Art Blog by Tere Barbella
 
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Sunday, 07 March 2010 21:00 |
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Tonight, selected performing artists and technicians will be cited for outstanding performances in the world of entertainment at the annual Academy Awards presentation. By contrast, last week in Rhode Island, ninety three educators were fired for a "worst" performance because they were teaching in a school where the students continued to perform at substandard levels. All eyes will be on Hollywood tonight taking in the glamour, the celebrity, the glitz; marveling at the amount of money spent on production costs and red carpet finery. While Hollywood continues to spend reckless amounts of money on 3-D spectacles, educators across the country are working with fewer funds than ever, struggling to teach the kids of this country. The chasm that exists between the world of entertainment and the world of education is mind blowing. No one gave those ninety three educators in Rhode Island a carte blanche budget to be able to raise test scores at their school. Venture capitalists don't have high powered lunches with teachers to discuss how much money they want to contribute to their classrooms to enhance learning. On the contrary. Each year we are asked to do more with less- raise test scores, meet the standards, teach kids who can't speak the language, close the achievement gap. And in a low performing school, if you don't, your job can be on the line. Avatar, the golden favorite of the Awards ceremony tonight, cost somewhere around $280 million to produce- plus marketing costs. What kind of magic could a school make with that kind of money? Granted, Avatar has made over a billion dollars since its release, pleasing its investors enormously but doing very little to further the advancement of mankind in general.
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Sunday, 28 February 2010 20:22 |
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At the beginning of the year I always review the expectations of my class with the students. One of the things that always surprises them is my promise to never assign them homework. I don't believe in homework, not in art or any other class. Too often, homework is assigned as busy work; a repetitious collection of work that mimics classroom learning. In elementary school, homework serves a purpose, but in high school, unless an assignment is relevant and meaningful, students don't see it as important or necessary. |
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Tuesday, 23 February 2010 00:21 |
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It's scheduling time at the high school where I teach. Usually this means that students sit down with counselors and choose the classes that they want for the following year based on a plan for post graduation. Scheduling is done a little differently at our site. Our high school has, unfortunately, succumbed to the current trend in education of peppering the campus with "academies and small learning communities". We currently have seven, eight or nine- I've lost count. The "idea" of a small learning community or academy on a large, comprehensive campus is to provide a smaller learning environment for students and establish a sense of connectedness between academy members. (Why don't they just create smaller schools?) What it has done, at least on our 2400 student campus, is to segregate the student population even further, confuse the staff regarding the operations of the academies and provide a migraine for the administrator in charge of scheduling. Oh, and it has also created a "dumping ground" in the arts for students who's schedules can't accommodate anything else.
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Saturday, 13 February 2010 23:47 |
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Valentine's Day. You either love it or dread it.
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 18:08 |
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Today is the Superbowl. Superstars, super-hype, super bucks. In our society we have placed in inordinate emphasis on sports and sport celebrities. The arts are not given a tenth of the attention and finances lavished on sports. Sports advocates will argue that it is because professional games generate money. But from where? Advertising? And what are the ingredients of successful ads? Creativity, design and art. |
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Sunday, 17 January 2010 18:28 |
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When a disastrous event takes place like the recent earthquake in Haiti, it gives us all a chance to reflect on what is truly important in our lives. Living in earthquake country, the same devastation that the Haitian people are facing could be at our doorstep at any time. The human toll in such an event reminds us of how fragile life is and how much we take it for granted.
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Wednesday, 13 January 2010 00:06 |
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It's finals week. In academic classes, finals usually manifest as multiple choice tests, essays or another form of written assessment. But in the arts, finals can look very different. Each of us in the visual arts department at my school handles finals differently. One teacher assigns a final project to each class; another designs a two hour project to be completed in class the day of the final; a few just assign double points for an ongoing project.
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