A picture is worth 1,000 words and as far as I’m concerned, I could talk about the works of Norman Rockwell all day!  I love his work: his ability to capture reality, innocence, truth, humor and the overall American spirit.  This year, I’ve been reaching into my collection of Norman Rockwell prints (most in the form of old calendars) and showcasing a select few each month or season.  He has a collection of paintings that fit with Thanksgiving,  winter, and love (for Valentine’s Day) and even some for football and baseball season.

As I was looking through my pile of his works, I came across some interesting resources to turn to during Black History month which I would like to share with you today.  There are only a handful of these, but they can spark some interesting conversation as they already have in my own classroom.

Here are links to what I have found:

Boy in a Dining Car, 1947

This is an innocent enough painting to display in your classroom.   A young boy fidgets in his wallet to pay a bill as a waiter looks on with a smile.  Drawing conclusions about what each character is doing and thinking is a fun activity to use in the classroom.

New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967

A sign of the times, for sure and probably a brave statement from Norman Rockwell, these new kids are moving into the neighborhood and, well, it’s interesting to ponder what the white kids are thinking.  A great lesson in point of view, acceptance and friendship lay in this image for today’s children.

The Problem We All Live With, 1964

This image is of Ruby Bridges as she walks to her first day of school at the William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana.  At the time it was a newly desegregated school.  Ruby’s mother (and reluctantly, her father) decided to send her there.  Depicted here is the 6-year-old girl – the first black student to walk into the school, being marched in and protected by federal marshals.  In the background of the painting you can see result of only some of the bigotry that occurred in those moments.  One can only imagine the other sights and sounds that surround this image.  To hear the full story in Ruby Bridge’s own words, follow this link to her website.  You will be moved by this story.  (For an interesting and in-depth history and analysis of Rockwell and this painting, read this post.)

I guess I took a bit of a risk showing the painting of Ruby Bridges to my students.  While some were fixated on the tomato splattered on the wall and ground, others noticed the “very bad word” on the wall.  But I was glad I did show it to them.  This led to some great discussion about ignorance, tolerance and bravery.

Southern Justice, (AKA Murder in Mississippi), 1965

Yes, this too is a Norman Rockwell.  It’s interesting to note that when Rockwell was employed by the Saturday Evening Post (from 1916-1963), he was not allowed to depict blacks in a form other than in a subservient role.  Rockwell eventually quit his job and took employment elsewhere so that he could have more artistic freedom to express the times.  I did not, nor do I plan to use this particular painting with my fourth graders, however, it is a powerful image and may fit the age appropriateness of yours.

For more in depth analysis on these paintings, please see this post where an artist can speak far better than I on each painting.  Another very interesting post I came across was one called “Contrasting Views on Norman Rockwell.”  It is an interesting look at varying viewpoints on many of his paintings including the ones above.

Although I will not go into my own interpretations of each painting, I can tell you how I have started to use these illustrations in my classroom to elicit discussion around Civil Rights (which of course we started with last month for Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and black history.

Just yesterday I pulled out a couple of images and asked students, without explaining anything about the paintings to them yet, to simply and carefully observe, sharing statements of observation only.  They then wrote down their observations on a white board in the classroom.  From here, we will discuss further and start to draw conclusions about the images.  My plan is to share my interpretations as well as give some history to each painting.

My students are already hooked on the images I have shared with them.  It’s exciting to watch them try to understand more of our American history through the eyes of art.  What a powerful medium to use.  I encourage you to try this in your own classrooms and let me know how it goes.

~EMP

BIRTHDAY ALERT – It was Norman Rockwell’s birthday on February 3rd!  To celebrate this great man, I have put my ebook, Integrating the Works of Norman Rockwell into Reading Instruction on SALE for this week only (ending February 10th).  Go – Get your copy today!

There is so much you can do with a Norman Rockwell painting (or other well selected painting or photo) that directly relates to many reading skills.  My ebook, Integrating the Works of Norman Rockwell into Reading Instruction explains more and gives activities to teach many of them including drawing conclusions, deciphering fact and opinion and making predictions.

Related posts:

1. Norman Rockwell – End Notes
2. Norman Rockwell – Introducing Rockwell into Your Classroom
3. Norman Rockwell – Activity 4 Drawing Conclusions

RED by Arash and Kelly This painting is one that is used in an example in the post.

