Category Archives: VPA

A Lesson in Design Thinking

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The new class “Frosh Creation: Think, Make, Share” more commonly known as “TMS” is off and running! This is the class all of our freshmen are taking that attempts to bridge the worlds of art, music, and computer science together. This year Christina Ditzel, Andrew Kjera, Joan Tracy, and Amy Way are team teaching the course. 


Today’s class was a lesson from Joan in Design Thinking. In the lesson students were tasked to physically build a prototype for a client, based on a specific need. Here’s how it worked: students were given a picture of their client and were asked to make observations about who their client is, and what their life might be like. Then they were given an item to design for this client. For some it was sportswear, for others it was a place to sleep. They had the remainder of class to physically design and build their prototype from the materials we had on hand. Our students found this exercise frustrating, fun, stressful (in a good way), and creative. In other words, everything we were hoping this lesson would be!

Students work to build their prototype




The lesson’s success got me thinking. While this was a great hands on lesson for those who want to get their hands dirty and use real materials, is there a way that I can design a lesson to solve a sonic problem? I’m brainstorming ideas now, but if you have any thoughts I’d love to ‘hear’ them (no pun intented.) 


AK’s Wish List No. 1

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Wish List No.1
We have made solid progress digitizing our school.  The curriculum is adapting to new workplace
methods by adding coding and advanced apps. 
Students are armed with multiple devices and are producing digital
music, images, videos and documents.  We
are accumulating various hardware in anticipation of maker space spaces.  The momentum is clear. 
One feature which I haven’t heard much from is the idea of a
quality Digital Imaging Studio.  This
would be a dedicated space capable of producing medium format, hi-quality
prints (typically, up to 17”x22”).  I
think this is a worthy investment. I think between digital photography, AP Studio
Art, ASB and SCL campaigns, the marketing departments, as well as numerous advanced
projects in various disciplines (such as the recent AP Stat display), there are
a great many potential users for these printers. Lately, some freshman have made some scorching hot images in Digital Photo.  Putting larger images around the front office and main travel areas will have some impact and be a powerful promotion to prospective families!  
(And BTW, a superb large format printer capable of printing
up to 44” wide from rolled paper can be less than $4000. Bryan, think of the possibilities!!!)

Time to create

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I want my students to be creative.  I want them to rediscover their
creativity. 
Children are natural creators.  They recognize the immensity of their world, how
little they actually know about it and they want to understand it.  They also have the luxury of time to really
ponder the missing elements. They often fill in those gaps of their
understanding with fantasy.  We all can
remember a time when a young child gave us the most wonderful and fun explanation
for something they did not understand. 
By the time those children have grown some and arrived at
our school, those gaps are gradually closing. A causality of this closure is
their imaginations. They have been taught how to look for answers.  But this can limit their ability or even
their desire to look for the unknown.  I
think we need to work together to do something about this. Many of us are
currently making strong efforts to help inspire our students’ inventiveness but
we need to do more.
This year, there is one new factor that has made my class more
difficult for me.  It is the new schedule.  I think the schedule needs to do many things
for many different reason.  It has many
benefits.  But there is a price.  The shorter passing periods are
insufficient.  My girls struggle to let
go of the previous class and bring their mind to the challenges I am offering.
I can see that they want to get into deeper and they are frustrated that they
cannot.  Recently, I have had some
consecutive meetings on various topics. 
It was a challenge to move from one style to another, from one topic to
another – and I wasn’t working getting a good grade for it!
Let’s design a new building and new curriculum to challenge and
inspire.  Let’s design a new schedule to make
the best use of these resources.

