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PsycholARTSical: Psyched about the arts/Arts for At-Risk Students

Arts for At-Risk Students - (Megan, Liz, Alex, Suzane, Alison D)

''What is an "At Risk" Student?'

There are varying ideas as to what an at-risk student is. Some suggest that an at-risk student is simply a student who is danger of 1) low academic achievement; or 2) dropping out of school. However, this over simplification leads to dissent about whether or not those two criteria are actually worth the worry and that students who are defined as at-risk may still have successful and fulfilling lives. Edward Rozycki writes in his article Identifying the "at-Risk" Student: What is the Concern?:

 * ''Does low academic achievement in the lower grades, in high school, even, condemn one to a life of despair and ruin? I would think not. People mature at different rates and may not be able to take advantage of school offerings until well past their teen years. This is why community colleges have grown up. This is also why many traditional universities have special admissions programs. To pretend that life is over if high achievement has not happened before age 18, is to approach hysteria.

What about "dropping out" of high school? One of the things researchers complain constantly about is the vagueness of the term "dropout." A student who "drops out" of a given high school may enroll in another. The statistics may not be adjusted to reflect this. Or she may complete a GED and go on to college through special admissions. Or she may go to community college, make up her high school work and go on to a four-year program. Or she (or he) may get a technical certificate, get a job in industry and continue her education in the corporate world.''

This definition relies heavily on statistics and grades. Rozycki does not agree that one can only look at 'at-risk' students as being those who are in danger of getting 'bad grades' of dropping out and believes that the definition of 'at-risk' needs to be broadened.

In his book Practical Classroom Strategies, Michael Tudor gives a much better description of an at-risk student. He states that:

 * The term 'At-Risk' has been used to describe a population of students who are experiencing an unsuccessful education. These students have not acquired the skills which society thinks is necessary to transfer to post secondary education or even to join the work force.  At riskness can cover problems ranging from incomplete homework and skipping classes to dropping, drug addiction, and suicide.

This definition not only describes students at-risk for problems in school but also students who will be at-risk for having problems in life. This definition supports the need to identify and aid those students who are at-risk in our school systems so that they can move on to post-secondary destinations with success.

How does a student become at-risk?

There are several factors that might play a role in creating an at-risk student. a. Living in high-growth areas

b. Living in unstable school districts

c. Being a member of a low-income family

d. Having low academic skills (though not necessarily low intelligence);

e. Having parents who are not high school graduates

f. Speaking English as a second language

g. Being single-parent children

h. Having negative self-perceptions; being bored and alienated; having low self-esteem

i. Pursuing alternatives; males tend to seek paid work as an alternative; females leave to have children or get married

j. Mental/physical illness

h. Not liking one's teacher or classmates (uncomfortable in the classroom/poor learning environment)

How to Identify an "At-Risk" Student

To help at-risk students, a school has to first identify those students who are at-risk and exactly where they need help in order to get them to become successful. To do this, you cannot only look at a students grades or attendance, although those are both helpful factors in the identification of at-risk students. Some students may only find themselves at-risk in one subject area but doing perfectly well in another or a student may be doing well academically but be at-risk of dropping out due to depression or to find work to help a low income family.

The Program - ArtSmarts

Assumptions that Underpin the Program

The ArtsSmarts program is often implemented in schools with a history of poor achievement and attendance, behavior problems, low parental involvement, and high staff turn-over. The program operates on the assumption that integrating arts into the curriculum and into the classroom will improve the school experience for students, resulting in greater engagement of students in school. Arts educators often contend that the arts and cross-curricular learning help students develop positive attitude toward school and others (less behaviour problems, more participation, and improved attendance); a sense of community and belonging; thinking skills, including improved comprehension, interpretation, and problem solving abilities; and a better self-concept of themselves as students because of their achievements in the arts, a strong work ethic (persisting in the face of difficulties).

Today we recognize that not all students learn well through traditional methods: learning through the arts allows teachers to reach out to multiple intelligences by utilizing various different instructional strategies. The arts are fun and make students feel good about themselves: in a supportive, creative classroom, the arts encourage enthusiasm, curiosity, interest in the learning, and build self-esteem. Additionally, integrative activities help create a positive, emotionally connected learning environment and encourage the cultivation of closer relations between students and their teacher. Because students are more engaged in their learning and they may begin to experience small success, which helps them develop self-esteem, leading them to work harder and taking pride in their work.

