education – Page 2 – Emily Maxwell McLemore

It’s not just about HAVING an innovator’s mindset, you have to USE it!

Published on August 2, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore1 Comment

I’m reading George Couros’ book, The Innovator’s Mindset.

I love everything about this book! What I am finding interesting is that even though I have always had an innovator’s mindset and have embraced all that being an innovator entails in both my personal life and as a teacher; I have not always empowered my student’s to embrace the innovator’s mindset.

As I am reading this book, I am pondering many of the norms in my classroom and in my school and asking myself lots of questions. For example:

Why do we have to do ______ a certain way?
Why do we come from a place of negativity when it comes to rules and expectations?
Why do we expect kids to fail/get in trouble/do things wrong?
When are we giving students choices?
When are students leading learning?
When are we modeling the innovator’s mindset?

All of my questions come back to Couros’ examination of student compliance vs student empowerment. It shames me to think about the fact that even in an artistic environment where students are asked to innovate and create everyday, I have always required compliance! OUCH.

But guess what? I am required to comply everyday as well. I have always hated the posted rules, class room procedures and expectations requirement for “good” classroom management. For years I bucked the system and didn’t post things.. but in order to be an “effective” teacher it was necessary to post these guidelines.

So I did.

And guess what, students that didn’t comply didn’t care which rule they broke. Students that didn’t behave responsibly didn’t check my posted expectations and procedures to see how they deviated from the posted signs. The only thing that my signage did was to show adults that walked through my class that I had “good classroom management.”

So today I yanked my signs off the wall! These signs take up valuable wall space and I’d rather post positive messages and show off student work! What gave me the courage to take down the warning signs? Well, Couros made me do it!

I want my classroom to be a place of empowerment. I want students to be willing to risk it all and try new things in my space. I want to push students to expand their mindset and become an innovator. And I can’t do that from a place of compliance.

No, I’m not going to have a free for all in my classroom! I am way to organized and driven for that nonsense! But I need to move past the statements that demand compliance.

Instead, here is one of my new posters…

So yes, in a way I am still demanding compliance.. but the mindset is different. Instead of requiring that students all put the pencils away the same way or put their name on their papers in the same two inch space on their papers, I am demanding that students imagine. I am demanding that students dream, collaborate and inspire others with their work and their choices.

I can’t wait to see how the shift in mindset frees my students and my own personal creativity. I’m sure it will be wild ride, but I know that it will be worth it.

All for the +1, tweet, share and a follow

Published on May 19, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore1 Comment

Social Media. It is a significant part of our lives.. whether we acknowledge it, believe it, or even if we want to run from it.

Good or bad, social media isn’t going to go away and refusing to figure out how to harness the positive attributes of social media because you hate the bad is like telling a teenager that “rock music is of the devil” and expecting the teen to stop listening to it!(And while no, I don’t believe such nonsense about rock music… I did hear that comment regularly from the ultra-conservative church that I went to as a child… but that is a blog story for another day..)

As a mom of daughters 17, 12, and 7 I am scared to death of what they will see and experience because of social media. But I can’t let that fear drive my decisions. I pray that they don’t have fake accounts and live secret lives on Instagram (if they have a “finsta” account I want to KNOW!!), but I hope that they don’t have choose to live fake lives in general! It’s my job as a parent to invest myself into their lives and make secret social media profiles so difficult that it isn’t worth the effort.

And I feel the same way about social media in the classroom. As a high school art teacher, I am constantly having to redirect students to spend more time on their art than on their phones. Snapchats are sent at a few hundred per minute. I’d like to believe that the majority of my students don’t use social media inappropriately, but given that they can’t stop themselves from looking, checking, snapping and posting everything that comes into their lives, I know that they are not going to consistently make decent choices. That is life.

So how do I model appropriate use? Because truly, that is where the teaching starts.. modeled behavior.

At home, I try not to post pictures of my children that they truly hate. My oldest daughter, Maddie keeps me in check. 🙂 Maddie is such a wise soul and reminds me that not every moment needs to be documented for the world and that basically life is a personal journey, not a social media journey. Yeah, I’m very grateful to have such an awesome 17 year old!

