Bad Classroom Management, Good Art?

Maybe a lot of my discoveries about kids and drawing have come from my bad classroom management habits.

I do tend to get the kids riled up and making all sorts of random projects. It just happens.

But I have to say, thank goodness for bad classroom management. Because without it, I might not have made these discoveries or started Drooly Dog.

When a kid makes marks - on a piece of paper, or in wet sand or dirt, or even on the freshly-painted wall in the kitchen - there is much more going on than just producing a picture to look at. A window is being opened into another, bigger, world.

Drawing is a process that goes beyond language, and that brings out kinetic, visual, and even auditory activities when the pencil hits the paper (or the crayon hits the wall).

Watch a small child draw. They are moving, they are making sound effects. If something in the picture is supposed to be going fast, the crayon moves fast, too. Sometimes it looks like a dance.

I've been drawing with and for kids (and grownups) for quite a long time. All my life, actually.

When I started taking on the role of "teacher," at first I figured that I should have some cool project the class would do, so at the end we had something to "show." This is good classroom management.

But I quickly found that it was far more interesting, for myself and for the students, to use drawing (or other things, like puppet making) as a medium to have a conversation. Not to make some standard result. Technique was a means to control how you communicated, not something you had to master.

Okay, "interesting" is an understatement. I felt like I had peeked into a whole new world.

My attention shifted away from managing the classroom (though it's still good to observe some decorum and avoid, say fights and injuries) and toward really, really looking at and listening to what was coming out of these kids.

And I found that when I did that, the kids were engaged. Yes, paper airplanes still got thrown and project teams would "invade" each other and things like that, but that engagement was like gold.

And when the parents came to pick them up, I felt I could talk to them about their kids as people, and that we had learned something and expanded the world a little bit. I love showing a parent some unexpected and really deep thing their child has made and saying, your kid came up with this.

Art is a process, art is a state of mind and a state of being. This is especially true for young people.

These days, we really like to measure things with tests and assessments. So I'm going to say this, and keep saying it, and keep saying it:

The arts give our young people the power to bring their own voice to the conversation about who they are and how they think.

We don't ask this when we give them a standardized test. And it is one of the most important things that they will need to explore, and express, in their whole lives.

The Drooly Dog Drawing Project is starting a conversation with young people about their art. It is meant to show this process in action, and give people of all ages the ability to open up this window - and look through it - for themselves.

Join me!

Here's more about the Drooly Dog Drawing Project, where we are headed for big conversations with young people about their art. We're also on Facebook. See you there, and please take part. Change the world.

Two Articles Induce a Wee Rant by Me.

Sometimes you read an article, and then at the end there's something that makes you go, "huh?" like the sound of the needle skipping off the record (you know those old disc things we used to put music on).

So I was reading this article in the NY Times, called "U.S. Is Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status." It's a short read, check it out.

It's kind of nice, more stuff about how we blather on about how important teachers are and then pay them nothing. No news there.

The "Huh?" moment came at the very end, when some expert type used the term, "higher student outcomes."

I have to admit this made me get a rash. What the heck is a "student outcome?" Do they get a star on their belly like a Sneetch?

Good grief. We have really lost it when our discussions of a topic go off that far into the weeds of corporate doublespeak.

And then there was this other article, entitled "Let Kids Rule the School." This one was about taking a small group of students and engaging them in something called an "Independent Project," where they created their own curriculum under the watchful eye of their teachers.

This one pointed out how much happier and more engaged students are when they have ownership of what they are doing. Um, no news there either, I'm afraid.

I had a lot of questions come up, though - like, is it practical to do this on a wider scale? They only did this with 8 students in one high school. Do you have to make sure the students can handle it? What do you do if they are not getting their work done? Do you dump them back into memorize-and-test land?

Anyway, both nice articles, I guess, neither says anything new. Maybe to make real change we have to say the same things over and over for decades to rev up the engine. I don't know.

In the meantime, I'm going to go focus on my "higher breakfast outcome" or something.

Donors Choose + Art Supplies for Kids = Me Donating!