Psychological Theories seen in the Program

The most important theories seen in the ArtSmarts program are motivational theories. This program is designed largely to improve students' motivation to study a variety of academic subjects by incorporating arts and creative tasks into these subjects. This program gives students ownership of their artistic projects, such as murals or maps, and allows them to personalize their subject knowledge and make it relevent to their lives. This is an example of how the ArtSmarts program increases intrinsic motivation in students. Students are motivated by their desire to succeed and their pride in their own work, rather than extrinsic factors such as grades or material rewards.

This program also relates to the Humanistic view of motivation, which emphasizes personal freedom, choice, self-determination and striving for personal growth. This program allows students to learn science, math, geography and other subjects in a way that allows them to make artistic choices, challenge themselves and grow through seeing their project through to completion. This program also builds self-esteem and self-worth and associates these with learning and school. Students begin to feel good about their school work and associate their positive feelings of self-esteem with learning, perhaps for the first time!

ArtSmarts also relates to the sociocultural views of motivation, which states that people engage in activities to develop knowledge as they maintain their identities and interpersonal relations within a community. In other words, students learn how to be students through watching their peers and teachers. In this case students also learn how to be creative through watching community artists. They also witness these artists' learn through their work, providing lessons about life-long learning as well. Students improved self-efficacy through seeing others create tasks vicariously, thus improving their own performace or desire to complete similar activities, knowing they can be successful in this as well. Through watching community artists and their teachers participate successfully in these activities, students begin to find these artistic academic activities meaningful and worthwhile.

Finally, this program allows students to learn how to set goals. Students set goals about their individual works, creating mastery goals about mastering the artistic task set before them. Students also set social goals for interacting with their fellow artists on large projects. Many students will also set performance goals, to avoid looking stupid or inept in front of their peers, which will motivate them to put more effort into their school work.

Of all the psychological theories we have studied in class, this program is most strongly tied to motivation. Students in ArtSmarts find meaning in the curriculum through working on authentic, artistic tasks and find positive reinforcement for academic work. For some at-risk students this program may be the first time they receive this positive reinforcement in a school atmosphere, which may deter negative behaviour and increase their engagement in learning.

Support for the Program

In his studying of arts-based programs, Wahlstrom (2003) noted in that students who were not usually class leaders frequently took on leadership roles in the arts-integrated lessons, and children with disabilities of all types were more fully integrated into arts activities than other classroom activities. Standardized tests of creativity also showed more highly developed creativity in students who participated in an arts-based program (Caslan 22). In surveys of the ArtsSmarts program, teachers, students and artists all reported positive changes in student behaviour, including increased attendance, homework completion and engagement in class, and fewer behavioural problems. Improved self-esteem students demonstrated strong artistic skills, readily took extra work home and learned more than they normally would. Many teachers observed that normally disruptive students often become focused and produce excellent work in arts activities (Caslan 19).

ArtsSmart’s developed student questionnaires to explore four components (content, context, process and product, according to Karen Hume’s engagement model), and administered them to a large number of students who were being taught by an ArtsSmarts team. The results of the survey suggested that students felt that the activities involved in the ArtsSmarts program were challenging and beneficial. Students also indicated that they felt that through hard work they could be successful in all of the activities they were involved and that the activities motivated them to work harder and to feel proud of the work they had done. (ArtsSmarts, Deconstructing Engagement 9-16).

The majority of students (78% agreed, 18% disagreed, and 4% were missing) were proud of the work they did in ArtsSmarts; most of the students (81% agreed, 13% disagreed, and 6% were missing) said that they could do even the hardest work on the project if they tried; and over 85% believed that they learned a lot from the artist. More than 80% of students believed that they were thinking more than just doing easy work. (Deconstructing Engagement 13)

The majority of students (79% agreed, 16% disagreed, and 4% were missing) involved in the ArtsSmarts projects also believed that what they learned in the project could be used in other subjects. Almost 80% said that they would like to do an ArtsSmarts activity again, and most of them (68% agreed, 27% disagreed, and 5% were missing) said they worked harder on this project than any other project before. (Deconstructing Engagement 13)

Some problems with the Program

On the ArtSmarts website there are a variety of case studies from schools who have implemented the program. This site does a good job of documenting the program from its implementation to the aftermath. From these cases studies we will discuss the most common problems with the schools, seen in these schools.

