Category Archives: VPA

Permission to Mute

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My daughter started Kindergarten this year. While a lot of my friends with similar aged kids expressed concern about the remote learning environment many students were forced into, I had (and have) the general feeling that kids are resilient and ultimately they will be just fine. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking (or just my perpetual optimism?)

At any rate, I think there are some interesting perks included for our distance learning students. The one I’m specifically interested in sharing today is what I call “permission to mute.” As I observed my daughter in a Zoom class the other day, she muted herself so that she could blurt out possible answers to the teachers’ questions. When I asked her if she was doing what the teacher asked, she just said “it’s ok, mom…I’m on mute.” 

This made me pause. I began to think and reflect on my own student experience: I was the student who wanted to say the right thing, have the right answer, and be seen as “smart.” Because of that, I rarely raised my hand for fear of being wrong. But how awesome is this simple mute button?! If I had classes on Zoom I too could have tried out answers in the moment without fear! And this makes me wonder: what is the mute button doing for our students? 

As a choir teacher running a rehearsal on Zoom, I often wonder what my students sound like. I’ve learned that I can correct a LOT of things when students are on mute. I can tell if a student is breathing well, if they have tension, if they are using proper jaw positioning, etc. But, I can’t hear their pitch unless I ask them to sing individually. And there are so many students who join choir because they love to sing but are terrified of singing a solo. So, maybe the “permission to mute” is just the tool? Perhaps this enables my students to sing their hearts out without fear of failure? Could it be helping them find more success? It’s an interesting thought. I’ll do some more research and let you know!

What do we do?! WE SING.

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When the planes hit the twin towers 19 years ago, I was teaching at an elementary school in a suburb just north of Boston. Because of the school’s proximity to where the planes took off, we immediately went into lockdown. Parents came to school at 10am frantically asking for their kids, and most tall buildings in downtown Boston were evacuated. Faculty gathered around a small television in the faculty room to try and make sense of it all. No one knew the right thing to say or do, and no one could talk about anything else. We felt confused, scared, uneasy. It was all consuming and exhausting.

It strikes me that this coronavirus pandemic brings about the same sorts of feelings for me. As a world we are all struggling to wrap our minds around something that we don’t fully understand. And, while trying to manage our own fears and anxieties, as educators we are challenged to also manage those of our students.

How do we as humans process all of this in our bodies? How do we attempt to answer the “unanswerable?” To this, I ask you to recall what Congress chose to do on the night of 9/11. As a music teacher, I was particularly surprised to see that they stood on the steps of the Capitol and sang. I am of the belief that there’s a real honest connection to our soul when we sing, play an instrument, or listen to music. (Which is why I believe in the saying, “when you sing, you pray twice.”) Something special happens with music, and it’s something I don’t believe we fully understand yet.

So, what did I do last Friday after the school cancellation announcement? I bet you can guess. My students came into the music room full of discomfort, worries, and questions. When I answered as many questions as I could we sat in silence (a rare thing in the choir room!) It was then that I shared with my students that over the past couple of weeks, I had noticed that I couldn’t stop singing. I told them I didn’t even realize it until yesterday evening when I was making dinner and my kids begged me to stop. I literally have been humming or singing something constantly since the news about coronavirus became more serious. I was once again reminded that singing is my body’s way to cope. It is the way I process, express, and often distract myself. When I asked my students if they felt the same way, most nodded. (I figured they might! After all, they are choir kids…just like me!) That’s when I shared with them that, somewhat ironically, a piece of music they wanted arrived that day: Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.” When I asked if they would like to sing it, they all jumped up eagerly. Over the next thirty minutes we worked together to pull the sections together. At the end of the rehearsal, our students’ faces looked calm, relaxed, and happy. It was exactly what they needed!

