Assessment

So, you're working in a PBL classroom. You have a teaching partner that works with you. You are wrapping up a unit and your director (manager/principal... whatever) asks you the big question: "How are you going to assess the students?" Oh, yes - we all love hearing that question. Nevermind that we've been assessing students for weeks. Yet, the administration needs the data to show the state that you are actually doing something. Understand the scenario? So what can we do? Here we are doing real world things, in a real world setting, sometimes with real world partnerships and sponsors - but the administration needs something to show the state. They need data.

It's not that teachers are afraid of data. When I talk to most teachers they aren't concerned with how the data will make them look. They're truly more concerned with the amount of class time they will lose acquiring the data. Our school takes the NWEA exam, the Acuity exam, the PSAT exam... We also give our own diagnostic tests. With all of these tests and exams we are wearing the kids out. They are becoming "desensitized" as it were to the tests, themselves. They simply don't care.

Take our last pass through the NWEA a week ago. My teaching partner and I put the highest score up on the board with a message around it that said, "Can you beat the high score?" We appealed to their sense of competition. Also, we appealed to their rationale saying, "These scores help us decide teams, allocate partners, and define groups." As a final push we appealed to their sense of empathy saying - "We know that you have taken many tests, but the data gleaned from them is truly important. We need you to try your best."

What happened? The scores got worse. Most students actually lost points.

Why? They're tested out.

The hypothesis of the politicians, at least here in Indiana, is that Teachers create a "product". This product is student knowledge. They assume that human beings retain knowledge like computers, readily accessible at the drop of a hat. The truth is, human beings, and our minds, are elastic when it comes to retention. We remember key things that we need to remember, but we can forget things too.

There seems to be a correlation between stress and forgetting things. 

Put a kid in the hot seat and watch them sputter and stammer while they try to formulate a response. I surmise that my students did poorly on the test because we are nearing the end of the semester. Students are scrambling to finish projects that they have been working on, prepare for final exams, and get last minute points for their grades. On top of that there are basketball games - everyday! - music rehearsals, concerts, drama plays, and movies coming out. This is not only the most wonderful time of the year, it's the most distracting. But nevermind that... we're going to set you down in a room in front of a computer and make you take this test. All in the name of getting data that will probably shoot us in the foot more than help us.

So, again, what can we do?

I was at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC last year for a CETA conference. While our school is not yet a CETA school, we were looking into the possibility of becoming one. One of the presenters, discussed this very topic. Her problem was that she would have students create amazing art that took intense work, but the parents and visitors would say "That's nice." when they saw it. "They didn't understand what it took to create it." she told us. She wanted to create a way to document the amount of work the students put into their projects. What she came up with was something simple. She created a word document that had a table on it. The table contained pictures of the processes that the students went through. Underneath each picture was a caption that explained what the students were doing and which standards they had to master to do it. The step by step table guided parents, and administration, through the process of learning that the students had taken. "All I had to do was have a camera handy to take shots ever-so-often." she told us. This method works for the general populous, but how can we get the "data" that the state wants? Lets face it. They want numbers. They want something that can be quantified.

How can you quantify true knowledge? Seriously...

I'm afraid I don't have an answer. I could go back to worksheets, but that won't solve the "test" problem either. Nor does a worksheet give a clear and true account of a student's "knowledge". You want to see knowledge? Put the kid in a situation; see what they really know. I have been stunned in the parking lot of my school, when one student's car wouldn't start and I was standing there, like a dunce, trying to help. A kid we've labeled as "stupid" comes up and says, "Oh, I see the problem..." and proceeded to get the car running. With a "That will only hold for a little while, you'll need to get it fixed permanently." he sent his fellow off while I stood there trying to figure out how he fixed the car. That's a brand of cunning I don't have.

How is the state assessing that? Is that kid really "stupid". Perhaps in English, but not in Engineering. He has obviously learned somewhere how to fix vehicles. I'm glad someone knows how to do it. I don't.

I guess someone smarter than me is going to have to figure this one out? I will pose the question, though: How do we, in a PBL system, show data that is quantifiable for the state, but still accomplish the task of actually teaching? With all of these tests how can we get our actual business done? When they finish collecting all of the data they need, what will the kids have to show for it?  Another question... What does all of this quantifiable data amount to anyway? What are we really getting out of it?

Until next week.

Creativity Paradox in Education

"Stand up straight! Walk the line! Be quiet! Don't speak until you are called on! Keep your hands to yourself! Don't touch anything that doesn't belong to you! AND don't touch your stuff until the appropriate time and place!" Our teachers told us those very same things. I remember vividly being reprimanded by my 2nd grade music teacher because I sang. It was out of turn, yes, and in the wrong octave, but the message was, "Shut up."

So I did...

What exactly are you telling students in your classroom? Are you telling them that if we don't learn about History, we're destined to repeat it? That Mathematics is a door to the future? That Science and Technology are best friends and they can help us create amazing things to improve our lives? Are you showing them amazing and powerful Music? Are you introducing them to a Literary world that both inspires and records our civilization? Are you encouraging students to come with you on this journey called life? Are you sounding a clarion call to the next level for them?

Or are you gaining compliance? Are you just simply getting kids to sit down and shut up so you can get through your lecture or lesson plan; so you can do your job?

My partner teacher, Sarah, and I have a quandary. A student named - we'll call him Alex - has a real issue. He cannot be creative. He simply cannot do it. He cannot think outside the box. Now, Alex is not dumb. In fact, he has displays brilliance in the area of regurgitation. He can memorize and do just about anything that you tell him too as long as you set the template. As soon as you take away the proverbial training wheels - he's lost. He cannot function. He shuts down.

Sarah and I, along with our team, began to explore Alex's issue. TCHS Spanish teacher, Michael Buck identified the problem fairly quickly. The diagnosis: FEAR. Of what? Of FAILURE. The next question rationally is: WHY? The answer came like lightning from Mr. Buck's mouth, "Have you met mom?" Thank you doctor, the case is solved. Mom has set her standards so high for this individual that he has been conditioned against thinking on his own. Her quest to create the perfect child has rendered her son completely incompetent when asked to think, act, or do anything by himself. He is an automaton programmed to do exactly what you ask of him - nothing more. We have work to do. We have to unzip the conditioning and get this young man on his feet before it's too late. But HOW?

To answer that we have to look into what went wrong in the first place...

A few years ago I was privileged to coach the girl's varsity soccer team at Triton Central High School. Also during this time, my daughter began playing on a little church league team. On occasion I helped coach her team too. One day I was yelling to the little kids,  trying to get them to move toward the ball. They were all over the field and many of them were standing and watching, while one kid moved the ball up the pitch. "Go to the ball!" I kept encouraging.

When I went to the varsity practice I had a different problem. The girl's were all good athletes, fast and strong, with good minds, but many of them hadn't played soccer before. The team was new. Many of the girls had played basketball and knew to go to the ball, but they ended up getting in the way. "Spread out!" I told them. "You have to create space!"

And it hit me... The young kids were told to go to the ball, but at the varsity level I'm asking them to spread out. That's the paradox... Color inside these lines. Do this exactly as I say... Do that... Follow directions... and then we turn around and ask students to Create. We turn around and ask students to perform higher order processes after demanding for 8 or 9 years that they stick to lower ones only with mild forays into the higher order thinking world.

