Starting Over

I have been gone for way too long.

Today was the beginning of year three.  It was the best first day of school I've ever had.  A little boring for the kids I'd have to say since I had to go over expectations, the syllabus, and all the fun stuff about how things work.  But they seemed open and willing.  It was so wonderful to see so many of my students again.  I missed them so much!

The biggest change about this year is that (so far, fingers crossed) I have separate classes for Art and Theatre.  Separate classes!!  This is huge.  As a result, I can focus on each so much better, while still drawing inspiration from one to inform the other.

I sometimes think I have the best job in the world.  (Other times I think I must be crazy to be doing this.  Yes, definitely a little crazy.)  Being able to say to them, "Hey, what do you want to do?  Tell me what you want to learn about?" is a great and liberating thing.    I have tons of ideas for the year from research I've been doing over the summer, but I'm not so set on it that I can't be flexible.  Heck if a student actually WANTS to learn about something I'll throw it all out and go with it.  Example:  Today I found out one of my students wants to become a better singer.  I had him last year, and he had his good days but definitely days he struggled with wanting to progress towards graduation.  As I talked to him about it a little, he let me hear him sing Hero by Mariah Carey.  His voice was beautiful!  I was floored.  So we talked and I'm going to gear work in that class around helping him make his performance as good as his voice.  And he was excited! 

The other thing I am really excited about this year is how I am handling the districts expectation that we incorporate more writing in a way that will allow me to track student progress and actually have some data to back everything up.  How can that be done in art and theatre you ask?  Thank you technology.  And google.  First, I will be taking pictures of all my students work and uploading it into a file that they can access.  Before they finish the class, they will present their 10 favorite pieces to the class and talk about them.  This was inspired by the new TEKS approved this year for all the fine arts courses in Texas.  Check them out.  They are awesome.  You can check them out here.  Then comes the clincher.  The part that the new TEKS that totally inspired.  I've shared it with teachers in other disciplines and they want to implement it as well.

I shouldn't say this...but all hail Google.

Google Drive has come a long way since it was just Google Docs.  You can do spreadsheets, presentations, and now drawings and forms.  Forms is the one I want to talk about.  I went in and created a form, which basically allows me to create a questionnaire with multiple choice, true/false, short answer, essays, etc for students to respond to.  When they submit, ALL THE INFORMATION IS PUT INTO A SPREADSHEET FOR ME.  I can filter it and just see everything a particular student has said while they were in the class.  I have information for administrators or parents who want to know "What is this student even doing in there?"  I will have their own words to show them.

This is what mine looks like.

It's so cool!  Make your own, try it out.