Everybody Synergize!

We've been synergizing at Winchester to create a Goal Hallway where student, teacher and parent goals would be displayed on 3" x 5" cards attached to the wall. Three of my 5th grade art students synergized to create the sign "Goal Hallway" which is displayed in the hall. Over 300 people have already synergized to create personal goals that will be displayed in the Goal Hallway. Mrs. Brachmann had a great idea to hang a net on the wall for the goal cards to attach to. It took a while to find the right net and it was ordered online and delivered. The net was ready to be put in place until maintenance pointed out that it was a fire hazard, and could not be hung in the hallway. This posed a dilemma, so it was decided that the net would be painted on the wall. Mrs. Szewc asked if I could paint a 3-D looking net on the wall where the net was going to be hung. I told her yes, I'd do my best and now there is a 19' long net painted on the wall. Mrs. Szwec and her team will now be able to begin hanging the goals on top of the painted net. It really is amazing how many people have synergized to create our Goal Hallway.

Be an Art Leader

At the end of each art class I call students by specific colored tables to line up by the door and wait for their teacher to arrive. In one of my first grade classes, I noticed that the "red table" was particularly good one day. They listened well, stayed on task, were respectful to eachother and offered to help at clean-up time. They were also the table that I called first at the end of the day to line up at the door. (I should mention that students love their tables to be called first). After the red table got up to stand in line, the other students were still at their tables, standing by their seats and talking freely. I clapped my hands to get their attention, and said "These fine students at the red table, were exemplary leaders in art today, they listened well, created awesome art, were respectful of others and helped clean-up, they are proactive art leaders." I gave a high-five to each student from the red table and told them how proud I was of them today. And then I said "Who will be the art leaders next week?" and everyone sat straight in their seats like little angels. Kids really want to be recognized for what they do well, and this is one way to do it in the art room.

Is it a Win-Win?

Many things happen daily in the art room that are considered win-win, and win-lose. But today I noticed a lose-lose that should have been a win-win.
A boy in the fourth grade dropped his books and other papers while standing in line to leave the art room. No one volunteered to help this boy that was really struggling to pick everything up. His situation was very noticeable, and I think its the first time in art that I ever witnessed nobody volunteering to help someone in need. So I said to the class, "If you turned around you would see that somebody is in need of help at the end of the line". Everyone turned around to look at the struggling boy. I said "It would be nice if someone volunteered to help him pick-up his papers, that would be a win-win situation". A student in the class yelled "yea, he's in a lose-lose situation right now". "I agree", I said. "Let's make this a win-win situation" and the students around the struggling boy, helped him pick-up all the papers that were on the floor.
This was an unexpected learning occasion for myself and the students. For them, I pointed out that helping others is a win-win situation, and for me I learned that there are many teaching moments in a day, no matter how small they may seem. I was happy to hear the other boy realize the fact that his lack of aid was a lose-lose situation. Even though I was originally disappointed that no one helped the boy, it turned out to be an important lesson learned.

Synergize 'em

In the past week I've noticed myself using the word "synergy" in the art room quite often. Our Winchester artists are working on their "Reflections" projects, and the students are interpreting their own idea of what beauty is, into unique works of art.
In the beginning of class, I've been showing class artwork as examples to the students, and I ask them "What can this artist do to enhance the details in their work"? And I explain to them that we are not criticizing, or picking on any one, but rather we are synergizing and working together to give this artist suggestions on how they could enhance their work. I explain that the decision is always up to the individual artist. But when we synergize as a class, we come up with many great ideas, more than anyone would think of on their own. So it helps all of us as individual artists to hear the synergized thoughts and suggestions of others.

Another way we synergize in the art room is at clean-up time. I love the kindergarten students reaction to leftover paint that I leave on the table during my demonstration. They always get in a panic that I got paint on the table, when I instruct them to paint all the way to the edge of their work. I tell them "Don't worry about paint on the tables, concentrate on painting to the edge of your artwork and at the end of class we will synergize to clean-up our tables". You can imagine 20 kindergarten students putting wet paintings in the drying rack, carrying paint to the sink area and wiping down the tables with sponges and paper towels. You can feel the synergy as you watch them in clean-up mode. They do an amazing job and they clearly enjoy synergizing to clean-up the art room.

I'm constantly thinking of ways I can incorporate the 7 Habits into my daily routine in the art room at Winchester. Proactive is one of my favorites and also one of the easier habits to incorporate. I'm almost sick of hearing myself telling the kids to be proactive, in a discipline situation. I rather use proactive in a positive situation like, let's be proactive about completing our paintings so we can add a layer of chalk pastel next week!
I do start my lesson explanations by telling the students to begin with the end in mind. Try to imagine what your project might look like, and try your best to achieve it with hard work and good craftsmanship. I love looking at their faces and seeing the wonder in their eyes (and the wheels turning) as they try hard to imagine their artwork. But you always have to put first things first, and my art students create an initial sketch of their ideas for all projects. So the first three habits have been easily covered in the art room.
Today I had a particular discipline issue with a fifth grade boy who seems to do the opposite of what I ask, and enjoys making it a public display. After he was done with his antics, I had a one on one conversation with him. I told him that I was not going to play this game with him, and that he needs to be the leader that everyone knows he is and show everyone how to behave in the art room. I then gave him a stack of drawings to hand out to the class so he would feel like and important leader. Shortly after that I had no other problems with this boy. In fact, the rest of the class ran like a well oiled machine, even though it started out chaotic. There are other challenges in this class involving other boys that can be very disruptive. They too continued to work and do very well for the rest of the period. I almost could not believe my eyes.