To complicate things - Parents pressure kids to get A's, and teachers to give A's. With my own ears, on more than one occasion I've heard parents tell their children that if they didn't get straight A's college's won't accept them. The parents feel pressured so they put that pressure on their kids to be "perfect". Often this perfection is demanded in every subject area. Heaven forbid that a student has a weakness in any subject.

This will not work.

How can we solve this problem? How can we overcome this paradox? I have a few ideas...

We can't throw out learning basic rules. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Of course students should learn to color inside lines. Of course students should learn when it is appropriate to speak, and when they need to sit and listen. (I know adults that need a refresher.) Of course we need to teach students to mind their own property and business. I'm not contesting that at all...

The problem is getting students to utilize those basic skills to forge new concepts, to synthesize, and ultimately, to create new. Bloom's Taxonomy - right? Really, we're dealing with the very heart of education. This is what it's all about, our mission is to introduce our subject area to students in hopes that they will take that knowledge and move it forward to new creations for mankind. A trivial example: A 6th grade science teacher introduces a student to cells. The high school Biology teacher breaks down the internal cell for the student. The college professor teaches the student gene manipulation within a cell. All three levels offer their expertise so that the student traveling through the system may create/discover a cure for cancer that does not yet exist. In order to do this, the student will have to synthesize the prior knowledge that was afforded him/her by their instructor. They will have to be creative and they'll have to use what they've learned - both.

I discovered a video on YouTube of John Cleese giving a speech on Creativity. (You can view that video here.) The video is an excerpt of a speech that Cleese gave to an organization that is unidentified. In it, Cleese describes his process for being creative and points out some of the difficulties that occur when people try to become creative. A quote that sticks out to me is: "It's easier to do trivial things that are urgent, than it is to do important things that are not urgent - like thinking... It's easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we're not sure about." - (Cleese, video, 3/27/12)

Returning to my student, Alex, in this case - Mr. Cleese is spot on. Alex is working to meet deadlines in his classes and he is also unsure about being creative. Thus, Alex does what he is good at. He automatically reverts to processes and actions he knows he will succeed in; processes and actions he is comfortable with. This shows that Alex lacks confidence. He is not confident in his teachers, he is not confident in his parents, he is not confident in his classmates, and worse yet - he's not confident in himself.

Mr. Cleese offered this gem on concerning confidence: "While being creative, nothing can be wrong." (Cleese, video, 3/27/12) In the context, Mr. Cleese was suggesting that being creative requires play. When children play they don't worry about right or wrong, they simply act. The act of playing is an open thing with scant rules or regulations. Mr. Cleese points out that it is nearly impossible to play when you are afraid. Alex's case is apparent; He cannot create because he is afraid to fail. He is afraid to fail because he is not confident in his own abilities and his parents have placed restrictions on him that will be punitive, should he fail.

How can we solve Alex's case? That's difficult. We'll need to talk to the parents and find out what they expect from Alex. Hopefully we can help them forge more realistic goals for him. We'll also need to find out what Alex expects from himself. And, most important, we'll need to find out what Alex wants to do. It's his life.

We as a society are going to have to really examine our definitions of failure and success in order to really tackle the paradox. Politicians are putting huge amounts of pressure on educators to create miraculous systems that cause our kids to excel in Reading and Mathematics. I wonder what will happen when students can do calculus, but can't paint a picture? What happens when we understand how to diagram a sentence, but can't write poetry?

It is apparent to me that we need a balance of work and play, and we as educators need to foster that play, to get our students capable of creating on their own.

The Bandwagon

The first rule of blogging is to have a focus, to have a theme. You have to stick to your theme. Also, I read somewhere that a blog cannot become a glorified journal. The author cautioned against personal reference in blogs. He also cautioned against transparency. I can't help myself, though, this week I have to talk about what I'm thankful for.

Before you exit your browser, hear me out - this article is completely relevant to our profession; I didn't forget my mission. I'm grateful for my teachers. I want to talk about what made them great and why they were so effective. Perhaps you will find a place for these traits in your own classroom? I know I have tried everyday to give to my students what these great people gave to me.

John Hattie of the University of Auckland  published a study listing teaching strategies by effectiveness. My good friend and colleague, Bobby Thompson, shared the results of that study with our staff during a faculty training. There were several things that teachers did that Dr. Hattie found effective. The most effective practices, though, were Self-reported grades, Piagetian programs, and Providing formative evaluation. Teacher-Student relationships were also included in the top tier practices 

I would offer that the reason relationships are not the number one strategy is because we are so different and have such different personalities. Together, though, a faculty can compose a team that, if well constructed, has the tools to reach every student. I may connect with some students. My colleagues may connect with others. As long as we are looking introspectively at ourselves, and keeping our eyes on the students, we can pair up mentors in the building that can assist kids.

I have none of their permission to tell these stories, and most of these teachers - although flattered - would probably choose to remain anonymous, content in knowing that they marked my life for the better. Those of you who went to school with me, though - you know who I'm talking about. Those of you who do not know me, I'll bet you had teachers and stories like this too. Our teachers prepared us for the future and it is because of them that many of us can be thankful for success today. 

Drama Teacher - She was a red-headed ball of fire in her 50's. I was a freshman walking down the hall one day. We passed and she stopped and said, "Foley!" I turned and looked at her. "Why the hell aren't you in my theater class?" The reason was because I had muddled up a part in the 7th grade play so badly that I swore never to take the stage as an actor again. I took another English class to avoid her class. I explained that to her. "Bologna!" she said. "You will report to the orchestra pit in the auditorium at 7:00pm tonight with your instrument, do you understand?" I tried to explain to her that I would need to check with my parents first. "I've already spoke with your mother." she said, "You will be in the pit at 7:00pm this evening. Am I clear?" And that was it. I played for every show, fall and spring, for my entire high school career. That teacher included me. She made a way for me to participate. 

Choir Director - He wasn't the greatest conductor technically, I know that now. He was a tenor himself and a darn good one, but waving his arms (and playing the piano) were not his forte. Yet, there was something about him. He understood that if we could touch the music, if we could experience it for ourselves, it would do the work. He also understood that his job was to create experiences for us. He made sure we had events, trips, and other things to do that helped us understand how music fit our society and culture. He must've seen something in me, because by my junior year he was letting me conduct. When he was sick, it was my class to lead. When he was there he made sure to coach me. He's the reason I direct choir today. He wasn't a friend, he was more than that: a mentor. He trusted us to do the work and wasn't afraid to let us try it. More importantly, though - he inspired me. 

Psychology Teacher - A cabana button up shirt and scrubby khakis everyday. I don't think a single teacher put more into my mind than he did. I had him for one semester and in that semester I learned more about life than I could've imagined. At the time I had no clue how profoundly he had touched me, but looking back I use more of the data I learned in his class on a daily basis, than any other teacher. At first I thought he didn't like me. He made it a point to give me a hard time. I'm not sure why? Looking back, though, it was the fact that he challenged me that made his class so successful. He pushed me to consider everything that was moral, ethical, and good. He was our own personal Socrates.   