Vision and Revision

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Vision and Revision
Many students enter their full year visual art course burdened
with misconceptions.  Most of these have occurred
because of an uneven arts education have left them with a primary school level
outlook towards the arts.  Among these
ideas that they hold, a common one it that everything
is art. That’s not true.  It never
was true.
Many things could be art. 
It is possible that anything
could be art.  Personally, I connect with
that school of thought, anything could be art (provided it has certain qualities).  Foremost among these qualities is that art
must have an idea.  A work of art is
evidence of thinking. The technical qualities are used to transmit the
idea.  Exercising advanced expertise with
media and material without concept becomes an academic exercise. 
It would totally acceptable for the VPA to focus completely
on academic exercises.  Many schools do
and are considered model programs.  There
are two main reasons we do not pursue that path at Carondelet.   The
first on is our ISOs.  The second is our
master schedule. 
We want our students to be whole brain thinkers and we want
them to strive for excellence.  We also align
creativity with ingenuity and problem solving. 
This creates assignments that require more of the students than simply
following instructions.  For some, this
is a new way of making. Previously, they may have been guided step-by-step
through their projects. 
If you walk onto many of our neighboring public schools and
you will have a chance of seeing a lot of student work that is technically far
superior to anything on display in our school. 
You may also notice that much of that work falls into that academic
exercise category.  These schools have
the opportunity to teach multiple years of art. 
In that system, foundational work is taught first and is followed by
conceptual work as the students gain more control of their tools and technique.
Our schedule has not had the space to allow students to spend years
investigating their art making.  Making
the most of the situation, we shift emphasis earlier to the conceptual.
This idea may sound great in a blog, or a roundtable
discussion but it presents challenges in the classroom.  To many, art is technique.  That’s all there is to it.  One just needs to bend it or glue it or stack
it and suddenly it will be something exceptional.  Asking them to think first, to be aware of an
idea, to visualize within their art class is blasphemous and unfair. Art should
be easy, and it doesn’t matter anyway because “everything is art.” It is typical that students jump in and use
material without a real idea of where they are going.  This is seldom a successful strategy.
By start of the fourth quarter, one way or another, many
students accept the Art is Idea mindset to some level.  Together, we have somewhat overcome their
interior challenges but there are still exteriors challenges to manage.  Finishing all or most of the curriculum, the pace
of the school year, the brief length of typical classes, and a few other issues
also make it a challenge for the students to dig into an idea also.  We are always moving on!
To allow them explore their ideas a little deeper than usual,
this year I tried a new project.  We just
completed it, our first Revision Project! 
The idea is straightforward, they were to take any one of their previous
seven projects and either significantly modify it or begin a new version
completely. (Easy prep for me!) They selected which one to do.  Some chose the one that was their lowest
grade, others chose the one that was the most enjoyable.  They had to follow the original instructions and
it would be assessed by the same rubric. They were warned the rubric would be a
bit more strictly applied this time. 
Before access to tools and materials, they needed to submit a short
written proposal identifying any issues with the previous and precisely how
they were going to make improvements.  A
few sketches needed to also be presented.
Superficial proposals were rejected.  A few students offered vague promises that
they would simply “try harder”.  Those
girls were challenged to reassess their concept or to redesign it.  Everyone was notified that there would a
little less time allowed since the materials were no longer brand new to them. Armed
with the experiences of the previous three quarters and given a few performance
incentives, they really dove in to their work. 
The class fell into the most glorious vision of chaos as various
students worked with hand tools, power tools or simply their hands.  Some shaped wood, others bent wire. Various
volumes were created in paper mache, plaster, sandstone, soapstone, cardboard,
and sheet metal. My room was destroyed daily. 
An unexpected benefit was the diversity of projects led to more
individualized problem solving; no longer could a student mimic her neighbor’s
solution.
The original stand on the left took hours of building from cardboard
and clay. The revision on the right was much simpler.  The
second try had a better scale, was more elegant and
communicated more clearly.

The results were very strong, grades were raised,
self-confidence crept up. The clarity of idea and the quality of the work made my
grading much easier. A few students realized that a little more time spent in
conceptualizing and designing led to a stronger and more easily reached
conclusion. Hopefully, as we begin our final project, The Catholic Super Hero
figurine, the work will build upon stronger concepts.

Performance is over…now what?!

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In the fall we were prepared for the Christmas concert, after Christmas we prepared for the competition, and after the competition we prepared for the Spring Concert…the big performances are over. Now what?!


I imagine I’m not the only one trying to figure out how to keep the learning going at this point in the school year. But today I decided to try something new!

When I started rehearsal today, the students asked if they could nap, watch a movie, or work on other coursework. No way! I told my choral students that just because the concert is over doesn’t mean that learning should stop, and ultimately, my goal as a choral educator is to nurture my students’ love of singing so much so that they want to continue it beyond their years here at Carondelet. Their response was a nod or a shy smile, proof that I had a point.

Then I asked the choir leadership to go in the back of the room where our sheet music is stored and choose a piece- any piece- for us to sing today. They chose a simple two part arrangement of “Part of Your World” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Perfect. I told them they had 15 minutes to learn their part and then we would run the piece in its entirety. Chaos ensued as students whipped out their iPads to learn their parts…it was awesome.

What I’ve posted below is the run-through. It’s FAR from perfect, but the students were engaged and enjoyed the process. They are already talking about what challenge piece they want to work on this Friday! 

This made me curious: what do other teachers do when their final “performance” is complete? How do we keep students engaged up to the end?