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At school, I takes dozens of pictures every day of students working. I have Stephenville High School Art Facebook and SvilleArt Instagram (that i forget to post on, so I have to tag my pictures from my personal account..eek.) but I post pictures regularly of students working. People love seeing my students in action and chronicling a work in progress is crucial for my students to see where they started and how far they have come by the time they finish their projects.

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One of the benefits of taking so many pictures of students at work is that there are no secrets in my classroom. If a parent or an administrator wants to know what is going on, check my Facebook or Instagram feed… or better yet, come visit personally! There is no expectation of privacy in my classroom and that is a very good thing. No student or teacher needs to get so comfortable within their environment that they feel like it’s is a private room. What goes on in V21 DOESN’T stay in V21! Yes, I am a mentor and have lots of confidential conversations with students that I would never share on social media, but the general essence of my classroom isn’t a private or protected environment. And even if I wanted it to be, the reality is that with students and their devices, it wouldn’t be private anyway!

So as the world of technology gets murkier with each passing day, I firmly believe in the value of social media. I love that through the use of Facebook and Instagram the families and friends of my students get to see what they are learning and creating on an almost daily basis. No matter where in the world they live!

Are there problems? Of course there are. And this whole fake Instagram “finsta” stuff has me rattled for sure! But I have to keep asking questions and not letting the problems of social media scare me away from the benefits. As parents and teachers our job is to push, to prod, to teach, to encourage, to correct, to forgive, to inspire and to love. Modeling appropriate use of social media for my students helps me to do that.

And those are my thoughts on the use of social media for #EDUBLOGSCLUB PROMPT 19.

Teaching in a Problem/Project Based Learning Classroom

Published on May 4, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemoreLeave a comment

PROJECT BASED INSTRUCTION – #EDUBLOGSCLUB PROMPT 17

Teaching in a project based learning environment is:

exciting
fun
loud
interesting
chaotic
engaging
different everyday

It is not however easy. If a teacher is looking for a simple and quiet environment, a project or problem based classroom is not for him or her…. for that teacher, my suggestion is to stick to the ole’ worksheets and sit back and be bored! A project based classroom is an incredible place to be, but it is work!

Case in point… my classroom. Yes, for the last 9 years I have taught art, but prior to that I taught Economics, Debate, Reading, Creative Writing, Career Investigations, Math, Speech and Theatre and in all of these courses, I used project based instruction. So from a veteran twenty year teacher, I feel like I am a perfect advocate for this type of instruction and learning environment!

So how does project based instruction work? Here is an example..

Over the last few months my art 2 – 4 students have been learning to create logos and to screen print their design on shirts. This project has been a huge undertaking and has lingered on and on!

One of the hardest parts of project/problem based instruction for the teacher is understanding that your schedule, your bundled curriculum, and your lesson plans might just have to be thrown out of the window for the good of the students!

EEK! Yes, I did just say that! But, what I have learned is that while I might have to adjust my plans to make problem based learning work, it is worth it. And, in order to give all of my students time to process and consider the problem or the process, I have students work through the project in stages or increments with breaks for other assignments built-in (this also catches me up on my bundle..) So for example, here is my logo design screen printing project timeline:

Early February: Create a logo for art using a custom graphic and just one color. Students created this by hand and/or digitally. The students that worked quickly set their design aside and moved to a different project. The students that worked slowly were given a couple more class days to work and then had time outside of class to continue working on their own time. Students were told at this point to bring a tshirt and a frame for their screen.

Late February: Students learned how to cut green screen film. This was time-consuming. As the students completed this they were able to adhere their film to their screen and print.. if they brought their supplies. However, after a couple of class days, students were asked to move to a different assignment and finish cutting as they had time between other projects.

attach screen to frame

adhere film to screen

March: Students were expected to have frames and shirts at school. Some did. Some didn’t. As students would complete a different project they were given time to continue their screen printing project. This ebb and flow of the project worked to my advantage as students would get excited when they would see student’s completed work and then want to figure out how to finish their project. I would completely move on and not mention the project for days at a time.

April: Not much happening on the screening of shirts. We were busy with other projects and contests. If a student wanted to work on this project, I let them. But I pretty much ignored it until the late April when I gave a hard deadline that we would be finishing the project the first week of May.

