Evaluationg 21st Century Skills

I have an assignment to review a web site called Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.  This web site can be found at http://www.p21.org/.  Looking at this web site I see a well instructed and structured web site.  It flows very easily from one topic to another.  There is a lot of information on this site, and it does feel a bit over whelming.  I was very surprised to see that they have a section for Art Education.  There was an easy to read map for art educators in the classroom.  One that I feel I could easily refer to when I am in need of  new ideas in my classroom when trying to incorporate skills in the 21^st Century.

I did get a feeling when reading about the arts and how they were being used in this idea of 21^st Century Skills that core teachers were going to be intergrading the arts into their classes.  It sounds great but I disagree with this.  That Math classroom should not be a one stop room.  In other words, as an art teacher I try to incorporate some math with measuring and other skills.  By no means am I passing my class off as a math class.  That is what I am getting out of the information that the core teachers will be incorporating in their rooms the fine arts. It is one thing to integrate different subjects like art and math in elementary but for middle schools it is a different ballgame. We need to have highly skilled educators teaching the material to our students. 

We are experiencing this right now in our elementary schools because we do not have an art program for K-6 grades.  So the core teachers have to pick it up and the art lessons are really craft projects as opposed to fine art concentrated subject matter.  As an 8th grade art teacher I can really tell that they are coming to me with no art experience and the quality of there art is years behind the level is should be.  This can only work if there are art teachers in the school developing the techniques and building a base of information.  The core teachers can touch on elements of the arts and then the art teachers would be able to go much deeper with the lessons.

Blogging in a classroom setting

Using a blog in my classroom could help with several ways of getting the ideas of the lesson across to my students.  I have a few ideas as to how I want to use this blog.  My first idea is to have all my lessons on the blog step by step so if students are absent or need to understand one of the steps in the lesson they can go and look it up.  I teach eighth grade art so the lessons that the students are working on have several steps or stages and this is just one way they could check to make sure they are doing it the right way.  Another way to use the blog is to post works of my students.  This could be a great way to showcase the great work that is being created in my classroom.  Students could see each other’s work and use that as a motivation tool.  Students would also be able to communicate to each other in different classes using the blog.  One aspect in teaching art that I struggle with is having my students be able to correctly critique each other’s work.  I could have my students create their own blogs.  This could be the first step in expressing what they like about the work of art and what still has some room for improvement.  This would also be a great tool to keep the lines of communication open to the parents.  So many times students just toss out their projects or stick into the lockers to never be seen again.  I always have parents asking what we are working on at parent teacher conferences because their children hardly bring anything home from any subject.  This way the parents can simply look at the blog and find out exactly what their child is creating. 

Exploring technology in the art world

I am taking masters classes in education focusing on technology.  I have decided to get it in order to introduce technologies into the classroom.  Technology is something that I have not been able to utilize in my classroom, but I am hoping to change that.  My first obstacle is the simple fact that I do not know how to utilized the different types of technology that could be adapted for use in an art classroom.  The second obstacle is the lack of technology in my very old classroom and school which will fortunately be changing this school year. We will be moving into a new school building for the start of the second semester.  We have been told the technology will change and all classrooms will have smart boards as well as ELMO's.  Right now in my current classroom I would just be happy with a grounded outlets if you can believe that.  So this transition will be very exciting to be in a new classroom and be able to explore these new technologies to make more dynamic lessons for my students.