I've made 3 donations over the last couple of days via DonorsChoose.org to get art supplies into the schools.

If the last couple of weeks in Wisconsin are any indication, we're going to have to pull our education system up with grassroots efforts. Donors Choose does a great job of giving you projects to look at, and lets you decide where to donate based on location, or type of school, or type of need. I think they've designed it really well.

They must have, since I keep getting on there and donating. It's kind of addictive.

Anyway, it's up to us to keep these teachers supported, one project at a time.

Here's my page listing where I've donated, or pick out your own!

Art is Power.

Never forget - every good dictator in history has gone to a lot of trouble to control, harness, or shut down the artists - the painters, the writers, the filmmmakers, the actors, the dancers - because they know that art is power.

When you teach a child about art, and when you enable that child to access his or her expressive abilities, you are transferring power to the younger generation. Art gives kids the power to bring their own voice to the conversation about who they are and how they think. It makes them more than a test score.

Art education is not some sort of nice-to-have. It is basic to what makes us human. It is how ancient civilizations have communicated their place in the universe. It is where we grapple with complex and world-changing ideas. It is a source of self-determination, self-reflection, and thought.

Art is power.

Art: A Test Drive for Being You

I'm listening right now to an interview by Annie Fox with Ronit Baras about enabling young people to make gradually more sophisticated choices for themselves.

I can't help thinking that giving kids creative space from a young age, and the opportunity to try out their most random ideas with no constraints but within a safe environment of creative media, directly addresses the issues they are raising.

It's as if art, and creativity, are taking yourself for a test drive. Creating your own space, where you can explore what you want. Having this means learning to have it and respect it - and trust it. Building up the structure, knowing how to give that to yourself. Like a storm cellar for when emotions and inputs get overwhelming.

A child who knows how to make space for his or her creativity can also make space for his or her identity. That's an important test drive, and something we can give kids from a young age simply by giving them the time and space to do it.

Drawing Together is more than just Drawing Together.

Drawing Together is more than just Drawing Together.
Originally uploaded by betsystreeter

So much happens when you draw with kids. The drawing is just a way of opening up a creative space in which you can hang out, think, create, and learn. It's a unique way of thinking, and an opportunity to communicate on a level rarely seen in these days of standardized tests. So draw with your kids. You will learn a great deal about them, and they will learn about you.

This is an illustration for a forthcoming book, "The Creative Beast Draws with Kids: 22 Insights on the Wonders of Drawing Together."

Me! Radio! Creativity! Big Fun!

Today I did a radio/podcast interview with Rick DiBiasio about Creativity, and it was a lot of fun! You can listen to it here - just ignore the music bits at the beginning and end.

Listen to internet radio with RickDiBiasio on Blog Talk Radio

In it, we mention two free drawing lessons meant to amuse and inspire, one on Stick Figures and one on Faces. Give them a try!

Here's hoping that you give yourself permission to pursue whatever gives you joy, minus the hangups about whether it's "good" or not. It's good because you tried it. So there!

Draw Faces Your Own Way!

Faces might seem like something hard to draw, that you have to draw "right" in order for them to look "good..."

But faces really do reflect your own personality, in the way you shape them, where you put the features, what expressions you choose to put on them.

They can be such a fun way to show your own feelings, or to illustrate an idea, or just to sit and create different characters and creatures. All you need is a few simple bits to start with, and then have at it!

Please enjoy!

Draw Faces Your Own Way

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Writing Books with Kids: The Cat who Ate a Dog

All I did was write some sentences and leave blanks and it went all crazy from there..

And "The Cat who ate a Dog" was created.

You can see where I left the blanks. After the kids - mostly Kindergarteners and first graders - filled in words, I did an illustration - with much discussion amongst everyone, of course.

For some reason, the hilarious phrase of the day (because there's always some hilarious phrase of the day) was, "I dunno!" So the Vet, who had to examine the cat who ate the dog, was named "Dr. I. Dunnow."

Suddenly, there was a bark!

Dr. I Dunnow wasn't the smartest guy ever - so he said, "You're not a dog..."