The list goes on and is too great to tell here...

Economics: Treated everyone with respect. 

Chemistry: Blew our minds (among other things like windows and white phosphorus) He taught everything by example. Working through examples with us until we knew how to do it. 

English 10: Refused to settle for less than our best. 

Algebra II/Trigonometry: Believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. 

Algebra I: Was positive even though he was dying of cancer. 

... each teacher giving me some encouragement. They worked together, perhaps without knowing. They created a space in the world for me. They created a space for my class. They paved the way.

When I was wrapping up my student teaching at Butler University I was having a quiet conversation with one of my professors over coffee. I said, "Sir, what if I screw up? What if I get it wrong? What if I teach my students something incorrectly? What then?" He smiled and said, "Son, I'm going to tell you a little secret about education: Students are going to learn because of you, and in spite of you. Either way, they're going to learn. Your job is to make it easy for them to learn, put the knowledge out there for them to grab hold of, but the rest of it... that's on them." 

The New Tech Network has a motto. It's, "Trust, Respect, Responsibility." That's not a bad place to take a school culture. Fostering that in students takes strong teachers, though. Teachers that are willing to take risks, to teach beyond the walls of the classroom and beyond the time of the school day. Teachers that include every student, and find ways to challenge them.

It was interesting to me to find that in the top echelon of effect strategies, was Teacher-Student relationship. I know that works... 

I'm a product.    

Balance

Science. Technology. Engineering. Math... + Arts?

Why? How do the arts fit into this equation? How do we teach it? What difference does it make? 

I took a group of students to Chicago last year. One of our stops was the Art Institute of Chicago. While we were there, a curious exhibit of the Baroque masters was on display. I was standing with two of our chaperones, both fathers in their mid to late 40's, looking at sketch drawings. The large composite of them were nudes. One of the men stated, "I guess they didn't have clothes in those days?" My first reaction was rather comical, but then it became sad... 

Here is a man. A smart man. A good businessman. Worldy, but naive. Intelligent, but ignorant. 

I explained to them both that in order for an artist to be a master, they must be able to draw a human nude. The reason is because there is so much detail in the human body. Light hits the curves of our body in different ways. The curves themselves are difficult to draw. The shading is difficult. The folds of the skin can be a nightmare. The human body is a conglomeration of varying shapes, colors, and sizes. To create one in a seated position, or standing position, or... any position takes complete mastery of artistic skill even in a sketch. The man said, "I never thought about that." I think that's just it; the things that we don't think about. What have I never thought about? 

I certainly don't fault that man and I'm not judging him either. He didn't know because he had never been exposed to art. Who failed him? Did his school fail him? Did his teachers fail him? Did he fail himself? Was he exposed to it, and he just missed the boat? What happened? 

Some might say the arts are not important. Who cares that this man didn't know? What difference does it make - he's still a successful businessman with two wonderful kids and a beautiful wife. His life is in no way inhibited by his artistic ignorance. That statement is fair. It is important to note that his life is not horribly affected by not knowing this data. I can concede that point. But I'd like to make another statement: 

What is missing from this man's life? What is it that he does not possess? An appreciation for the skills of artists. An exposure to beauty. An exposure to thought. A vacation to the deep recesses of mind where the questions can be asked that explore exactly who we are and what we are doing here on earth. What is our mission? How will we fit into society? What societies do we belong to? What is our culture? What does that say about us? Where are we going? What is our genesis? It's certainly not a plot point on a graph. Started at A, ended at B. 

The world is not void of color, sound, texture, rhythm, harmony. There are artistic elements that give life to the graph. Look at a piece of music. It's a chart of sounds. A plotting of pitches. It means nothing, until someone that has the capability to create music gets ahold of it. When they touch it, it comes to life. When they embrace it, it lives and breathes. It speaks. 

Don't miss the point - I'm not detracting from the power of mathematics or science. Those are important disciplines, this is common knowledge. What I'm trying to say is that when you couple them with art - the outcome is exponential for both disciplines and the learner. 

Creation Science. That sounds crazy, but we are curing diseases with it. Gene manipulation is looking to blow the lid off of cancer studies. Not horribly long ago a group of gamers solved a puzzle that scientists had been working on for decades in a matter of hours. (You can check that article out here.) How did they do it? With spatial reasoning skills obtained through art. 

My problem with math in school wasn't the teachers. Lord knows they did everything they could to help me. My issue was that I never understood what it meant. Why did I need to find x? What did x represent? Why did that matter? I suppose in many ways I was like the man in my illustration. I couldn't see it. I hadn't thought about it. There are teachers in STEAM schools that are using art to help students define not only a rationale for the math, but a logical sequence for their art - even when that art is aleatoric. That's something I can wrap my head around. It has meaning. 

And that's what the arts do... Give meaning to life. 

     

Finding Order in a Project.

Recently I was honored to tag along with some colleagues and friends to a seminar at a nearby school. This particular school is coming "on line" with project based learning, and our job was to facilitate conversations that would help them in their training. During one such conversation the question was posed (and I'm paraphrasing), "How do you keep a project together?" I want to address that question in this week's post...

What the questioner was inquiring was- How do you keep the students focused on the driving question? How do you keep yourself focused on the project outcomes? How do you form a unit? How do you form the unit so that the learning has a scope and a sequence... a direction? My answer was not intended to be snarky, although I think the questioner took it that way: How do you keep your class "together" in a traditional classroom? Just like college professor's, my co-teacher Mrs. Papin-Thomas and I use a unifying text.

Think back to your college days... You had the stuffy prof. with the bad clothes and worse hair. Maybe you had the le sheik prof. with the stylish mustachio and cool glasses? Regardless of their appearance, they all had a text. The formula was simple: You read the text. They (and sometimes you too) discussed the text in class. Then you wrote a paper on the text. Then, at the end of the "unit", you filled a blue book on the text. Everything was centered on a text. Sometimes a prof. used several texts.

I had the luxury, and I mean that sincerely, of participating in a class with Dr. James Watt at Butler University. Dr. Watt held a English/Humanities course entitled, "13 Ways to Look at a Blackboard." There were several books that we read and discussed all centered around the idea of a Christ figure; a savior. The class was quite interesting, and I often reflect back on my brief time with Dr. Watt - who looked an awful lot like Panama Jack. I still have those books. They sit on the bookshelf in my own classroom and I refer students to them from time to time when I'm looking for solid short stories or way to make analogy.

It was Dr. Watt's connection of all of the texts that made the class interesting. I couldn't see the way that they connected until the end of the course. I knew there was a connection. It was obvious that he had a designed outcome, but I couldn't see it. Then he revealed it and my classmates and I felt silly for not having seen it sooner. In a way, you want to build your projects like that. You want your students to have a firm direction and understanding of the standards they are learning, but not where the project is leading until it nears the end.

