Entry #7 - Oct. 19, 1998
"I see special opportunities as a chance to excite students,
both those who already engage and do their work and those who are reluctant
to admit to any curiosity or desire to learn . . .(but) balancing special
projects and their 'chaotic effects' with the importance of consistency
and other people's planning needs has put a strain on some staff relations."
This week has been a good example of what I like to call organized chaos.
Some of my colleagues have less affectionate terms for it, I'm sure. Our
seventh graders are working on a two-story mosaic mural of the layers of
the sea. We are working with an artist who's being paid through an Arts
in Education grant which I wrote last year.
The basic idea for the project was to design and develop a mosaic in our
atrium, which depicts the layers and life of the sea as the wall travels
down along the stairs. After the mosaic is complete, our seventh graders
will develop materials and conduct lessons in our mini marine life museum
for elementary students in our district. We've named our exhibit, "Sea
Life...from Floor to Shore". The deepest ocean trench starts at the
floor level and swirls up past a shipwreck to a coral reef, tide pool and
finally the beach at the top of the stairs.
The students are learning wonderful art skills and are very interested in
the science end too. Today, which is Saturday, lots of kids are coming in
to set tiles from 10 to 4, hopefully with some parents as well.
The chaotic part is the scheduling. In order to make use of the artist for
twelve days, we've had to get students released from other subjects and
I've been out of class a lot too. The artist can handle working with 15
to 20 kids at a time, given the space and need for instruction. Balancing
special projects and their " chaotic effects" with the importance
of consistency and other people's planning needs has put a strain on some
staff relations.
I see special opportunities as a chance to excite students, both those who
already engage and do their work and those who are reluctant to admit to
any curiosity or desire to learn. I know I can build on the mural experience
to teach science content, writing and presentation skills and a host of
citizenship lessons as well. I'm excited about the kids' ownership of this
process and the ongoing use of the space. I've also gotten to bond with
kids who I just got to know in September. The down side is that some of
my colleagues feel like pulling kids out of their classes means their work
isn't seen as sufficiently important.
As I'm writing this I can see that if the full team had been involved in
a discussion of the schedule before the reality hit, we'd have minimized
these problems. Instead, there was an announcement that we'd gotten funded
for the project and when the artist would be coming etc.
Going a step further, I can see that my focus was almost entirely on student
empowerment and not nearly enough on teacher ownership as well. Since I
know that I think the other subjects are important and that I'd welcome
an opportunity for small group instruction, I assumed that everyone else
would be in the same place.
When I realized that some folks were upset, I felt hurt and unsupported.
I was looking at my loss of preps and lunch etc. and misunderstanding their
frustrations. I'm sure some people would complain regardless of the process,
but I'm having one of those "ouch" moments when you realize how
you screwed things up, even if it was with the best of intentions... I brought
in a coffee cake and a thank you/apology note for the inconvenience yesterday,
but now I see that I should ask for some agenda time at the next team meeting.
It's too late to turn back the clock, but maybe we can set some ground rules
before the next project rolls around.
Back to the kids, watching them learn to work cooperatively and take pride
in their work has been wonderful. Regular ed and special ed students have
worked side by side and while the special ed kids are a little more shy
in this setting, everyone has been respectful of each other. The artist
is very laid back and gives the students lots of ongoing feedback and encouragement.
She makes everyone feel like they can contribute, even non-artist types
like me.
Lisa, the artist, began with a design team of 15 students, selected by their
classmates. On the first day she had the students drawing sections of their
vision for the "space". As new groups of students have gotten
involved, Lisa has called on the designers as her turn-around trainers and
it's worked like a charm. One boy, in particular, who I was worried would
clown around, was explaining sea floor spreading to a visitor when I walked
in on Wednesday. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I came very
close to imposing a veto when he was selected.
By the time we're through, about 150 kids will have been involved, along
with members of the community, other staff members and my Mom, who pitched
in yesterday for a few hours. One of the boys asked me yesterday, if we
could start using the atrium door as our entrance so that everyone could
appreciate their work. Another teacher is talking about designing a quilt,
with her afterschool club, of sea creatures to hang from above the mural.
On the whole, it's been an incredible learning adventure which we won't
soon forget.
On a more personal note, I feel great about learning to set tiles. My paternal
grandfather, Arcadio Bambino, was a tile setter from Italy. He died when
I was five and we no longer have any samples of his craft. I guess I'm sort
of keeping his memory alive while taking it in a direction that would probably
surprise him.
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COMMENTS
Where else would the children learn about constructing a mural,and
what it takes in the process? I myself learned more by doing it than in
books. Children need to experience different projects and learn from them.
The time it took away from other classes was not wasted, due to the learning
experience which they acquired. Other teachers should make time for the
children to do these projects,and not so much books, books, and more books.
Sometimes a little sidetracking breaks up The stress as in everyday life.
I for one would love to see the mural. Good job Debbie and students --
keep up the good work.
D. Gorman
dgorman@fast.net