Washington, Lansing, and other governments organizations: We need to change teaching.

We need to change teaching. We need to change our methods of instruction. We need to change.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Teaching needs to change. I am a teacher, and I look at these other teachers around me. Sad, mad, discouraged but generally great teachers who could be better. They could be awesome! They were awesome! What has happened to awesome, amazing teachers? They are crumbling under the pressure of the crap from Washington, from the state legislatures and from the district head offices. They crumbling from being unable to really shine and share their light. Many of these teachers have had the art of teaching sucked out them through standardized tests, no child left behind legislation, common rote assessments and standards that need to be taught by this date, at this time, and assessed in this way. These amazing teachers that have so much to give, have lost themselves and lost their way. 

I hate hearing the teachers near me and around me state that they can't wait for retirement. That they will be happiest Walmart greeter there ever has been because they will be away from classroom. They will finally be happy because they will be away from the hoops sent to us by Washington and by Lansing and by the district head offices. They will be happy to finally just be. I hate hearing this because I love coming to work, I love teaching. I am really lucky, I have the best job in the world. As an art teacher, I get to influence children's minds, open them up and let them see that there is infinite possibilities to every question. I get to show them that life does not fit into a multiple choice tests. That even though there is requirements and expectations that there is always room for change. I get to show them that they can make a mistake and that mistakes can be beautiful. I get to see the students at their best and at their worst and it is amazing. I feel like every teacher should have this opportunity and that every teacher should want this opportunity.

 I recently watched the YouTube viral video "FULL: Jeff Bliss, High School student gives a lesson to his teacher." You definitely should jump on YouTube and check it out. Unfortunately linking it  

I recognize that there are many other teachers who feel the way I do some teachers just need to let off some steam from time to time.There are already so many wonderful teachers, doing wonderful things, we just need to be given the opportunity to do more we should not settle to be like the teacher in the viral video. 

Kelly

Bullying

Bullying. What is bullying? Google dictionary defines bullying as...

To use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants.

I have been pondering this question in my head for a couple of days since I listened to Kevin Honeycutt's YouTube video on Chicken Glasses. I have always thought that we need a way to eradicate bullying but never thought to break it down into specific behaviors that would be very easy to spot, to define bullying beyond the basic definition.

So what is bullying? What behaviors make a bully, what makes one behavior bullying and another behavior a joke? In my school I see many different kinds of bullying. I see the students who are being called names like 4 eyes, geek, nerd, druggie, crackhead, looser, etc. But I also see the silent bullying that happens when kids are told things on the internet, when kids are stalked and ridiculed for what they wear, what they say, what they did. This is a permanent tattoo on their social media life. This is not something that is limited to the 100 kids in their grade or even 35 kids in their classroom but now it is now public to the whole school, the whole district, and to the whole world. Students can privatize their own personal site but other students who are choosing to publicize this information often don't and that label sticks. Now a days people don't remember that in 8th grade I embarrassed myself by dancing alone in front of the whole school to a Tiffany song unless I bring it up, but my students have digital stigmas attached to their names for life. Things that either they posted or friends posted that will never fade away. Things that they fear will mostly likely be with them for life and they probably will.

I think about my little girl sitting at home, playing on the swing set and enjoying time reading books on the ipad and wonder how can I protect her from being the victim of online bullying in her future. I think about the student at our high school a few years back that committed suicide because the bullying that he tried to escape from in one district followed him to his new district because of online bullying. I think of the multiple 6th grade students sitting up stairs trying to get through the day, trying to learn but trying to forget that someone posted the horrible remarks on Facebook and Instagram. How are we to protect them, if we don't even know that is happening?

Take Kevin Honeycutt's challenge and help define bullying, help define the other manifestations of social aggression.

Motivation

I have been struggling with motivation these last couple of days. Not only personally but professionally and more specifically with my students. I struggle everyday to motivate my students to work. Everyone I talk to always seems shocked that kids don't want to work in the art room. They always say "When I was younger and I had art, you couldn't stop me from working on the project." Some of my students are not this way, they just don't see the value in putting in the effort. This morning I listened to my TED talks on my drive to school, which I do everyday I'm not chatting with my dad, and I had the joy of listening to Dan Ariely discuss motivation. While his discussion was particularly on the the motivation of people at work, I began to think how can I use this research to motivate and inspire my students.



I began to ask questions like; do you think that giving the students an opportunity to be apart of their learning, to feel like their learning has weight (more weight than just a grade) do you think this could inspire more motivation in them? Do you think if we stopped giving the students power points to copy down and worksheets to fill in the blanks that we MIGHT motivate them more? All of the evidence out there states that the old way of teaching is just that old. It's antiquated and out of date, these students are not inspired by the old way of doing things. Just like the old way of managing and treating employees is out of date and doesn't inspire high work ethic, the old way is not inspiring our students. We have to change this and the art room has to be the first place to demonstrate this change.

Where to start... how about PARENTING

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about parenting. What makes a good parent? What in my case makes a good mother. I love snuggling with my daughter but man do I hate watching Octonauts for 15th time. I find that at these times I am searching the web, reading blog pages or checking my Facebook status. We are still snuggling but we are both in our own worlds doing our own things. Does this make me a bad mother, while my daughter enjoys her half hour of cartoon time I am off enjoying my digital time?