If you're not as brilliant as Dr. Watt and don't feel confident scoping a start to finish project that ties up in the end, there are two options. The first option is to withhold the rubric until 2/3's of the way through the project. The students will be working, but they won't be sure exactly what they will be graded on until you unveil it. A second option to do this is to throw a "twist" in the project - change it up midway through. For example, during our Myth project, students build a wiki space for a myth that they have studied. They understand that once they build the wiki they are to use it to create a live re-telling of the story. What they don't know is that once they build the wiki, we put them in a lottery and they end up with someone else's myth. The story they start with is not the story they end with. They have to rely only on the data that the other students put together for them. (We have safety nets in place for the students that get stuck with wikis that are incomplete, of course, so that their grades do not suffer due to other students failure.)  

Whichever strategy that you use, you're still going to need a guide to help the kids find their way. A north star of sorts that sums up what you're wanting to do. This is where the unifying text comes into play. For our "Nosce te Ipsum" ("Know Thyself") project, our students read Anthem, by Ayn Rand. The "Death" project revolves around the texts for the Mozart Requiem, the Brahm's Requiem, and the work of Dr. Mark Roth which can be found on-line. For the "Film Festival" students get ideas from the This I Believe project which is linked here. We have several anthologies for our "Myth" project, as well as Homer's classics. For the "Love" project we look at articles in magazines, newspapers, and on-line publications. Also, we look into parts (not all) of Plato's Symposium. For both the "Poetry Slam" and the "Music Video" project we allow students to create their own poetry, but they look at several examples from myriad poets.

A unifying text gives direction to ideas, a focus point, a reflection point, and a place to create analogies. A text can keep everyone on the same page or you can hand out separate texts and get everyone going in different directions. Synthesis can be achieved when you ask students to amend a text, abridge a text, or create their own texts. In years past, Sarah and I have taught Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and asked students to modernize the text. Why would we do this? We check reading comprehension. You can't change it unless you understand it. My favorite rendition is when Brutus tells Cassius, "Soft. We'll have no words here." in the final act. The best modernization of that line: "Shut up. We'll talk about this later."

As a final point, every educator knows that the  greatest way to help people learn is to get them to READ. It was a little old lady named Martha Gulde that introduced me to a book called "Jurassic Park" in the 8th grade. It had nothing to do with our English class, but Martha knew that if I would just read books I'd be okay. I've never really looked back after that.

Until next time.    

The Death Project

I often get asked, "What exactly is STEAM?" People understand the acronym (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics), but when you have to put it together... that's difficult. How do we exact our instruction to hit all points of this concept? How do we create projects that effectively convey our information, ensure retention, and help kids perform well on the big tests that our states are forcing upon us? How do we do that?

Our current class project is focused on the subject of Death. We refer to it as "the Death project." We gave our students an entry document that put them in the role of an intelligence officer for the Pentagon. The scenario is that an unnamed foreign dictator has found the "elixir of Immortality" and cannot die. Their job is to ascertain what it means to be immortal and how that might affect our society. In short, what happens when we cannot die? We asked them to look through five specific lenses: The Arts, Psychology/Sociology, Anthropology, Ethics/Religion, and Science. The students are tasked to culminate this knowledge in a verbal presentation using Prezi or PowerPoint to assist. Also, each student is to submit a research paper that supports their work and defines their rationale for the lens they chose.  

In truth, there is a man working for the Pentagon on curing death currently. His name is Dr. Mark Roth, and he's a well known scientist. His work is being utilized by the military and is also helping hospitals save lives. We set the scenario so that they are asked to look at Dr. Roth's work. The particular link that we use for the project is linked here. Google Dr. Roth's name and you'll come up with several excellent presentations, TED talks, and other articles - so I'll leave you to that. In the scope of our project, Mr. Roth's work provides us with the Science and Technology. Students look up his work on defying death and often get complex chemical equations for their presentations. Many students choose to discuss how the equations work in their presentations.

How about Engineering? What are we engineering? What can we engineer? This is a soft spot in the STEAM dogma. What exactly can we create? If you have a teacher with a Chemistry background, it is possible to have the students create solutions comparable to Dr. Roth's, that may perform the same way. What I mean by that is the students could experiment with chemical solutions to create new solutions that have the same or similar effects, test them, and see what happens.

Another thought - that may not be so prevalent - is the idea that we "craft" a response. The "engineering" portion may simply be the construction of a paper or speech. Learning to craft written work; to engineer responses that are credible, is this not also engineering/design? One might say that I'm stretching it, and I admit that the argument is weak - yet I think you all understand my rationale; it's not incredible to think along those lines.

Thus we come to the Arts. How are the arts included in the Death project? Death is the second greatest theme in the arts. Visual arts lend themselves to this project nicely, but how do we connect the other arts? As I stated a week or two ago, I'm currently working with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir on the Brahm's Requiem. A requiem is a mass for the dead. Essentially, a requiem is music for a Catholic funeral. All of the great composers, with a few notable exceptions (like Beethoven), have endeavored to create requiem's. It's a bit of a composer's right of passage. Brahm's requiem is particular in that he was not Catholic. Also, Brahm's chose Biblical passages that he found beautiful, which deviates greatly from the Catholic "hell-fire and brimstone" style day of judgement movements.

Utilizing the requiem as an art form, along with asking students to connect the visual arts covers two sets of arts requirements  If you're able to include technology and chemistry you're now dealing with three subject areas at once. Having them write a paper hooks them academically to English requirements and I made a weak case for design.

How about Math? There are several directions one could go. I suggest taking the math to two scientific levels. The first is to gauge the mathematics that are taking place in the music. Sound waves, ranges, intervocalic distance, noise ratios... all of these items can be diagnosed and analyzed through Physics. The other direction? If you were able to utilize the Chemistry component of the project, then you will able to utilize the Algebra within the Chemistry to make it happen.

This is the idea behind STEAM. Take projects and integrate everything that you can into them. Open your classroom. Make connections to the other sciences. Let the kids see how these basic tenants of life come together and work. Form and function. Always form and function!

Until next week!

The Themes Model

Welcome to this week's edition of  Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. I'd like to devote this edition to building a curriculum. There are several ways that teachers go about this, and I'm sure you've read fabulous blogs and journal articles from other more seasoned educators chronicling how to do this. I just want to throw my "hat" in the ring and say - this is what worked for us.

I've had two great luxuries in my career. The first, was having a corporation that gave me the reins and said, "Take it." where curriculum was concerned. I had freedom to construct, create, and teach music any way that I wanted too, as long as I covered the standards. The second great luxury has been my brilliant co-teacher, Sarah Papin-Thomas, who is so forward-thinking that I have a hard time keeping up with her.

In the summer of 2009, Sarah and I  began our class integration by searching WHAT we needed to teach according to Indiana's state standards. We used a Venn diagram in the beginning to compare our standards for each of our classes. Then we both looked at what we had taught the prior year for ideas. By the end of the summer we decided to base our project units on themes. Since English is also an art form, we found that we could easily find poetry, prose, music, and pictures to make our curriculum, it was a matter of constructing projects around our content standards.

