Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Art Teachers: 2 Questions for You...

1. What is important to you, as a special area teacher, in a teacher evaluation system?
2. What should be included in an "Art Pen Pal" exchange, as a more in-depth version of Artist Trading Cards?

I could really use some ideas and input, for those of you checking your teaching blog-roll during summer vacation! Here's the lowdown:
1. I am attending a teacher leadership forum next week and the topic is our new evaluation system and how it may be used to affect compensation in the future. I have never been very politically active as an educator - I kind of stay in my own neck of the woods in my art room - but after over 20 years teaching and having 2 children of my own passing through my elementary school, I feel like I may have some important views to finally share.
We have a new 10 part evaluation system which is very thorough and was quite a challenge implementing for the first time last year. I feel pretty good about it overall, but there are a few key things that I think should be considered - one being the fact that we are asked to modify and differentiate constantly for our kids, but special area teachers are being evaluated using a system that is clearly created for a classroom setting instead of one that has been modified for us. Some differences for us are the number of students we teach, plan for, and assess each week (hundreds) and how we create products and learning experiences that are beyond the rubric. Yes, I can make rubrics and checklists and all that, and I was pretty happy with my final eval score, but the most important part of what we specialists do every day just isn't showing up on this evaluation, and that is bothering me. I'm not sure how to put it into words and that's why I need your help. What categories do you really want to see on a teacher evaluation? What is great about the one from your district, or what would you like to see changed?
I am no expert on how "pay for performance" works or other methods like this, but I have heard of special area teachers "linking up" with a grade level for data results, and this is just not authentic proof of what we truly do, because we expand knowledge and problem solving for all students at all grade levels. What we teach isn't tested, but it is critical for the development of the whole child, and a well-rounded education will raise test scores. I do know that Student Learning Objectives are in the works for us and hopefully this will be beneficial in this context.

2. I have participated in an ATC trade with a number of schools over the last 2 school years and the kids and I have really enjoyed it. I just keep feeling the need for some "back and forth" - I know we would all like an opportunity to respond to these shared works. What I am picturing is more like a pen pal setup, where my class partners with a class somewhere else, and we have a regular art exchange a few times during the year, where pairs of students continue to write to each other and develop a friendship. I am not sure exactly how the logistics of this will work, but if you have had similar thoughts, or this idea strikes your fancy, let me know your thoughts!

Sorry for the wordy post with no pics. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far - we have had rain basically every day and I am loving it, nice cool temps for summer. Thanks for any and all input you'd like to share.

9 comments:

  1. In New Jersey we will be using a new evaluation system. Part of my Annual Review will be based on my students achievements during the school year. I will be doing pre, mid and post-assessments. The assessments will be based on my SGO's(student goal objectives) that I had to develop this spring for next year. Part of my annual review will be based on my students scores. My saving grace is that I am the one creating the SGO's, assessments and rubrics. They are not being dictated to me. My goal is to make the assessments based on art production. If you are interested in the framework I had to follow to create my SGO's you can see it on-line if you google: Achieve NJ It is from our state dept of education. Good luck with your leadership forum. Hope you are enjoying your summer too! I'm leaving for a 10 day vacation Thursday! :)

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    1. Thanks Mrs. C - I will definitely look that up because I know my county is headed that way, we call ours SLO's, and I'm glad to hear you got to create your own. Do you have to have one for every student in all grades, or just selected grade levels?

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    2. Because I am a non-tested subject area I had to create two different SGO's. Since I work in two different schools I made one for each school. They both needed to include the majority of the student population. I made one for 1st and 2nd grade and another for 4th and 5th grade. The assessments will be done individually but all the scores will be grouped together to get my final numbers. I had done some research on SLO's at the beginning to see what they looked like. They seemed to cover the learning objectives in an entire curriculum and there is a lot more information they covered. I found some great examples of SLO's on-line from other districts in the country but was a little freaked out by the assessments they were using! They were mostly written assessments and some of the questions they were expecting first graders to answer were a little intense! I showed one of my principals and she agreed they were a little much and we both felt that my assessments needed to have more art production and less written elements. When I wrote the wording of my SGO's I made sure to state that the students would show their knowledge of the objective through the creation of a piece of art work. All my SGO's had to approved by my principal, who then sent them on to the superintendant and a copy of them will also be sent to the state dept. of education in NJ in the fall. It's all very foreign to me and has been a huge learning curve but I'm getting there.