Some problems with the program include: lack of support from parents, teachers and administrators, lack of teacher training in the arts and lack of measurable results in attendance and student behaviour. According to a variety of case studies published on the ArtSmarts website, the lack of support from parents stems from the belief that students should be focusing on math, science and literature rather than "wasting time" with the arts. Many teachers lack the necessary training to design and present curriculum material through artistic tasks, and many teachers in previous ArtSmarts schools became frustrated at incorporating the program into their schools. They wondered instead why they could not simply present the material to students in traditional, and in their opinion proven, ways. School administrators sometimes saw the programs as too expensive or cited a lack or resources as their reason for not supporting the program.

Finally, while most schools implemented the program as a way to increase standardized test scores, curb violence or improve attendance, not many obvious signs of improvement were seen in these areas. In some schools standardized test scores actually decreased, but in most they did not change drastically one way or the other. Though teachers reported increased motivation in their students attendence increased only 3-5% at most. Similarly, most schools reported that violence either remained the same as before the program or actually increased during the program.

Some ways to improve the program:

The most important thing to keep in mind when evaluating the effectiveness of the ArtSmarts program is that most of what the program accomplishes cannot be measured by standardized testing, attendence or incidents of bullying. Standardized tests are content based, and student success depends not only on the knowledge of the material, but also on the amount of sleep students have before the test, their comfort in the environment, nerves, what, if anything, the students have had to eat and other personal factors. Attendence and bullying also depend less on the material presented in the classroom and more on outside factors such as students' family lives, physical and mental health and personality. The biggest noted difference seen in incorporating the ArtSmarts program is the huge increase in student motivation, engagement and pride in their own work. Though these positive changes will increase students desire to put more effort into their school work. Many teachers in the case studies also mentioned an increased sense of community in their schools. These things cannot be easily measured in a concrete way, but are essential to the success of struggling, at-risk students. None of the indicators of success mentioned above can fully measure these things.

Secondly, many schools implemented this program expecting it to fix all the school's problems. Obviously students are diverse and there is no one solution to fix all social issues found in schools. Though the ArtSmarts program increases motivation, it cannot be expected to fix bullying and attendence issues in the course of a few months or years. This program offers one solution for these issues. Perhaps in order to help improve these issues we need to combine this approach with other solutions, rather than solely improving this program.

Below are some suggestions for improving the program:
 * Though ArtSmarts offers grants, schools may need to raise funds
 * This program works better in an area with many resources and artists close by. Perhaps technology such as video conferencing, email, webcams and even exchange programs could allow this program to be available for those in more remote communities.
 * More professional development opportunities are necessary for non-arts specialist teachers and should be provided and paid for by their schools professional development budgets. Arts specialist teachers could take the lead on these professional development sessions and collaborate to write reference guides, lesson plans or strategies for their fellow teachers.
 * A new ArtSmarts school could be paired with a more established ArtSmarts school, to allow for collaboration, resource sharing and an opportunity for teachers and administrators to learn from their mistakes.
 * The ArtSmarts program alone does not provide an all-purpose fix for all school problems. Perhaps this program could be combined with the implementation of peer-mentoring, counselling, leadership programs or community outreach programs, to offer more solutions for issues in attendance and bullying. These issues are complex, and no one solution works for every student.

The most important thing to note about this program is that it makes positive changes in every school it is implemented in, but in different ways. Each school is different, but each sees increases in motivation, excitement, engagement and community. This program does not market itself as a "quick-fix" to school issues. It is accountable and encourages outside investigation of the program to improve ArtSmarts.

Resources

ArtsSmarts at Caslan School: A Longitudinal Case Study. Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education, 2007.

Deconstructing Engagement: A First Generation Report on the ArtsSmarts Student Engagement Questionnaire. ArtsSmarts, 2007

Rozycki, Edward. Identifying the 'At-Risk' Student: What is the Concern?. 2004. http://www.newfoundations.com/ERG/AtRisk.html

Tudor, Michael. Practical Classroom Strategies. Kondor Enterprises. Toronto. 2007.
 * click on "discussion" for further information about this topic


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Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Qf3

=Napoleon Opening or Queen's Attack=

2. Qf3?!
The Napoleon Attack, or Napoleon Opening, is weaker than it sounds. Not only does it develop the queen too early, but it blocks the King's Knight from developing to f3, its best square.

