we love museums... do museums love us back?

um. this is adorable. also, it says in less than 5 minutes what i am still not sure if i said in 18 pages of intro/lit review.

sir ken robinson on -- what else? -- creativity

thanks lee for posting this speech given by sir ken robinson about why stem disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) are necessary but not enough in education. i don't think i've ever listened to a talk that this man has given that i didn't find extremely intelligent and articulate.

one of my favorite points in this speech was when he talked about getting a group of about 20 "creative" people together for a round-table type summit on creativity. he spoke about how a nobel prize-winning scientist was apprehensive to be in the same panel as a comedian, whose "razorblade mind" he feared would shred everything he said; the same comedian feared that anything he said would be immediately reduced to pieces by the "mind like a planet" of the scientist. sir robinson pointed out that we spend so much time being anxious about other people, and then when we actually meet, we find it remarkably easy to come together in common cause. i've been thinking a lot about this lately, mostly because my thesis is about creating conversation between strangers in museums. what he said is so true, but the difficult question is, how, when you're not organizing a fancy-pants panel, do you help people find that "common cause"?

another point of the speech that i really liked was when he talked about chuck close saying "inspiration is for amateurs," and noting that artists don't talk about being creative, they talk about making things. i love this because i think it highlights such a good solution to people's, and notably, kids, anxieties -- oftentimes, a simple shift from adjective to verb is enough to take off the pressure. If we talk about "creating" -- a simple verb, meaning "making," that anyone can do -- instead of "being creative" -- something that seems to require genius, or at least supreme originality -- isn't it easier to get started and end up with really cool stuff?

robert rauschenberg's erased de kooning

i found this video on the walker art blogs -- it's a pretty cool little piece about rauschenberg erasing the de kooning drawing. can you believe it took a month?!

this week's readings...

i'm unfortunately not going to be in class tonight, so here are my reactions to this week's readings. i posted below about how cool i thought the carrot revolution blog was, so now to the kennedy center. this is a less exciting site, but i have been using it some this semester to write lesson plans for workshops for my museum as critical curriculum class. it's pretty easy to navigate, and i like the way their lesson plans are presented, with different tabs for objectives/procedures/materials, etc. it's certainly a more appealing way to browse through lessons than if they were all in one long, word doc-like format.

to rayshawn's reading: i read what alana posted about it on her blog, and agree with a lot of the things she has to say. i think for me, a lot of it comes down to framing and rhetoric. instead of talking about "turning away students at the door," why couldn't the principle be talking about what kind of a wake-up call or measure is needed to get parents in the door for meetings, or for students to realize that they are jeopardizing their future? i was especially put off by this analogy:

They're not going to be able to go to work and miss 66 days and then expect the job to take them back.

True, but is that really relevant? These are not adult, working professionals -- they're kids, who have yet to finish their high school education. There are obviously a lot of factors at play when students miss over 66 days of school -- shouldn't there be concerted efforts toward identifying those factors? What efforts are being made to get parents in the door? What can be done to keep kids from falling into truancy? It just seems like this kind of tough stance is actually a lazy stance. Sure, it takes money and resources to keep kids in school, but the main issue here seems to be that it also takes a lot of work.

prezi love

i really wish we could have some sort of thesis proposal share-fest for all the first-year mat/maaes. i've gotten to talk to some of you about your projects, and everything is so cool and interesting that i just want to know more.

i thought i should mention that thanks to this class, i ended up doing a prezi for the panel. i got some good but tough feedback during the panel, and i have a lot of rethinking/rewriting to do, but i still love how my presentation looked.

i wanted to take advantage of the fact that you can embed prezis (cool, right?) to post it here, but for some reason blogger does not want me to embed something that's not a downloaded or youtube-d video. so, if you want to take a look, you can find it on my tumblr.

carrot revolution

i knew i was going to love this resource, if only for its name. there is some seriously cool stuff pointed out in the posts on this blog. exhibit a: street art view

google art project (gap) now has a companion: street art view. currently, there are a mere 16 chicago sites uploaded (class project?). i also found some in portland, maine, a little town i know pretty well. i've probably walked down this street at least 20 times in the past couple of years, and i've never noticed the graffiti pictured above.

exhibit b: pearltrees

 

this is awesome. there are a lot of ways to collect and display/share favorite web resources, but this is one of the most interesting-looking that i've seen.

deck of arts 4/21/11

your lit reviews will be done by wednesday, your panel presentations by thursday... so there's no reason you shouldn't come to this awesome event in the museum next thursday (the 21st) at 5:00! i co-designed the content and format with the rest of the lovely smc members, and it is (hopefully!) going to be something straight out of a nina simon blog post. you won't be disappointed!

evc

i've looked at the street level youth media site a bunch of times before, but i'd never heard of evc. they have some great-looking curriculum materials that i might use. i'm currently planning my elective course for the french immersion program i work at in the summer, and i'm trying to decide between a "make your own museum" class and a "this francophone life" class about oral history/podcasting. if i go with the latter, there are some lesson plans/activities on the site that i could easily adapt for the class. i know storycorps has a great diy guide that i could use as well.

if you need a laugh...