Limit Situations

On Oct. 23rd a group of teachers from the Spaces for Possibility learning community met with Olivia Gude to collectively explore the generative themes that had begun to emerge in their classrooms. A thoughtful and exciting conversation took place. I am in the process of collecting "takeaways" from the participants that I will later post on this blog. In the meantime, I wanted to share what I witnessed and heard during this three-hour experience.

Solving the Unresolvable... I love this idea and heard the concept come up time and time again throughout our conversation. Olivia mentioned that she prefers to think of "every problem as a curriculum problem." This seemed to resonate during discussions about assessment and rules and disruptions to teaching. It was remarkable to hear how many teachers agreed that the stress of grades, tests and assessments was something on many of their students' minds. The complication of having to teach in the midst of chaos was also very interesting. What is the effect of one individual (student, teacher, or administrator) sabotaging the larger learning experience?

YELLING... What is yelling? This topic was briefly mentioned during our conversations, but it stuck with me. What does it mean to yell? Is yelling a critique? A punishment? Praise? I began to think of yelling within my personal experiences. Why is the majority of my yelling angrily or sternly directed towards those that I love the most? Why do I hold in yelling at those that I despise the most? I yell in excitement when I'm cheering for a favorite team. I yell when I speak with my hard-of-hearing grandma. It seems as though one could approach yelling through a variety of Principles of Possibility - Playing, Encountering Differences, Empowered Experiencing, Deconstructing Culture, etc. I wonder about the benefits of yelling and what it can do to relieve stress. I could use that. 

NOT just ARRIVING at a theme... This seems to be an important statement to revisit throughout the process of developing comprehensive contemporary curriculum. Olivia continues to reminds us that this is a process and showed us examples of how Spiral Workshop has worked through a sequence of themes. We talked about going bigger and bigger with a theme... how a theme may emerge and then we can continue to pull new ideas and new themes out of it. I thought Jeanne's method for pulling out themes (Root Cause Analysis) was a good example of this. After students have generated a response or questions to a particular theme or issue, they use a color-coding system to breakdown the problem into Intrapersonal - Interpersonal - Institutional - Historical connections. I would love to learn more about this method. 

These are my "takeaways" from our engaging conversation. What were yours? What is your response to some these "takeaways"? Do they resonate with you? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!

What Brings You to this Learning Community?

What brings you to this learning community? What do you hope to get from it?

Here are the responses from the questionnaire we handed out at our first workshop with the Spaces for Possibility learning community. We're excited for a great year working with this fantastic group of teacher!

• Continuing the greatness!
• Chrissy. Ways to integrate better w/ elementary classroom. I’m currently co-teaching w/ 4^th grade team.
• Community, conversation, to collaborate w/ other art teachers.
• The teachers who have been a part of our group. New blood, new ideas. Olivia!
• To learn more about this pedagogy. To be around other passionate art educators. To become a better art educator.
• The great ideas shared. I hope to grow in curriculum development.
• 20+ years experience. 3 years with project. Revamp my art curriculum.
• To share with others, to be inspired by others in the community. I hope to get new ideas and find the support of like minded people.
• I feel inspired to make meaningful curriculum and to be inspired by other art teachers (as I was the past 3 years). I would like to walk away w/ new ideas and being nudged to expand what I do as an art educator.
• Need for collaborative brain stimulation. Help organizing a very not good just-getting-by curriculum.
• A broader idea relating to curriculum development and a deeper, more inclusive, and diverse curriculum.

• I want to connect with other art teachers and practices. Ideas, experiences, conversations, and opportunities.
• Collaboration, conversation, community. I’m looking to push my practice – I don’t wanna get stale.
• Interest in growing my practice… having meaningful conversations with other art educators.
• It was recommended by my co-worker. I hope to stay innovated and critical the entire school year. Keep the creative juice flowing.
• New ideas. Fresh thinking. Collaboration.
• I have been in this program for 3 years, and I really don’t want to quit the group, because I enjoy working with artists. I really learn wonderful fresh IDEAS.
• Share and learn, Olivia, mastering my mapping
• Well, I just founded a Visual Art program… It was non-existent before. I have LOVED growing it from the ground up. We have grown so fast and I need to connect and learn from the wealth of knowledge in this group. I hope to be challenged by teachers and all their years.
• My quest for knowledge, ideas, inspiration.
• Create curriculum that is broader in that my students are able to express themselves. Less “cookie cutter” art. But… incorporate skills and aesthetic at the same time?
• I have been involved in this project for 3 years. This community has provided a “spark” I’ve needed for some time. We are often isolated at the grammar school level, without peers to bounce and share ideas. I’m excited to experience new ways of teaching and how to tackle core standards in unison w/ others.
• Support, resources, research based info. Olivia Gude is a great opportunity. Networking, keeping me and my work fresh. I hope to have some research/intellectual capital to promote (something) art experiences (something my ADD LOVES), but my partner art teacher does not practice and he has AP scores to back up this total focus on drawing.