This forced those that had been procrastinating or forgetful to get busy! This was a week of seeing months of on and off work completed.

And why now after all of this time? Because the second Tuesday of May is the day we take our big group picture where everyone wears their creation!

I can’t wait to show those off! I wore one shirt yesterday and am wearing a different design today!

So do all of my students have shirts to wear?

NOPE! And that is one of the real life lessons from project based instruction. I gave lots of opportunities to work, create, problem solve and get help, but in the end, the students had to complete the work for themselves. This week I had one of my oldest, most advanced students get left behind because she missed too many deadlines and never got her green film adhered to the screen. Sad, but that’s part of life and truly one of the best lessons learned with project based instruction.

Do I consider the project successful?

YES! The joy on student’s faces when they successfully created something that could be worn is worth the effort! Besides the fact that I cover a truckload of the required essential skills (TEKS) in this one project, I pride myself on the fact that these students leave with tangible job skills.

Do all of my project based lessons take so long?

YES and NO! Some project based instruction is fast, some is slow. After years and years of this type of teaching I have learned how to weave the projects and expectations of lessons in and out and have multiple things going on in my classroom at one time. This process works for me.. but it would drive some teachers crazy. I get that.

Is project based learning or problem based learning?

Let me give you an example… I teach four sections of art 1. I really wanted to do a problem based instruction unit on ceramic molds. I knew that this would not work with all of my art 1 classes. So, three classes did a manageable PROJECT based ceramic project where they learned how to create a clay monster and a clay box.

This was PROJECT based… meaning I knew the exact outcome I wanted, but the students still had to experiment, learn and explore the entire process and create a product.

The remaining class whose class dynamics were right for the PROBLEM were given the option to do the project like the other classes or take on the problem. They of course, chose the problem which was to experiment, learn, explore and create using ceramic molds.

The outcome of their problem was not a given. I refused to be anything more than a facilitator and mentor. They loved the process and worked tirelessly for weeks!

For me, the difference between the project and the problem is the willingness for me to let go of the final product. In the world of art, students are constantly working with a project based instruction model.

But when I used problem based instruction, I have to take a step back and let the students drive the process. This happens less often as so much of what we do is for contests. However, when we do, magic happens!

So in the end, whether you are interested in using Project Based Instruction or Problem Based Instruction, I challenge you to just do it. Giving students hands-on applicable work transforms classrooms, student’s attitudes about school and gives student’s a sense of pride and ownership. Yes, it is a lot of work, but it is SO WORTH IT!

Public Education meet Weight Watchers

Published on May 1, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemoreLeave a comment

Prompt number 16, … Tell a story.. is part of the #EdublogsClub where a group of educators and edtech enthusiasts that blog around a common theme each week.

I’m running behind on my blogging. It’s a sign of the crazy busy schedule. The downside of not being able to respond to the prompt immediately is that I miss out on posting weekly. The upside is that these prompts from #EdublogsClub marinate in my brain for days at a time and I am enjoying the thinking process prior to writing my response.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, right about the time the tell a story prompt came out, I rejoined Weight Watchers. For those of you new to my story, I am constantly battling my weight and have a love/hate relationship with food. A few years ago I joined Weight Watchers and changed my life. Since that time, I have struggled continuously to maintain a healthy weight. Thank goodness I love to run, otherwise the struggle would be much more difficult. However, every so often I try something else.. some gimmick, some supplement, some quick fix.. but in the end, nothing has the staying power of Weight Watchers. Why? Because Weight Watchers doesn’t make me change the very nature of who I am. In order to be successful with Weight Watchers, I don’t have to give up the foods I love, I just have to plan and make better choices. The problem is, Weight Watchers is boring. It’s not flashy. If you lose a ton of weight week after week, you are doing it wrong. It’s steady, consistent..boring. But it works. 8535053-An-image-of-a-person-standing-on-a-scale--Stock-Vector-weight-loss-healthy

And that is the very nature of education.

Quality education is boring. I’m sorry, but if you think that teaching is glamorous, you have not lived in the trenches with teachers very long. Teaching students day after day is hard, it is tedious and to be successful, much of what we do is boring. There. I said it! After almost twenty years in education, I feel like I have earned the right to say it… quality education is boring.

