wracking pace I was trying to keep up. Several times, I caught myself taking myself and others too seriously several times. When I saw it, the seriousness immediately just blew away and I found myself smiling or even laughing.

What a beautiful book this is, inspiring us to make a difference in the lives of others, to contribute and grant others importance. I’m very appreciative that this book, The Art of Possibility, was our assigned reading this month. It is giving me life again.

I have a story about a lesson that I did with my elementary art students this month. I found a little Reading Rainbow film that read the children’s book, Regina’s Big Mistake. It’s about a little girl in an art class who can’t think of what to draw. She starts to draw what some other children are drawing and they make mean comments and her teacher won’t give her another sheet of paper when she makes a mistake. Regina makes her mistake into something wonderful. All week since, my students have been telling me how they’ve made their mistake into something wonderful. These are 6, 7 and 8 year olds. I think it’s wonderful how a writer can give us that; can offer us a new and wonderful viewpoint.

Week 2, Response to Soyeon Kim - Speaking of Age

Image of my mother and son one winter morning this year.

Soyeon wrote:

After reading “Art of Possibility” by Rosamund S. Zander & Benjamin Zander

My mother is 55 years old and she started learning how to use computer three years ago. At first, I was willing to help her out. As days went by, she has struggled with computer concept so much that I got annoyed by her clueless questions. I had to repeat over and over the same thing everyday. I thought why she even bothered learning it when she had other things to worry. She said she didn’t want to be left behind of current trend. She wanted to learn and move forward with the rest of the world, she said. She was very determined and committed her time to learn computer. Now, she is still having a hard time but she can attach files, email her friends, download pictures to make her own documents, and surf the web to find information she needs for her work.

After reading about Mr. Zander’s visit to Jewish home for elderly, I would like to compliment how wise Mr. Zander is. The way he reacted to people in situations without taking things personally challenges me as a teacher and a person in general. His sincere and open mind unlocked the most hardened hearts in the least hopeful places. Sarah, a 83-year-old lady, was not even close to the oldest person in the center, seemed not enthusiastic about her own life and reluctant to change anything in her life. Even her regular seat in the speech hall never changes. When Mr. Zander offered a new seat for a new change, she said “Are you crazy? I am 83 years old” and she moved. She moved because she wanted change, any kind of change. She would have not bother even come to the speech if she did not want to change. The age number 83 struck her down to be hopeless but in side of her there were longing for hope and new challenges. The oldest person in the center was over 100. That means that Sarah has more than 20 years to live. Why can’t 83 year old person hopes for the future? Mr. Zander himself wasn’t sure until he visited the center that there were passion and hope in elderly people. Elderly people were touched by Mr. Zander’s sincere effort to come and share his stories of hopeful life.

            Maybe I give up too early, I thought. I decide on possibilities of things as it appear realistic to me. However, I am wrong. I cannot decide the future. Every living person, no matter their age or talent, has desire to dream and potential to make that dream come true. What am I to decide what will happen tomorrow? What am I seeing in people? The reality I see is past and present but the reality is ongoing that I cannot see today. 

Kerry Marquis wrote:

What a beautiful and thoughtful posting Soyeon. I am 52 years old and your classmate here. Because I am close to your mother’s age, I thought I would respond and talk to you about the questions that you posed. You wonder about people having dreams and goals for the future and why an 83-year-old person cannot. I can honestly tell you that I still have many dreams and goals for the future, but some people my age do not. There are so many disappointments and losses in life that some people seem to just go down into hopelessness about their dreams. Or if you look around at people that you know, you may see that some only dream of having a spouse and children and a good job. When they attain that, they have attained their dreams. You and I are artists. Change is what we do. We are not only familiar with it, we are in love with it. Don’t worry. When you are 52 like me or even 83 or 99, you will probably still be dreaming and working on new goals and aspirations, just as I am.

Week 2 Wimba

The Wimba sesson on Tuesday clarified several points for me. I feel like I have a better grasp of what is expected on the Action Research website, the Summary Page and the Presentation Project. I felt better about and more appreciated for what I have done after listening. During nearly the whole program I have felt like I was hurrying to catch up. I'm finally feeling like I'm going to make it. Don't misunderstand . . . I have loved the program, have learned SO much. But balancing my life, work family and school AND trying to do an Action Research project has been challenging.

