Teaching Is NOT A Science

Wednesday Cartoon Fun: Occupy Art Edition

This Is Not A Painting

Some more amazing photos here.

Merry Christma....Wait

The Yin - Yang Of World Hunger

Grindlebone

How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?

Teaching Is A Craft

I have said that I think teaching is less science and more art (craft). The snippet below is not about that specifically, but it relates.  Teachers learn to teach by teaching.  Remember student teachers?  I can't help but agree with what follows:

For those of us that like drastic solutions and saltational mutations, one way to fix the perpetual crises (existential, and otherwise) that colleges and universities seem to find themselves in would be this: get out the axe. Axe the business school, axe all the engineering programs, axe the professional programs, axe even (hard as it is to say) the fine arts programs. So no more accounting majors and no more civil engineering majors, no more masters of public health, and no more dance majors, or creative writing majors, or bassoonists, either.

The thing most of those programs have in common is that they’re crafts—things better learned by doing than by sitting and discussing the doing.

h/t 3QD

Lucky

A powerful short animation.

Lucky from EB Hu on Vimeo.

h/t ??

Warning: Contains animated, cartoony blood spurts.

Guernica In 3D

Good Schools Have Good Art Programs

Arts Education and Graduation Rates
Compiled by RACHEL LEE HARRIS

In a report to be released on Monday the nonprofit Center for Arts Education found that New York City high schools with the highest graduation rates also offered students the most access to arts education. The report, which analyzed data collected by the city’s Education Department from more than 200 schools over two years, reported that schools ranked in the top third by graduation rates offered students the most access to arts education and resources, while schools in the bottom third offered the least access and fewest resources. Among other findings, schools in the top third typically hired 40 percent more certified arts teachers and offered 40 percent more classrooms dedicated to coursework in the arts than bottom-ranked schools. They were also more likely to offer students a chance to participate in or attend arts activities and performances. The full report is at caenyc.org.

Remember This Guy?

From a campaign speech in Wallingford, Pa. on April 2, 2008:

Where did that guy go? He was purchased by Gates and Broad.

h/t Mike Klonsky

Art

For artists everywhere, especially Lu, Josh, Robin, and Pat, my four favorite artists.

From the lovely Brazen.

Better Late Than Never

Kseniya Simonova is her name. Some people find it a bit trite, others emotionally draining, and others, just cool. It's a mixture...but worth a look. It's been making the rounds, I just got to it late.

Periodic Table Of Typefaces

For Art's Sake

Mykonos from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

h/t Sully

Saturday Cartoon Fun: Cubist Edition

That Voodoo You Do

I don't know how to describe it. I saw it at Sully's.

Update: I have been informed that it is a little disturbing. It won't hurt you, but it might cause you a little computer-animation-voodoo-straight-pin-unease.

watch more at aniBoom

Bernie Sanders Is My Hero!

From TPM:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has written to the Smithsonian raising questions about the caption that sits beneath its new portrait of George W. Bush. The current wording of the caption states that Bush's term was marked by "the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." Sanders, bless his heart, points out that the 9/11 attacks -- all together, now -- had nothing to do with the Iraq war.

From Sanders' letter to Martin Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington:

When President Bush and Vice President Cheney misled our country into the war in Iraq, they certainly cited the attacks on September 11, along with the equally specious claim that Iraq possessed vast arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. The notion, however, that 9/11 and Iraq were linked, or that one "led to" the other, has been widely and authoritatively debunked ... Might I suggest that a reconsideration of the explanatory text next to the portrait of President Bush is in order[?]

Over at The Edge of The American West, Ari has a post up about this. First he praises Bernie, then he says this:

Still, I wonder: is it unreasonable to suggest, as the Smithsonian’s captions does, that the attacks of September 11 led, albeit indirectly, to the conflict in Iraq? Put another way, it seems clear that there was no substantive link between the 9/11 attackers and Saddam Hussein. But fabricated ties between the two nevertheless formed an important part of President Bush’s spurious case for war. The caption, then, seems right enough (strictly speaking, at least) to pass muster, even if the impulse that Sanders apparently sees lurking behind it merits a stout challenge.

I responded to him no, no, no. Seems that anything that preceded Iraq could be fabricated to tie into anything. Go Bernie!