Why? Because the very education that students need, the foundation of our content doesn’t change. Yes, education evolves and yes, new technology brings in new elements and new methods, but the lessons that need to be taught and the skills that must be mastered don’t change. And contrary to what so many talking heads would have us believe, the way we teach much of our information must remain the same. That sameness, that one on one, teacher to student, direct content distribution isn’t flashy, it isn’t cool and it isn’t trendy. Quality education is like Weight Watchers. It is founded in principles that work, it gives teachers the flexibility to make choices that work for themselves and their students within the guidelines provided and just enough wiggle room each week to keep things interesting, but keep them accountable to the group. See?! school-295226_960_720

And what about the flashy, quick fix? It doesn’t stand the test of time. Over the years, I have seen so many state tests come and go. I’ve seen teaching strategies and classroom management techniques questioned and labeled differently so that the latest and greatest buzz words are being thrown around and used. But at the end of the day, quality teaching and learning is still pretty much the same with a few new additions to improve the process. Just like Weight Watchers… the point system has changed, the activity credits adapted, and the delivery options greater, but the methodology and the results are still based on the same research and continued results.

So as the world continues to watch the state of public education, I offer this… let’s help public education be like Weight Watchers! Sure, the no carb diet gets results, but a person can only live without carbs so long before they give up the will to live. Okay, maybe that is a bit extreme… but really, I’ve tried the no carb thing… it’s no fun. Take the “specials” out of education and leave only the basics and you get a no carb education. Sure you can can survive it, but do you want to?

I could go on.. like..

Extreme weight loss surgery that leaves people looking malnourished..yep, we have education systems like that too…

And how bout that crazy diet that some go on that put them in a constant bad mood… yep, we have education systems like that too…

Really. I could go on still, but you get it. From the 15 year old girl who lived on Slimfast to the 40 something woman still fighting the pudgy middle, I have learned that the flashy quick fix doesn’t work. Successful and healthy weight loss and maintenance is slow, it’s steady and it’s consistent daily choices.

And that is what I hope for education.. content that is built on a secure foundation that is capable of withstanding slow and steady growth and change not looking for the flashy quick fix, but strong and steady for future generations.

Fine Art Assessments

Published on April 23, 2017April 23, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemoreLeave a comment

The Edublogs Club prompt #15 was over assessments… it was last week’s prompt and I was drowning in the teacher ocean so the prompt has had time to ruminate in my brain before trying to put my thoughts in print.

This morning, as I get ready for the “Parade of Champions” that our community is having for our school’s state champion girls soccer team and our theatre team, I wanted to reflect on the reality of assessments in the world of fine arts.

While I might be tempted to say that assessments in fine arts aren’t necessary or accurate, the truth is that assessments are important in EVERY discipline. However, appropriate and authentic assessments are crucial. A rudimentary objective test completed on a scantron is never going to accurately students much less assess fine arts students or programs. Fine arts people don’t process the same way that math/science or english/history students primarily process. This is not to say that fine arts dominate students can’t do well on standardized tests…this is contrary to my experience.

But these tests don’t reflect the whole student.

Therefore, I think that one of the best authentic assessments for fine arts programs (and all programs for that matter) is to evaluate the sum total of the year. While it’s fun to take a snapshot of success and boast about the quality of our programs based on one big win. If we are a one dimensional program, then the students suffer. The same goes for academics. If everything we have, all of our resources and our efforts are spent on getting students to do well on the state mandated test, but in the process student’s miss out on mastering the rest of the content, then we have failed… but who wants to acknowledge that.

That is one of the reasons why I am so proud that I can say I am part of a fantastic fine arts department at Stephenville ISD. Stephenville High School fine arts students are well rounded students within their disciplines, but are also strong academically and are leaders in the community!