I'm actually getting excited now about presenting and having all sorts of ideas.

Week 2 Blogs, Publishing and Leadership Project Thoughts

I’m thinking of working out a presentation for the Florida Art Education Conference. The time for submissions is past, but if I could get something together and submit it, I might be able to get accepted. If I did that, I would probably look over my surveys and see what art teachers are most interested in learning to do in technology. Most likely, I would do something on creating an online gallery or e-portfolios for students. Or maybe I would go over a few Web 2.0 tools for art teachers and do a sample lesson with them using the tools.

On the other hand, about 6 years ago I created 13 or 14 webquests for McMillan Publishing’s art texts website. Here's a page from a one. Maybe I could do some kind of web activities for them to publish this time.

I’m just not all that interested in talking to a lot of people who already use technology about what my take on it is. I’d rather empower some people who are really there yet and give them some things to make life and learning better in the classroom.

Week 2, Response to Kara Malpass

Kara Malpass

Week 1 Readings, Posts, and Projects

I am finding myself to be stressed and feeling like I am falling behind. You would think with this being almost the end of this program I would have the excitement that this is the end. Instead I feel like my motivation is dwindling. It is hard since this is the end of my school year and I have nine school days left. It didn't help that I had a difficult time getting started with this course. I missed the Wimba session since I am on Mountain Standard time and I am still at work during the Wimbas. I am hoping that I will be able to catch the next one and it will take away some of the worries about being behind.

I am looking forward to this course and applying what I have learned during this program. Sorry for the ramblings but I am hoping this helps make me feel better.

Kerry M said...

Kara, No wonder you empathized with my stress. You knew exactly how I feel. I, too, am not excited at this point. I go around with dark circles under my eyes and a headache. But you know something? We will get through this and we will have all of this wonderful knowledge and skill to use to the benefit of our students. And we have made some wonderful new friends who share our interests. That's a very important part of this program. I'm hoping that you will be coming out to graduation so that I can meet you! Hang in there.

Week 2 AR - Blog about a Blog

So this is a blog about a blog that I've been working on the last week. I've been turning a blog into a container for the media and lessons for a ceramics unit. It's part of my action research project. Here's a snap of it. Did you know that you can have multiple pages on a blog? I really didn't. It's still a work in progress, but I hope to complete this particular unit by Thursday, May 13, tomorrow.

Week 1, Action Research -- Back to the Beginning

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I’ve been getting so much done. Created two new media projects for my AR second cycle. [See one of them above.] And found a medium that I felt I had been looking for. It wasn’t PERFECT, but it would do. I started to put the pieces that I had made together.

I knew that I HAD to get the second cycle actually going, but it seemed that the more I worked on it, the more barriers sprang up between me and what I had in mind to create. Perhaps I needed to review what I wanted to do and look outside of the box again.

So back to the beginning I went. What were my motivations? What was I truly trying to do? In going over all of the requirements on the checklist, I recognized that I had not analyzed the data that I had gathered on my second cycle as thoroughly as I should. I created three more spreadsheets of data and created three more charts, analyzing what technology art teachers who completed my original survey were actually using in their classes, what they said they wanted to be using and, finally, what they had actually used from the website that was currently up. Here are the three charts showing this data.

 Above: Technology Currently Used by Art Teachers Responding to Survey

Above: Items on Current Site Used by Respondents

Basically, the 33 art teachers who responded who currently use the site use very little technology in their ceramics classroom, but want to use quite a bit more. Primarily of interest to these teachers are:

·      using online student art galleries

·      using online art games and activities

·      student-created videos

Teachers were also interested in the various ways that students might communicate with each other such as social networks, blogging, discussion boards and wikis.

My Question

Can I put together something that will help these teachers effectively incorporate more of these elements into their classes?

We will see. I spent these several days putting together a multiple page blog on Blogger and turning it into a kind of content management system – a container for all of the information and media that a teacher might need to teach a unit or lesson in ceramics, with lesson plans, handouts, videos, and advice for incorporating some of the technology into the classroom. 

Then my Internet went down. Sunday evening from about 8:30- almost 11:00. It's 11:00 now and I'm back on. Continue . . .