Then the much smarter nurse showed up and removed the dog. Everyone was much amused by the expanding cat in this one.

And then, a joyous ending.

One of the students added a portrait of me at the end, as the author.

I always recommend doing the cover last - so one of the Kindergarteners, Katherina, obliged, adding an illustration and putting in her own blanks for her name and mine.

Once this was done, it was passed around and read aloud numerous times.

Kids have such storytelling ability - it is like a flight simulator for their brain. All it takes is some blank spaces, and a grownup willing to capture their ideas and put them down, for a wondrous book to take shape.

I wonder if in the sequel, the dog will eat the cat. Will Dr. I Dunnow get more patients? Will the nurse lose patience with him? Tune in next time!

Art! Cognition! Science! Beyond the Candelabra

A while back I wrote a post about how the human mind is like Liberace's candelabra - each candle sheds light on the others, and when one goes out the rest of it is a little dimmer.

Well, I'll be gosh darned if there isn't scientific evidence that goes way, way beyond the decorative item on the piano and delves right into that brain lighting up!

Check out this article from the Dana Foundation:

How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition

By Michael I. Posner, Ph.D., and Brenda Patoine.

It's long, it's meaty, it's fab. A few quotes:

"...focused training in any of the arts—such as music, dance or theater—strengthens the brain’s attention system, which in turn can improve cognition more generally."

"Practicing for long periods of time and in an absorbed way can cause changes in more than the specific brain network related to the skill. Sustained focus can also produce stronger and more efficient attention networks, and these key networks in turn affect cognitive skills more generally."

"A large body of scientific evidence shows that repeated activation of the brain’s attention networks increases their efficiency."

"I believe that few other school subjects can produce such strong and sustained attention that is at once rewarding and motivating. That is why arts training is particularly appealing as a potential means for improving cognition."

"The growing body of scientific work that suggests arts training can improve cognitive function—including our view, which identifies stronger attention networks as the mechanism—opens a new avenue of study for cognitive researchers. The new research findings also give parents and educators one more reason to encourage young people to find an art form they love and to pursue it with passion. Continuing research in this area can also help inform ongoing debates about the value of arts education, which has important policy implications given budgetary pressures to cut arts programs from school curricula.

From our perspective, it is increasingly clear that with enough focused attention, training in the arts likely yields cognitive benefits that go beyond “art for art’s sake.” Or, to put it another way, the art form that you truly love to learn may also lead to improvements in other brain functions."

Go read the whole thing, there are important concepts around closer and more distant cognitive relationships within the brain structure, and more.

If you are an art teacher, or a parent or a person seeking to stop the slaughter of the arts in our schools, you need material like this. We don't need bake sales, we need talking points.

Thank you, thank you to the cognitive research community for pursuing these types of questions. I look forward to what comes next, as foreshadowed in this study...

School Mural Project: Plywood Squares Aplenty

Our mural for the science lab at my kids' elementary school is taking form! As I mentioned before, besides making something cool to look at, we also want to:

- Involve as many kids as possible in painting the mural

- Break it down into manageable pieces that can be easily handled

- Use paints that will last and varnish the heck out of it

- Show tons of science concepts and terms

The sketch we're working from looks like this:

It's a variation on the "powers of ten" concept. We work our way from DNA on the left to space on the right. It will be five panels, of 4 by 8 feet each. Each block is a 1-foot square.

Another parent took on the big job of cutting plywood squares (it's 1-inch thick plywood) and priming them, then I rolled them home in our red wagon. Each one of these will make up one square of the grid. This way, kids can take them and paint them without having to crawl over one another - and they can feel ownership of their square. It's part mural, part mosaic.

I've got the squares for the first panel laid out, ready for the line art of DNA/cell stomata (I'm also going to number/letter them all so we know where they go). They look like this:

Once I've got the line art and numbering on there, we'll enlist some students to put little dots of paint in the various spaces to show what should be painted what color. Then the kids can have at it!

I'm tempted to expand the space dedicated to the DNA to 4 squares tall rather than just the two in the sketch - I think it would look better.

