I can’t wait to show you some of the awesome items that I received from our local education foundation! I started adding some STEAM resources in my art room earlier in this school year. You can read about it here in my October 2016 EdCloset post. Creating and learning with awesome and “STEAMy” resources in the art studio is very exciting!

SCIENTIFIC STUDY IN THE ART ROOM

I attended a symposium at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum called “Full Steam Ahead” last September. I got a fabulous idea for adding STEAMy resources to the art studio for my students from the director the Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Nature Lab is a natural science collection and lending library where students have hands-on access to specimens such as shells, taxidermy animals and skeletons. There are  live plants and animals to support visual inquiry into biological and natural sciences.​

If college students could have hands-on access to natural specimens, then mine should too! As budding artists and scientists, students need to practice careful observation. Insect specimens encased in clear acrylic immediately popped into my mind. I found out quickly that they are really expensive! After checking with educators I knew on Facebook and Twitter, I was able to include appropriate scientific specimens for a K-5 art room in my grant.

I found these beautiful and durable specimens in acrylic were made for young students. Perfect! My students love them and think they are cool…or they are a bit creeped out! I have to say when I unwrapped the large spiders (3 inches across!) they actually took my breath away.

STUDENT OBSERVATIONS

Students touched, magnified and investigated all of these new resources. Some students drew what they saw, others needed to observe with a magnifier. Many had questions, others had exciting finds to share:

“What is on this insect’s leg?”

“Why does that spider have so much hair?”

“Hey! I think that this caterpillar pooped in there!”
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“Mrs. T… Allie and I saw that scorpion’s leg MOVE! Twice!”

A side effect of making the art room a place for students to create, explore, learn and solve problems, is increased student engagement.
 
I am convinced that it our job as educators to encourage students to grow as artists, scientists and problem solvers. 

What do you think?

Have you written any grants for STEAM, STEM or the arts?

What did you include, and why?


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​This post was first published on Education Closet, February 2017

In an elementary art room, a bit of improvisation equals student choice and student voice.
Last night, I attended a Chris Bodie jazz concert at the legendary Blue Note jazz club in NYC. As the talented musicians played and improvised, I was prompted to reflect upon this school year. All that jazz (pardon the pun) and improvisation reminded me of all the changes that I have made in my elementary art room. This year, I am teaching grades 2-5, and embracing student choice in my art room. Honestly, sometimes it feels like I am teaching and kinda winging it at the same time. It is a bit scary, but I am doing it to increase student responsibility, engagement and learning through visual art.

WHY STUDENT CHOICE?
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Well, I had been teaching art with the gradual release model for many (like 20!) years. As a reminder, that model consists of:

1. I do it (the teacher)
2. We do it (practice as a class)
3. You do it together (everyone practices,) then finally…
4. The students do it alone.

As time went on, I felt my students were getting bored of this teaching model and I was doing many tasks that they could do for themselves. Many negative student behaviors were increasing and disrupting the class. Was this a cue from those students that they needed more control over what they were learning? Did the students need more responsibility in the art room? I finally concluded that my students needed to make more choices within their art room and their creations.

​As I reflected on this, it occurred to me that when I go to an art class or workshop, I do not want to create the same thing as everyone else. As an artist, that is just they way I roll. Those painting parties where everyone makes the same thing, step-by-step? Nah, I’ll pass. I realized: if I don’t want that type of class for myself, WHY am I creating that kind of art room climate for my students? I’m not saying those types of art classes are not valuable, I’m saying that in my opinion, artists don’t need that kind of hand holding to create original art. And in elementary art, I believe we should be teaching students to think and create independently. Yeah.

Interested in some awesome classical/jazz/rock improvisation? Skip to the 2 minute mark if you are strapped for time, but watching the whole video is worth it!
What can you do in your classroom to flip responsibility to your students? It is like turning a classical piece into rock and roll. We know we should increase student engagement for more student learning so let’s take a cue from music improvisation: let go a little so you can to let your students own their own learning.


Let me know what you think about increasing student choice and voice
in your educational setting. Write a comment below!

​This blog was first posted on Education Closet.

WHILE I WAS LISTENING TO NEAL, MY TAB ART ROOM AND ARTS INTEGRATION/STEAM SIDE CAME TOGETHER WITH A GREAT IDEA…If RISD students could have hands-on access to natural specimens, why couldn’t mine? Elementary students would LOVE examining natural materials. I started to make a list of items that would be appropriate scientific specimens for a K-5 art room:

• Insects – how about some real specimens?
• Animals – realistic plastic toys, I have some in the cellar (Don’t tell my son!)
• Photos of animals, plants, etc – I have collected old books for this purpose.
• Leaves – it is fall in New England, that one is easy! (Just collect some :)
• Gourds, fruits and vegetables – the art room has these already.
• Feathers – I’ll need to find some clean, natural feathers
• Bones – I have a Mr. Thrifty skeleton already!

Students love the plastic fruits, vegetables and gourds. Imagine for a moment, twenty children setting up their own small still life at the same time! It is really something. Mr. Thrifty, the skeleton, will make his appearance this week. I wonder how the students will react to him. Some of the other items I plan to ask for in a grant from our local learning foundation.