Does your program focus on 21st Century Skills? Are you preparing your
students for today's job market (or tomorrow's)?
Are you giving your students the answers -- or are you teaching your
students how to find them? Our nation's emphasis on the standardized
test is all so wrong - the emphasis is placed on
knowledge-knowledge-knowledge. Knowledge is so easy to find. It is
just a click away. We need to teach our youth how to be critical
thinkers - problem solvers. I am so very proud of my son, Matthew. I
know I brag about him often on the lists (what do you expect? --grin).
He got the job at Toyota (mechanical engineer) because of his many
talents - not just because of his book smarts. He wasn't
"top-of-the-class" in college, but he did well (magna cum laude. We
never pushed him to be "summa"). He participated in many arts' events
(student run theatre organization - which helped him to be a great
communicator).
Teaching for Artistic Behavior (or some form of Choice Based Art) is
the only way to meet many of your curriculum standards. Really look at
what you are supposed to be doing. I didn't "discover" until late in
my teaching career what I was doing "wrong" (used quotation marks on
purpose... I am not saying that what you are doing is wrong). I
learned a LOT from reading Dr. Marvin Bartel's web site.
http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/MB_Home.htm http://www.bartelart.com/
I "met" Marvin on Getty list in 1998. I had to sign up to a list serve
for a professional development class I was taking. There wasn't any
relevant action on the required list, so I asked permission to join
Getty list instead....and you know the rest. Here I am today.
I am so jealous of all of you who get to go to NAEA. Share some of the
"good stuff" you learn with the lists. Don't share all of the secrets
or folks won't find a need to go themselves the following year
(smile).
Hmmm.... I seem to be a bit chatty today (chuckles)