As with the similar 2. Qh5, White hopes for the scholar's mate: 2.Qf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5?? 4.Qxf7#. In both cases, Black can easily avoid the trap. However, the Parham Attack is more forcing and stronger—first requiring Black to defend his e-pawn (usually with 2...Nc6), then after 3.Bc4 forcing Black to play a sub-optimal move (3...g6 virtually committing Black to a fianchetto rather than a more aggressive placement of the bishop; 3...Qe7 blocking the bishop; or 3...Qf6 taking away the knight's best square). 2.Qf3 places no such impediments on Black's development.

Among serious chess players this opening is very rare, but beginners occasionally play it to troll or surprise the opponent. Black has no problems equalizing this game.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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PsycholARTSical: Psyched about the arts/Arts and Science/Technology

Arts and Science/Technology - (Hassan, Irene, Tearney, Mark)

“We must not forget that computers are tools, not ends in themselves.” This is a statement made by Diane Ravitch, a historian, in her article The Great Technology Mania about the implications of trying to succeed at maximizing student achievement through technology. She goes on to make an even bolder statement about their being “no evidence that use of computers or the Internet improves student achievement.” In an age where computers and technology seem like the silver bullet everybody in the education field has been looking for, Ravitch’s statements come as a surprise. However, a closer look reveals not only economic implications for this unsubstantiated technological revolution, but psychological ones as well. Although it is the assumption that “computers improve both teaching practises and student achievement” and that “To make tomorrow’s work force competitive in an increasingly high-tech world, learning computer skills must be a priority” (The Computer Delusion, Oppenheimer) a lot of evidence points to the contrary.

A case study facilitated by both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem examined computer-aided instruction (CAI) in Israeli classrooms from 1994 and 1996. Over this period the results reported did not support the view that CAI improves learning. “The researchers’ found that fourth and eighth graders with CAI showed no improvement or even worse performance on achievement tests after CAI began” (The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions). What’s more is that some of the fourth graders showed significantly lower math test scores after CAI began. It is important to note that these researchers didn’t have a bias against technology but simply argued that the “theoretical case for the CAI is not well-developed, and there is good reason to believe that computers can actually be a diversion” (BI for PPS).

What this extends to, with the technological bandwagon overflowing with advocates from the educational side of things is a reallocation of other educational resources. This is demonstrated in the case above with the Israeli Ministry of Education spending $105 million on computers during the researches three year period – an estimated amount that could have alternately funded about 3500 teachers for one year. Other examples include The Kittridge Street Elementary School, in Los Angeles, eliminating its music program to hire a technology coordinator and administrators in Mansfield, Massachusetts dropping “proposed teaching positions in art, music, and physical education” (Oppenheimer), and then spending $333,000 on computers. This is all very interesting considering recent research has suggested that “music and art classes may build the physical size of a child’s brain” and even has more significant influence on student’s success than computers in subjects like math, science, and engineering.

The primary advocate of this type of work is Jane Healy, an educational psychologist who wrote Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It (1990). In her book she writes that “visual stimulation is probably not the main access route to nonverbal reasoning. Body movements, the ability to touch, feel, manipulate, and build sensory awareness of relationships in the physical world, are its main foundations”. Obviously when it comes to computers and their use in the classroom “the senses have...little status”. “As well she and other psychologists think that computer screens flatten information into narrow, sequential data. This kind of material, they believe, exercises mostly one half of the brain” (Oppenheimer).

Many research papers have been devoted to looking at arts influence on student’s success and achievement. What makes this interesting is that Arts education classically steers away from using computers as a means to an end. One such research paper is Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement by the director of Educational Systems Research, Littleton, Colorado, Sandra S. Ruppert. In this paper Ruppert links several key phases of cognitive development to Arts Education. These include but aren’t limited to; Thinking Skills, which is encompassed by “reasoning ability, intuition, perception, imagination, inventiveness, creativity, problem-solving skills and expression” (Ruppert); Social Skills, which is defined by the promotion of positive growth in “social skills, including self-confidence, self-control, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy and social tolerance”; as well as the motivation to learn which can be categorized by “active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence and risk taking, among other competencies”.