In times like these when our students, their families, the media, EVERYONE can’t stop talking about coronavirus it’s important for us all to remember what helps. And for me and the choir students, it’s singing. If you don’t know this song, I invite you to check out the video. And maybe…sing along. 😉

A note about the video: Yes, this is not the original. In my opinion, Elton’s version reigns supreme, but I wasn’t sure I could post the video (if you google it you’ll understand why.) So, here’s Taron Egerton’s version from the movie “Sing.”

Not just recycle – UPcycle

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Sad to say the clothing/fashion industry is not very sustainable – and for years it has been thought to be the second largest contributor to pollution after oil. And while it may not hold second place  (see NY Time article) clothing and fashion still has a ways to go in cleaning up their act.

That is why I was excited to see an UpCycle challenge on Project Runway. I have to admit that Project Runway is the only reality TV competition that I routinely watch – usually on mute. I like to see how the designers approach challenges and I (like many of you) am always on the lookout for how I can meld my classroom lessons with the real world.

That is why this week’s hands on project in Period 3 Costume and Fashion Design is to create a new outfit from the pile of clothes I bought at Goodwill. Each student needs to use at least 2 articles of clothing and re-work them into at least 1 new garment.

To help them get started I shared about a costume we re-made in Company last spring for Pygmalion. We had an odd pair of wide legged pants (which 3 people could fit into), but the fabric pattern was fantastic. I suggested we make a coat out of it for one of the characters. So, Emily Walsh and Maggie Heiskell cut and ripped apart the seams and then Emily laid out the pieces and using the measurements of the actor we cut and sewed a coat.

I am excited to see what my students come up with – several of them jumped right into it,

Alexa and Christina cut and measure 2 men’s t-shirt that they will rework into shorts, mini-skirt and new tops.
Isabelle draped a scarf on a dress form to make a blouse and is cutting away the excess.
while a couple others needed more time to consider what it is they wanted to create and how they should go about doing it.

Ruth, Allie, Malia and Stella look online for inspiration from online fashion sites and Pintrest.

Day 2 of Projects. . .More students actively cutting up their clothes.
Stella even had her mom go with her to Goodwill to pick up new items as she had decided to change her project from Wednesday. She show up on Friday with a purple skirt, a pair of jeans and a picture of a halter dress that is her inspiration. Several of the girls at her table plan to transforms jeans into a skirt or dress and we talked a lot about where/what to cut and how the shape of the jeans would help us decide where we cut.

One student got the whole table to laugh when, after asking my advice on how she should cut sher jeans she remarked “Wow, you really know what you’re doing.” I was impressed when Bridget, who hasn’t fully engaged in the class, came to see me on Monday (the day we closed campus) to ask to take her project home so she could work on it. This is not required as most girls don’t have access to equipment so I paused this project and we switch to a unit on Fashion History.

In an interest survey given to the class I already know that most of my students want to do hands on projects over slide presentations, reading, research or writing. I am hopeful that I can keep them engages as we transition to Online Learning during March.

Here are the pics from Day 2:

These Seniors are fully engaged trying to figure out how to deconstruct their clothing items.

Bridget surprised me on Monday asking to take her project home so she would work on it while campus was closed.

I like having several students at the machines at one time. They can help each other out with questions, since I can’t be everywhere at once.

Christina is trying to figure out how to do a half shirt, half halter on the dressform.

Voice, Choice, and Ownership in PBL

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Have you considered doing more project-based learning in your classroom but have concerns
about planning projects properly, using class time wisely, and teaching standards effectively?
With these concerns in mind, Michelle Koski and I attended a PBL Design Camp at High Tech High
in San Diego, and here are some highlights of what we learned:

  1. Planning projects can be time-consuming but is doable and worth it.
  2. Yes, you can have traditional standards-based teaching with PBL, and you should!
  3. There is no “right” way to begin or plan a project.
  4. Ask students for their feedback, not just after the project but before and during the project as well.
  5. Students are PROUD of their work (not their grade).
Voice, Choice and Ownership in PBL! So, how does that happen?
At High Tech High’s PBL Design Camp, middle and high school educators from all over the country came together, each with the spark of an idea for a project. By working with their school partners and hearing critique from other camp participants, they were able to develop a project that suited the needs of their students and their teachers. 
Michelle and I are two such participants who have benefitted from the PBL design process. The idea for our cross-curricular project came while discussing two independent projects we do for our students. My Dystopian Fiction students write dystopian scenes that focus on world building, character development and action sequences. Michelle’s Costume and Fashion Design students create costumes for plays based on fashion trends. For our project, we have decided to combine the two and have Michelle’s students design costumes for my students’ writing. My writer’s will pitch their story ideas to her designers who will choose a partner to work with. The partners will meet regularly during the design phase of the costumes to work on revisions of both the writing and the costumes. 
We plan to conduct this project during fourth quarter. Here is what we hope to gain in terms of learning outcomes:
  • Both classes will learn the process of critique and revision
  • As writers, Dystopian Fiction students will learn to clearly communicate their vision with sensory imagery and vivid language.
  • As designers, Costume and Fashion Design students will learn to collaborate and communicate with a “client” in order to create a product that reflects more than the artist’s vision.

Stay tuned for the results of our project…


Thoughts on the Re-Do

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Earlier this month I sent an email with both an egregious spelling error and a punctuation error in the subject line.  I noticed the error about one minute after sending, but still too late to retrieve.  Here it is. 
So I had to decide what to do.  Should I resend and correct my spelling error, or let it go and hear my own bells of shame? 

I
choose to let that spelling/typo error just go without a re-do.  I felt like I would be clogging your email, and that you probably figured out sesmster meant semester.  I really wanted to resend, but it didn’t feel right. I hoped my reputation wouldn’t suffer that much.

Earlier that week I
also sent out an email with the wrong attachment, and because of a special schedule, the wrong times.  Again the decision- should I resend and correct times and attachment, or let it go and hear my own bells of shame?  I did re-do this one.  It was a MAP test email and had information
I did not want to be lost in the errors.  I couldn’t risk it. 
 

That same week, I was re-grading a bunch of student work done in a collaboration with Gaeby and Miranda on the Little Big History Project. I try my hardest to give students the opportunity to re-do without grade consequences, and I am always surprised more students don’t take me up on the re-do. Plenty do but by no means all.  This has puzzled me, because do you remember I said I really wanted to send a correction out right away.  All things being equal, I will re-do.  The juxtaposition of my experience with re-doing choices and students’ choices made me wonder if they do a cost/benefit analysis, too.  And what do they see as cost vs benefit?

The grade matters, even in a nontraditional graded course like TMS. If the grade will change, the benefit of the grade outweighs the costs in time and study for some students. I  wonder if one of the costs – facing the embarrassment of the error – is too great for some.  I really hope they don’t hear the bells of shame because I emphasize making mistakes as part of learning,  but I am afraid some do.   I wonder if some students just hope that their equivalent of my sesmster error will somehow suddenly make sense to me.  So are they hoping for a no-cost solution?  That hope is not very realistic,
because once I grade, I don’t look back without the redo.  It is a shame grades cant be conversations, but I guess conversations have a time cost, too. I can state a lot of reasons for my errors.  Multitasking, sugar overload, terrible typing skills, a get-‘er-done stance, over-reliance on spellcheck…
but I don’t claim carelessness.  I have felt some students are careless, but I also recognize everyone has limited time, and just have to put somethings on low priority.

Sometimes I feel they re-do because they know they can do better work. That is the cost/benefit analysis I want my redo offer to validate.  I feel so happy they are recognizing a chance to either learn or demonstrate learning. I
want students to be able to present their best work, but I also want them to have agency in their learning.  Teaching is complicated.

She Kills Monsters (Drama 101)

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Monster Time!!!