There are 5 major themes in the Arts: Love, Death, Nature, Psychology, and Politics/Ethics. I had been teaching my choral classes a theme a year. If the year's theme was Love, the students wrote papers about love, sang songs about love, listened to artists works about love, viewed art concerning love, and had discussions about what love really is. The next year we would do the same with Death, and so on... Since there are 5 themes, no student that participated in my classes for four years ever covered the same topic twice. Sarah had been loosely following the state English curriculum with her own twists and helpful additions. She had to look at state reading guides, suggested supplemental works, and other instructional tools and assessments. We began to construct projects that integrated both sets of standards, both sets of content, and both sets of instructional activities.

If you are integrating - look at what you both are currently doing. Odds are, you already have the answer to your curriculum questions. it's simply a matter of unifying the topics in a way that neither side loses. 

The first year was rough. We were learning how to work together, and getting to know one another. Our building was under construction and we didn't have flooring, a ceiling, or reliable technology. However, where class content was concerned we began to forge a solid curriculum that was open for synthesis and experimentation, but still structured enough that students didn't feel lost. A key component to our curriculum was the project debrief. During the debrief the students were surveyed and we looked for flaws in our instruction, routine, and system. By allowing the students to point out our flaws we were able to correct the hidden things that both our eyes had missed. While it can be painful to hear a high school student point out a fault - the gain is worth it in the end. To my surprise, most students didn't abuse this privilege but took advantage of it and were quite constructive with their criticism.

Now that we're in our 3rd year of implementation we are almost a well oiled machine. Taking into consideration a number of things that our students told us, most of the kinks have been ironed out and the class flows from one topic to the next in a stream of music, art, and literature. We speak together, divide our work when necessary, assist each other - It's really an accomplishment that Sarah and I are both proud of, but the greatest craftsmanship has come in our lessons. The themes were the key. They gave us inspiration,  a connection point for our content, an anchored area to work with, and another way to expose students to the aesthetic beauty and potent power of the arts.  

If you find yourself searching for a way to reconstruct your curriculum - the themes may be the way to go? You can devise plans for each theme, and then I suggest finding a reading source to tie your content and concepts together. For example, this year for the Death project we focused on two texts: Requiem, by W.A. Mozart and A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. Both requiem texts deal with death from different perspectives and have offered up a wealth of discussion points on religion, music, art, writing, history, and even science. We timed the end of the Death project, not only with Halloween, but with a performance of the Brahm's Requiem by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Whenever you can pair an experience with the content in the concept you're going to make strides. 

In closing: Look at the themes. Look at what you're currently teaching. Discover the common threads. Find a unifying text. Look for a good way to culminate in an experience. Then do it. And don't forget about the debrief. Let the kids tell you what worked for them and what didn't. That's the ticket.

Until next week!

Coordinated Effort

So, I missed my post last week. I'm terribly sorry. I must say that I'm totally humbled by the e-mails asking what happened. In truth, it was fall break and I became so busy doing other things that I forgot all about it. By the time I thought about it - it was Sunday evening and I was preparing for school on Monday. I am sorry. I appreciate the concern. It means a lot to me that you all read my blog. Thank you.

Now, on to business... This week I want to discuss a joint effort that our team is putting together.

Our school works in teams. It's part of our project-based learning community. My team is the Sophomore team. My team deals primarily with Sophomores day-to-day. Community teaming is a great way to get arts people involved. Before this I spent most of my non-teaching time alone in my office. Now that I have a team, I feel connected. We meet on Mondays and Thursdays during our common prep time. There are several advantages to the meetings, but the greatest advantage is working together to solve common problems for students.

My colleagues John Bowers and Keith Starost teach an integrated class known as GeoIED. GeoIED is comprised of Geometry combined with Intro. to Engineering and Design. Every integrated class at our school is structured with a science (Geometry) coupled with the practical application (Engineering/Design). This is a fundamental building block for STEAM schools. Since the arts are universal they can easily fit any subject. Savvy teachers see the connections and begin to structure classes that utilize the science to create the art.

REMEMBER: The idea is that neither class suffers loss. Both sets of standards should be covered evenly. If you're doing it correctly, students should display mastery in both areas.

Throughout the year John and Keith work with local university engineering programs to create projects that prepare students for college level classes. Math and Science majors typically have a shortage of females in them, so these universities approached John a few years ago, about creating a program to advertise careers in the Sciences to female students specifically. John came up with the idea for a program we call, "LeSTEM." The last two years the program has been fairly successful. This year John, and his teammate Keith, have proposed that we add the arts to the program and re-name it, "LeSTEAM." My co-teacher, Sarah, and I are privileged to join our teammates working toward creating interest among women in both the arts and sciences.

The basic idea behind LeSTEAM is to encourage young ladies to explore careers in math, engineering, science, and the arts. The program works like a job fair, but the ladies are encouraged to share their journey with the students, to help the girls see that opportunities are available for them in these fields, and to combat the "uncool" brand  many of these areas have been labeled with.

So what's the connection between these STEM classes and the Arts? Educators have long pointed out the fact that students have trouble making connections between subjects. Why wouldn't they? Prior to first grade students compartmentalized their learning. We have a system of bells that separate the subjects. We set schedules for subjects. Teachers specialize in certain areas and they teach them separately. In early education, this makes sense. Students have to have an understanding of basic arithmetic and language skills; but in high school? I would suggest that students begin transitioning to combined classes, or at the very least, combined projects, around 6th or 7th grade.

While the LeSTEAM program is about careers, it is important to note the connection. The arts are aesthetic, they're beautiful. The sciences are utility; the sciences are functional. Connecting those two things bring us the buildings of I.M. Pei, the work of Alexander Calder. Structures that are aesthetic in both form and function. Art with utility; utility with beauty. All of our packaging is design. All of our performance is design.

The greatest art is crafted and, truly, so is the greatest science.

Singing in the Rain

It's a lame title this week, I know, but the weather and the week have not been lost on me...

It was my privilege to conduct the 78th Annual Shelby County Choral Festival on Monday night. On Tuesday I was rehearsing the Brahm's Requiem with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir (which is why I am late with this post). This evening I will be conducting the Triton Central High School Chamber Choir at their Fall Choral Preview. While my body is tired, and my mind is swimming with breath marks, phrase cadences, and special cues, I find myself completely contented by the music and the people that I have been working with.

This morning I awoke to the sound of my alarm and the Brahm's double fugue scrolling in my head. I was trying to get myself moving when I recalled what Dr. Eric Stark had said during last night's rehearsal; Dr. Stark made a plea to the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir not only to practice the technical aspects of the Brahm's Requiem, but to consider the spiritual aspects as well. He asked us to reflect a little bit on the meaning of the music; on the meaning of the text.

This is something that I have asked my student's to do while studying their own songs. Most of our repertoire is made up of madrigals. I have often stopped rehearsal and said, "What did the poet mean here?" and "How did the composer interpret these words with music?" or "What is the meaning of this metaphor?" For high school students, this is a task that requires both analysis and higher order thinking. Often the composers and lyricists that have created this music have lived. By "lived" I mean, they have experienced love, sex, pain, joy, nature, and even death to varying degrees, and were attempting to capture the joys and sorrows of those things in their aesthetic medium. Asking high school students to wrap their minds around those concepts, when they have not experienced them first-hand, is difficult.

We should still do it, though. We should still make the attempt.