In other words if we are to prepare students for work in the 21st century computers is not the best way to achieve increased success. This is emphasized by people that share the concern that computers aren’t the best way to make successful employees. Kris Meisling, a senior geological-research adviser for Mobil Oil is quoted in Computer Delusion as saying “people who use computers a lot slowly grow rusty in their ability to think.” What’s even more shocking are the comment Karen Chelini, the director of human resources for LucasArts Entertainment said: “With traditional art training, you train the eye to pay attention to body movement. You learn attitude, feeling, expression. The ones who are good are those who as kids couldn’t be without their sketchbook.” (The Computer Delusion) It is evident then that people on the front lines of hiring for even the most computer driven companies are looking for thinkers and they believe these aren’t the people that learn through a computer.

Links Between Arts and Technology in Practice

Amidst all the discourse on the benefits or potential hindrances of new technology in the education system, a handful of maverick entrepreneurs and educators are using technology in arts education to build communities. Two examples of programs that reach out to struggling youth and empower them with the ability to use new technologies for their own creative development show that while the new media may have some shortfalls when applied in a classroom, sometimes it is just the bridge to lead students back to success in school and out. One organization, Regent Park Focus, was formed to give the immense youth population in the neighbourhood of Regent Park in downtown Toronto a voice. The One World Youth Arts Program is a pilot program at Georges Vanier High School where students there are given the opportunity to create music using current music production software. Both programs show a holistic form of educating the students and empower every individual in the program with a sense of value and shared responsibility, turning more students back into learning and succeeding in school.

The arts program in Regent Park was created to fill a void that was unraveling the community. According to current statistics, the percentage of residents under the age of 24 was approximately 44%. More than 50% of the population in Regent Park does not speak English in the home, and more than 50% are also visible minorities. The area itself has been the scapegoat for years as a hub of crime and violence, and before there was a great desire on the part of the community to bond together and work collectively to defeat the stereotype associated with that area. Regent Park is a youth-based organization in the downtown Toronto community of Regent Park. Students here learn skills and relevant information about new technology related to the arts.

The organization was created and led by a group of adult professionals including Adonis Huggins and Steve Blair, who coach youth from around the community to run their video, radio, and music production suites. By giving the students creative control, their engagement and sense of self-empowerment is strong enough for give them more autonomy in the development and process, providing opportunities for leadership. The success of this organization stems from the youth that have benefited from the program who were at-risk, disenfranchised students in what is considered one of Toronto’s “vulnerable” communities. Youth and children working in the Regent Park Youth Focus organization are positively motivated to succeed in their group projects through public exhibitions, film fests, and worldwide online access to their work. They are also interested in their community, feel welcome and safe and do not feel the pressures of grades to push them to succeed in their work at the program. The benefits are contagious, and once they have seen what a great job they can do in this arena, their confidence will increase and hopefully influence their future goals.

By putting “culturally relevant pedagogy” into practice, the students will be able to contribute more as they are working within a group of shared interests or experiences. The radio, video, and music productions that the students create relate to topics that affect their lives, their friend’s lives, and their family’s lives. This awareness that students develop through these types of organizations foster local advocacy and activism that forms a values foundation upon which students can feel supported by in their educational or career pursuits. For those who are struggling in school, finding an interest on an area of expertise that they can expand on is often the hook or anchor that helps them steer through the sometimes-rocky path of secondary education.

The One World Youth Arts Program is a pilot project created by high school music teacher Stephen Lashbrook. It is an open level course that students join and learn valuable skills in music production, creating songs and compositions that are entirely their own and speak to their own lives and concerns. Similarly with Regent Park Youth Focus, the One World Program has shown the highest success with students who are disenfranchised or considered on the margins of the rest of the community. In other words, anyone who feels like a minority or whoever feels like not enough material in the current education system speaks to them and their own experiences. Student success creates “positive reinforcement”, which can spread outside the program and into the classrooms and in the communities and creating music and video productions also stimulates “metalinguistic” and “metasymbolic” awareness. Arts programs incorporating technology is also an example of cognitive apprenticeship, wherein the students acquire skills from an expert and develop a relationship based on this exchange. As Piaget has argued, youth and adults rarely enter into formal-operational learning unless they are engaged and interested in the material. By allowing students creative control in a music classroom, the opportunity is risen for the students to be able to express themselves using musical instruments and new technology. The production media is their “tools” for cultural expression, while their language, style, and message makes up their “symbol systems”.

