Stockyard Institute

Website is up and running... check it out!

http://www.stockyardinstitute.org/index.html

Lesson Plan Resources

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/creativearts/index.htm

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/multicultural_art/research_themes/research.html

Float!

Great collaborative project for students! FLOAT! 

Found it on http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/

drawing blog...

http://blog.drawn.ca/

What exactly is the basic skills test designed to measure?

Based on my own frustrations with having to take the Basic Skills Test, I found this article posted by Alana to be extremely relevant.  How is a standardized test supposed to measure whether someone is going to be a successful teacher?  
Fewer Teacher Candidates Pass Basic Skills Test
I found the comments underneath the article to be extremely interesting.... I really appreciated this comment posted by the Harvard grad who is a good test taker....


"what is the relationship of scoring in the top 22% of test takers (that is what the passers on the so-called Basic Skills Test did) and effective teaching (moving the student achievement gains forward in the classroom)? Would someone please tell us? Because without evidence for raising the score on the test, education bureaucrats are just expressing their prejudices and assumptions in public policy, which is a pretty dangerous thing to do. Especially when it almost eliminates teachers of color from the profession. They better have a good reason, and guessing that high scorers are better teachers is not a good reason."

Learning Posters

I found this website when looking for artists...  
http://plainsart.org/learn/educational-resources/
The Plains Art Museum gives out free learning posters (you have to pay for shipping unless you live in North Dakota).  These posters would be great to hang up in an art classroom.  Each poster includes the artist's work on the front and information about the artist and the art, discussion questions, and suggested interdisciplinary activities on the back.

"If I say learning... what do you say?"

http://stockyardinstitute.bandcamp.com/track/school-for-non-productive-learning?permalink

Love this audio clip from School of Non Productive Learning by Stockyard Institute.  I think the free word associations, "If I say learning... what do you say?", is a really great way to start a conversation.  This format also allows for multiple perspectives and ways of discussing the same topic.  Love this!

Wish I had a Materials for the Arts warehouse near me!!

For Schools, Free Art Supplies, and Much More

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/nyregion/01warehouse.html?scp=3&sq=art%20education&st=cse

Art Beyond the Canvas, Resonating With Youth

NEW YORK TIMES - Art and Design

By KATIE ZEZIMA

Published: March 16, 2011

FOUR times a year the Institute of Contemporary Art here turns itself over to a group that is typically loath to spend Friday night at a museum: teenagers.

While the move might raise some eyebrows — backpacks! cellphones! loud voices! — it is part of a concerted effort at the I.C.A. to attract, educate and hand responsibility over to teenagers.

Since 2005, the museum has hired Boston-area teenagers to plan and market events and programs to help expand its young audience. The group, called the Teen Council, meets each Thursday during the school year to evaluate and discuss exhibitions and try to develop programming around them. The students use social media to engage their peers and design fliers to give to classmates.

The group’s work culminates with a party at which students are invited to tour a featured exhibition, participate in activities and watch performances of artists invited by the Teen Council.

“There’s a real dearth of opportunities for teenagers to engage in contemporary museums and the arts as leaders,” said Jill Medvedow, the museum’s director. The themes of contemporary art are ones that resonate with teenagers, she said, adding that a museum is a safe place where they can push their artistic and intellectual boundaries. “So many contemporary artists deal with issues of identity, sex, politics, gender and authority,” Ms. Medvedow said. “Those are the issues that so many teenagers deal with.”

A Beyoncé song blared as teenagers filed into the museum for February’s party, a reinterpretation of the work of the artist Mark Bradford. Mr. Bradford works in collages and video, and the group wanted their event to incorporate the concepts of distortion and identity.

“We were looking at abstraction,” said Christian Allan, 17, a member of the council. “We try to understand what’s in a work before we plan a whole night around it.”

A table called “puppet yourself” allowed the students to manipulate their own identities by making self-portrait sock puppets. Midway through the evening teenage bands played original songs and covers, including Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Gibson Alcott, 13, said he had always wanted to visit the museum and decided to check out the event. “It has energy and performances,” he said. “You can interact, and there’s a lot to see.”

That, members of the council said, was their aim. Council members can return each year, and new members are interviewed by the existing group. Members must be 14 to 18 years old and are paid $10 an hour.

Certain works have led to discussions about class, race, wealth and power, said Donovan Birch Jr.

“It gets personal,” Mr. Birch, 18, said. “We speak from our experiences, and sometimes because of our experiences we interpret things differently.”

Mr. Birch wanted to join the council after a friend told him about an opportunity for teenagers to work as ushers. He was skeptical.

“I thought that museums were the most boring thing ever,” he said. “I thought it would be some bourgeoisie affair. But I fell in love and had to be there.”

At the end of February, the members toured the museum’s Gabriel Kuri exhibition, looking for inspiration for future events. They probed the meaning of two works: “Model for Parade,” in which an empty energy drink can spins at one end of a conveyor belt, and “Recurrence of the Sublime,” a bowl filled with avocados wrapped in a reproduction of a newspaper printed on the day of the first moon landing. The students debated the meaning and the genre. Because Mr. Kuri had not made the newspaper or avocado or can, was it still art?

“I feel like I had to work really hard to find the message,” Christian Allan, 17, said.