There's a higher calling for us as educators; a hidden secret that no one in the government, or general populus seems to understand or care about. Like Dr. Stark with the adults in the ISC, it is our job - not only to instruct the students on the nuts and bolts of our subject areas - but of LIFE; to show them that there are things out there that are wonderful and beautiful and great and terrible. We have to instill in students a sense that there is something out there in the world that is greater than themselves. And it's worth discovering. It's worth digging for. It's worth fighting for...

In 2004, I had a student named... let's call him Bobby. Bobby was a Senior. Zealous, idealistic, passionate about music; I really didn't have a clue about teaching - but I understood music. I set out to change lives. That's what we're doing, right? Teaching? So, I saw that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir were performing the Brahm's Requiem. I set up a field trip for my lowest choir, which Bobby happened to be in. My goal: expose students from under served, underprivileged, under educated homes to something amazing - something life changing. I had no idea what would happen, but I was crazy enough to try it.

We were seated in the second mezzanine in Hilbert Circle Theater, in downtown Indianapolis. I had 35 with me that night along with a bus driver, two chaperones  and myself. We spread out among the students, although I had faith that they would be respectful for the show. I had preached etiquette to them and wasn't horribly worried about the students causing trouble. They were all respectable, they were just raw and many had never been downtown for anything. I seated myself on the end of the row next to a large blonde girl named... let's call her Suzy.

The moment the orchestra began to tune, my kids became still. They were intoxicated by the sound; sounds they had never heard live before. The piece began. Suzy began to weep softly . I asked her if she was okay. She said, "I've never heard anything so beautiful before. Never." When the choir came in I stopped watching the stage and started watching my students. Their eyes focused, their mouths opened, their breath stopped. They watched, they listened, they were still... They were in choir, and did not know what a real choir sounded like. They were learning to sing, but had no clue what singing really sounded like.

Before I knew it, the concert was over and we were working our way downstairs to our bus. I had made late night dinner plans for the students; again - trying to create an evening, an experience, a moment that they would remember. We boarded the bus, which took us to the restaurant. On the bus I asked the students questions: What did they like? What did they dislike? What did they see? What did they hear? What did they think? I was surprised at their answers. It was obvious that some of them were doing some serious soul-searching post concert. They were thinking, not only about their situations, but about the direction that their lives were taking. Something had become awakened in many of them. Bobby asked me, "People live like this?" When I asked him what he meant by that, he replied with his backwoods accent, "People get fancied up like this every weekend and get to hear this stuff?" I said, "Yes. I think there are people that are fortunate enough to do this every weekend."

Fast forward to April, 2012. ISC was performing the Berlioz Requiem at Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis. I was going to the concert, but this time as a performer singing Bass II in the choir. I had invited my students to the show, but Prom was that night and I knew that many of them would be going there instead. I was pleased to see seven students elected to come to the concert instead of going to Prom. After the concert I said, "You guys missed Prom?" One boy remarked, "Nah, we came over to see you and then we're going to meet up with everyone else for dinner. We didn't miss anything, we made a night of it." I talked to them for a little bit and then wished them all a good evening.

I was leaving Hilbert with my wife and some friends when I heard, "Hey - Foley!" I turned in the doorway to see a tall blonde kid with glasses in a tux standing with a pretty brunette in a classy dress. It was Bobby. He was grown up, but he hadn't changed much. He came over and said, "I hadn't heard this one; The Berlioz, I mean." I said, "It's good to see you, Bobby! Have you been coming to the symphony?"

He smiled and said, "I have season tickets."

Napoleonic Conquest

Hello, friends! Welcome again to Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. This week I would like to respond to an e-mail from my friend Jeremy Cromwel in Massachusetts. Jeremy teaches 11th grade Social Studies and was looking for a way to integrate music. He was curious about special ties in History and I wanted to take the time to address that today.

During my very privileged tenure at Butler University, I was fortunate to have been in class with two very masterful musicologists. Dr. Wayne Wetzel focused on the evolution of music in history. His class involved the "nuts and bolts" if you will, of when and how certain musical structures evolved. Dr. James Briscoe's class focused more on the composer as a person, and what life events led to their compositional technique and style. Taking both classes, although difficult, gave me a strong grasp on the connection between art and artistic creation through a span of time.

An easy way to look at this would be to look at Beethoven. Beethoven is a gruff character who moves us from the Classical to the Romantic periods in music history (roughly 1751- about 1830). As an adult, Beethoven became interested in the Napoleonic Conquests in Europe. As he came into his own he began to distance himself from Franz J. Haydn, who was instructing him at the time. Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, Eroica, captures the spirit and the majesty of Napoleon's fight for freedom from tyranny in a musical snapshot that is the beginning of the Romantic period in music history. The music broke the conventional "classical" mold that Haydn taught and offered man a new idea: freedom.

That age of man was constructing a new society. Napoleon was rallying thousands to his cause by promising them freedom from tyrants. This was not lost on Beethoven and he was inspired, in his own way - to break the conventions; to become free the only way he knew how, to add his voice of support. Of course, I make this trivial - but I think you see the point.

The 1960's. Obviously a volatile time in the United States. Issues of Feminism, Civil Rights, and the Vietnam War were causing our country to really consider who we were and where we were going. The time inspired art, but also pushed it forward. Studying Jimi Hendrix through 60's -  following him from Little Richard's rhythm player to the one stealing the show at Woodstock - is a great way to capture that time. He's just one voice of several worth looking at.

There are artists and musicians that have brought to life every period of history. It's just a matter of looking at your subject saying, "Who caught this?" You will find them following these simple steps:

1. Look for composers and artists that match up with the dates your unit is working in. 
2. Find out what these people were up too during that time. Who were they learning from? Where were they? What were they working on? (Beethoven was specifically working on the 3rd symphony when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in Italy.) Find the connections.   
3. You'll come across many fascinating people and their stories deserve to be told as much as the leaders at the forefront of the nations, making decisions. 

In many ways Napoleon's Conquest failed. When he crowned himself emperor he betrayed his own cause. Not Beethoven, though. He never looked back, and his music set the tone for the more radical and expressive music of the Hyper-Romantics. His presence can still be felt, even in modern Rock n' Roll. It is this rebellious nature in Beethoven's music that makes him immortal. He captured the very essence of Napoleon's dream and put it in a form that everyone could understand. It's that form that will help your student's grasp and remember the concept 250 years later.

If you have a specific time or place you would like to focus on, please let me know and I'd be happy to help or refer you to someone else who knows more than I.

Until next week!

Poetry and Prose

Hello, and welcome to this latest edition of Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. As I write this I glory in the fact that my partner and I kicked off my favorite project of the year yesterday. As of this moment, the Poetry Slam project is in full swing. In less than a month there will be a gala of live music, poetry, and coffee in our school library. Next to the Madrigal Dinner, it is my favorite event of the year.

In honor of the slam, I thought I would break down the project for you. Perhaps you would be willing to try it in your own class? I realize that poetry slams are not new to school cultures, and savvy English teachers have been hosting them for years. I think (and I'm biased) ours is special because of the music inclusion...