The One World Youth Arts program is being supported by the TDSB, and there are hopes that this type of program which has proven to increase student success will spread to more schools in areas where students need it most. There is a growing demand or need for arts based programs to offer students a more tangible, relevant form of individual expression and by integrating new technologies as well gives students even more technological literacy, creative problem-solving skills, alongside the inherent community-forming bonds that both learning spaces provide and foster.

Overall, these programs show that mixing technological skill alongside individual creative expression allow students to make their learning more relevant and useful in their lives and career pursuits. Because they are accessible by all levels and backgrounds, students immediately feel the benefits of an inclusive learning environment where everyone has something to contribute and the products of their labour are given the value they deserve.

--Irenedongas (talk) 04:10, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

The CyberARTS Program

Ontario's new CyberARTS Program is another "culturally relevant" educational initiative which merits analysis.

CyberARTS is a specialized, multi-disciplinary, integrated arts and technology program available in several Ontario schools:
 * Don Mills Collegiate Institute
 * Don Mills Middle School
 * Northview Heights Secondary School
 * Charles H. Best Middle School
 * Western Technical-Commercial School
 * Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
 * Innisdale Secondary School

Certain schools, like Don Mills Collegiate, offer additional technology fused courses such as CyberGEOGRAPHY, CyberHISTORY, CyberCIVICS and CyberCAREERS.

The CyberARTS program was created in 1995 by educators who saw a need for enriched learning through the arts. The student-centered curriculum focuses on project-based learning that integrates arts and technology.

CyberARTS students spend approximately half of every day studying academic core subjects. The remainder of their day is spent gaining credits in Comprehensive Art, Extended Media, Communications Technology, and Computer Science. Students may opt to learn Music, Drama, Dance, or Media Studies or take advantage of Co-op opportunities.

As the CyberARTS program is still a very new initiative, course content differs from one school to another. Consistent among schools is a focus on the Visual Arts. Units of study include:
 * Traditional art studio activities
 * In-depth art history and theory
 * Art analysis and appreciation
 * Life Drawing
 * Portfolio Preparation
 * Exhibition Opportunities
 * Career Exploration
 * Co-op

The Arts component is invariably tied to Technical Studies, which include:
 * Advanced Computer Skills
 * Animation: 2D and 3D
 * Graphic Design Principles
 * Ergonomics
 * Desktop Publishing
 * Web Design
 * Digital Photography
 * Multimedia
 * Film and Video Production
 * Consumer Behaviour and Advertising

In addition to learning art, design, and technology, the students are also taught important skills such as organization, work ethic, presentation skills, professionalism, career building and post-secondary education planning. Thus, the program features a opportunity to complete authentic tasks – tasks that have some connection to real-life problems the students will face outside the classroom.

CyberARTS is committed to both formal and informal experiences in Cooperative education and in the development of curriculum to provide "real world" projects that extend beyond the classroom. Educational Partners include Apple Canada, Kodak Canada, Rogers Communications, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Sheridan College and the Ontario College of Art & Design, among others. Partners provide software and hardware support as well as training and educational consulting for special projects and initiatives.

Problem- based learning is another important aspect of the program All CyberARTS students are expected to contribute to the program, school and/or greater community. These community hours will involve student application of their artistic, creative design and technological abilities in a variety of areas, such as:
 * Graphic design for the school newspaper or yearbook
 * Fashion Design for a schooI Fashion Show
 * Stage Design for the Drama and Music Program

CyberARTS students are expected to take on leadership roles in these activities as part of the curriculum and skills training.

Entry to the high school program is based on a successful audition, interview, and application package. In addition, a portfolio or sketchbook is highly recommended.

The audition involves completing a creative activity, such as a still life drawing. The interview is with two CyberARTS teachers, a senior CyberARTS student, and often a guest artist. The main purpose of this interview is to see what kind of a person the student is. Can they think outside of the box? Do they have potential in this program? All of these questions and more are explored in this process. The application package includes a student information sheet, an interest and background form, two teacher reference forms, a creative writing piece, and a release of information form. Prospective students are required to have this package into the school of their choice by the beginning of January.

