Art and Problem Solving: Freshmen Experience Meets Sol Lewitt

Students Working on Art (Image by J. Madden)

Last week I had dinner with John Madden (@Ahab6633), a staff developer and English teacher at Morristown High School in NJ where I learned more about the freshmen experience that he and technology supervisor, Scott Klepesch (@shklepesch) created this summer.  John and Danielle Firavanti (also an English teacher) enacted this 3-week project this fall with 100 freshmen as a means to introduce the students to the high school and to create occasions for the students to work together to problem solve, communicate, and make art.

Here is a brief video that outlines the project and shows portions of the finished 8' x 40' art work students composed. Students incorporated aspects of the project in their humanities (English and history) and physics courses.

What High School Students Want Us to Value Regarding Education

Tweets based on high school students from MHS’s Classics Academy discussing education. Students presented ideas about education during Symposium.  @shklepesch (Scott Klepesch, Supervisor of Instruction) captured the gist of the ideas presented using Twitter (#mhsclassicsacademy ). The students were in the class, Symposium, taught by @mylatinteacher (Mark Gutkowski). Here’s the trasnscript as posted on Twitter. Wondering what you think. 

Expanding vision school environment to include space outside of the building, community is the school #mhsclassicsacademy #schoolenvironment

fostering cross-disciplinary approaches in high school, #mhsclassicsacademy, #interdisciplinary

RT @shklepesch: goals are to offer more classes to address the interests of students, #mhsclassicsacademy, #interest, #passion , #learning

compiling portfolio work over four years of high school, this can be shown to colleges, employers #mhsclassicsacademy, #student portfolios

goals are to offer more classes to address the interests of students, #mhsclassicsacademy, #interest, #passion , #learning

embedding into schedule monthly conferences- time is privileged for students teachers to discuss progress, #mhsclassicsacademy #grading

revise high school grading system- personalized feedback #mhsclassicsacademy, #grading

"If you are ready to graduate- why can't you go and pursue your dreams" #mhsclassicsacademy

@maryannreilly, check out #mhsclassicsacademy, thoughts about what school be like

recommending a reduction is credit requirements to allow more choice, increasing tech and art #mhsclassicsacademy,

"focus on issues of the 21st Century"- "Moving away from grades and standardized testing, #mhsclassicsacademy, #21stcenturylearning

embedding into academies, apprenticeships through work internships, #mhsclassicsacademy, #internships, #mentoringstudents

students could take a half academy, enroll in three instead of 5 core classes, #mhsclassicsacademy

all academies would include a wheel class and work towards reducing class size, #mhsclassicsacademy

passion-based learning through academies, #mhsclassicsacademy, #learning academies

recommending two teacher shifts and moving towards trimesters as opposed to semester, #mhsclassicsacademy, #studentscheduling

recommended goals scheduling, extended school day, later start time, flexibility with time, student designed schedule #mhsclassicsacademy

in Sympodium class for students presentations on education, should be interesting #mhsclassicsacademy

Guest Blog: Scott Klepesch - The Use of Moodle at a High School

After 29 years of working as an educator I have come to work with and know scores of teachers. Without question, one of the most talented educators I have had the pleasure to work with and learn from is this week's guest blogger, Scott Klepesch. Scott  is the supervisor of instruction at Morristown High School where he has served as an administrator for the past two years.  Prior to joining the Morristown staff, Scott was a social studies teacher at Chatham High School and also at West Essex High School. Scott is a product of the New York City public school system where he taught at Manhattan Village Academy in Chelsea.  These diverse experiences have shaped Scott’s views as an educator and his belief that school is a place where all learners can succeed. Scott’s full time job is as the proud parent of three daughters; two second graders and preschooler.  Boys beware!!!

Scott Klepesch can be reached at the following:

Blog- A Teaching Life
Twitter- @shklepesch
Email- scott.klepesch@morristownhighschool.org

How would you answer the following question:

• What is the role of creativity in education?

I’m confident that a collection of responses to the above question would reveal a wide range of insights into the meaning of creativity and its role in education.  An open-ended question such as the one shared above is powerful in that it has the potential to stimulate critical reflection.  Before offering a response, one has to give considerable pause to confront their own beliefs, consider competing perspectives and prepare to be engaged in a complex debate.