Our entry event is simply a flyer posted around the school announcing the slam. It has the date, time, and location, along with some of the musicians that will be performing before and after the show. The students see these early in the day and typically come to class asking about them before we get a chance to "present" them. Since this is our third year doing the project - our upper classmen could be heard in the hallways saying things like, "The poetry slam is posted!" and "Man, remember (so-in-so's) poem? That was awesome..." By the beginning of second block our sophomores knew what was going on. 

After a brief discussion of the entry event, we ask the students to list all of the things that they know about the project, simply from reading the entry document. Once we've listed those "Knows", we discuss them together. Then we get a list of "Need-to-Knows" from the students. That list gives us a general idea of their pre-existing knowledge concerning the project, and a good idea of what we're going to need to workshop. We usually have a good hypothesis of what the students know and need to know before they come in, but sometimes they surprise us. 

Then we introduce them to our favorite poems. It is truly my favorite thing, to introduce students to new stuff. We have readings and analysis of poetry. We break down the meaning of poems. We look at inspiration of the poets and history of the poets... Who do we listen too, exactly? Oh, poets like Emily Dickinson, Octavio Paz, Edgar Allen Poe, Pablo Neruda, Yeats, Martin Espada, Eddie Vedder... What? YES, we listen and look at poetry in music too. How are the two connected? What types of poetry work best in western music? How do you set a poem to a piece of music? What do the words "scansion" and "diction" mean when utilizing music? This is the meat of the Poetry slam and an integral part of our class - making that connection between the art of literature and the art of music. 

Then the fun begins... Mrs. Papin-Thomas is a "boss," to use the vernacular, when it comes to poetry. A few years ago she came up with the idea of a Poetry Gauntlet; stations where the students could try their hands at sonnets, terza rima, haiku, and other forms. Also, we have a Gauntlet that lets students work with object poetry and inspiration. We even use games like "Apples to Apples" to help them with word choice, and we create "Shared Poems" where the students each add a word or phrase to a poem to create wonderful and fresh poetry. 

Yes, it is my favorite time of year. We sit with them. We participate in the gauntlets with them. We share our poetry and discuss their poetry with them. We analyze what went right, what went wrong, and why. For a few weeks in the fall our room becomes a true academic forum of discussion and thought all revolving around the arts and inspiration.   

Then, before we know it - because the project is only about 14 days - we host the slam. The community gathers and we settle into the library with coffee to listen to the stylings of our 14 strongest poems selected by vote. Prior to the slam we have live music. I usually bring my acoustic guitar and djembe' and jam with students. We sing songs and have a good time. Then the readings begin. Students stand up and pour their hearts out; lost loves, missing parents, exciting events, deaths, births, break-ups, desires, fantasies, dreams... it all comes out in beautiful words and rhythms. Some students write music to accompany their poems; they sing and play, others rap. Some simply stand and read in dramatic voice. It's truly magical, though, and every year there are one or two students who no one saw coming. Students that typically don't participate in after-school events. They find their way into the slam and we get a chance to see their creativity. 

Yup... that time of year again. I'm excited!     

2nd Fiddle

Welcome back! Per our discussion last week, I want to submit ideas to you for consideration where arts integration is concerned. How do we put two classes together, especially when one of the classes is considered "general education"? How do we connect the standards from our classes? How do we ensure that the students are learning - that our instruction is differentiated? These are the questions that I want to address this week. Also - I haven't forgotten - you requested examples and I'm glad to accommodate...

Remember the keys: 1.) Get out of your classroom. 2.) The arts are a language. 3.) The arts are connected to everything. If you don't believe these three tenants, this will not work. If you are compartmentalized in your thinking, this will not work. However, if you're open-minded, honest with yourself, and have a strong command of your content area - you should be fine.

When I talk to teachers getting ready to integrate, they express concerns that my partner and I expressed when we were first brought together. Our principal ensured that Sarah and I had time, and a chance to really work out how we were going to do this. We started with a Venn diagram. Right away two things happened. First, I realized that my partner was brilliant and knew her content very well. Also, I realized quickly how many standards that we had in common. Check your standards together. Find the similarities. Find the differences.

Once we figured out how our standards would work together, we set about creating projects that would cover them. We typically do ten projects a year. The following projects are my favorites...

Poetry Slam - Write poetry (music lyrics included). Analyze poetry (this includes musical texts). Put together a "slam". Stage and perform the show. Students that are capable are encouraged to play instruments as well as sing their poetry. How do we differentiate for students that cannot play instruments? 1.) They have the option to simply stand and read their poetry. 2.) They have access to music notation software. They can write entire symphonies, dub-step, etc. to go with their poetry and then just press play and start reciting their poetry into the mic. I note that some students elect not to include music for artistic reasons. That's cool too.

Film Fest - We ask the students to write an essay on an issue they feel strongly about. Then we pair them in groups with other students that have similar or contrasting themes. We ask them to come up with a script covering all of their ideas. We encourage them to be elaborate - sets, costumes, blocking, etc. Then they are asked to go and film. We ask them to compose both entree' act and incidental music as well as come up with actual theme music for their film. Using Finale music software, students create full scored orchestrations for their films. Then they export them to mp3 files and drag them into the movie software. The project culminates in a festival for the public to see what they created.

Myth - Our myth project asks students to study myths from different cultures. During their research they build a wiki for their myth. Then we randomly assign a wiki to each group. The group must go only on the data that their researchers have given them. They have to create a skit, puppet show, or some other sort of live performance. Music is to be included throughout. Some groups have even composed songs to tell their stories with. Then the students take their act on the road to the Elementary school and put on live shows for the students there.

At face value, those projects may sound like too much fun (is there such a thing, really?), but Sarah and I make sure that the students don't shirk the writing and research components. Students are checked at every turn about what they are doing and more importantly... WHY.

So, your reading this and you teach math. Math teachers are the first to point out that they teach math, and math is an oddball. This is not so with the arts. Ask your students to create a physical, tangible representation of the relationship between sin and cosin. Too rigorous for you? Okay - have students check intervals for distance and create a song using the matrix they come up with. In music, this is a valid composition style known as "Serialism". You can research Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) for more information.

What about Physics? Pythagoras and Music love one another. Pythagoras invented the guitar... well, sort of. It was his idea that clipping a string might change the pitch. Perhaps your students could construct guitars? That would be a  radical project...dude.

Music History and History go together. For every age, there is a composer. Roaring 20's = Kurt Weill, Baroque = Bach/Handel, Napoleaonic Conquest = Beethoven. Artists gain inspiration from their environments. Find a world event worth studying, you'll find a composer there attached to it somehow.

What about the other arts? What about theater? Dance? Sculpting and painting?

Dance can go with mathematics through measuring forces, distances, and looking at motion. Measuring motions and creating problems to calculate issues concerning precision movements and distances can become fun. The problem is that most students have no dance background and they don't feel confident doing it.

Art can become both the focal point of an analytic study and supplemental to analytic study. Finding works that coincide with the concepts that you are presenting is easy to do. For a history class - have the students examine pictures (both photo renderings and artistic works) from the period that you are studying. Ask them what they imagine the artist felt, what they feel, and what they think the subject of the work felt. This exercise will bring History alive for them and make it much more meaningful and relevant.

