My leadership roles

While reading the preface and chapter one of How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader I felt as though my principal could have written it. She is very encouraging to her staff and allows us to "take the reins" when we feel we can. She also empowers us by creating a number of different committees that we can be a part off to create a sense of community, purpose and drive.

In my own building I would have to say I have a couple of leadership roles. First, I am on the team leaders committee. This committee is a group of teachers that gathers to discuss, problems solve and communicate for the entire school. We meet regularly with our principle, tech dept. and other administrators. We have also gone to a number of leadership conferences. Another leadership role I have is that I am "chair person" for our district art department. I go to our articulation meetings with the high school and other feeder schools (we are a k-8 district) and set up art shows for the community. In just this last year, I have also become an instructional leader for my building. We have been undergoing a big shift in our instructional process and have had the pleasure of working with Jane E Pollock. The instructional leaders are teachers that have attended a special summer workshop last year and are implementing Pollock's GANAG instruction in our classroom regularly. We are working with our colleagues and helping (coaching) them on ways to improve instruction by using the GANAG process.

I also served on the team communicators, a group that voluntarily meets every wednesday before school to "hash" out management type issues and relay information between teams for better school wide communication. We then email the entire school and other the administrators the minutes so everyone is up-to-date!

D-O-N-E

i can't believe another class is done and over with! Its exciting to think that only 2 more classes and this program will be finished!

Anywho...

So I was thinking about how daunting this e-portfolio seemed in the beginning and how I was hesitant to start it because I was too overwhelmed. Its funny how I actually enjoyed creating it now because it caused me to go back and take a sincere look at all the work we have done so far. WOW! I have really come a long way since last January. I also found that by the weekly blogging I was able to compare the work I completed and with how I was feeling to the present. Some of the reflections seem silly now and yet others, still very relevant.

Perhaps the best thing about this course was learning how easy putting an e-portfolio together can be. I feel so much more prepared for my PDP portfolio and can't wait to start my culminating experience!

portfolio progress...

I would have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how well it is going on putting this portfolio together. In the past i have had some not so great experiences with them but find the e-portfolio much easier to complete than its old friend, the paper version!

As for what I still have to do... I need to think of a culminating experience! I am just not sure what to do. I want something with digital storytelling or digital photography (since thats one of the subjects i teach) and/or also do an online critique or online gallery exhibit. Maybe use some web 2.0 tools? Could this be a culminating experience?

Any advice or suggestions welcome! :)

Thanks!

E-Portfolio? Yes please!

I have never created an e-portfolio, but have wanted to for a year or two now. In fact, my principle would like all the teachers in our building to create an e-portfolio for this following school year and am THRILLED to have such a head start!

As for how my school currently uses e-portfolio...it doesn't. One of the main reasons my principle is starting this initiative this year is so that the follow year all of our middle school students will be able to start their own e-portfolio. Our district just approved having 1:1 netbooks for all of our 7th graders (piloting a new program) and creating an e-portfolio would just be the next step for us. Since the students will have access to a computer 24/7, keeping their course work/ refections/ projects in a portfolio would be so simple. :)

I also think that it would be great for teachers to share their portfolios with one another to share ideas and it would be an excellent way for different content areas to "see" what each other is teaching and how they are reaching their standards (what types of activities, technologies, experiences are the students getting).

The end..once again

It's crazy that yet another class is done and over with! I feel like this class went exceptionally fast..bummer! I really enjoyed learning how to teach online. It opened up my eyes to the other side of online learning. I am now much more comfortable with the idea of teaching online but worlds away from being ready to start teaching online. I know that I will be able to do it and hopefully will have the opportunity to do so in the near future, but for right now, I am still just getting my feet wet!

I also feel like I had my eyes really opened to the possibility of teaching art online and not just art history or an art appreciation course. I have begun researching different virtual schools and online classes in the arts to find out exactly how these classes are taught. I really love the hands on atmosphere an art room has and couldn't really grasp how I could do this online. Now, more than ever, I am sure I could do it...it would just be "different". I have learned to be okay with different. I may not be able to physically be there with my students but can create videos and tutorials to do it online. In addition, they might not always have to be "doing" or "creating" a physical something...

student centered learning online

During this weeks session I reflected heavily on my units that are very teacher centered and wondered how I could change them to be more student centered. In doing so I found that most often it involved the use of technology. This really didn't surprise me since some of the most successful ways of getting students engaged and take control of their learning is to incorporate technology. With this in mind, I also realized how important virtual schooling is becoming.

By changing my Renaissance art unit into an online student centered lesson, I realized that it can be done and in some cases seems to make the lessons more interesting for both me and the students. I am excited to try this unit out next year in my face to face room. Although we are not an online class, I want to begin trying more blended learning!

the virtual art room...hmmm

I have to admit, I am a little bit on the fence with teaching art completely online. I know it could be done, but I still believe there are things students just need to "be there" for. Sure I could create a video for all my demonstrations (I already have over half of them taped already!) and put them on a wiki, webpage or virtual class hub. I could do live web chats with my students to "watch" them draw, paint, sculpt, but what about those times I just need to be there. For instance, when I am teaching value drawing, the students definitely benefit from hand over hand instruction when they are struggling. How could I do this via the internet? What about when i help them correct their pressure for painting, drawing, carving, and throwing on a potters wheel. I NEED to know how hard or soft they are pushing in order to give the correct, specific and timely feedback they need in order to learn. I do think there are a number of ways art can be taught online and in fact it would probably be a better learning environment for everyone involve (more independence, less classroom distractions, less peer pressure, etc), but still feels like not all art could be taught this way.

With that said, I am look forward to trying to make my room more of a blended learning environment. If I can begin to do this more frequently and it becomes part of my pedagogy, perhaps I will one day be able to see teaching art (ALL ART) online!