The teenagers gathered around a table filled with chocolate-covered pretzels, popcorn and apples to brainstorm. One of the issues was that the artist’s intent was not entirely clear to the group.

“I don’t think anybody has a firm grasp on it,” August Rosenberg, 14, said.

Mr. Kuri’s works include parking tickets and images of receipts, and Mr. Birch suggested that teenagers bring their own receipts, along with the stories behind the purchases. Another idea was to make one big receipt out of prints of smaller ones.

The museum estimates that 6,000 teenagers will be involved in one of its programs this year, said Monica Garza, its director of education. Each school year the museum sends a creative writing and visual arts instructor into Boston high schools to help the students work on a yearlong project.

The museum holds dozens of classes each year for teenagers, including D.J. school and digital photography. Those with experience in film and new media can sign up for Fast Forward, a free program in which students conceptualize and carry out projects. It also offers grants to new-media students in partnership with other nonprofits.

And the museum doesn’t limit the experience to the Boston area. For the last two years the museum has been host to the National Convening for Teens, a symposium on teenage education and leadership in the arts. Last year the museum worked with six other institutions that have youth programs, including the Seattle Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Ms. Medvedow wants these programs to grow, especially as art education financing is reduced nationwide. Teenagers, she said, often add an energy and excitement to museums.

“We like teenagers,” Ms. Medvedow said. “Even though they have big backpacks and are always hungry.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/arts/design/teenage-curators-at-the-institute-of-contemporary-art.html

Using Art to Change the World

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out - http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html
JR talks about giving everyone the opportunity to change the world through art.  You can upload your own photo to participate in the Inside Out project.  This would be a really great project to do with a group of students! Check out the Website!


http://www.insideoutproject.net/
Here are the details:

INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually.

Chicago School Reform

Attending the CReATE forum on public education was really awesome.  Collectively the panel of speakers covered a wide range of important issues concerning education.  Here are a couple of points that really stood out:

• Schools need to be framed to address certain issues instead of organizational concerns
• We need to reassess what it means to be a teacher.  Teachers need to be in a classroom setting that allows them to know their students on a personal level  
• Isabel Nunez, Concordia University Chicago asked when reflecting on your own education "Who taught you the most?  The teacher who knew their material, or the one who knew you?"
• We need to change the system to meet the needs of the students

I really liked the way the panel was structured.  The first eight speakers laid the foundation of facts and explained ways of rethinking public education while the last few speakers called for public action.  I thought it was really powerful to end with an explanation of what needs to be done in order to move beyond just talking about the issues.  The call for action is what really made an impact!  Here are some powerful statements that stood out:

• Jackson Potter, CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators), Chicago Teachers Union, explained that we are all loosing ground if we don't take the offense and act immediately!
• A concerned parent explained that education administrators need to "come to our table"
• parent have a lot to say about their children's education
• schools must make room for parental involvement
• Jitu Brown, KOCO (Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization) started off by saying that all this talk about education reform is nothing with organization and action.  When addressing school closing and unequal educational opportunities, he exclaimed that "this was our lived experience before it even had a name."  Jitu also explained that there are two types of power, people power and money power.  Organizing is the best was to create people power strong enough to make changes happen.  He also made the powerful statement that parents don't want school choice; they just want is the best school for their children.  He ended with the best quote ever... "oatmeal is better than no meal"
• The CPS student that stood up and performed the rap about education was more than inspiring!  He did a great job explaining the problems in education in such a concise and powerful way!  It was almost as if this students performance was a planned part of the forum because it was the perfect end to the discussion.  

Paulina and Lindsay's Digital Museum Interactive

Should teachers issue parents report cards?

One legislature in Florida has filed a bill that would require public school teachers to grade parents. But is this the right approach to education reform?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/41847097#41847097

While looking for letters of the alphabet I found this... the pealing paint looks like a buffalo or monster or something

The importance of art education....

I found this article on New York Times and although the article isn't that inspiring, I thought the comments about whether art education is important or not was very interesting.... Check it out!
New York Times Article

Really enjoyed this article posted by Emily 
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/02/19taylor_ep.h30.html?tkn=UUMFlXXLi63FBkG%2B2v%2FI7%2BrKCAiTYxLHy%2B5G&intc=es

After reading the article, one section really stood out for me.  I thought this quote was pretty powerful... "I believe that we can repair the damage done, and change public perception, by rethinking and reshaping our approach to arts education. I propose that the critical skills of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving can be developed by design—not acquired by accident or as a byproduct—using the arts as tools."  The idea of utilizing the arts to encourage the development of these skill is extremely empowering.  My question is.... how quickly can we break down the restrictive barriers of standardization to introduce a new way of free thinking and creativity?!

ads of the world

great website to check out when you are procrastinating... ads of the world

here is a pretty funny ad...

http://adsoftheworld.com/media/outdoor/interbest_outdoor_nose

the museum experience...

While cruising around the Museum 2.0 website, I found this post especially interesting... the discussion regarding what is a "quality" museum experience resonated with my thinking about how to include technology into the museum.  How can we find a balance between fostering a "quality" museum experience and creating a space where diverse groups of people can get the most out of their museum experience?  Can this balance be found through the use of technology?  What needs to be done?

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-arianna-huffington.html#links

Great cooking site...

http://www.101cookbooks.com/