Singers bless the song

Semester Project Comments

We are very near to the end. I would like to thank everybody for reading and sharing your posts and questions. I am glad I had the opportunity to read both books and reread Kate Lyman. All of the authors were thought provoking.

This will be the final section where we will all communicate about our blogs: if they are finished to look at; and where each of us will talk about your ideation of your blog (your ideas);  I encourage everybody to leave comments at each of your blogs--at your sites. Please give each one of us some feedback--positive and constructive if you'd like.

It is here where you will talk about some of the problems or successes you have in thinking up a topic, gathering ideas, putting together information, problems or issues that arose, problems that are still problems, thoughts you have, after thoughts you are having--just giving us some behind the scenes information about how you put together your blog. You may highlight doubts you had/have; obstacles you faced/face; that sort of thing. Post anywhere from 2-4 paragraphs and then feel free to respond to everybody's posts. You can post about current issues or what you hope will happen to your work. You can post about future impact of your blog on you and your work or your teaching or? And yes, I realize these are all works-in-progress.

You will have until midnight Sunday to finish posting any posts here. Feel free to comment/post anything anyone posts. I will try to check each day and I will add comments here. If you would like more response from me, just email me with a specific request.

Here are our due dates: Sunday 12 midnight all blogs and comments due here; Monday at noon Grades due.

Look on the syllabus for grading rubric. I will be sending each of you an email with some comments and a final grade. Let me know if you need anything else. I will be posting "Post markers" on here so I know who I have responded to--just keep posting your comments after the "Post markers." Ask questions on here or send me an email. Thanks again for a very nice and fast summer II course.

August 6

Aug 6  Lampert pp. 296-304 (Chapter 29)

Did you ever think we would get to the end? Thanks for staying with the books, even when the reading got dense (as in the Rader book). Just a few reminders. I will be posting the Semester Project side bar tomorrow. You will have until Sunday at midnight to reply to it.

What I am looking for in it, and I will re-explain this when you open that sidebar, are the insider thoughts, ideas, problems, issues, frustrations, successes, contacts, etc.--that you faced while thinking about your project. I am hoping for anywhere from 2-4 paragraphs. Just giving us inner glimpses of what went on for you. It might be about low self-esteem, not knowing what to do; about worrying until you had a topic; worrying about technologies used; etc. I just want some behind the scenes gossip, if you will. And here's why. I want people to read what you were really thinking through the semester idea. I want people to hear your doubts and successes--your fears and shames. That's the most important thing for me as a teacher as I am reminded of what people really go through as they plan something. I sense we will all learn about ourselves again by doing this. It's a reflective wrap-up exercise. And by no means does your project have to be finished. I figured these would all be works-in -progress--Hopefully something you might actually use. Not just something made for another dumb class. 

I chose these two books because I wanted to read them. And honestly, I feel like I have a better grasp of histories of arts and all of the factors that are involved with them. I hope you were able to enjoy them as well. 

August 5

Aug  5 Chapter 28 Bringing the War Home (pp. 287-295)

As we finish our quick Summer II, I want to sketch out the end of the semester. You will have until August 10th at midnight to get as far as you can on your semester project. Grades are due the 11th at noon. That gives me time to go over stuff.

I expect that everybody will look at everyone's else's blog. I am just asking one more thing in addition to your semester blog. I will post one more time that will be titled final semester project. What I would like for you to do there, is to think back to your ideas, doubts, calculations, process, and problems that you had designing your semester project. It's like insider notes--if you knew this… Usually lots of things go wrong and I want the class to get an insider view of the problems or doubts and other stuff that you dealt with. Possibly limitations? Changes? Etc. I'm expecting two to four paragraphs. It's a way to remind us all of the messy process: here was my first idea. I went with my fifth idea; I couldn't interview so-and-so so I did this instead--some of the rough interior stuff that we would never suspect happened.

Daniel posted/commented how social change is usually met with great resistance. Blair posted how difficult it is to teach about the deeper issues. Lyman was, as dead artist David Wojnarowicz would say, a brushfire in the social landscape. Almost all of those "great" people we read about from Emma Goldman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Judy Baca, Helen Keller, etc., all had similar lives to many of the lives we have read about--whether privileged or not. When people tell me that Kindergarteners are too young for something, I usually have them read something from Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 2; just to show them one example of how one person integrated deeper social issues in a lesson.

Kate Lyman is still teaching, 3rd grade, at Hawthorne Elementary School in Madison, WI.

See: https://hawthorneweb.madison.k12.wi.us/node/80

 

Junction MAE Summer Exhibit

August 4

Aug 4  Rader pp. 220-227 (Chapter 9); Lampert pp. 278-85 (Chapter 27)
           And Kate Lyman: Teaching the Whole Story (pp. 168-175)

Yikes. Sorry about posting so late-- 11.30 am. I had the First Friday Art Trail opening issues all weekend long and this morning. I will post some pics under that heading. I will be checking on blog sites today. Just three class days to blog--and then we will be responding one more time to people's blogs whatever stage they are at--on their blog site.

Lots of posts about ideas for pedagogical changes in our lessons and classrooms on Friday's posts. Lynn--your: Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? questions--where do those come from? Andrea's ideas for  creating/inventing cultural projects is a great idea. Keep in mind that it will take research time to track histories--interviews, mapping, online research, etc. in order to produce that cultural project. Many of us know very little about our own backgrounds and histories--or have to remain silent about them for various reasons.

Andrea posted about where to leave comments--leave it on their blog site. I will see that you have left a comment. Am keeping track of those too. Just that you comment. So make sure you do.

And check out some of the pics from First Friday Art Trail JUNCTION 2014 Exhibit.

August 1

Aug 1  Rader pp. 211-20 (End of Chapter 8/Beg. of Chapter 9); Lampert pp. 269-77 (Chapter 26) 
           And Kate Lyman: Staying Past Wednesday (pp. 199-201)

We are getting close to the end. I will be looking  and commenting on blogger sites tomorrow. If in Lubbock, First Friday Art Trail tonight. COme see MAE Summer Exhibit at TTU Satellite Gallery 6-9 pm. I will take some photos and post on here.

Some reactions to your posts: Thanks for responding to Lynn's post about factions to statue. I have yet to make it to the State Fair. I am going to try this fall and seek out that building and the Women's Building. Statue looks similar to ones Rader critiqued. Sculpture by white people. In 2001, Edgar Heap of Birds was a speaker for TAEA in Lubbock. That was right after 9/11. I recall driving Edgar and two friends in my car. Edgar commented how McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken were white people's visual culture and histories. There are lots of Native museums in OKL and NM. There is the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe just off the Square across from the Cathedral (I believe). Andrea posted of not connecting to nuclear essay and I wondered if there was a NYC/east coast bias in his articles. So, I counted them: Native Am, slave ships, England, West Coast, NYC (7), Chicago, DC, the south, Depression era, Fed Art, Internment, non-violence (south), Oakland, 2 CA, LA, and China. So about 12 out of 25 were somehow about the east coast. 

Monday is our last chapter in Rader. I liked the one for today, BTW. I'm always learning new things. Hope your week went well. Happy August (means we are back at school soon).