This week, I wrote a guest post for Jessica Balsley’s website Art of Education.  She is an art teacher who provides many resources and ideas for other teachers interested and invested in arts education.  I decided to stay with my focus on arts integration and cater to her major audience – art teachers.  Here is the beginning paragraph.  I hope it will entice you to visit Jess’s website and read the rest which includes ideas to integrate visual art with other arts such as music, movement and poetry.

When a teacher hears about arts integration, they probably think of the general classroom teacher first.  Then, they may think of other teachers: special education, ELL, reading specialist, etc.  But arts integration can be implemented into the art teacher’s classroom too, creating rich, meaningful experiences….

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Related posts:

1. Results of the Teacher Survey in Arts Integration
2. A Former Teacher and Principal Welcomes Music Integration
3. Arts Integration Cannot Replace Arts Ed

While in Sicily, Elizabeth Gilbert tries to understand a piece of the pleasure seeking Italian culture. In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, she refers to Luigi Barzini, an Italian journalist and author of The Italians who provides her with a large piece of the puzzle.

Garlic scene from Goodfellas

She writes, “Because the world is so corrupted, misspoken, unstable, exaggerated and unfair, one should trust only what one can experience with one’s own senses, and this makes the senses stronger in Italy than anywhere in Europe. This is why, Barzini says, Italians will tolerate hideously incompetent generals, presidents, tyrants, professors, bureaucrats, journalists and captains of industry, but will never tolerate incompetent ‘opera singers, conductors, ballerinas, courtesans, actors, film directors, cooks, tailors..’ In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.” (locations 2283-2290)

Love of the arts – the

Italians seem to have that down. The pleasurable things they do become art forms from singing to cooking. It is TRUTH and RAW and REAL. And I wonder where is our culture’s love for that? Sure, we love entertainment, but that isn’t always art. We not only don’t seek pleasure (without guilt), but we also don’t appreciate it as an art form or an extension of ourselves.

As an activist for arts education and integration in all schools, this troubles me. If we cannot assist and encourage our children to experience things with their own senses, they will not be able to seek pleasure for themselves and their loved ones. And we cannot begin to teach this to our children, if we cannot do it for ourselves first.

In the arts, one learns to experience something fully, to be in the present and later reflect upon it. John Dewey explains an esthetic experience in his Art as Experience. It is a “wholehearted action” that “moves by its own urge to fulfillment.” (p46) There is an initiation and an end, after which you know you have just had an experience worthy of being label esthetic. It is this “esthetic quality that rounds out an experience into completeness and unity (and causes us to be) emotional.” (p48)

Concluding her thoughts on her encounter with this Sicilian man, Gilbert states that “…the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one’s humanity…” (location 2298)

I believe that it is through this type of appreciation for and seeking of pleasure in artful ways that we can truly experience life and become whole people: complete in our own individual selves as well as an effective contributors to our communities.

What artful pleasure do you seek and appreciate?

Related posts:

1. Seeking Pleasure
2. Dewey's Art as Experience
3. PLaiC – Experience, Reflect, Apply

I teach with some very talented people. Take the other teachers on my fourth grade team: one is a great artist, one is a pianist and singer and the other wows me at every staff meeting as she sketches boarders around her notes. And I think to myself, do their students know this about them??? Maybe they have some idea if they take the time to look around the room and notice the decor and make the connection between decoration and teacher-creator. But I have to wonder if their talents are really known…

So is true for other people in my building. Do students SEE the artwork of our art teacher often enough? Do they know that the former beloved principal was an accomplished contralto! And how many other hidden talents are there in our building? Dancers, actors, designers? As part of a loving community, we need to work on getting our talents recognized and appreciated. Not as a means of PR, but as a way to instill CULTURE into our school and community at large.

The final piece

Sometimes it’s not just about showcasing student work, but the work of the adults who shape their lives!

Just this week a group of seven teachers from my district gathered together for our PLaiC (PLC focused on arts integration) meeting and created a piece of community art.  When complete, we discussed ways we could use similar experiences with our students.  Our piece of teacher artwork is now hanging in our school.  I use it as a means to show my students that we teachers like to be creative beings too!