We're using mural paint for this rather than exterior paint - we considered recycling house paint but it just wasn't going to look as vibrant. And since I walk through the Mission in SF all the time, I'm very biased toward vibrant! We've been referring to this cool site about the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia. They even talk about what paints and varnishes they use. And, there's tons of inspiration there.

So, time to get out the pencil and Sharpie I think... and draw some DNA!

Featured Posts: Enthrallment! Liberace! Coloring!

This week we've got some thoughts on thinking, and some sheets for coloring. Have at it!

What Your Brain has to do with Liberace Shiny!!

The Art of Being Enthralled Write on the wall!

All the Free Coloring Pages in One Place! Gentlemen, start your crayons.

And here's an added bonus, Ten Great Uses for a Pencil. Still my most popular presentation (almost 11,000 views!), although the Creative Beast is in the chase!

Enjoy!

Ten Great Uses for a Pencil

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The Art of Being Enthralled

Can you remember being a kid, and maybe you applied crayon or pen or something to a surface that wasn't meant to have crayon or pen on it? Or mixed a couple of things together, or took something apart...

Remember the look on the resident grownup's face when they came into the room? That kind of, "Oh, uh-oh" face - followed by "Oh honey, that's not what that's meant for - now, let's clean that up... you know better!"

That's a pretty easy thing to remember -- especially maybe some of the vocabulary words that you learned right then...

But do you also remember the feeling BEFORE that? That feeling of being completely engrossed by what you were doing? The feeling that is the reason that you weren't "knowing better" at that particular point in time?

I remember writing on my bookshelf with a mascara brush.

That enthrallment that you felt is a skill that we need in order to accomplish great things in our life - and you learn it by participating in the arts.

Kids know how to get enthralled. It drives grownups nuts. They get enthralled at all the wrong moments. Like, when they are supposed to be getting in the car. Because we're late. So could we just get in the car? Please? Okay put down the ladybug, let's get in the car... NOW!

But we need the ability to be enthralled in order to really accomplish something. In a society that is obsessed with the Big Win, the Medal, the Championship, we sure don't spend a lot of time cultivating the kind of enthrallment and perserverance that you need to get to that pinnacle. Or to get anywhere, for that matter.

You get that from the arts. Not from completing an art "project," but by setting aside a time and place to just sit and make something. Follow your thoughts and impulses. See where things go. It's like exercising an enthrallment muscle.

If I had my way, every kid in the world would have at least a half hour a day, or an hour, to just get out some kind of materials and have at it. Could be crayons, glue, tape, clay, electronics - just some open space to exercise that enthrallment muscle.

Have you given yourself an enthrallment workout lately? What about your favorite kid? Give it a try. Enthrallment comes from WITHIN. Peace takes practice. And so does getting enthralled.

Color Something! It's Good for You.

Free coloring pages for you! Click em to open as a PDF, download and print! Enjoy!

What Does Your Brain Have to do with Liberace?

Wouldn't it be great if your brain was so wonderful and shiny that it was like the candelabra that Liberace always used to place on his piano?

You know, this one:

Well, I think it is.

You see, when a candelabra is all lit up, there's a whole assortment of lights all shining all over the place. Each candle gives off its own light, but it hits the other candles too. So there are rays of light crossing in every direction and bouncing off the other candles. Shiny!

This is how our mind works. Each kind of thinking fires off light in all directions. Our minds are natural connectors. Our thinking happens in a web.

And, you can use one candle to light the other ones. This is done in all sorts of ceremonies all over the world.

Now, let's think about what happens when one of the lights is extinguished. Say, the light that's all about visual thinking. Or music. Or dance.

Hm, now that candle isn't bouncing light around any more.

So a person who is a visual learner, might not get the best angle on how to write well. Or a person who thinks best when moving, might have to sit still and struggle with numbers.

But that's how we think about school subjects. We take the candles out of the candelabra, line them up, and then extinguish the ones we can't "afford..." the ones that are supposedly "enrichment" or "nice to have."

"Enrichment" is something you put on a package of bread. It doesn't do anything, just makes you feel better about buying it. That's all. "Enrichment" is something that you can do without. The arts are not "Enrichment."

