"Seeing" is more than being able to see....

I couldn’t help but feel like all our lives were richer for hearing the incredible story of courageous self-sufficiency from Bruce Long our guest speaker.  To think of where Bruce is today and how far he has come from a young boy not really understanding how different he was from those around him to the successful business man, husband and father that he is today, just shows how he has embraced the opportunities that have come his way.  

All through the talk he kept saying “I never wanted to stand out” and while that was what made him most comfortable when he was younger – being quiet and hoping no one paid him any special attention, today he is certainly willing and very passionate about presenting his story.  Perhaps that is for a number of reasons; he wants to helps us gain further knowledge about people with vision disabilities by educating us, in hopes that we as educators will use that knowledge to educate others, and Bruce feels like he is giving back to the community that has reached out and helped him.    

His talk reminded me that our students need us to be in their corner – to see them as more than just students and test scores, but children.  To get to know them well enough that we can literally sense when something is "off."  To be so in-tune to our students that we "see" when something is wrong.  To notice the student that doesn’t hear our directions one day even though they are paying attention.  Or the student that doesn’t want to do the art project not because they don’t want to, but because they have too many problems using scissors and don’t want the other students to make fun of them.  If we can empower our students, just like Bruce empowered himself to succeed, the students with special needs in our classes will be able to feel victorious and not helpless.

Dr. Rife Devotion

Wandering through the wilderness....a sense of direction helps us navigate through life.  But which road to take - are we any wiser today than our ancestors of the book of Exodus?  Sometimes we seem just as stubborn as they were - thinking we know better what will work for us - where we need to be - and who we need to be with.  Perhaps a re-read is in order.
Interesting quote from Dr. Rife; "If you like it you are blessed. If you don't - master it because if you are a Christian know that God has a plan and has placed you there for a reason." 

Assessment Tree

I have a great vantage point from my seat in class - I can see both our classroom trees.  On the right our rainforest tree has been with us from the very beginning; growing insidiously and breathing life into our environment.  That tree is home to many animals and provides oxygen for our planet.  Then there is the new addition to our family - the assessment tree on the left.  If you take a second and contrast and compare the two you come up with the fact that they are both trees, both have a trunk approximately the same gerth, both have branches and are both about the same size.  The difference between the two is that the rainforest tree is a formative assessment - always changing and adapting depending on what animal is living in it and how the climate it lives in provides for it.  Whereas the assessment tree is a summative assessment.  It is a culmination of a students four years of formal high school education.  And while it is impressive with its scaffolding of lesson upon lesson and test upon test, quiz upon quiz it is a dead tree - not living and breathing - not adapting but rather a statement - which could be interpreted as........

Read, Write and Talk

Through out this video - above and beyond the education components - you couldn't help but be impressed with the relationship between the teacher and her students.  And while the teacher is modeling effective ways of getting information to her students - she is most importantly modeling building relationships student to student starting with her relationship with the students.  Image the stories that the students will have to share with their parents when they get home about their day because they are learning how to model commnications skills at school that they can teach to their families.  For example:  I was teaching a pretty heavy unit last year on artists that have political statements to make with their art.  Some of the artists that we discussed had been imprisoned, tortured, and victimized for what they believe in and thus created.  We spent about two weeks on this unit and sometime during the second week one of the students started to connect the children of these third world countries in an unusual way - they wondered where the next generation of artists where going to come from - the ones that would continue to spread the word about social abuses if we don't encourage these young people now.  But this student took this even farther and went home and modeled our discussion with their parents and got them involved.  Long story short - we now are involved with a school in Mexico that encourages young artists and we pen pal with them! 

Phonics and Spelling

Word Study

A couple of observations on the video we watched:

1st - magnetic letters aren't just for learning your letters to read and write better - in the art classroom we use them to trace, stamp, and paint.  So add a book, some paint, and what a great way to connect on a global scale!

2nd - loved the way one of the teachers used art words to describe the letters - or at least what I think of as art vocab - curves, tunnels, sticks etc.... going to have to incorporate ......