Media Arts, Cyberdisciplines and the Use of Cultural Tools

Psychologists recognize that culture shapes cognitive development. A major spokesperson for this sociocultural theory was a Russian psychologist named Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s work began when he was studying 'learning' and 'development' to improve his own teaching. He wrote about language and thought, the psychology of art, learning and development, and educating students with special needs. Vygotsky’s work was banned in Russia for many years because he referenced the ideas of Western psychologists. However, within the last twenty-five years Vygotsky’s ideas about language, culture and cognitive development were “rediscovered”  and have become major influences in the field of educational psychology.

Vygotsky believed that human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be understood apart from these settings. He realized that people use cultural tools, including symbolic tools (such as maps, works of art, signs, codes and language) play and important role in cultural development. Our understanding of “cultural tools” has also expanded to include real tools, such as the abacus and rulers; today we would add computers, video equipment and the internet.

Vygotsky upheld that cultures create tools to support thinking and mediate higher order mental processes. Children’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes and values develop by using and appropriating the ways of thinking provided by their culture. Children transform the tools as they construct their own representations, symbols, patterns and understandings.

Sound familiar? It should, because this is the heart of Media Arts and CyberArts education. Students of these disciplines sublimate cultural resources, critically process these materials, and construct representations of their understanding of the world around them. Often, these representations will manifest as works of literature and visual art. As students learn and grow, they continue to refine their skills and understanding of the world they are part of.

It should also be noted that Vygotsky promoted a concept of assisted learning, or guided participation in the classroom. Assisted learning requires scaffolding, giving information, prompts, reminders and encouragement in the right time and in the right amounts, and then gradually allowing students to do more and more on their own.

Appropriately enough, the CyberARTS program uses this same “assisted learning” system. Curriculum is designed so that the teacher is a facilitator, manager, producer, and support, while students take an active role in problem-solving the task at hand, be it creating a publication, authoring interactive DVDs, creating a portrait or organizing a conference.

More information on the CyberARTS program can be found at the main website at http://cyberarts.ca Explore the site to find links to student galleries, information forms and the like.

Technology and Public Education: Potentials for Collaborative Teaching and Learning Through Online Communities

Talk to any teacher in the TDSB and they will likely tell you that there is a sustained push from the school board to integrate and expand the use of technology in their teaching and professional development. While the board itself has no publicly available mandate on the subject, a host of technology initiatives at the local and provincial level would seem to uphold this popular impression. Most commonly referred to under the moniker of “e-learning,” these initiatives offer various levels of resources and options for networking, collaboration and education. While their efficacy is in many ways debatable, their integrated presence at all levels of educational policy and delivery in Ontario mark out a community of sorts, which has the potential to fundamentally alter the ways through which both students and teachers learn.

But what exactly is “e-learning”? And how is it financed and implemented? These seemingly straightforward questions immediately problematize the concept, underlining some inherent flaws in the vision of technologically mediated public education. To begin with, e-learning basically refers to anything done via computer network. So the word itself (like “the internet” before it) is as broad as it is imprecise. It could be almost anything. But for it to be truly transformative within the educational model requires up-to-date, functioning hardware and software, which most schools don’t have and can’t afford on an ongoing basis. It also requires technologically adept teachers. Simply buying computers, isn’t enough – fully integrating technology into the curriculum requires ongoing training and professional development. That said, things are changing, however glacial the pace. And the ideas behind e-learning initiatives will continue to gradually change the shape of public education over the years to come.

Regardless of the ability of schools to access it, there are plenty of e-learning resources available to teachers and students in Toronto, from the basic to the complex. These include inter- and intra- school networks and resources, online courses and curriculum, and a growing number of peer-to-peer interactive online tools. Most schools, for example, have a “Teacher Share” directory on their network, through which teachers can share resources. It is only accessible from desktops at the school itself (which is a real limitation, as it would be ideal if it could be accessed from home). However it is a handy way for departments, and whole schools, to collaborate on resources. On a more involved level, ABEL (advanced broadband enabled learning, a non-profit service out of York University) is subscribed to by Toronto and York Region school boards and runs workshops and training, as well as developing curriculum and providing a “virtual community,” including access to online collaboration, development and resource tools. The Ministry of Education has it’s own initiative along these same lines: e-learning Ontario aims to be “a facilitator of online education … providing resources to engage students in learning, as well as an opportunity for teachers to share resources with colleagues across Ontario” (Ministry of Education, 2008). And the Toronto District School Board has set up its own detailed and comprehensive set of electronic resources called “cyberlinks.”

