Module 5 - Laura Funk

Post your ideas for your grant. 

I am not 100% sure what I want to be my focus for my grant.  I am often indecisive and get too many ideas at once and have trouble narrowing down what I feel would be the most valuable asset.  I have two ideas I will share.  First, I could focus my grant on equipping my classroom with furniture that would facilitate creativity more successfully and promote movement, comfort and expression.  Or, I could buy OSMO accessories that fit on the top of the ipads I currently have to make digital interactions in art class more fun, relevant and engaging for the students.  The OSMO starter kit is $79.99 per device, so for my soon to be 25 devices, It would cost me roughly $2,000 to equip each device with the OSMO Masterpiece capability (and more with the starter kit options).  The students have soo many possibilities with artistic expression utilizing this program/device accessory.  I might have answered my own question here and am now leaning more towards the OSMOS than the furniture.  Check out the link because they offer lots of learning for students in all subject areas.  I embedded the video illustrating some of the artistic options for the program.  Check it out.  I am excited to try it myself! I may shoot for OSMOS now and attend to my furniture dilemma next.  All a work in progress don't you know.  

https://www.playosmo.com/en/

Chapter 9 

1. “Digital Leadership is a mindset and a call to transform a school’s culture into one that unleashes the creativity of students so they can create artifacts of learning that demonstrates conceptual mastery”.   Do you agree that schools should reflect real life? 

I agree that school should reflect “real life” to a degree.  We need to set expectations and follow through on what we say as teachers to build trust and routine with our students.  Students need to be respectful and responsible and conduct themselves appropriately.  Most importantly, we need to make connections in our classrooms to relevant topics in the world today that students find valuable and can use in the future.  Students should feel the information covered and use of technology is current and will teach them skills they will need in their future lives. 

I struggle deeply with this aspect, because art is hard to justify.  It is not easily measured or graded.  Students have abilities, however big or small.  But to me the biggest part is motivation in the desire to create and produce work.  If a student doesn’t like or is not remotely interested in art, I can’t force them to be.  I can motivate and encourage them and try to alter their mindset, but it isn’t always successful. 

I have noticed an increase in motivation among my students since purchasing the ipads.  Now all my students have instant access to search images to help them in their art making, and to find topics interesting to them to further motivate and inform their expression.  This makes everyone involved enjoy the process more and forces them to seek out solutions to their problems, instead of always asking for my help.  The students have much more motivation and control of their projects from start to finish and seem to be enjoying the explorative process more in this freedom of imagery, text, and content provided my the ipads. 

Chapter 10 

2. Summarize the story of Clark Hall and reflect on your workplace or learning environment.  What are you thinking now after reading about Clark Hall?

Overcrowding of the schools lead to the creation of Clark Hall.  Their first problem to overcome was lack of wireless and internet capacity which they drastically improved quickly.  Next item of business for Clark Hall was adding and training sufficient staff to help utilize the building for its targeted purpose.  Clark Hall is a learning space of flexibility, individualized learning, technology, engaging, the students had choice of study and subjects in a cutting edge facility that could provide them with the growth opportunities they needed and the support necessary to get them to their targeted goals and learning objectives.  Clark Hall was full of comfortable spaces to work collaboratively in or on ones own.  The wall colors were bright and promoted creativity and excitement. 

Clark Hall was much like a thriving college campus with well thought out workspaces, an environment that promoted and encouraged students in every capacity.  The development of this facility is impressive!  From classrooms, to eventual retail business partnerships and fitness facilities that help support the community as a whole and promote all around healthy lifestyles.  Clark Hall is an exceptional example of all a school system can achieve with a little out-of-the-box thinking.  I absolutely love this idea!  Creative spaces that facilitate individuality and community centered growth and prosperity.  Mind-blowing!  I need to work there stat!

My learning environment is claustrophobic!  I have 30 chairs in a relatively small classroom.  It is not closet small, but the space is not conducive to much movement and flow.  I do the best that I can to alleviate clutter, but in art that can be extremely difficult with insufficient storage.  I often have a feeling that I am boxed in and suffocating.  Which obviously isn’t healthy and does not promote the best creative environment.  I do have windows in one wall that lead outside, but one large window of the two has a broken seel, so is fogged up and does not produce much light.  I decided to have students paint a mural over it so that it was more uplifting than depressing.  I wish the light was more powerful from the outside, but again I do the best with what I have.  I often change up the table and chair arrangement to give us all a refreshed feeling and to figure out the best flow of traffic and the best creativity facilitation of the space.  In my classroom I have access to a projector, laptop, document camera, and 13 ipads (the other order of 12 ipads has not come in yet).  I feel pretty set for technology at the moment because my specific needs have been met.  I may go to a more clutter free space if I am given permission and have the funding for it in the near future.  I’d love to have my students standing, in a more studio art class environment free of desks and large tables.  In favor of a more simplified, open space for movement and creative flow.  I need to look into more options for art class furniture and arrangements.  Will keep you all posted if you are interested.