Top Ten Nature and Design of Compelling Experience

10.  Things aren’t always what they seem. Just because something looks simple does not necessarily make it so.  Usually things that are the most seamless have had the most planning and effort attached to it.  The same is true in education, the lessons we teach need attention to detail and forethought in order for it to run smoothly.  If things go well it looks effortless. 

9. With even just a little creativity something mundane can become something more.  From space to decorations, learning a little, using a little creativity can go a long way

8. Sometimes the absence of sound is as important and the presence of sound.  Sometimes it is not what is being said or even how, it is what isn't.  This is not limited to sound.  It is also the use of empty space, or what is left off a fashion deign.  The non-use of something is important and should be deliberate.

7. Get their attention.  In many cases, especially this fast-paced, instant gratification world we live in, you won’t get people to even pay attention unless you grab their attention.  We teach this in many aspects of the classroom, as well as attempt to use it to teach, but in any endeavor where others are expected to pay attention…make a splash to get it!

6. Keep your goal in mind.  Whatever one is working on it is important to know what one are trying to do.  Is there a feeling you want to accomplish?  Is there an experience you want to portray?  Sometime we get so sidetracked we loose the point in the mess around the point…so keep asking yourself, what is the goal?

5. Keep your audience in mind.  One of the keys to making any experience compelling as you design it keep who your audience is at the forefront of your mind.  If your audience is preschoolers your vocabulary and designs are going to be much different from those that are geared toward a senior in high school.

4. Reflect, redo. In many artistic ventures reflecting and redoing are viable and necessary to the creative process.  This is true in education, if something doesn’t go well, figure out what needs to change and fix it.  Interestingly, this is one part of the academic world as a student that doesn’t usually apply.

3. Keep an open mind. I am definitely one of the people who would have scoffed at fashion as compelling.  Not only did I learn in that module that it is and it is about so much more than clothes, it reminded me of a lesson that life has continually been teaching me: the importance of an open mind.

2. Challenge yourself. One of the most important things I can do as a teacher, artist (and I use that term lightly) and a person is to challenge myself.  The rewards are threefold.  One, I become better at what I am doing.  Two, the people who are the recipients have a better product.  Three, the expectations then are raised and hopefully others challenge themselves as well.  The goal of any art is to inspire, and the better I get, hopefully, the more inspired the people who come in contact with it are.

1. Look for the extraordinary in the ordinary. Over and over the theme that kept coming to mind was: pay attention, there is something wonderful if you stop and see it.  From photography to fashion to music there are great treasures hiding in places you may never expect.  The old crossing the street adage still applies: Stop.  Look.  Listen.

Fashion

This week as we were reading and looking at fashion, I was drawn to think about school uniforms.  Personally, I think they are a fabulous idea, and this weeks' research continued to solidify that thought for me.  I feel like fashion has more power than we give credit for, or want to believe in.  Schools' primary job is to educate in core subjects.  Now, don't get me wrong, I know that there is other education that happens in schools that isn't academic, but with all the distractions and competition for attention that already exist in schools, this could one that is relatively easily removed.  Because fashion can have such a powerful effect, it is one less thing a child needs to worry about.


The other thing this week led me to think about was how as a teacher my goal is to get the kids to feel like they are dressed in whatever is appropriate for the context which they find themselves in.  My job is to give them the tools to act in a way that is appropriate for the situation.  I am a fashion designer of the mind.  When the stars of What Not To Wear are helping to teach the people what is appropriate attire for different situations (i.e. work, casual, out etc) I am teaching students how to learn what to do in situations they find themselves in (math for money or building, science and research for discovery, and then reading is the "little black dress" of the education world; versatile and necessary for lots of situations).   My goal is the same as fashion designers that the people I work with feel confident, happy and successful, the tools I am equipping them with are slightly different, but again the goal is the same. 