Students work on numerous Costume and/or Monster building activities on a Wednesday afternoon at Company.
So whether you know what it means to LARP (Live Action Role Play) or maybe you remember D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) or maybe you just felt like the odd kid out, this play’s for you.
The fall production of She Kills Monsters is in full swing and Wednesday afternoons are Monster building time.
We have goblins, demons, kobalds, succubi, and so much more.

We also need to build the armor that will protect our heroine and her crew as they fight these monsters.

On any given Wednesday the Costume room at the theatre could have as many as 10 students working on building the monster costumes. While it can be hectic, I find it is quite fun to be moving around the room helping students troubleshoot their costume construction hurdles or suggest other methods for getting a similar result.

Emily Walsh as a “BugBear”.
Emily, a sophomore, serves as Costumes Crew Head and is designing and building 6 BugBear costumes for the play.

(While I was in the process of writing this blog, I was asked to write a blurb for the Alumnae Newsletter and I think it does a great job of expressing my feelings about working with Company).

When I graduated in 1998, I never thought I would one day be back and teaching at Carondelet. But after working as an elementary School Librarian in San Francisco for four years, and getting tired of using all my money on rent, I felt the need to return to the East Bay.

As I was looking to see what was available for someone with a Masters in Library & Information Science (San Jose State ’05) and a love of Theatre Arts, I found a posting for a Library Assistant position at Carondelet. While I knew I was over qualified, I was also drawn to opportunity to work at my Alma Mater, to give back to the school that had helped shape me. 


Now as I start my 13th year on campus as a Faculty member and I can’t help but look back at all the students I have worked with and the opportunities that have come my way since I returned in the fall of 2007 to Carondelet. 

I am told that I wear a lot of hats on campus: I am the Librarian & Textbook Manager, the Yearbook Advisor, teach in the Visual & Performing Arts Department, and help moderate Company, our amazing theater program with De La Salle. As a student, it was through Company that I found my place and explored my passion for sewing and costume design which led me to major in Theatre Arts in college with an emphasis in Costume Design & Arts Management (BA Theatre Arts, Notre Dame de Namur University ’02). Now it is my pleasure to help guide and mentor students interested in Costume, MakeUp or Hair design. Three days a week after school, you can find me at the DLS Theater in the old band room working with students on the current show.

This year’s fall production of She Kill Monsters really takes me back to high school. It is set in 1995 in a small midwest high school and focuses on a pair of sisters, Agnes and Tilly. She Kill Monsters is a comedic and action-packed story about a high school girl who discovers her dead little sister had a life she knew nothing about. Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Role-Playing Game was Tilly’s refuge and a place of freedom.  By the end of the story, the audience can decide who the real monsters are. Helping my students recreate the look and feel of 1995 (grunge, preppy, etc) as well as creating the fantasy characters in D&D has been so much fun. I hope you can join us!

Social Fabric: Oakland School for the Arts Fashion Show (and campus visit)

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Amy has been nudging me to visit OSA (Oakland School for the Arts) for about a year now.

So a couple weeks agoe, she and I took off in the afternoon to check out their Fashion Design class/program with Linda Riccardi. There was such great energy in the room while we were there as they are getting ready for their annual Fashion Design Show.

I had to laugh as Linda took us around the campus to her classroom. For those of you who aren’t familiar with OSA it is a charter school that is in the same building as the Fox Theater in downtown Oakland. Linda kept apologizing for the size of her room and the mess–I told her I wish I had her space–especially as I saw what she had. Her room is a little larger than Andrew’s (room 45) with a smaller room storeroom attached. The room is set up as a fashion/clothing workroom.

Along one wall are 5 sewing machines and assorted measuring tools.:

 
Brother semi-pro line as used on Project Runway Juniors. Variety of Seamstress rulers and hoops.

 Along another wall are threads and 2 more specialty machines. And around the room are 6-8 professional dress forms.

Another wall had slopers (hand drawn/measured pattern blanks)

In the center of the room are three large cutting tables (on adjustable stands). With students busy at work completing their designs for the upcoming show.