The role of creativity in education came from an online forum discussion.  A teacher at Morristown High School developed the question and posted it in an online forum discussion for students to access.  Considering the demands of the 21st Century and the need for students to think critically and creatively and for teachers to be instructional innovators, dissecting what creativity means is a worthy intellectual pursuit.  However, how can this inquiry, with the potential to generate a heated debate, be contained within a single or even multiple instructional periods?  In short, it cannot. More time is needed and a space privileged to extend meaningful exchanges.  The forum in which the question about creativity was posted generated 80 individual responses from students enrolled in the class. One post by a student elicited 37 replies.  Weeks after the question was posted it still garnered attention from students.  

Students accessed the question through a teacher’s Moodle page.   Teachers at the high school where I am a supervisor of instruction have realized the importance of establishing online learning communities for students.   Numerous instructors have turned to Moodle as a platform to virtually extend teaching and learning.  The notion that learning is confined to a scheduled block of time is outdated.  Virtual learning communities such as Moodle ensures that learning can occur at any time and anywhere.

As one of the two educators who oversee our use of Moodle, I am afforded the chance to see how Moodle is being deployed across all academic disciplines.  At first, teachers used Moodle as a place to post assignments and links to resources on the internet.  This current school year, teachers are moving beyond a basic use of Moodle to explore collaborative activities integrated into the open source program.  Teachers have been developing chat sessions, surveys, choice lessons and forum discussions for students to support the delivery of curriculum.  

Collaboratively inspired spaces on Moodle have subtly transformed interactions between classroom stakeholders. By initiating an activity on Moodle, the teacher is no longer the sole purveyor of content. Learners are empowered to assume responsibility for leading class discussions and developing meaningful content.   Activities on Moodle rarely draw a distinction between classroom roles. Participants are viewed as equals and provided with an outlet to voice beliefs and share in the exchange of information.  Through spirited exchanges about creativity, a hero's journey through a work of literature, or the meaning one might make of abstract art—students are active in the development of scholarship.  When teachers engage students in these spaces, a team approach to learning transpires.

It is important to move beyond the hope that students are engaged and instead strive towards creating learning environments where students are empowered.  What students think matters. Providing a platform for students to publicly articulate personal insights is critical and necessary considering the demands of the 21st Century.  The work centered on virtual learning communities and in particular Moodle, has instigated changes to our learning environment. Traditional paradigms governing time, space and scholarship have been questioned and new models for the ways in which class is conducted are forming.

The Big Remix: Holden, Collage, Sound, Film & Graffiti

American Mosaic II. Image by Mary Ann Reilly (South Bronx, 2009).

So here's what I am wondering: To what end does The Catcher in the Rye represent adolescence in 2010?  To explore this question I am designing an engagement with tenth grade students and their two teachers, John Madden and Chris Kenny from Morristown High School.  Here's what is planned:

1. Introduce tenth grade students to photographic collage. 
2. Accompany the teachers and their students to NYC to walk in the steps that Holden took as he made his way through Manhattan. John Madden has the route set.
3. Have everyone on the trip record/make images, film, audio along the way that reflect Holden's odyssey AND also texts that represent adolescence today (graffiti, youth, street scenes, traffic, tech tools).
4. Shoot images of book pages, written text, watercolor, scrunched up paper, paper towel, etc.
5. Remix images, sound, and film back in the classroom in order to create art works that explore the question of (re)presentation. I had a brainstorm last night and am now wondering how the Brushes app on an iPad might help us to do the remixing work. We will explore creating using iPads,  as well as Macbooks (iMovie, iPhoto and Photoshop). 
6. Print photographic work and ready any film/audio. Figure out how to display student work without a lot of cost:)
7. Consider which finished images to use and in what order.  Display finished work on internet and in a public exhibition.
8. Have students author exhibition notes that are done in print and as a podcast that is uploaded to iTunes.
9. Invite the public (virtual and real). 
10. Reconsider all of this based on feedback by John, Chris and the students.

Here are a few examples that I made of photographic collage.

Looking. Image by Mary Ann Reilly. (Tuscany, Italy 2009)

American Mosaic I. Image by Mary Ann Reilly (Manhattan, 2009).

Grand Central. Image by Mary Ann Reilly (Manhattan, 2009).

Voyeur. Image by Mary Ann Reilly (Paterson, NJ, 2009).