ARTSblog: A Nation at Risk – 30 Years Later
Thirty years ago education took a dramatic turn that resulted in cuts in art programs and increased testing of a narrowed curriculum.
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How Children Learn: One Size Education Does NOT Fit All.
There are several different learning styles, and each has a direct impact on how your child learns, processes information, and their level of success in the classroom.
Art & Academics: Back to School – Back to Art
As we get our kids ready to go back to school, let’s remember how important it is for them to get back to art.
Here’s a great Cinderella story about how one principal used art to dramatically transform a failing school.
ADD and ADHD: Has your child been labeled?
Have you been labeled – scatter brained, distracted, inattentive, even impulsive? Has your child? Perhaps ADD or ADHD diagnosis has been away to explain these behaviors. Diagnosing ADD or ADHD is highly subjective and comes with a multitude of negative connotations. But what if it’s not a negative? What if its not even ADD ?
- What if you are operating exactly like you’re supposed to?
- What if instead of being deficient – you are actually quite gifted?
- What if you could start seeing the gift – the opportunities?
- What if you could harness and shape your gifts to work for you and not against you?
There’s good news. Visual learners share many of the same traits as ADD. Visual learners need more visual, hands on learning experiences and often struggle to organize, stay on task and pay attention. This is increasingly apparent with children in today’s language heavy, test oriented classrooms. And yet there are great advantages to being a visual learner. Some of our most creative minds, great leaders and innovative business people have been and are visual thinkers.
Art & Academics: Pursing Students with Art & Technology
I was recently talking to a good friend about a school that needs to attract more students – so they have decided to pursue an art & technology focused curriculum. Lynn is a gifted math teacher, with a passion for the arts, who recently moved from a strong suburban school district in Illinois to a struggling district in California. She currently teaches 8th grade math to what many would consider a pretty tough audience, but as great teachers do, she sees past the labels and test scores to find the children inside.
Art and Academics: The Art and Craft of Science
It’s time for kids to sharpen their pencils and get ready for standardized testing. While this is not good news for anyone involved, did you know research has proven that participation in art class can improve test scores?
Several new studies have been published recently on the relationship between the arts and test scores. The Journal of Educational Leadership recently published an article – The Art and Craft of Science: by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein.
Changing Education Paradigms: Sir Ken Robinson
This is one of my favorite speakers, Kenneth Robinson. He’s an author, educator, and creativity expert, he speaks internationally, challenging us to rethink our school systems, cultivate creativity and protect the arts.
You’ll appreciate the message in this video – but also that it is so visual – because its been illustrated! The images make his thoughts even more powerful.
Being Visual: Raising A Generation of Innovative Thinkers
Being Visual was released in September with hopes of influencing some education practices, what I was not expecting was how much my book impacted the relationships between parents and children. I am honored to be a part of this evolution and am truly touched by the words some of you have shared with me.
Preschool Development Checklist
While there are a multitude of assessments to gauge preschool development, as an educator, mother of four, and now a grandmother, I would like to share some thoughts. And while it’s enormously tempting to measure, compare, worry and even compete, it’s hugely important to remember that all children develop at their own pace and in their own time.
Preschool Development