Update: The caption will be changed!

Should Schools Teach Art? Yes, If We Want To Learn Stuff!

Many California schools are "magnets"; they get extra funding because of a concentration in their curriculum, like communications, art, science, technology or myriad other concentrations. I never really understood how the thing worked, and beyond that never really cared because I assumed it was crap anyway--just another creative way to get some money. I assumed (all this before I was a teacher, mind you) schools taught all this stuff. How could they call themselves schools if they weren't teaching this stuff?

As you know, schools teach what they can, and money is a huge factor. When money is tight, the arts get cut. From the article below, we are cutting off our art to spite our future!

Art's power to teach 21st-century skills

By Lisa Guisbond

A RECENT report calling for Massachusetts schools to develop 21st-century skills is cause for both optimism and unease. The promise is that all children, no matter their ZIP code, will benefit from more expansive educational goals, including access to the arts. The concern is that the call to teach and assess more than a narrow set of academic skills will translate into a longer list of high-stakes hoops for teachers and students to jump through.

Education leaders considering how to implement the state's 21st Century Skills Task Force's recommendations can look to an extraordinary local arts program for inspiration. Every summer, Brookline's Creative Arts at Park offers a vivid demonstration of art's power to teach, transform, and develop skills essential for success. Watching my son and his campmates perform "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last July, I thought there could be no better way to learn Shakespeare than to perform it. But this diverse group of young people did much more than memorize one act of a play in five weeks. They mastered a long list of skills, including collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and communication.

According to the 21st Century Skills report, these are the competencies everyone will need to succeed as citizens and workers. These are the skills employers and colleges say are now severely lacking among high school graduates and entering students.

The task force report wisely acknowledges that different tools are needed to assess such skills, including performance assessments like speeches, projects, and exhibitions. Clearly, multiple-choice tests with short written essays are not up to the task. But simply adding more kinds of exams to the current high-stakes system would be a mistake. To promote and assess 21st-century skills, Massachusetts needs to construct a balanced assessment system, as called for in the Education Reform Act.

Some fear that moving beyond our current focus on high-stakes testing and toward multiple measures will mean lowered standards. This argument falsely assumes tests themselves are standards. The fact is that too many schools are now narrowly focused on preparing kids for tests, not educating the whole child.

Nor is it true that students must first memorize some set of basics before they can engage in thinking and interacting with the world. To the contrary, cognitive science and the experiences of nations that score high on international assessments prove that students learn better when they are challenged to think and do, not simply memorize and repeat. Many students are engaged by arts instruction, and when students are engaged, their overall motivation to learn improves.

Massachusetts needs a broader system with more emphasis on classroom-based and performance assessments. We need to make graduation decisions not by a series of separate hurdles but through an integrated approach that taps into our children's diversity of strengths and talents. The cost of such a system is modest and the payoffs large as better-educated students enter adulthood.

The Brookline arts program suggests how much could be gained by giving all students access to the kinds of opportunities usually reserved for rich kids. Wouldn't many children blossom given the chance to steep themselves in Shakespearean culture and language, as they must to put on a coherent performance? Wouldn't they benefit from collaborating and cooperating the way an ensemble cast must do? And wouldn't every child be challenged and grow as a result of all the problem-solving required to put on a play?

Of course, schools should not be turned into theater camps. Quality academic instruction is essential. However, there's been little in my son's school experience to compare with the multidimensional growth I saw as a result of the challenge of playing Nick Bottom. Sadly, the more schools eliminate arts to spend more time boosting test scores, the more access to these experiences is restricted to children whose parents can afford to pay the added costs.

It's time to expand our notion of education and extend the chance for these transformative experiences to all children. I'll be the first to shout "Bravo!" if that is a result of the 21st-century skills report.

Lisa Guisbond is a policy analyst at FairTest and serves on the board of Citizens for Public Schools.

I have always thought all teachers should have to have experience being a counselor at summer camp. Counselors know how to excite kids, talk to them on their level, and especially, how to make baking soda-vinegar explosions!

Hi Ho The Carrion Crow, Fol De Rol De Riddle

Now playing: The Grateful Dead - Mountains of the Moon

via FoxyTunes


I can't remember where I found this, but it needed posting. It's a little strange coming from me, but, I'm a little strange.