[MeganWhitney]

Challenges:
– parent push back
– student buy in
– approval of administration and colleagues
– navigating disagreements between students
– confronting discomfort
– acknowledging teacher bias
– oppressed students feeling “outed”

Opportunities:
– increase in student empathy
– oppressed students being acknowledged and accepted
– reestablish norms of parents, teachers and students
– authentic student engagement

Strategies:
– compare and contrast
– inquiry
– heterogenous grouping
– role play
– collaborative projects

[MeganWhitney]

This year my school has begun to implement “Morning Meetings”. Every teacher is expected to try out a different greeting each time they teach a lesson. I quickly decided that the best way to implement this was in a circle discussion. We take the time to greet each student and say good morning and then they all share at least one thing that they did since the last time they saw me that they were excited about. I have found that the discussions following the greeting are more lively because the students feel like they each have their own voice already. Some of the challenges I face is the class size. When you have a circle of 28 students, the distance between one side of the circle from the other is significant. I think that it is harder for students to focus on the speakers because of this. My students are often shy about speaking to large groups and speak quietly. It’s almost as if the students need to be taught the fundamentals of public speaking before they can efficiently participate in the circle method.

[MeganWhitney]

I often time am confronted with this issue. My students are incredibly eager not only to be reassured that they are doing the right thing, but that this thing looks good in MY eyes. I think that the most effective tool that teacher can use it questioning. When a student asks, “do you think this looks good?” usually my response is, “what do you think?” Sometimes they answer with, “I don’t know, that’s why i’m asking you.” in which case I prompt them to consider, “what are some thing that you think a successful piece should have?”. Other than questions, I believe that another effective strategy that teacher can use is technology. Often times I will direct my students to a google doc or a post in their SeeSaw journal that has links to resources that they might find helpful. The 813 class is set up like this also. While the initial index is created by the teacher the selection and take away if completely up to the student. Providing students with options and chances to make choices allow the teacher to guide while giving students agency over their own learning.

[MeganWhitney]

I do not think that our institutions address the needs of those that do not identify with their biologically defined gender. I think that this is explained in part by Michael Kimmel with Linda Stein when he describes how racism works. Kimmel talks about societies tendency to aggregate or disaggregate. This means we either identify a problem by aggregating and saying that it is “their” fault, putting one persons actions on the group as a whole. Or, we disaggregate and view the problem as being isolated to an individual part. As a society, because we have not accepted those that do not identify as male or female as a part of the larger whole, we will continue to see the needs of those people as individual issues that should be dealt with on a lower, flexible, and less noticeable level. In addition, I think that we don’t address the needs of these people because it would require changes in building planning that schools do not have the funds to complete. Most school facilities have bathrooms, locker rooms and certain classes that are split male and female. To appropriately integrate this third group of people would require more space. It would also change the language that teachers and administrators use. Over all, I believe that one of the reasons that we have not begun to address these needs is because we don’t know how to and because we are afraid of change.

[MeganWhitney]

i think that if our curriculum is going to be culturally responsive, we not only need to teach students how to use the skills and strategies the arts have to offer but also how to take the issues of the past and present and transform them into something new. I think that the changes I would like to see in the curriculum are to leave behind the idea that art is only painting, drawing and sculpting. Instead, I wish that we would instead change the curriculum to include contemporary forms of creation like photography and video. I would hope that the curriculum would stray away from focussing on the individual student and begin to think about the greater collective.

[MeganWhitney]

When thinking about how my curriculum addresses the issues of gender, race, age, sexuality and disability I am immediately drawn to wondering why these are the key issues that we are concerned about? Is it because these are the issues that our students are interested in? Or is it because we are teaching with social justice in mind? Is it really the art teachers job to explain and expose our students to such issues? Or are we just using education to further our own individual perspective?

I believe that the art curriculum and the lessons that I present address each of these issues but only when they need to. I do not go into my lessons with the intent to teach my students what I believe is important in the world. I go into my lessons and I teach with the intent to get to know my students curiosities and take what THEY think is important in the world and provide them with the chance to explore and create based off of their own issues. The curriculum over all looks at the individual student and is presented/worded in broad terms so that the teacher can tailor their lessons and units to what those students need. This is not just a matter of differentiation for different learning styles, but it is differentiating to engage a population that is different from each other and different from me. I believe that the topics listed are extremely sensitive to my 6th grade students and if I presented too many perspectives at once, they would feel overwhelmed and their insecurities would only deepen. I think that by extracting one or two of the topics that are relevant to the students, it provides a safer space for the students and the teacher to participate in discussion and creation together.

[MeganWhitney]

I am a 6th grade art teacher in Pennsylvania. As someone who is new to the district, the past year I have taught from the curriculum as I inherited it. The studio art curriculum is very similar to the way that I was taught when I was a 6th grade student many years ago. The structure is broken down into production, aesthetics and appreciation. Each of these sections are then taught through a variety of hands on projects that broadly introduce drawing, painting, print making, ceramics and fiber arts. Each lesson is introduced with a ‘hook’. As a student, this meant that I learned about an artist whose work exemplified the strategies or styles we were working with. In my teaching, the curriculum has grown to include not just artists still works, but videos that capture a concept that exists outside of the art room (real world or interdisciplinary).

Another way that I see that the curriculum has broadened is the emphasis on freedom of expression. While there is a clear concept and skill that needs to be demonstrated by students, there is more room for individual interpretation of what that demonstration looks like. In the future, I would like to take this concept and include student choice more commonly. I believe that choice is a more direct route to getting artists to create works of art that show who they are.

One of the greatest changes that I see on the horizon for our curriculum is the inclusion of technology as a tool. This year our district followed through on a k-12 technology initiative that put ipads in the hand of every single one of our students. The curriculum will need to grow to include the ipad as an art tool. This tool will then lead to the creation of art lessons that use the internet and a variety of platforms as the main source of information. I believe that this change will both broaden students knowledge but also deepen it.

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