KML Curriculum and Instruction Blog

Infographics: An Easy Way to Increase Visuals in the Classroom At the Wisconsin Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages conference this past weekend, one of the sessions was about the use of infographics in the classroom.  Infographics visually organize information about a topic. Doing a simple internet search for infographics about an idea (world religions, periodic table, derivatives) provides you with a variety of charts and pictures that can help students look at information in a new way. If none of the results give you what you were looking for, you can also create your own on a number of different sites. Infogr.am and Piktochart are two popular ones. Piktochart also has an option that you can use to break down the infographic in visual chunks as an alternative presentational tool for a PowerPoint. You could also have your students use an infographic as an alternative to making the classic poster.  As with all material you bring into the classroom, review info...

I recently attended the Wisconsin Art Education Fall Conference at Bruce Guadalupe Community School in Milwaukee.  The most beneficial sectional was given by Concordia University's Director of Art education, Dr. Gaylund Stone. Dr. Stone's presentation focused on conceptual bases and their vital role in curriculum development.  Citing from such educational scholars as Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (UbD) as well as Ernest Boyer, Dr. Stone proposes six conceptual bases, in order of importance, that should be the first factor in curriculum development, even before standards, objectives, or outcomes. Human Purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I then act? Sense of Place: time, space, social setting; Where am I? How do I know? Life Experience: birth, life, death, health, wellness Language Forms: visual, auditory, verbal Interpersonal Behavior: communication, relationships, social structures Production, Consumption, and Conservation: within culture (work-leisure-play...

...instead, negative capability is what being a Christian is all about. The great English poet John Keats defines negative capability as when an individual  "is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason" rather than "being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge" ( http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/237836?page=2 ). Keats doesn't say that we shouldn't be curious or that we shouldn't use reason; instead, he says that some things defy reason and can't be understood by rationalizations...and that we have to be okay with it.  People are most successful when they can ponder, but at the end of the day, there has to be a certain measure of acceptance of uncertainty. So, how do Christians live in "uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason"? Paul writes, "Beyond all question, the  mystery  from which ...

I am currently reading Art as Experience by John Dewey for an Art History course that I am taking.  As you know, Dewey is a revered education psychology contributor.  He writes, "Life itself consists of phases in which the organism falls out of step with the march of surrounding things and then recovers unison with it--either through effort or by some happy change.   And, in a growing life, the recovery is never mere return to a prior state, for it is enriched by the state of disparity and resistance through which it has successfully passed.  If the gap between organism and environment is too wide, the creature dies.  If its activity is not enhanced by the temporary alienation, it merely subsists.  Life grows when a temporary falling out is a transition to a more extensive balance of the energies of the organism with those of the conditions under which it lives" (13). I have been contemplating a few of Dewey's ideas for awhile now.  Here are my app...

Teamwork in a School Good reminder!

Another great video to watch from the Teaching Channel came my way again today.   This video  focused on different ways to allow students to communicate within the classroom.  It also has great ideas about questioning strategies within a classroom.  Some of the non-verbal communication ideas also seemed useful.

Daniel Pink, TMEA Keynote 2009 Everything is bigger in Texas, and that is true even with their professional conferences. The Texas Music Educators' Association (TMEA) conference is the largest music education conference in the U.S., and they spare no expense in bringing in well-known speakers for their general session keynotes. During the 2014 conference last month, they brought in Sir Ken Robinson, who is arguably the biggest name in education today. In 2009, Daniel Pink spoke at TMEA on the value of arts education. Knowing where my passion lies, you can understand why I found this video interesting. Even if you only have the ability to play the radio, I think you will find this video interesting and informative. I think his discussion of what 21st century skills in the global economy look like will be worth your time. Watch the longer video. It has many implications for American education in general and our vision of our curriculum in the years to come.