The MoMA: Museum of Modern Art Part I

Back on task! As I noted in the first NYC article, we need to have our students in mind when we have great experiences. Take photos and videos on your trips to amazing places. Use that information when school reconvenes. Some kids never get to travel outside of their own city. You would be surprised how many have never traveled more than twenty miles from home or have only taken one trip in a lifetime.

You already know (if you have read more than an article or two on this website) why I hate seeing so much classroom time spent on test prep. Do you think Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bill Lee spent their childhood taking just doing test prep? I doubt it. I bet their lives were full of incredible experiences that allow them to be the successful leaders who they are today. Kids are shaped by their experiences. If they can’t go to an art museum, bring the art museum to them.

Many of you who grew up with me know me as a decent math student. I am a really good math teacher. But I am gonna let you in a secret. I only like mathematics in small doses! In my heart, I am an artist. I grew up wanting to go into art and architecture. My own kids kind of have that same wiring. We are artists at heart.

I like self-contained classrooms where I can integrate mathematics, literacy, science, and social studies. IMHO, we have made a huge error in using subject specific classrooms at such a young age(it also wastes a crap ton of time!). I get bored teaching only one subject. Maybe the best thing I do is creating thematic units. With that said, I want to encourage you to incorporate art into your lessons. Art is almost at the very top of Bloom’s taxonomy. I requires us to synthesize – aka put things together which we have learned. If done correctly, the human brain relishes the chance to make something original. When you allow students to experience the process of creating art, just picture lots of neuro pathways being connected within their brains. In their minds, art is like springtime when everything in their brains come to life.

If we want our students to be creative problem solvers, they need to see creativity. They need to learn to appreciate the great works of the human existence. Whether it be the E=mc^2 papers written in Einstein’s original manuscript or seeing each of the brush strokes of Van Gogh’s Starry Night or hearing the 9th symphony of Beethoven or seeing groundbreaking words of the Declaration of Independence or marching to Tchaikovsky…students need to be immersed in greatness. You never know, sometimes experiencing(there is that word again…experience!!!) these things leads students to be inspired to actual greatness.

Learn to inspire your learners in your classrooms.

Next post…the museum itself. You are gonna like this one.