The Millwright-Poet

In the book Leadership is an Art, the author, Max De Pree told a story of a millwright who passed away, and when De Pree‘s father (the millwright’s boss at the time) went to visit the millwright’s family, his wife took out poetry to read during the visit.  After reading through some poems, the wife revealed that the poetry was that of the millwright.  Astonished by this realization, De Pree‘s father was left wondering, “Was he a poet who did millwright’s work, or was he a millwright who wrote poetry?” (p.6)

See the complete Millwright Story

This story was posed as a way for leaders to understand that all the people you work for and with have another dimension to themselves.  That, “The art of leadership lies in polishing and liberating and enabling those gifts.” (p.8)

I agree with this whole-heartedly as a teacher who wants to find the gifts and talents of her students, but I also want to emphasize the importance of teachers being able to polish their talents as they feel liberated and enabled to use them in their teaching.

My purpose is for us as teachers not to think of ourselves as one or the other (a teacher or a talented person) but as both and let those talents show to our colleagues and students.  We need to recognize our talents and use them to help ourselves be better at what we do. Maybe this should be part of our administrator’s job.  I know mine strives to do this.  But that is another post.

Composer in the Classroom
Debbie Ambrose who is currently teaching a fifth grade class in Newfields, New Hampshire shares her musical talents with the students in her school with composition.

One song, done while Debbie was teaching fourth grade was a culmination of a poetry unit she did with the other fourth grade class taught by Allie Bzdafka and some help from another talented colleague, Nate LaMontagne who played the guitar.  Together, they wrote a poem about being in fourth grade and then turned it into a song.  Lyrics
FOURTH GRADE ROCKS.mp3

Thank You Our Soldiers is another example of the work Debbie did with her fourth graders.  It was written to send with supplies to soldiers overseas.  They also sang it at their Memorial Day celebration.  Just this week, Debbie’s school had a soldier stationed in Iraq visit them.  The students sang the song to her and gave her a copy of the recording to bring back to Iraq.    Lyrics
THANK YOU OUR SOLDIERS.mp3

Through her various teaching experiences at the Newfields Elementary school, Debbie has been able to touch the lives of many students with her musical talents.

Artist in a Traveling Global School

Dvora Geller has taught in the US, Europe, virtually and at International Schools in Zurich and Curacao.  Currently, she is the math and science teacher at the THINK Global School , a high school where students and teachers travel and learn in twelve different countries over their four years.

Dvora gladly shares her talents with her students.  Before she taught, she worked as a costume designer in New York.  As a teacher, she has used her talents for school shows in Zurich using teachable moments to enhance her students’ experiences.  Dvora is an avid knitter and has also been able to cultivate her own desire to paint taking classes as she travels and openly sharing her work with her students and colleagues.

Here is an example of her work.  This work was done after listening to and being inspired by music.   (See Dvora’s complete post about these.)

Left: Air on a G string (from Suite III), BMV 1063 – Bach, Yo-Yo Ma & The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Right: Concerto No 4 in F minor, RV 297 “Winter” -  Vivaldi The Four Seasons / 2 Wind Concertos

Teacher Talents

There are teachers who are poets! screenwrights! dancers! writers! sculptors! athletes!

And let’s not limit ourselves to the arts.

Some of us are talented at collaborating! motivating! challenging!

(These talents happen to have skill sets related to the arts.)

I guess my position is this.  No matter what your talent, share it with the ones you work with.  Maybe you do so just by stating some of the things you enjoy doing, or maybe you use it as a vehicle to teach.  But don’t waste it, don’t hide it!

Sixth Assignment:

Do something you love: make music, sing with your kids, dance, make something, go for a run – You love it? Do it!

Due: This week end!

Related posts:

1. Teacher Moms

Reflecting on three months of TIC’s new concept:

Generated by http://www.wordle.net/

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.

Thank you for sharing this story. It is a true testament to arts education and the values of all arts-infused learning. As a teacher, I hope I inspire my students to develop these skills that are intrinsic to the arts. Not just in arts education, but in arts integration is this possible.

These are the stories and experiences people need to hear in order to trust the arts as being at the core of education. Please continue to share!
See blog:
http://blog.artsusa.org/2009/09/22/fitting-the-mold-essential-skills-from-an-arts-education/comment-page-1/#comment-3001

Related posts:

1. In Response to Mae Jemison talk on Ted.com