Art and Music tend to work hand in hand. At the beginning of the 20th Century Debussy hung out with Monet. It's interesting that Monet would work on visual impressionism, while Debussy would forge a musical aesthetic that was equivalent. History is full of connections between artists, writers, and musicians. The arts draw on each other and inspire one another.

Mathematics also has a great friend in the arts. Art can be measured, calculated, plotted, and even created by math. Artists tend to "see in lines" and it is my understanding that math people love the logic of linear calculations. There is order in art as there is order in math.

Chemistry and the Culinary arts. Go bake cookies! And while you're at it, sort out this equation for me...

Now, I have been rather trite and I understand that several of you may need more assistance. I do not mean to make light of your situations. I know that it is daunting to begin. If I have been unclear or you would like supplemental work, please just e-mail me and I can assist you further.

Until next week, when we look deeper into STEAM.

Adieu!

Finding Harmony

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. I'd like to devote this week's blog to helping friends of mine that are coming on-line in the northern part of the state. Developing integrated arts classes can be daunting. Like the culinary arts, the right ingredients are necessary. If you have the wrong ingredients, incorrect mixture, or improper baking time, you'll leave a foul taste in the mouths of your students. So, how do we do it?

When I was going through Butler University I fondly recall my professors using the terms "cross-curricular" and "interdisciplinary" often. I remember hearing them say things like, "In order for your arts program to survive you must make yourself useful to the general curricular classes." My own experience was rather difficult. I set out to connect with my colleagues in the English department first. I recall sending an e-mail to the department head requesting a synopsis of what they would be teaching that year. It was my goal to select choral music for the year along the lines of their curriculum, so that we could study together. For whatever reason, and there may well have been some good ones, I received no response.

It was my good friend and colleague, Michael Buck, instructor of Spanish, that had the foresight to consider my request. Michael suggested that I select Spanish music that I was comfortable teaching. He agreed to work with me on a cultural project covering both our standards. Our first project culminated in a deep study of Spanish history and culture set around the song "Las Mananitas." Since then, Michael and I have teamed up on no less than six other projects. Even now that I work predominately with English, Michael continues to include the arts in all of his cultural studies as a premier tool to bring Spanish culture to the students.

That's the first key: Get out of your classroom! Find connections. Create connections. You're going to need to understand the needs and expectations of your faculty and work with them.

When our school became affiliated with the New Tech Network in 2008, I was encouraged to explore the possibilities. What would an integrated class look like? How would it function? I devoted myself to discovering ways to connect music,  particularly choral music, to everything - Science, Math, Physical Education, History... What I assumed would be difficult became rather easy when I realized one basic truth: Music is a language. Music has a system of writing, grammar and syntax (music theory),different dialects (style and genre'), and finally, music expresses thoughts, feelings, emotions - it has meaning. These are the components of language. Music has them all. The fine arts in general contain these items. It's difficult to see them in the other arts, but they are there.

This is the second key: The arts are a universal language. Every culture has the arts and uses them in a meaningful way to communicate.

This revelation led me to the third key: The arts are interwoven into every facet of the fabric of society.

What does this mean? It means where there's a Napolean Boneparte, there's a Ludwig van Beethoven. Where there's a George I of England, there's a George Frideric Handel. Every major event, every figurehead, every moment in history from Bob Dylan's "All along the Watchtower" to Rage Against the Machine's "No Shelter"... it's all connected. I truly believe that I can connect the arts to anything.

So why aren't we making those connections?

The difficulty is two-fold. Arts teachers worry about performance. We struggle to get ready for our concerts,   dramas, art shows... The pressure for us comes when we realize that we need the kids to put on a show. Yet there comes a time when you need to decide whether you're going to have a social club, or your going to truly educate the kids. I'm talking about a real and deep understanding of the connections between humanity and the stuff we create, art or otherwise.

General education teachers worry about tests, and rightfully so. It is unfortunate that our federal and state governments have pushed us to the point where we worry about a snapshot of how our students will perform academically. They have forgotten our mission: to fill the kids in on every great thing that they're missing. It's not Math... it's the order of the universe! It's not History... it's a record of our species! It's not Science... it is the laws of existence; and the arts are representative of those subjects in ways that may help you reach kids that you could never touch before. Not everyone cares for Physics, but most people love Star Wars. The kid that goes home and works on his "flux capacitor" may someday win a Nobel Prize for Physics. That's what it's all about.

So, remember the keys: Get out of your classroom. The arts are a universal language. The arts are interwoven into every facet of society. These keys open the door to all possibilities - and that's what I want to talk about next week; how to integrate this stuff with examples.

Until then...

Tuning Up

Hello, and welcome to the first of what will be a series of blogs concerning the arts in a project based learning setting. It's my hope that I can facilitate conversations nation wide concerning the arts in schools and why it is so important to keep them. Also, I want to offer any expertise I may have to those that are starting out in the field.

For those of you who may not know me, I work at Triton Central High School, near Fairland, IN. TCHS is a New Tech Network affiliate. I teach a class called "LitMus" which is English 10, Literature and Musicology combined. Musicology is both Music History and Music Theory/Composition. My partner, the English expert, is a brilliant and patient lady named Sarah Papin-Thomas. Prior to moving into my current position, I served as the Director of Choral Activities at the Middle School and the High School.

But enough about me, let's talk about the arts...

Currently we are living in a most exceptional time. Our students are being inundated by media almost endlessly. They have the world at their fingertips through cellphones, laptops, iPads... yet they have very little understanding of the content that they are absorbing. Ask any student to define "art" or "music" and you will find varying answers, none of which grasp the real heart of what the arts are: a universal language.

Dr. Ken Robinson gave a TED talk a few years ago discussing changing educational paradigms. In it he discussed how it has become common practice to anesthetize students instead of waking them up to what is going on around them. He directly addresses the arts in that they create aesthetic moments in which the students are, as he says, "fully alive."

Utilizing the arts in schools is, I believe, the key to deeper learning. We can test them until the proverbial cows come home - and no doubt we will under the current laws - but students learn through experiences. Honestly examine what you know. How did you acquire your knowledge? What events surrounded the discovery of whatever it is that you are thinking of? If we're honest with ourselves, it was an experience that solidified in our minds the reality of the concept. Creating experiences with which the students can "anchor" their memory is vital to both comprehension and long term memory retention.

I'll give you an example, let's talk about China. Look at pictures of China on the internet. Read a few books on China. Learn some facts about China. This is all very good, and there is a marginal amount of learning that does happen here. However - go to China. Stand on the streets. Visit a temple. Hear the language. Try to eat a meal... Which experience is more potent? Of course going there. Of course seeing/hearing/smelling/tasting it first hand.

So you can't go to China. There is no funding for you, and there won't be. However, you can create an aesthetic experience that brings China to your students. Listening to the Peking Opera on line. Letting the students hear the language, see the costumes, hear the music. This event will help to take them to everything that is Chinese. It will open their eyes to a people that seem so distant to us. Compare that opera to our own opera. Compare those costumes, the lighting, the props, the stage to what we're used too...

Don't like opera? Movies are, in a sense, modern opera. Utilize the arts to create aesthetic experiences for deeper learning. That's what it's all about.