My case in point.. the recent big win by the SHS Theatre Team. UIL (University Interscholastic League) is the governing body for Texas extracurricular events and last week, UIL hosted the state meet for One-Act Play and Theatrical Design. Advancing to the state competition is tough. At this competition, UIL crowned the State Champion Theatre Team. This team is made up of the school’s competitors in UIL Film, UIL One-Act Play and UIL Theatrical Design. SHS won State Champion because of the well-rounded team approach. In order to win, students had to show an amazing variety of skills and an incredible commitment to their work. Students began working on these contests in August of 2016! Film students created in the fall and turned in their work in January of 2017 and advanced to state in March. OAP students performances started in February with the state meet in April, but many students begin working on one-act play in August or earlier! Theatrical Design students started as soon as the topic was given in May 2016, really got to work in August, turned in their work in February and if they advanced, went to State in April. From start to finish, more than 300 SHS students participated in these contests… that is 30% of the student body at SHS.

But that isn’t all we do, it just happened to be the most public as this success came with a plaque, a parade and a pep rally.

Don’t you just love the fact that we had three of our theatrical design students at the parade and peprally via giant head and facetime?! These three students were at the UIL State Academic meet for Literary Criticism. I tell you, we have well rounded kids!

But all of that while fun, isn’t exactly my point.

My point is that assessments need to define what they are really measuring. So many of the assessments that students are given, don’t measure content knowledge or content mastery, but test taking abilities and game play. I want assessments to measure mastery, not the ability of students to handle high stakes testing that capture a moment in time. Yes, I am fully aware that these kinds of tests are necessary. I have a junior that is living in the land of ACT and SAT. But I don’t believe that school and student mastery should be assessed in this same manner. I want my students to be given the opportunity to prove their knowledge and ability based on a year’s worth of effort.

So am I pushing for portfolio assessments? Yes and no. As my advanced students are deep into AP Art Portfolio creation, I understand the value of such an undertaking. The portfolio is the best representation of what they can do within a time frame and within a set of guidelines. In art world, this means 24 to 29 of the best pieces that the student has created, 12 developed around and exploring one theme. The depth and complexity of this portfolio is not something that I can do with all of my students. But I could have students build and add to their portfolios each year to finish their high school career with a portfolio that they would be proud to show to a grandparent or even would-be employer.

As our district moves to a 1:1 digital environment, I have looked at having students create and curate their own digital portfolio. Our district has used BulbApp, our elementary students are using Seesaw, my advanced students have tried blogs.. the list is endless.

And that in and of itself becomes one of my negatives. As times change and new software becomes available, it is so hard to figure out what to keep, where to put it and who can access it. Usage agreements are ever changing. Parent policies and parent permissions are ever changing. So it’s hard. And I can’t store thousands of artifacts for my students. Not in real life or digital!

Because of that reality, I can’t support portfolio assessments completely.

So my suggestion is that we assess programs and schools on the sum total of the year, not individual kids, not a single test, not a single anything!

We get so caught up in individual student success and or failure and it shouldn’t be that way. I have students miss my class Thursday after Thursday for mandatory math tutorials because they haven’t passed the Math STAAR yet. It doesn’t matter that art is the only thing that is keeping some of the kids in school, they are yanked in mid-lesson, mid-project.. hopefully this approach pays off.. but at what cost to the student.

At the end of the day I am more than aware that there isn’t a perfect answer or a best case. Only a mixed bag of problems and no real solution. That is the world of education. However, the EdublogsClub prompt asked me to consider the role of assessments in education. So this is my wish.. authentic assessments that evaluate a year of effort.

And how would my program fair?

Here is my year end assessment (yes, I know it isn’t the end of the school year yet… I still have a state competition, a congressional competition, and a local competition to complete..):

SHS Art students have created work for numerous contests and have a great many awards locally, within the state and beyond.
SHS Art students have participated in numerous community service events and have given freely of their time and talents.
SHS Art students have created art work using at least 6 different media and have created more than 1000 pieces of art this school year.
SHS Art students are active within all student body organizations from Soy Importante to National Honor Society, from FCCLA to Robotics.
SHS Art students have been accepted to colleges and universities, claim an art field as their degree path and begin with college equivalent hours from the AP Drawing and 2D Portfolios.

I’d consider that to be a satisfactory year end assessment for a program!

The Pendulum in Education

Published on April 8, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore2 Comments

The pendulum: used to describe to the tendency of a situation to oscillate between one extreme and another.

