INNOVATORS IN THE CLASSROOM
This section is dedicated to those who are making waves in our schools. They are the ones brave enough to try something new, to speak up and to make a change. I am inspired by the work that these people are doing. They do it from a place of passion and creativity. They are teaching creatively and in turn inspiring their students to be creative.
PAUL DARVASI
GAMING to LEARN?
Paul Darvasi is a high school English and media studies teacher based in Toronto, Ontario. He is a lifelong gamer who holds a Master’s degree in Educational Technology (MET) and is a PhD candidate in York University’s Language, Culture and Teaching program with a research focus on video games and education. He designed The Ward Game and is currently co-designing Blind Protocol, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) to instruct high school students on privacy and surveillance. His case studies on The Ward Game and Gone Home will be published in an upcoming book from ETC Press. |
In this clip, Paul speaks to the very moment of inspiration that transformed the way he teaches. This is an example of how a teacher brings their own creativity to the classroom and then supports their students use their own creativity to engage with material. Paul has always been an innovator in the classroom, I know because i used to work with him. He is now leading innovation in the classroom by showing us new ways that we can organize information and have our students engage with material and each other. Harnessing the technology tools of this generation and applying them in constructive and meaningful way, he is creating a learning experience like no other for his students. The teacher-designer-artist. I love it.
OLIVIA GUDE
Spiral Workshop (click here)
I can't get enough of this woman. Here work is amazing and has inspired a shift from 20th century approaches to 21 century approaches that are much more aligned to process and meaning making in the art classrooms.
Olivia Gude is a Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was awarded the National Art Education Association’s 2009 Lowenfeld Award for significant contributions to the field of art education. Professor Gude is the Founding Director of the Spiral Workshop, a curriculum research project that provides art classes for urban teens.
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excerpts from: Rubric for a Quality Art Curriculum by Olivia Gude
A curriculum should be rooted in the life experiences and interests of the students.
A curriculum should be rooted in the life experiences and interests of the teacher.
A quality art curriculum is deeply rooted in the experiences of art making.
A quality art curriculum is multi-cultural. It includes understandings of other cultures in the structuring of its curricular practice. Culture is more than what is taught; it always includes the how and why something is taught.
A quality art curriculum has beginnings in many traditions. It is not merely looking at other art traditions through Western eyes; it also attempts to look at Western art traditions with the eyes and insights of other traditions.
A democratic art curriculum actively seeks student and community input for choosing art works to be studied.
A fair art curriculum articulates its reasons for choosing particular works, movements, or concepts.
A meaningful contemporary art curriculum emphasizes contradictions, multiple digressions, complexities, and surprises.
A quality curriculum is more than the sum of its parts; it is more than a string of projects. It has a sense of flow; it has a sense of varied pacing. A curriculum should not be experienced by the students as slow, rigid, marking time, "the same old thing," or as only a preliminary to "real artmaking" or "real discourse."
A curriculum should be fun for the students.
A curriculum should be fun for the teachers.
The structure of a curriculum is always an aesthetic and intellectual experience in its own right. The students should be able to sense, examine, and explain the structure of the curriculum.
A flexible curriculum should not inhibit individual teachers from exploring individual conceptual, aesthetic, or technical interests.
A collaborative curriculum describes the common knowledge to be conveyed to all students while it encourages individual and collective experimentation.
A curriculum should not be obsessed with comprehensiveness or fundamental skills. A lesson of living in a postmodern society of many cultures is that there are as many starting points as ending points in creating thoughtful, competent, aesthetically sophisticated people.
A good curriculum is developmentally appropriate. The curriculum accepts the students in the complexity of their skills and lack of skills.
A curriculum is sensitive to the developmental issues of a given age group and place and should select art, projects, and goals accordingly.
A quality curriculum aids students in developing a visual language that allows them to communicate stories about their lives.
A quality curriculum is constructed so that students experience their own progress and development and the progress and development of fellow students.
A well-designed curriculum recognizes the varying abilities of students within a single class and is planned to incorporate multiple ways to challenge all the students at the highest levels of their abilities. A quality curriculum does not create a hierarchy of the talented.
A quality art curriculum is organic: it evolves over time.
A curriculum should be rooted in the life experiences and interests of the students.
A curriculum should be rooted in the life experiences and interests of the teacher.
A quality art curriculum is deeply rooted in the experiences of art making.
A quality art curriculum is multi-cultural. It includes understandings of other cultures in the structuring of its curricular practice. Culture is more than what is taught; it always includes the how and why something is taught.
A quality art curriculum has beginnings in many traditions. It is not merely looking at other art traditions through Western eyes; it also attempts to look at Western art traditions with the eyes and insights of other traditions.
A democratic art curriculum actively seeks student and community input for choosing art works to be studied.
A fair art curriculum articulates its reasons for choosing particular works, movements, or concepts.
A meaningful contemporary art curriculum emphasizes contradictions, multiple digressions, complexities, and surprises.
A quality curriculum is more than the sum of its parts; it is more than a string of projects. It has a sense of flow; it has a sense of varied pacing. A curriculum should not be experienced by the students as slow, rigid, marking time, "the same old thing," or as only a preliminary to "real artmaking" or "real discourse."
A curriculum should be fun for the students.
A curriculum should be fun for the teachers.
The structure of a curriculum is always an aesthetic and intellectual experience in its own right. The students should be able to sense, examine, and explain the structure of the curriculum.
A flexible curriculum should not inhibit individual teachers from exploring individual conceptual, aesthetic, or technical interests.
A collaborative curriculum describes the common knowledge to be conveyed to all students while it encourages individual and collective experimentation.
A curriculum should not be obsessed with comprehensiveness or fundamental skills. A lesson of living in a postmodern society of many cultures is that there are as many starting points as ending points in creating thoughtful, competent, aesthetically sophisticated people.
A good curriculum is developmentally appropriate. The curriculum accepts the students in the complexity of their skills and lack of skills.
A curriculum is sensitive to the developmental issues of a given age group and place and should select art, projects, and goals accordingly.
A quality curriculum aids students in developing a visual language that allows them to communicate stories about their lives.
A quality curriculum is constructed so that students experience their own progress and development and the progress and development of fellow students.
A well-designed curriculum recognizes the varying abilities of students within a single class and is planned to incorporate multiple ways to challenge all the students at the highest levels of their abilities. A quality curriculum does not create a hierarchy of the talented.
A quality art curriculum is organic: it evolves over time.