Puppets & Play (Learning by Trial and Error)

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Watching the Muppets on Seasame Street and Fraggle Rock made my imagination grow, and I am still fascinated with puppets today. Which is why I was so excited to be part of the Audrey II team and work with the students to build the 4 puppets needed for our spring production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Making the Audrey II puppets started in August with a workshop and have continued 2-3 days a week since then. Since January it has been 4-5 days a week afterschool and at lunch/x-block.

Kameron, Zoe and Rachel learn from a puppeteer from Cal Shakes.

Rachel shows the beginning of Audrey II, a complete top mouth with teeth.
Audrey II.1, Audrey II.2 & Audrey II.3 are mostly done–final paint stage. 
Zoe works on the detail painting for Audrey II.3

Audrey II.3 had probably gone through the most  transformation in it’s structure and looks from the drawing in August. This was also a spot in the projects where the students learned that communication is key–that you can’t “assume” that someone else “knows” what they are doing.

Rachel and Zoe both had a lot of fun while making their puppets. Even when the spray glue wouldn’t stick and they had to sew more than they planned or when the paint wouldn’t stick to the pot–these two persevered to bring their creations to the stage.

Fully assembled Alex Lewald (playing Seymour) tries out the puppet that he will have to manipulate during the show.
 Now it is time to make the man-eating largest version of Audrey II. 

Kameron and Zoe have directed most of the Audrey II puppet builds.
Here they test that she her big enough to “eat” people.
The top of the mouth now has “skin”, onto the bottom and insides.
In reflection with the students there was a lot of trial and error on figuring how to make these puppets. No matter if it was the smallest or the largest, each had their own unique challenges.
They appreciated being able to “try things out” and that it was “okay to fail” while figuring out the best way to do something. They also liked that the teachers took a step back and that it was up to them to experiment how to build the puppets and not follow exactly what a teacher told them to do. They like “owning” the project/puppets and look forward to showing them off in April.
In the end the students that worked the hardest, the ones that kept trying to figure it out are the most satisfied with the project.

“Have I told you, I love my job”

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“Have I told you, I love my job” another teacher whispered to me as we watched  Chiana Lee get up on stage and give the “Director’s Welcoming” at the Thursday 11/16 performance of The Outsiders. This statement really made me stop and think–and you know what I had to agree. I do love my job.

At a time of year when usually all you hear is the complaining of “When will Christmas Break” get here, I took the time to reflect on my experiences working with the students during The Outsiders. I feel so fortunate that I get to be employed using both of my college degrees. During the morning, I am the Librarian–able to use my Master’s degree and share my love of stories and the written work. After school, I am the Costume, Hair & Make Up Designer –sharing my love of clothing and design (the reason I went to college–BA in Theatre Arts).

I love roaming the Theatre as the show gets ready to go, seeing our students putting into practice what they have learned in the classroom and through observation.

New to Make-Up Crew. Wriley and Alex observe Malena and Nadya applying their make up.

Ted joined us as a “newbie” in High School Musical–now he is on his 3rd show.

It is especially wonderful when students jump out of their comfort zones and try something new–such as the baseball players who took part in The Outsiders. One student’s mom, told me more than once how much her son loves Company–that now “he comes home smiling”. And now that he has baseball practice and can’t do Company–his mom tell me how much he misses it and how much he wished he could do both.

Joe was recruited for The Outsiders and now he is back for Little Shop.

And isn’t that what we ultimately want? Students who are invested in their learning, that want to be there and give it their all?

Several students like to say they “Live at the Theatre”, but remarkable most have good school/life/theater balance.

Cast & Crew of The Outisders–This is our Company family.

Now with Little Shop on it way–as I move around the theater and work with students building the Audrey II puppets, rehearsing musical numbers and generally having a really good time with each other. I am reminded again–how much I really do love my job.

Fear of Constructive Criticism

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The VPA Dept. has been discussing some observations we have in regards to how students critique art in their VPA classes…


In general, here’s what we see: when students are asked to give “positive praise” we often hear comments like, “good job,” “I like your song,” or “it makes me think of…” Essentially, nice words but nothing that provides the artist with true feedback on their artistic process and/or final piece.


So, to help our students provide more specific ways to offer praise, in both Digital Photography and Interactive Music Studio classes, we tried giving students a few note cards with artistic vocabulary terms (including the definition) and encouraged students to use them when sharing aloud in class. This was helpful and in general, we found the quality of what students offered improved.


However, we continued to notice that students struggled when giving and taking constructive critique. Students steered clear of offering anything that might be seen as constructive, probably because they fear that their comments will be seen as negative and fear any sort of backlash. So, how do we change this? How do we create an environment where students can offer constructive criticism? What tools do we give them to offer criticism? And then, how do we help students act upon the feedback and suggestions given?


I would love to hear what other teachers do in their classrooms. What works for you?