That is why the image of the pendulum works so well when talking about education “best practices” and trends. After almost 20 years in the classroom, I have had the opportunity to learn and use a number of teaching methods. Some are worthwhile. Some are not. But every few years the new “great” thing comes out and all of us educators have to sit in professional development sessions and hear about how if we will use this new method our classrooms will be transformed. They never are.

Yes, I’m a bit cynical. But after all of these years and reading and researching and actually doing the job, I realize that the catalyst for change, the red ball in my picture above is never a teacher in the trenches. The catalyst is a politician, a higher-education researcher, a group of specialists, a retired administrator.. someone that personally benefits from suggesting this new better thing. The catalyst of the pendulum shift is on the outside and only sees what happens from one point of view.

The best classroom instruction change agent.. a would be pendulum shifter… that I’ve ever heard was at our district’s convocation this past August. His thoughts were radical! (well not really, but they might as well have been watching the response of the people in the audience..)

He asked teachers and administrators to think creatively and to be engaging in their instruction. He asked teachers to invest themselves personally in the process and not worry about the tests so much. (scary stuff for sure.)

Yes, he was selling his books and yes, he made a nice chunk of change for the presentation… but he was living in the trenches and doing what he was asking us to do. (You can find him at Teach Like A Pirate.)

Huge difference. His ideas came from seeing education from the center of the pendulum. While he was pushing for change, he was also being hit from the other side by the realities of his classroom.

pendulum

In the end, it was a nice presentation and we went on doing what we’ve been doing.. because there wasn’t an outside force that required change. There wasn’t any follow up, no required test, no paperwork followed.

hmmm. interesting. So I guess this reality becomes my question.

How do we in education become internal catalysts for change that we know is needed?

How do we, in essence, change the direction of the pendulum?

Do we have to wait for the hit to come back at us?

Do we have to absorb the changes in one direction before we can send change back in the other direction?

Lots of questions.

Processing this pendulum concept empowers me. Often I feel completely on the outside of the educational process and that my world doesn’t matter to anyone or anything beyond my students and my classroom.

But that is not the case.

All of us. Every. Single. Teacher is part of the the great pendulum and while we may not the be red ball catalyst, we do impact the structure of education.

With every hit (new law), we respond.

With every thud (new research), we react.

With every swing (new method), we learn.

Our ability or inability to absorb pendulum shifts with grace directly impacts our students. So instead of focusing on the bruising impact that some of these shifts in education policy leave on teachers, I’m going to remind myself that I’ve always loved to swing and that the pendulum and all of its back and forth is just a swing set and I’m going to hold on and swing high!

Are you willing to “Crucify your Baby?”

Published on March 15, 2017March 15, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemoreLeave a comment

Hang around V21 and you will here…

“Are you ready to crucify your baby?”

“I’m ready to crucify my baby.”

Visitors and new students whip their heads around with a look of shock and horror on their faces. Then they turn and look at me incredulously. I just smile and say “Good!”

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Yep, that’s how we do feedback in my art room. We acknowledge the fact that it is going to feel like someone is tearing your baby apart. And by giving it a name, we can laugh a little as we struggle to improve.

If you want to be a better artist, you have to be willing to take hard criticism of your artwork. No one wants to find out that other people don’t like their creation.. their masterpiece! So in my art class, we have a saying for this difficult, but very necessary process. It’s called “crucifying your baby.”

New people to my world are horrified. Outsiders are uncomfortable. Students in other disciplines that find their way into my world for an extracurricular event are unnerved. But that’s okay. My students understand, and after the first encounter enjoy being part of the “club.”

Feedback with Colourful Comments Symbol

With that said, the crucifying comes with parameters, strict expectations and modeled behavior. I have learned over the years that the absolute best way to teach students how to take criticism of their work is to first require them to criticize mine!

For example, this painting of my daughter Lexi has lived in my classroom as a work in progress for over a year. As I work on it in class, I use the progression and development as an opportunity to teach students to discuss and comment critically about a piece. Just from glancing at it, I see every flaw and every incomplete area. But my goal is to teach students to look for those areas and to be able to communicate their thoughts and how they would fix the problem.

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Early in the year, I start off by choosing a student to come up to my easel while the rest of the class watches. I tell the student about the piece and that I know there are problems. I point out a few areas that I don’t like that I need to fix and then I ask him/her what areas he/she saw that needed work.