Amy and I were able to take the time to wander around the room and talk to the students about their work, how they developed their ideas, what their backgrounds are like and how many of them are working with Linda for the first, second or third year (the program is only three years old).
Mia’s crocheting to represent Irish Lace
 
Seeing the student’s work and hearing their stories around their collections gave me such ideas for invigorating my curriculum and pushing my students to the next level. Meeting the students, and seeing how Linda pushes these students made me want to do more in my class. Too often I find myself struggling to get the students to produce something that sometimes I am willing to accept anything that comes close to what they are asked for. Now I know that most of the students in my class are not looking to pursue a career in design or fashion, but by lowering the bar for all of them I wonder if I have done them a disservice. As I stood in the room at OSA and talked with these students I started to have all these ideas of how I could redesign the curriculum to better engage the students to get them to that depth point that we want instead of just skimming the surface.
Friday night I was able to attend the OSA Fashion Design Class spring show: Social Fabric
I was blown away with the detail and depth to which some of the students were able to reach with their pieces.
Here are some of my favs:
The student called her collection “ghosts” and played with the idea that ghosts are often tied or bound to earth instead of being able to move on–she also explored the idea that the faces are obscured.
                                    

This student was inspired by his African Heritage and envisioned Africa in the Future–his headdresses were so detailed and had so much color.

This is the finished piece to to one of the earlier photos–this student sewed yarn strand by strand onto clear vinyl to make her designs.

Right now as we wind down this school year–I actually can’t wait for next year to get here to tryo out the new ideas I have for helping my students dive deeper fashion and costume design and how even if they don’t think they can “do art” or “draw”–that they can still develop their and express their creativity through textiles and clothing.

“Ask the expert”

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I love the ideas that come from a great conversation with a colleague! 


The other day I was chatting with Christina Ditzel and we found ourselves discussing the best ways to help students who need more guidance when learning specific techniques and skills in a studio-like setting without overly “hand holding.” 


While I would love to sit down and give all my students one-on-one lessons, that’s just not possible (nor would it be healthy.) So, what can you do when multiple students need a bit more assistance? Well, I’m trying something new…it’s called “ask the expert.” 


Here’s how it works: 

  • I identify a student(s) who is doing something really well in class, and have them write their name on the board as an expert for that particular technique or skill.
  • When a student is struggling, instead of asking me for help they call on the help of the expert.
  • When that student has mastered the technique or skill, they become the new expert.
  • The cycle continues…
I just started this in my Frosh Creation: Think, Make, Share course and it is working well! 

Also, a note: Christina just posted an awesome blog about the benefits of Screencasting which is also a great suggestion!

What is going on in the inner court?

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Get on all the busses

A long standing tenet of the CHS VPA department is that we
value our disciplines as necessary to help balance daily life against the
growing forces of technology.  We don’t
think of them as fun options, although we do hope that we are fun. We also do
not think of ourselves as providing supplementary courses. We value whole brain
learning and we are concerned with what device are doing to our student. I am
not a Luddite; I highly value mobile banking from my phone, map apps when I am
in a hurry and the joy of being able to compose and post a murky blog about art
from the comfort of my favorite chair. 
But along with these conveniences, we also suffer some
losses.  The streamlining of some learning
processes, despite the sales pitches of expanded learning through efficiency,
may be depriving many students of the struggle of process.  Screens may also be reducing their field of
vision from panoramic to immediate. 
Through multiple pathways, the VPA department is attempting
to help students maintain a sense of invention, a sense of methodical process
to unlock the unexpected and the reward of discovery.  Most often, our plans affect the maker more
than the viewer.  Once in a while we can
turn that outcome around.
When Natalie Terry asked me about a public space project as
part of the school’s celebration of Lent through service, I doubt I let her
finish before I agreed.  I love the idea
of art as intervention, as disruption, as spectacle.  In those moments, the value of art shifts
from micro to macro, from maker to recipient, and everyone wins a prize.
I think she asked for consultation and support for her
groups to get a public piece going for Lent. 
Of course, I misunderstood that an opportunity to go a bit bigger.  My sculpture class had just finished a
project where they began to understand conceptual ideas within art on a small scale.  I thought this collaborative project could
work to support that lesson.  They liked
the challenge and dove in the design process. 
I encourage the value of disruption and mystery as
tools.  In the end, we designed an
abstracted bus design that had functionality. 
We kept it somewhat simple for construction speed and conceptual
strength.  I tried to challenge to
improve but I let them make decisions.
I also tried to minimize adult assistance.  The girls did great!  A combined task for sculpture students,
student leadership, SLC members and volunteers responding to a schoology update
pooled their energies to get it done in 5 working days. That was success no.1.
We built it publicly to generate interest and demand some
questioning. We orientated it to interfere with traffic, to disrupt flow and to
be cutely inconvenient.  Our concept is
that is the role of artists includes to boldly teach and expand ideas through
our work. We worked here to shatter near-sightedness, to penetrate the
awareness and to contradict the rapid image with a solid, immobile moment. That
was success no.2.  
And, as an extra prize, it looks sweeeeet! Bonus no.3

