It’s a right-brain kinda thing.
April 14, 2008 at 9:06 pm
· Filed under Art, Blogroll, Education and tagged: Betty Edwards, criticism, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, teacher criticism, teaching in urban school
School has been more draining than usual so I haven’t been posting and that’s been disappointing to me because I felt like I had gotten closer to being more consistent with my posts. Oh well. I’ll get back to where I need to be.
In the meantime, I’d like to share what’s been going on with the work my students have been doing with Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The things I’ve learned are:
- It’s okay to extend the lessons somewhat. Since last year I’ve struggled with failing kids. I want to hold them accountable for their performance, but I also want to be mindful that failing a lot of students can be a dangerous proposition when you’re looking to be rehired next year.
- When you do extend a lesson be consistent so that the pace of the other lessons aren’t negatively affected.
- Don’t be afraid to fail a kid for work not done (not much of a problem for me) or mark them down for work done poorly (can be a problem for me). This may sound obvious, but I’m a newbie and I know that I need to watch my tendency to be overly critical. I made a girl cry last week. Fortunately, I used the opportunity to show my humanity (by apologizing), to validate how she was feeling and to teach her about appropriate ways of expressing her frustration.
I offer these simple observations to help those who may have used this material before and found themselves in a similar teaching environment as I am now. If you have some recommendations of your own to supplement these, please let me know.
I’m going to try to post a few examples. Some of the work I’ve been getting has been quite good. We’ll see how the kids hold up with the profile portrait and self-portrait assignments.
Permalink
I’m curious as to why you want people to scroll down to read your blog (because you only give 25% of the screen space to text) - but don’t think they’ll similarly scroll down for all the links to sites which are those belonging to other people?
Personally I can’t and won’t read blogs with a layout like this………..it hurts my eyes!
JWP wrote @ July 7, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for visiting, Katherine. I’m sorry you found the layout of this template so disagreeable. If I had my way, I’d probably make the main area a bit wider, but it’s not for me to change it (since I’m not upgrading my WordPress.com account).
Regarding people scrolling down to read my blog…
First, this isn’t a site selling something in the traditional sense. Therefore, the concept of “above the fold” isn’t as relevant. This is a blog, and visitors come expecting to read (and scroll). In fact, none of the blogs I visit regularly have the entire entry above the fold.
Second, I don’t mind if people leave my site and visit the sites I have listed elsewhere on my blog. That’s why they’re there. Blogging is about sharing what I know and where I’ve been.
Third, I don’t understand how scrolling and having to read a column that takes up 25% of the screen hurts your eyes. What I think you’re probably referring to is the gray typeface and, that, I can appreciate. Your point is well taken there. But, once again, since I’m not in a position to update the CSS for the template I selected from WordPress.com I can’t do anything about it.
Lastly, I’d encourage you to check back. This is the second template design I’ve chose for my blog so I’m sure I’ll be updating it again in the near future.
Once again, Katherine, I’m sorry you had such a negative reaction to my blog.
HTML-Tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Subscribe to My Blog