My conversation starter is deliberate. In order to get students to see that I want the criticism, because I want to improve, I have to show the student that I could see the problems and voice them as well. By doing so, I model the example of how to state problem areas. If I get in a hurry and forgo this vulnerability with the students, then their criticism is superficial and their ability to take criticism often suffers.

In the end, while the “crucifying your baby” process sounds scary and is a memorable moment in the art room, students that want to improve get daily opportunities for feedback and quality criticism. On the flip side, students that don’t want to improve, don’t. I used to force student to go around the room and take turns giving feedback, but I have learned that a student that doesn’t want to improve isn’t willing to take criticism and always has an excuse for why or what they did. So instead of forcing criticism, we now have a code phrase and students that are willing to embrace the opportunity thrive.

As an educator and an artist, I am always looking for ways to improve. I am always looking for ways to reach further and climb higher. I am willing to crucify my baby.

The question is, are you?

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This blog post was part of the #Edublogsclub Prompt #11 on Giving Feedback.

Pop Culture Mystique

Published on March 3, 2017March 3, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore1 Comment

Popular Culture- #Edublogsclub Prompt 9

This post is part of the #edublogsclub- a group of educators and edtech enthusiasts that blog around a common theme each week. Prompt 9 is to write a post about using popular culture in the classroom. The prompt also offered some questions that I could use to jumpstart my thinking. They were:

What kind of popular culture do you bring into the classroom? How do you use it?
Do you have any comic books or graphic novel favorites that you use for reading and textual analysis? Why do you choose those?
What are your favorite television shows or movies in your classes? Why do you find these helpful tools?
Do you have any favorite songs that you bring into your classroom? How have students responded to your music? Why do you bring in these pieces?

My initial response was rather sad. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to be referring to! So I did what everyone does.. I googled it.

And I got:

Now armed with a good definition, I can be part of conversation. While I may not personally be conversant in the current elements of “modern popular culture that is transmitted via mass media and aimed particularly at younger people, ” I do live and work with younger people every day. More than that, I talk with younger people.

So here is what I have to say about using pop culture to reach students. Yep, I know a lot of people who are really good at that. I’m not one of them. But unlike other areas where I have lots of teacher and mom guilt, this is NOT one of those areas.

I don’t watch movies.
I watch very little television. (Big Bang Theory and Fixer Upper)
I read a lot, but only occasionally books that young adults read.
I listen to music, but again, not music that teenagers listen to.. unless they listen to broadway show tunes!
I facebook, instagram, use twitter occasionally and have but don’t use snapchat. But my student’s are not my friends or contacts on these social media platforms. And they shouldn’t be. Boundaries are necessary.

And you know what? I am very happy living in the land of the uncool and “out of touch.” My students are desperate for real conversations and meaningful relationships. My lack of understanding of pop culture doesn’t hinder our bond. My students don’t love me or hate me because of my relating to them about a movie or song. They love me or hate me as a direct result of my words, actions and daily response to their real needs be it educational or emotional. I know for a fact that for some of my students, I am the only adult that listens to them. I am the only adult that talks WITH them. I am the only adult that speaks wisdom into their lives.

So, no. I’m not a cool teacher. But that’s okay. I remember having a few teachers as a teenager that were just cool. They had a beat on pop culture and could authentically talk to us and with us about the things we enjoyed. But I didn’t learn more about the subject matter because of their ability to engage with students about the latest movie. I learned the subject matter when it was taught well.

On the flip side, I also had teachers that were the very definition of uncool. My chemistry and physics teacher didn’t watch television and could not relate to students at all in terms of pop culture. But he was incredible. He knew me and what I was capable of. He pushed me to work harder and do more. He was the first math/science teacher that made me see that I was smart and could do the work. He new his role of mentor could not be replaced and valued his work too much to focus on things that were fleeting.

In the end, I have to say that yes, there are times when I’d like to be the cool teacher or cool mom. But I’m not and if I were to suddenly use the slang that is used by students, start snapchating and talking in class about the current trends, it wouldn’t be authentic and my students (and children) would see right through the effort. So instead of trying to figure out how to fit in, I don’t. I don’t need to be. That’s not my role.