When you put out one candle, the rest of the candelabra is a little dimmer.

This is not, unfortunately, how a budget spreadsheet works. A spreadsheet doesn't show how things are interconnected. It just puts things in a list.

Kids aren't born knowing what their talents are. They have to discover them. And they need to make as many connections as possible to figure them out. Each kid has a unique mix of abilities that depend on one another to function fully. Shoot, adults have to do this too.

The arts give kids the power to hold up their end of the conversation about who they are and how they think. Those candles have to be there for them to understand - and appreciate - their full range of abilities... and apply them.

So, go find a school or an organization that is teaching the arts - be it theatre, or painting, or dance or music, or video, or anything else - and give it some support. Send a check, volunteer some time. They are working to keep those candles lit, so the whole picture gets brighter.

Bling!!

The Story of Great Teachers: Over and Over Again

I am reposting this piece from September of last year, because my kid's teacher got a pink slip and I just keep going around and around in my head - we have money for foreign wars, for tax cuts, and for bank bailouts, but we can't pay one rock star teacher and we just keep telling everyone who doesn't own a huge corporation that they have to cut, and cut, and cut some more. I know this scenario is playing out again and again across our country. So, here it is.... again.

Quick, think of a teacher - a schoolteacher, a coach, a tutor, a mentor - who changed your life for the better.

Did that person see potential in you when you didn't necessarily see it in yourself?

Did that person make you feel like you existed and were unique?

Did that person take the time to focus on you and your own point of view?

Again and again I hear the Story of the Great Teacher. And each time it is incredibly powerful. And each time, it is about someone, who wasn't your mom or dad, noticing you and taking some time just for you.

So much is said about schools, and teaching methods, and money, and all of it - charters, vouchers, homeschooling, unschooling, bla bla bla...

But over and over I hear the Story of the Great Teacher, and the impact they have on people for the rest of their lives.

And every time, it is about how someone took the time to notice and encourage.

So, while we run around making charts and giving standardized tests and arguing about budgets, maybe there is one simple thing that goes at the core, no matter how much red tape and ideology gets layered on top.

That is, the great teachers and mentors in our lives are the ones who take time to notice and encourage. Every student should have someone who notices and encourages them. Every single student in the whole wide world. Someone who is out in the world, the school, the team, somewhere outside the family, who treats them like a unique person. Perhaps this is the core of great teaching, the ability to recognize students' personalities and abilities and to acknowledge them as people. That's it. You can put that on a chart any way you want.

Here is yet another version of the Great Teacher Story - please enjoy.

A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim from TakePart on Vimeo.

"Raising Happiness" and how Badly Kids Need Art.

I went to a talk last night by Christine Carter, Ph.D., author of the book "Raising Happiness." She talked about how the language and attitudes we use in raising our children affect their ability to build their self-image... and how letting kids engage in their own process of becoming empowers them.

THIS is why the arts are so critical for kids.

Not the arts where we teach them to draw something "good," or "well," but the arts where we give them permission to discover, incorporate their discoveries, and be seen and heard.

Our society is obsessed with results.

That's what works in the media. Show someone sitting there dieting, and that's boring. Show someone's "after" picture, and that's exciting.

Advertisers sell results, not process.

We glorify winners at the moment when they win. We watch the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Final Four. We like the part where someone wins and confetti comes down and people yell and cry. If we want to contemplate their hard work, we do a musical montage that makes it look like all their workouts took about five minutes and were very exciting and dramatic.

What we don't see is the many hours spent practicing, messing up, trying things that you're not good at yet, stretching your limits. Failing. Trying again. Failing again.

We glorify "elite performers," when they are performing. But here's news: there are lots of "elite" people out there who do not care whether they ever win anything. They are passionate about what they do. Period.

The arts give our kids the chance to experience that passion. To really engage in something, not to get some result, but to discover things. To be seen and heard and encouraged for THAT.

This is what we lose when we don't let kids have time to engage in the arts. Or, to do a science experiment (that may or may not "work"). Without some end product or test score or adult's approval or tidy TV-friendly musical montage in mind.

