We
have an astrological theme. We clustered the words we came up with:In February of 2000, 20 facilitators worked together to develop strategies for entering and supporting each of the 20 Whole Schools in the state. Whole Schools are schools promoting democracy, strong arts programs, and arts infused curriculum; and are funded by Whole School grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission. This is an extraordinary program, especially in a state that has many schools lacking any arts specialists.
After sharing information about their first site visits, we entered a process through which three groups of facilitators used their own knowledge and reflection to flesh out the critical elements of a Whole School. Using brain mapping as an organizational and reflective tool, each group created a unique image that reflected the essence of Whole School philosophy.
Each group then described their image, and the process through which they achieved their understanding. You can look at each of the images and then read the narrative as it occurred. As you do, you might consider the same questions the facilitators responded to:
What is the ideal?
The remainder of the text in this article belongs to the facilitators.
We
have an astrological theme. We clustered the words we came up with:
Community—We listed all the members, and also developing the sense of community (teams and collaboration, and developing self planet)
Curriculum—Arts and academics overlapping—work on making them come together.
Links between curricular disciplines are fusion, etc.
Alchemy is the mystical concept of transforming one element into another like lead to gold. You can take one thing and transform it into something else.
Teaching/Learning, and Teachers/learners overlap
We all fit into the big picture.
We put the characteristics, and then some process words (purple)
Rocket is the resources like supplies, ideas, people, time, and money—helps us reach those goals.
Lots of things went in multiple places, and we didn't put them.
We struggled with the concept of delivering the content.
The comets are the arrows of interaction.
We
spent a lot of time deciding how to sort things. The big categories
were easy, but there was a lot of overlap.
One way to describe this model is expressive chaos. The child is the pebble that causes the ripple, and there are some splashes as well. The pebble is thrown into a calm body of water, and when you infuse the arts, you get a nuclear explosion. Even before the arts, its not the arts that cause this, but the child centered approach that allows this to exist and allows us to embrace the total child and impact all these areas.
Assessment—Performances are one kind of assessment, but we felt we needed assessment that allowed use of multiple intelligences.
Are these "activities" assessment or instruction?
Where does assessment fall in the learning sequence? Only at the end? Throughout the process?
The waves reflect what arrows would in other models. We could redraw this with concentric circles with arrows going in and out, but we chose the ripple-wavy effect because even in a splash the water comes back down into the same pool. Water itself has its own flow and own rules, as in the life force.
Expressive chaos is a reflection of life and the real world.
There is no territoriality or separate parts. All elements of the image are interdependent.
This
is the rare and highly treasured whole school flower. Its
roots are commitment and research, and from there creative energy
bubbles up into the flower, which has curriculum, relationships; with
all the smaller details. At the center are all the individual
children. And hovering around helping pollinate are the facilitators
and the arts commission. The growth (leaves) are joy, growth, and respect.
New commitment can grow, but it has to start with an energy source. It will be tested as administrators and teachers come and go. As the flower blossoms, the roots have to get stronger.
You could add the sun, rain, and dirt, fertilizer as the different arts. They cause it to grow and flourish. Or it could be raindrops.
The leaves reflect the outgrowths—more of the feeling things about what can happen, or the spiritual dimensions. What changes in a school is that the whole feeling of the school changes aesthetically.
Don't forget the model of allowing children to reflect on their feelings about things. Respecting different opinions, building on the positive, keeping the positive energy going.
The child is the focal point, and three dimensional in this model.
The image thinks outside the box.
We don't know what a child really gets or doesn't get from any experience.
We want to get away from the arrows and sequence and break away from that somewhat, that is what will make the infusion of the arts.
All of the created images had a nature theme. The arts give us life, and that can be the rooftop or umbrella over everything we do.
One school has adopted the motto, "Learn the art of living by living in the arts." Perhaps if we can get administrators to reflect on their experiences in the arts and how that has influenced their lives, it might begin to change attitudes toward the arts in education. You may want to or need to make a link between performing as an athlete and performing as an artist. Some administrators and decision makers with little experience in the arts know about learning discipline and cooperation through sports. The comparison and contrast will show that the arts are as rigorous and disciplined as sports, but have a collaborative nature that is constructive rather than combative.
None of these models is static—They are growing, changing, active images.
Teachers feel like they are individualized and label children so they don't feel like they can do things that target the needs of every child. Sometime you have to provide experiences and let the children find their own meaning.
One of our biggest frustrations is that we have teachers that are graduating with degrees and we're trying to find comfort zones for them in the classroom. There is a great need for teaching the teachers to teach. Some of this would take care of itself if we trained the teachers at the beginning.