How does Finland's Education Become the Best in the World?

As Michigan students take their MEAP tests this week, we are reminded that the United States education system is too tied to testing. This article about Finland's education system is a good reminder that we need to focus on critical thinking skills and encourage life-long learning.

"Education is looked upon as a life-long process in any job. People are generally much more educated in any trade or professional jobs than they are in other countries. They do an excellent job in having the highest work force readiness of any nation"

New content coming soon

I can't believe it's been a month of hiatus already! Your patience has been amazing. I have a ton of information to post and will hopefully start up again next week. Thanks for all of the support!

Hope for the First-Year Teacher

A fellow teacher wrote this up summary of a great article on traditional vs. non-traditional teaching methods:

"The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience," is a fascinating article in Scientific American (July 7, 2011) in which Andrea Kuszewski explores the difference between traditional educational methods and those based on arousing curiosity.

Kuszewsji described a study which compared "a group of students taught by an inexperienced instructor, but one that utilized hands-on demonstrations and student involvement...and a similar group taught using traditional methods (lecture) by a highly rated experienced professor." The result: "increased student attendance, higher engagement, and more than twice the learning in the section taught using research-based instruction."

"The quality of the instructor didn’t have nearly the impact on student learning that getting the students actively involved in the learning process did. Just by moving the students from passive observer to active participant, you are lighting a fire in the brain—making more connections across association areas, increasing plasticity, and enhancing learning. Not only that, students that are more actively engaged are more intrinsically motivated to learn—no bribes or artificial rewards needed, just pure enjoyment of learning."

Ok, back to the job hunt. . . Thank you for your patience. I promise to post more soon!

Be back soon!

I need to take a hiatus and will be back soon. Thank you for your patience.

Arts & Activities: Online & Free!

Did you know that you can read Arts & Activities online? Here's a link to the September issue. Their web site and magazine has so much good information, I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Last I knew, they offered student discounts to NAEA student members.

Books (More Books)

Last month I linked a list of great books for the elementary classroom. Today I stumbled across EduGuide's Annotated Bibliography of Art Books for K12 Grades. I love reading and all students seem to enjoy reading books about art, especially when starting out a new unit.

Setting Up A Classroom

It's that time of year when teachers get to head back into their classrooms to start setting up for a new year of learning. How do you go about making one room meet all of your needs? Choice Literacy posted an article about just this, "Room for Beliefs: Linking Classroom Design and What We Value."

Reggio Emilia schools consider the environment to be the teacher. Reggio is a choice-based education system for early education. This Design Share article, "Artistic Codes in Early Childhood Education" shows how the environment can help students construct meaningful learning. The information in this article can be applied to any classroom and to learners of all ages:

It embodies Reggio educators' belief that children are resourceful, curious, competent, imaginative, and have a desire to interact with and communicate with others (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 114). They believe that children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through living in complex, rich environments which support "complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing ideas" (Cadwell, p. 93) rather than from simplified lessons or learning environments. They also believe that children have a right to environments which support the development of their many languages (Reggio Children, 1996).  

Most art rooms have some kind of table set up for every day working. The teacher's desk is often hidden off in the corner since we're not really sit-at-the-desk kind of teachers. However, we need a demo space, a place to present art, a place for critique, a place for supplies, a place to let work dry, etc. With so many needs, it's important to set goals and then evaluate your space to make sure that your classroom is working with you to and not becoming an obstacle.