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  2. I live and teach in Illinois, and like you, we are also on this path. It's really difficult to get any straight answers as to what the future might look like here as a classroom teacher, and there is almost no information how it's going to play out to special area teachers. With the little information that I've accumulated I'm most concerned with the potential time being taken away from art production to assess. Students in my classroom set goals, take time to reflect, participate in formal and informal critiques and complete a traditional rubrics depending on the project. I've done this for years and I think there is a lot of value in these reflective/evaluative activities, however they are time consuming and it scares me that someone else getting involved would quickly invent or demand a much more lengthy, traditional written or bubble evaluative process. Only seeing students once a week for less than an hour makes that time precious and like so many other teachers I would much rather have the time to explore digital photography or complete an exciting collaborative project.

    That being said, I've lost my job in the past by being the "low man on the totem pole" rather then the poorest performing art teacher. It does frustrate me that people who have been teaching longer but maybe not as creatively or diligently have more authority and staying power over teachers who have less years under their belts but continually set and achieve new goals for themselves and their students.

    I think we need to have conversations between elementary, middle school and high school creative arts departments and determine what our end goals are for our particular students. I would start at the finish line and work backwards. For example, I imagine that most art teachers would agree that we want to have all students graduate high school having an appreciation for the visual arts, a broad understanding of art materials and skills, an above average knowledge of art history, and the relevant information to go into the world as visual literate, art appreciating adults. We would want a percentage of those high school grads to have developed a talent and deep love for the arts and chosen to expand their technique in the art world or a higher learning institution. I think it would be an enlightening conversation to see what the senior year art teacher demand that her students know before coming into the classroom in order for her/him to get the students to the above mentioned goals, and what the freshman year teacher would need, what do junior high teachers expect their students to know, and so on and so forth.

    Now, I don't think all of these things could and definitely should not be assessed, but maybe it's a starting point?
    I don't have any definitive answers, but I do know that I want to be part of the conversation and process in my own district and be well represented on a state and federal level. I'm sorry for the length, this is by far the longest comment I've ever left! - you got my wheels turning. Best of luck at the conference!

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    1. Thanks Heather - I so agree with you about the fear of losing quality learning time for too much assessment, or a standardized one. Like you, I work it in to my lessons in different ways that keep us from using too much of our weekly 45 minute sessions on it. In order to achieve quality lessons that include art history, aesthetics, production skills, and connections, assessment needs to be flexible.

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  3. I am so glad you are part of the discussion about the new evaluation system; it is great to have art teacher representation!

    This might be a shot in the dark but I think delivering authentic instruction should be a factor in evaluations, especially because this aligns with the idea of making students "college and career ready." (As well as including the ever-popular Depth of Knowledge) I'm not sure how this could be measured (maybe proof in lesson plans and documentation of student work?) Authentic instruction is the core of what we do as art educators because art connects to everything. A successful art teacher is someone who not only fosters creativity but broadens students horizons in every direction through art. Good luck with the leadership forum :)

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    1. I just followed your blog, Ms. K. I agree about the authentic instruction - I have been using data collecting portfolios the last 2 years, and this summer I am trying to make them more grade level specific for just the reasons you say. So far, my principal seems impressed with them, and I know with further development they will be a great assessment tool and proof of the quality learning we've done all year.Thanks for your input!

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  4. Hope, I would love to partner with you for the ATC swap over the year if you are still looking for a class. I will be teaching grades 3-8 this year and we will be doing art journals and ATC's. You can email me at ardithgoodwin@gmail.com, :)

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  5. Hi Hope
    I would love to try out ATCs with you. We have never done them before! I teach art K-6. You can email me at k6artsandiego AT gmail DOT com.

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