Week 1, Comment on Lina Valery's Post

Lina Valery
I enjoyed your previous Wimba sessions on Copyright they were very informative. It seems the best way around Copyright is to focus on Creative Commons licensed work. Based on what I learned, I also decided to create my own library of random images, thus avoiding some of these issues. The hard part has actually become tagging the images so that I could find just what I am looking for when I need it.

Comment to Lina Valery
I know what you mean, Lina. I have hundreds of photos, but have never tagged them. Although it may take a very long time to do, I think that it will be valuable to make an image bank with all images organized and tagged and to contribute to it regularly. If we are to continue to create media, then this would be a great preparation.

Week 1, Comment on Patricia Marcino's Post

Patricia Marcino

This is my first post for edm613 Media Asset Creation. I am in great spirits this weekend. Last week, one of my students won the Elementary schools' Spelling Bee. This past week, my class' team won first place for Battle of the Books. We will go to the district competition on Tuesday, May 4th. And, finally, one of my students won the writing essay contest for Mother's Day sponsored by a local jewelry store. The prize was a diamond necklace for Mom. Oh, I almost forgot, our school placed second in the Junior Olympics, with two of my students taking first place over all.

Am I bragging just a bit?  You bet!!!!!

Response to Trisch Marcino

Trisch, I love it when you brag. That is so awesome. How incredible that your students are, not only doing well, but doing well in competitions with others, too. This says quite a bit about you as a teacher.

Week 1, Action Research -- Trying to Create

Well, I’ve been running with this thinking out of the box thing on my action research project which started out as updating a website to include Web 2.0 tools which teachers of ceramics could use and has turned into . . . a monster? I worked all day today trying to put together what I envisioned. I tried to change my current site over to a Dreamweaver site, but it would not allow me access with Dreamweaver. I wrote to “support” [HA!!] at Netfirms.com and got a cute little reply directing me to uploading a site with Dreamweaver. I guess that they didn’t even read what I said, but just saw the word “Dreamweaver” and sent off a quick reply. This has happened EVERY time I have emailed support in the last 7 years that I have used Netfirms. Every time I have needed answers. I can’t really remember ever getting a good straight answer from them. I usually found out from someone else or figured it out myself. It’s always some pat direction to a FAQ that I’ve already read and doesn’t answer the question.

Enough venting. I’ve also now signed up and paid for a year’s service at another web server, tried Siteframe, Drupal and Joomla as well as the WYSIWYG on the web server and decided that Dreamweaver is just as simple to use. Still don’t have the thing created.

I’m going back to my earlier idea of the Ning site, UDUTU and creating a page or few in Dreamweaver to house the items needed for one unit or long lesson and shooting out a newsletter about it. Must complete this cycle before I lose my mind.

Week 1, Reading -- Epiphany

Can a person have kind of an epiphany? Or part of an epiphany? I’m speaking of the definition:

"A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization"

From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

I’ve been struggling over how to “upgrade my website” and having a hard time wrapping my wits around how I would incorporate Web 2.0 tools and realized that I was still thinking “inside the box.” I had this interesting and only-partly-realized-so-far epiphany while I was reading the book that is required reading for this course, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.

Okay, so what was the epiphany? I realized that I needed to have a sort of web network for teaching art, not just a site. I’m not totally there with all that it needs to be yet (partial epiphany?) but here’s what I’m thinking so far:

1.     Retain my original site, but change it over to Dreamweaver rather than the FrontPage that it currently is.

2.     I should start a “group” on Facebook and invite my approximately 300 web users to it, then have several UDUTU courses set up in the group for the users to have access to.

3.     Open a Ning site (or something similar) where I can include a library of videos and slideshows as visuals to go with art lessons and also a blog with suggestions and commentaries on how to incorporate various specific and every changing Web 2.0 tools into various lessons already on the site. I could also include a discussion board on the Ning site.

4.     Some portions of this need to be open for students to use; other parts need to be password protected for teacher information.

Now, I need to work out and coordinate how I am going to get all of this up and running before I go to bed tonight! Wonder if I can force a complete epiphany . . . ?

Image from TeachPottery.net website by Kerry Marquis