The final way I was thinking about fashion in schools was as a teacher.  It made me wonder about the way I dress and how I am perceived by my students.  It also made me think about how I come across if I am feeling different ways about myself based on how I am dressed.  I have heard many people refer to a entire "genre" of clothes that are "teacher clothes."  Would it be a different profession if we dressed differently, or do we dress the way we do because kids respond to it better?  I wonder about holiday wear, in that when "professionals" wear it they are told they are not fashion-savvy, but do teachers get a pass because we are trying to show holiday spirit to kids, who get reindeer on a sweater, but may not feel as holiday about a sparkly broach?  I have to say, when I put on my spiderweb shirt at Halloween I feel like I am showing the kids I care about something they care about which is important, I am not thinking about how I would look walking down Rodeo Drive. 

Pen Pal video

Here is a video I put together for my classes pen pals in England.

Paying Homage

One thing I was drawn to throughout the Copeland pieces was how he talked about artists and composers building on the works of others.  Teachers do that in their art as well.  Harry Wong is famous for it.  The idea is to not “reinvent the wheel.”  We take from what others have done before us, adapt it to our children and reuse it.  Teachers are very good at reusing and recycling.  It is important to look back as we look forward.  Dewey is our Tchaikovsky. 

Another connection I found in the Copeland piece was about musicians being “restricted by birth to a comparatively limited gamut of inherited sound material”   Basically saying that the tools one has to create the art is limited y multiple measures including cultural and societal norms.  This is true in education as well.  I teach in a small, rural, conservative town.  People would not blink an eye if we completed Christmas cards or had a Christmas tree, but if I am apprehensive about what it would be to discuss any non-conservative views.  I have used hunting examples multiple times to help my kids learn.  This would be less effective if I were to teach somewhere more inner-city, or more liberal where parents may even be offended if I used the examples I use to help students relate and try to make the learning authentic. 

I think that is the key to teaching as an art…or really any art.  It needs to be authentic.  It needs to be real, and mean something not only to the creator of the art but to the audience as well.  That is what makes teaching tricky.  You have 30 students all of whom you are trying to get to connect to a huge amount of material in an authentic manner in order to make it meaningful.  It is no small task…that I can assure you.

Music in the classroom

Teachers are in many way composers.  First with the curriculum we try to give it a hook.  We attempt to make it something that the students won't forget easily and attempt to get it "stuck" in their heads.  The other thing we do as teacher is to attempt to appeal to many audiences with the same information.  We try to get kids from all walks of life the same emotion and memory and experience in order to learn.  Another way we are like composers is that we have to use different techniques for different things.  For example sometimes it is more appropriate to use a staccato, fortissimo approach.  Other times it is better suited to be pianissimo.    We crescendo and decrescendo when we feel it is appropriate, and when we need different emphasis.

As teachers we are conductors.  Classroom management, the structure of a lesson and the teaching itself is subject to the interpretation of the teacher and how the "music" is directed to the "musician"
can look very different from conductor to conductor.

I think in other way that music is connected to the classroom, is  that as a teacher there are so many emotions, struggles, triumphs and frustrations that can not be expressed in words.  Unless you have experienced with the passion of a teacher, watching a child "get" something there is no real way to describe it.  Music does that as well.  There are moments in education, good and not as good, that are musical feel.

Retail Space Movie

Click on the link to see the video

Emily Smith's Comparison Video

Creating a classroom for all children

I think the important aspects to take from this week is the idea of different setting for different purposes. There are times when students are going to better suited to work in a collaborative environment, when there needs to be space given and creative examples around them. There are also times when a classroom needs to be more conducive to working as an individual. Then it is important to have segregated spaces. I think it is also important for the space to be reflective of the student’s personalities, interests, abilities and backgrounds. The students need to be able to feel safe and take ownership in the space.

Another bridge is that students as they are learning learn in different ways and think in different ways, from child to child, subject to subject and even from assignment to assignment. There are times when different approaches are called for different purposes, not just in setting, but in delivery, content, intensity and creative ability.

No matter what the assignment or subject the environment of the classroom and the assignment the students need to feel safe, important, and capable and those factors should be the starting point and ending point of everything we do in education.