A result is EXTERNAL. It is what comes when you beat someone else, or pass a test someone else made up.

The arts are INTERNAL. They tell you about yourself and how you see things.

All a kid wants is to be seen and heard. Unconditionally.

So, let them go out and compete for the big job or run in the race or take the test when the time comes. But right now, give them time to build their inner world, and to be valued for having one. Let them try things, have something unexpected happen, discover something.

This is what the arts do for kids.

So when I talk about letting out the Creative Beast, or Drawing Nothing, this is what I mean. Let kids build their world for themselves, so when that world intersects with the rest of reality, they've got a sense of who they are and how they think. A test score does not tell you this.

And, as an added bonus, here's one of my "semi-animated" stories, called How to Draw What's Not There. Enjoy!

How to Draw What's Not There

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New Free Printable Story Sheet!

Kids have such an incredible innate sense of story. It never ceases to amaze me.

And, it's well known that stories are like a flight simulator for the brain. Kids, of course, already understand this.

Sometimes, I make books with kids. We take a few pieces of paper, fold em in half, staple, and voila - a book.

Just the notion of writing a story induces a volcanic explosion of ideas, from titles to characters to settings and crazy plots. One young author did a story entitled, "What Does a Cat Do When No One is Looking?"

Recently, I've started writing a set of prompts on the pages. They follow a very simple progression that gets you through a story.

Simple boundaries and prompts give kids just enough to work with that they can freely generate ideas, but come out with something they recognize and can share. That feeling of connection that comes from making something someone else will read is huge.

So, I've made a Free Printable Story Page for you. It has the same prompts in it that I use when making books, in a handy printable one-page format!

Try it yourself, or give it to someone you like. And, say, if you want to make it into a book, you can always cut this up, paste the pieces to sheets of paper, and add illustrations.

Enjoy!

New Free Coloring Page: Nice Hat.

Since the Oscars are on tonight, it's only fitting that we'd have a new coloring page in which one monster offers some sort of commentary on another monster's fabulous fashion statement. Only, it's up to you what is said. Enjoy!

1 Box, 5 steps, Tons of Inspiration

Make a box of art inspiration in a few minutes, and enjoy it forever!

1. Gather together: 1 small card file or other box, some index cards (in various colors if possible), colored pens

2. Take a batch of cards in one color (or put a color along the edge so they'll be easy to sort later) and write one noun on each one (creatures or humans). Like: ballerina, dolphin, fire fighter, astronaut, snake, butterfly

3. Take another batch of cards in another color and write one adjective on each one. Use colorful words like: spiky, spotted, angry, smelly, hairy, gigantic, nervous

4. Take another batch of cards in another color and write one place on each one. Like: the moon, the beach, the ocean, the grocery store, the dentist

5. Stick all the cards, in categories into the box. Voila!

EXTRA CREDIT: Decorate the box. Mine says "Betsy's Art Box" on it and has glitter and stickers.

Have at it!! Here are several games you can play:

Adjective-Adjective-Noun:

Draw two adjective cards and a noun card, and draw the resulting character.

Noun goes to Place:

Draw a noun card and a place card, then draw a scene or a comic about the result.

Noun-Noun:

Draw two noun cards, and draw a character that combines the two.

Adjective-Noun goes to Place:

Draw an adjective card, noun card and place card. Draw the resulting character and the story of what happens in drawing or comic form.

Extra Goodness:

- For kids, I let them sift through the cards until they find something appealing. No harm in that.

- It's great to freshen up your word cards, or add new ones, every so often. That's a big part of the fun.

- This is a terrific vocabulary builder for young readers/writers, both using the cards and making up the words to put on them.

- It's also great for English language learners. I've never tried making a bilingual box, but that could be really cool. If you do, tell me!

- If you have a visual dictionary around, might be good to keep it handy. So when someone draws a card that says, "wombat" or something, they can look up what the thing actually looks like.

- This can also be really nice on car trips, though I must say that no matter where you use it, total card spillage is pretty much inevitable - hence the color coding.

Enjoy!!