Art Spirit

structures

7th grade
Painting

Some (because there are always more) ‘back end/foundational structures’ necessary to implement at the start of the school year :



Build an eco-system of creativity, risk taking, voice through peer and whole class interaction which reach across in-person and remote learning platforms.


Combine an implicit constructivist environment ( in-person learning) and an explicit constructivist environment (remote learning).


Create systems for students and teacher (me) to reflect and look for evidence of learning from in-person and remote platforms.


Build routines and relationships of our day to day studio classroom which is agile and can be moved easy to and from in-person and remote learning. 



Seems like what we already do? Well, sort of. Why something labeled different? Because it is. Top to bottom how we start school this year is different. ‘Foundational / back end’ structures are foundational and unseen but seen. We, the students and I, know that these structures and  'do business' within them. The structures are in the back end. We do our students and ourselves a huge serving of respect by creating  structures/frameworks that hold space for safety, clarity and creativity.  The endeavor here is to reflect on what needs to be programmed into the back end of classroom day to day to build an eco-system which is for and about student learning. This isn’t about what we do. This will happen, organically and through cultivation. The foundational systems are about how we do it. In the next weeks, each of the above ‘foundational / back end structures’ will be explored. 


What worked?

7th grade
Painting

6th grade
Photography

What worked? Such a tough question. Reflecting on March - May 2020, there is/was no corollary. Comparing my perception of students’ experiences in remote learning to in-person learning falls short and doesn’t call out that these are two very different ways to teach. I found myself trying to pull these two ends (remote and in-person) of the rope together.  It was as though we, my students and I, went from multiple broadcasts to short wave radio. We tuned in and out, sometimes clear.

Through much trial, and admittedly even more error, I am starting to frame two instructional modalities (in-person and remote/synchronous and asynchronous) as implicit constructivism and explicit constructivism. Students construct meaning through materials and concepts with an in-person studio environment through peer to peer interaction. This interaction is facilitated by the educator. A great deal of discussion, exchanging of ideas and techniques happens in the implicit construction of meaning. There are group/collective organic systems that form within each studio class; students move in and out of these organic systems depending on their need and interest.

In an explicit constructivist environment (remote learning) the eco-system of the learner is finite. The student is then creating their own organic system of making based on the explicit modalities offered to them ( video, web meetings). When I began to make video demonstrations, I thought about how we are in the studio classroom. In our collective practice, we rarely see the concept, planning, making and reflection all at one time. So, I broke these steps down for my students. With shorter 3-4 minute videos I could see that they were watching and also forgetting ( in the best way) what they saw. It was evident the students were internalizing the content by the difference in completed work. It was heartening to see this. There is always the concern in visual arts, too explicit directions will create homogeneous art work. We are in the business of self expression after all. Looking for evidence of learning became simpler as I watched/listened for language and technique to be applied by the students. Just as we do in a formative and implicit constructivist environment. Once the concepts surfaced through application and reflection we began to tune in to one another to build our virtual studio ecosystem.

No answers yet. Now awake.

6th grade
Pet Harmony
Chalk Pastel


5th grade
Optical Art
Marker

The evening of March 12, 2020 I went to bed later than usual. The sound of news on MSNBC and CNN and the automated voicemail announcing school closures still running through my head. The next morning I overslept. This never happens. I am that person. To bed at the same time. Out of bed at the same time. Out the door for the commute to work at the same time. For many years I have cultivated an early morning routine that allows time for prayer, exercise and coffee. The morning of March 13, 2020, with a ‘stand up meeting’ at 8:00am I got out of bed at 6:30am and left the house for my thirty minute commute thirty minutes later. I have been trying to wake up ever since.

From March to May my students and I walked together arm in arm through a sludge of sleeplessness and wishful thinking as we reached across a different sort of digital divide. Our learning curve was steep. There were times when I felt that this was actually fun. It was different. It was a challenge that I had never imagined facing as an educator especially as an art educator. And there were more times when the wholesale enterprise made me feel so sad, or frustrated, or isolated that I could hardly see a way that we were learning anything at all. We, my students and parents and I clung to one another through email and art making. We got through it together my students, their parents and me. 



Now summer, with windows open, the sound of the lawn crew filling the spaces between the sound of barking dogs and birds. I am here. Still here. Now awake. Staring at the teacher that was in March and imaging the teacher that will be in August. What will she look like? How will I help and make space for my students be safe, create, honor and respect one another? No answers yet. Now awake.