Artistic Vision
It’s a right-brain kinda thing.Archive for Blogroll
Neither down nor out
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.
Your time is now my time
I’ve been struggling with students who talk incessantly in my class (and, as a result, prevent projects from getting started or completed on time). The problem is pretty wide spread in the school so I’m not alone in my frustrations. However, in my art class it means that projects that should take one class can take two or three classes. And, it gets worse the more complex projects become.
So, what I’ve decided to try is to make those students who take time away from my class make up that time after school and that can be a problem since the kids are bused. For instance, a student who has been out for quite some time and just recently returned has reintroduced a great deal of disruptions back into my class. I’ve already spoken to his mother once about his disrespectful language and behavior. I’m going to be calling her again tomorrow to let her know that her son will need to serve a detention with me and make up time he’s taken away from my class.
Part of me remains uncertain if I should use the time to have students make up work or simply have them do other menial tasks such as cleaning (which is always needed). It’s going to be considered a detention and should they skip it they will receive a Saturday detention (one hour vs. three hours).
What are your thoughts on the topic of discipline in the classroom? Any changes you would make? Does anyone have any strategies for communicating the importance of working diligently at this late stage of the school year to high school students who should know better?
More Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in class
Most of my Studio students have all but finished with the third assignment from Betty Edwards‘ video Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
In this exercise, the students use a plastic viewfinder to map out a foreshortened view of their hand using a vis-a-vis markers. They take their modified viewfinder and then translate that pen drawing into a pencil drawing using an identical four-quadrant grid to render their hand realistically using simple shading.
It’s an exercise on perception, learning to see if you will. I’ve been pleased with some of the results, and I think those students have been too—despite their constant complaints! I’ve had to reiterate to the students that they need to stop expecting my class to be easy.
The exercises from the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain course are difficult but effective in giving participants a solid introduction to the principles of drawing: line, negative space, angles and proportions, shading. Dr. Edwards includes the gestalt or the personality (or “thingness”) of the thing or person drawn. She indicates that the gestalt comes from drawing and isn’t something taught.
It’s a simple application (reformulation?) of the elements and principles of design.
I’ll keep you posted as to the progress as my classes move further through the material. I’m curious, though, has anyone else participated in one of Dr. Edwards’ workshops or walked students through this course?
I’d love to hear about it so please comment fully!
Multitasking: You can’t pay full attention to both sights and sounds
One of the issues I face in my classroom as an art teacher is when my kids tell me that talking to their friends while working is okay for them, actually critical. A 2005 Johns Hopkins’ study, which specifically addressed cell phone use while driving, would also seem to speak to my classroom situation.
Professor Steven Yantis states,
“Directing attention to listening effectively ‘turns down the volume’ on input to the visual parts of the brain. The evidence we have right now strongly suggests that attention is strictly limited — a zero-sum game. When attention is deployed to one modality — say, in this case, talking on a cell phone — it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality — in this case, the visual task of driving.”
Again, the implications from this would seem to indicate that concentration in any one modality is compromised when another is introduced. So, I guess this would also give me an answer when my students say listening to their iPods helps them concentrate while they work on my projects. LOL!
Changing brain structure through repetition
I found an interesting article documenting a study regarding changes in actual brain structure. The source cited was a 2000 study referencing work done with taxi drivers. Apparently, “the longer a taxi driver had been driving, the larger a specific part of the brain (the part that we believe stores spatial representations of our environment).” In the words of the author, “(s)imply by doing something repetitively, or doing something differently, can affect a change – not only in your actual brain’s structure.”
I can’t say I’m shocked. Frankly, this report makes perfect sense to me. Addictions are forged in the brain through repetition; their resolution could only come similarly. Reading something like this, though, makes me question why pro-gay activists would discourage individuals who seek to undo years of addictive behavior that reinforced same-sex attraction? All addictive behavior causes chemical changes in the brain and, now, it would seem that it doesn’t just stop there.
Hopeful news for those who seek to make positive changes on many fronts!
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