7 reasons why I love working in a public school

Published on February 18, 2017February 18, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore3 Comments

THE LISTICLE – #EDUBLOGSCLUB PROMPT 7

I didn’t even know what a “listicle” was when I got this week’s #edublogsclub prompt! Thankfully, they had a wiki article about them… basically its a short form of writing for the internet that uses lists.

Well, I am all in on this one. I LOVE lists!!

So here you go…

7 reasons why I love working in a public school

You are challenged every single day to work to improve the lives of all people with no regard to race, color, creed, mental ability, disability or social status.
You are challenged to do more with less resources than you thought possible. (Sure, we would all love more resources, and we deserve more resources, but being able to create magic in the lives of our students with sometimes nothing is pretty amazing.)
You are given the opportunity to love thousands of students in the course of your career. As a high school teacher closing in on 20 years of teaching, I’ve already taught, mentored, and can tell you personal stories about more than 3000 students.
You are given the opportunity to hone your craft, adapt your teaching style and become a better mentor with every new crop of students.
You are offered a chance to learn from the past and start fresh every new academic year. Yesterday’s problems and last year’s power struggle don’t have to impact tomorrow’s promise.
You are offered a chance to learn new curriculum and teach new subjects. Just because you started off your career as a reading teacher doesn’t mean that you have to finish your career as one. Trust me. I hold 8 different certifications and have taught over 20 different subjects!
You are NEEDED! You are IMPORTANT! You are VALUED! The world may say otherwise, politicians may make your life harder and give you more hoops to jump through, but at the end of the day, society needs you, children depend on you, and YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

In this time of educational uncertainty where every time I walk by a news source and am horrified at the state of our political system, I am reminded that at the end of the day, the education system and public schools are filling a basic need in the lives of millions of students. This need will not go away no matter what politicians do to the system. So instead of wallowing in the uncertainty, I am choosing to celebrate in the daily successes my students.

May we all in public education fill our news feeds with celebrations, successes and the triumphs of teaching a truly diverse and incredible group of public school students.

A deeper approach for better results

Published on February 18, 2017February 18, 2017 by EmilyMaxwellMcLemore1 Comment

In January, with the start of the spring semester, I deepened my approach to teaching basic drawing skills to my art 1 students. While they were not necessarily thrilled with this decision, they quickly saw the benefits to adding the “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” techniques. It’s something that I have wanted to do for years, but trying to fit in such a hands on approach during the middle of contest season just never seemed to work. But this year, I decided that even though I couldn’t do all of the steps, I could at least do the basic introductory steps.

I have Betty Edwards workbook and have adapted her lessons to fit a high school classroom. Her workbook is phenomenal and I wish we had time to do the entire book. (If I had just a drawing class, this is absolutely what we would do!) I take her concepts and teach basically the first five or six lessons.

What is truly amazing is that these techniques, because they are visual lessons and not language dependent work for ALL students of ALL abilities. Given that my classes are made of mixed abilities from the valedictorian to the non-speaking life skills student, I truly value lessons that work for all students!

Over a couple of weeks, my students learned to see every day objects with new eyes. They learned how to use a simple transparency to transform their drawings. They learned how to break large concepts into small manageable segments. And oh man, it has changed the way my students view drawing!

After working through basic lessons, I took a couple of my daughter’s old bicycles up to the school and set them up for the students to draw. Students then took their drawings and enlarged them onto a 18×24 piece of paper that they then had to create a positive and negative pattern on. This felt like it took forever.

But the projects are fantastic! This is the first drawing project where almost every one of my students were not only successful, but created a quality piece of art! Students that are frequent fliers in detention worked bell to bell for weeks on this piece! How I wish I could show you all 100 pieces and tell you the story of every student while you looked at their piece.

But I can’t. So I’ll show you a few really cool pieces.

So anyway, I just had to share this success story. It’s so gratifying when going that extra mile and doing that extra hard thing is rewarded. That’s a rare thing in education!

And the next time I want to set aside the lesson plans and take a few extra days to teach in a more meaningful way, I am going to remember this feeling and these results and give myself the grace to go rogue.

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