I look at some of my friends and family on Facebook and see contrasts in their parenting styles one distant (and I emphasize distant) family member recently posted a picture of her 3 year old daughter holding a AR-15 riffle. I don't even know where to being in thinking about that, how right can we be if we are introducing our children to guns and weapons at such a young age. Is that demonstrating that you are good parent? Can you be a good parent and still have your child in an environment that has these weapons? As teacher I am constantly thinking about where do my students come from and how are their parents acting as parents. Until this picture I never really thought that this could be my students, but it could. I guess it could very easily be my children, we do have guns in our house (not those kind of guns but we do have guns) but we also have set up boundaries around weapons like this.

 On the other hand I have Facebook friends (and I refer to them as such because since high school or some party a millions of years ago, have I actually hung out with them and their families, are they really my friends? Some are, but most would probably not even recognize me if we met on the street or at the supermarket - however I digress.) I have Facebook friends who post images of the amazing cakes they have created or the valentines breakfast and gifts they cooked up for their children. I think its amazing that these women have the time to create amazing birthday photo areas for the upcoming birthday parties and the red carpet extravaganzas that they entertain their children with, but are their children any better off than mine? I really don't want to be that mother but should I be? Are their children receiving something my children aren't and are mine going to suffer because of that? Or is just being with my children, enjoying the time we have, jumping on the couch, running in the kitchen, learning somersaults and cartwheels, reading books and making messes are these all that my children need. What is it that makes a good parent?

I know can easily search the web, the ERIC journals and sources to answer my questions with articles written by doctors and psychologists but really I just want to ponder the thought for a little bit, that data will always be there for when I really need to search the information. Maybe just maybe we, as parents need think about what are we exposing our children to and how is this affecting them and does that matter to us. Because the doctors and the psychologists can say what they want but if we don't agree or value it does it really even matter.

Homemade Bread

So this week my daughter and I returned to cooking the bread and muffins that we love so much, even though we have pretty much mastered these. They are still a favorite and I will continue to recommend to everyone that I meet.  I'll share my muffins in a future post.

I have found that I like baking bread from scratch, not only is making bread from scratch healthier for you, it is rather cheap. I found that I make 2 loves for approximately $2. This particular bread is best fresh but will keep rather well for a few days. It makes great toast and grilled sandwiches and I am sure that after a few days it would make great croutons for stuffing or even on salads. I like the easy recipe #7 off the back of the Red Star Quick Rise Yeast packet, this particular bread does not require any kneading and takes about 2hrs from start to finish.

I have found that I like baking bread from scratch, not only is making bread from scratch healthier for you, it is rather cheap. I found that I make 2 loves for approximately $2. This particular bread is best fresh but will keep rather well for a few days. It makes great toast and grilled sandwiches and I am sure that after a few days it would make great croutons for stuffing or even on salads. I like the easy recipe #7 off the back of the Red Star Quick Rise Yeast packet, this particular bread does not require any kneading and takes about 2hrs from start to finish.

 

Recipe # 7: America’s Favorite Batter Bread – Traditional Method

Makes: 2 Loaves                                                               Preheat oven to 375°

 

6 ½ Cups all-purpose flour

2 pkg. RED STAR QUICK RISE yeast

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. salt

3 cups warm water

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

 

In a large bowl combine 3 ½ cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add warm water and oil to flour mixture. Blend at low speed. By hand slowly stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover; let rise until almost double, about 20-30 minutes.

Stir down batter with a spoon. Divide dough evenly between 2 well greased pans, 8”x5” Cover and let rise until batter reaches the top of the pans, 20-30 minutes. Bake in preheated 375° oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pan; cool on rack.

 

What led me here...

I have been thinking about writing a blog for some time now.  I finally decided to take the plunge and create one after two things happened. The first thing occurred after we visited a friend who is not a great cook. I’m pretty sure that she would say she’s horrible cook. After leaving her house, I started thinking that it would be nice for people like her and I, who can’t cook, to have a cooking show that taught them how to cook simple meals. Like a House Crashers for the cook, not the kitchen.  I wanted it to be things that you can make when you have a two year old hanging off your leg and a baby screaming in his crib, but I didn’t want that to be frozen boxed Lasagna, Mac’N’Cheese or Spaghetti O’s every night for dinner. That’s the kind of cook that I was becoming and that our friend definitely was. The second thing that influenced this decision to write a blog was the book “365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!” by Noah Scalin and the TED talk by Matt Cutts called Try something new for 30 days. Both of these resources really influenced my thinking. I had so many ideas and for next 3 weeks before school starts I probably would be able to do pretty much anything. I came to realization that once the fall sets in, with after school programs, grading, lesson plans, and meetings, I really would not have the time to create something and blog about it every day. So I settled for a starter program of making something once a week.

 I’m not sure if I choose to write about cooking because my sister just started a gourmet cooking blog or because I am seriously interested in it. I think I really started writing about cooking because my 2 year old daughter loves to cook and I love to cook with her.  This summer we have made many recipes and learned how to cook things I never thought I would. It started with her interest in making pancakes, and bloomed into making banana bread, muffins, and brownies. However, she would not settle for the simple box solutions and the more I began to read about those things I decided I didn’t want to settle for that either. When we first set out to make blueberry muffins from scratch I was worried that they would fall flat and be a disaster. I am known for messing up box brownies and truly was only ever known for making a mean bowl of cereal. My daughter and I were pleasantly surprised when the muffins turned out amazing, they were better than any box recipe we had ever made. We then set out to create other things our next endeavor was to make bread from scratch and that worked too.