Inspiring Woman–Barbie?

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As a child, my mom never bought me a Barbie Doll (or a Cabbage Patch Doll) however, I was gifted with several as birthday presents from other family members or friends.

It was what started me on my path to creating and sewing clothes. My mom wouldn’t buy me the store bought clothes for my dolls–it was too expensive and we didn’t have the money–so I started to make the clothes that I saw for Barbie in the stores or at my friend’s house. Later, as neighbors and cousins out grew their Barbies, my collection of dolls and clothes grew.

Which is why I was excited by a 2016 cover article from TIME Magazine about Mattel’s new looks for Barbie, (Mattel updated the Barbie line by introducing a new variety of body types, skin colors and hair. Basically they tried to follow what American Girl had been successfully doing–selling to the individual.) I decided that this needed to be part of the discussion in my Costume & Fashion Class.

So at the end of Unit 1 I have my students read the TIME article and respond to questions (to me and to each other) on Schoology and then then ask my students to create their own Barbie doll.

You will create a your own personal Barbie. (Think “Build a Bear”–only its a Barbie) This will be an original design but can be influenced by contemporary or historical images.  
The design must include:

    • Name–give her a name
    • full-figure sketches of your doll.
    • Images of clothing–2 complete outfits
    • Accessories or other items she needs (for a job, sport, activity).
This year, I have updated my assignment to go along with what most of the girls are doing in English 2 (I teach mostly sophs with a few seniors). Currently the English 2 students are researching and writing about issues important to women. (ie: “pink tax” or female inmates) So while I still have my students the read and respond to the TIME magazine article, I wanted it more updated for today. Then I found out that for Barbie’s 60th Anniversary Mattel has introduced the Barbie Inspiring Women line (currently available & story behind their idea). So this year my students will design for this line.
You will create/design a Barbie for Mattel that would fit into their Inspiring Woman line. (Visit Mattel’s website to see & read more about it)
The design must include
    • Name–Who is she? (Should be based on a real person)
    • Story–Why should she be included in the “Inspiring Women” collection? (4-6 sentences)
    • Full-figure sketches* of your doll:
    • She needs 2 outfits with at least 1 accessory for each outfit. 
    • Include 2-3 reference images of your real-life inspiring woman.
*You can hand draw/color images and then take a photo to include on the page with your other images. I will not be judging the quality of your drawing, but looking at the ideas you are expressing and how you are representing the woman you have chosen.
After everyone has presented their ideas to the class we will vote and decide if we want to let Mattel know who we think should be included in their Inspiring Woman line.
So far, the students are really excited about designing their Barbies–maybe a little too excited, since they want to jump right to designing and drawing and not read the article, but we will get there. 
(Stay tuned–I will post images once all the students have submitted their designs.)