One such link takes you to e-pals.com, a “global community of classrooms” through which groups of students can safely connect and chat online. This site also hosts its own blogging technology and collaborative projects, providing numerous fantastic online opportunities for extending and enhancing the curriculum. In fact, as is the way of the internet, any one of the TDSB-sponsored sites listed above will open up a myriad of further possibilities. The very real problem then becomes how teachers can find the time to sort through them all, let alone use them productively. While part of the value of the board and ministry sites is they are doing a significant amount of filtering and sorting, the sheer quantity of available material is equal parts valuable and overwhelming.

Because of this, in my experience the most effective way to approach the use of technology in the classroom is with a concrete need in mind. That way, it becomes a focused quest, less about “What can I do?” and more about “How can I do this better with the available tools?” For example, when teaching Art History, I was confronted by the problem about how to source copyright-released fine art images of suitable quality to project in class. This is actually a significant impediment to teaching high school art, as most schools don’t have extensive or up-to-date slide libraries, and all art is copyright-protected. And, as most art is shown via projector, it makes perfect sense that the best solution to this problem would be a central online library of sorts. And as I discovered, this exists in the form of ArtStor.com, which offers educational copyrighted access to tens of thousands of art images that can be projected via the web interface, saved into slide shows, interactively enlarged to focus on pertinent details, and shared between users. It is an example of the kind of really sophisticated interfaces that are starting to exist, and that hopefully our public education will have access to some day soon.

A broader pedagogical issue that e-learning in its current form addresses is the hindrances to learning brought about by conflicting schedules and geographic impediments. The ubiquitous wikipedia, acrobat, and google have all developed collaborative tools (wikibooks, acrobat connect, googledocs) through which multiple users can work on the same document from their home locations, which makes group work a more accessible option for students. More significantly, there are a wide range of online courses available through various school boards such as the TDSB’s “Virtual School,” which are supported by the Ontario Ministry of Education’s “Learning Management System.” The TDSB promotes its Virtual School as “a real school operating in an online environment.” It officially opened in September 2000, and has its own teaching staff, guidance, a Principal, library, learning and health resources, as well as a career center, and offers 20 courses, which change annually according to student needs. (Toronto District School Board, n.d.). There are many reasons why students, particular those deemed “at risk,” may be unable to attend regular classes. For them, e-learning for credit courses may be their only option for completing their high school education. And while this type of e-learning carries with it a very real limitation in that it requires home-based computer access, it is clearly a significant improvement in access for many students.

It should be clear by now that e-learning resources and programming come in all different forms, from the basic to the complex, and address a wide range of pedagogical needs. They present both students and teachers with remarkable ease and flexibility of access, as well as almost limitless resources, provided that the tools and means of access are available to them. Moreover, beyond the advantages and practicalities discussed above, electronically-referenced educational strategies have numerous potential psychological benefits. Technology in the form of text messaging, blogs, Facebook and MySpace has become a central focus in students’ lives, and a primary mode of communication. Raised with a lived understanding of the internet as a basic source for interest, investigation and communication, today’s tech-savvy teens have the potential to benefit significantly from e-learning. Firstly, there is a strong “intrinsic motivation” factor, as it is basically an interest-related activity that is in and of itself rewarding (Woolfolk et al., 2003, p.355). On top of this, as Piaget theorizes, effective educators need to respond to how kids think and problem solve (Woolfolk et al., 2003, p.38), and electronic learning naturally taps into this by utilizing students’ technological knowledge and problem-solving abilities. Moreover, both Vygotsky and Piaget promote social interaction as the basis of cognitive development (Woolfolk et al., 2003, p.43), so it follows that by increasing the scope of student’s interactive relationships, we will be enhancing their cognitive development.

Technology is becoming an increasingly relevant tool in our “cultural tool box” (Woolfolk et al., 2003, 44). It can be seen as both a “real” tool (hardware, software), and a symbolic tool (language, communication protocols). As these tools are developed and refined through usage, the employment of technology through e-learning can be seen to increase not only student learning but their ability to function and succeed in the world. What is particularly interesting here is the particular ways in which community is utilized and developed around e-learning technologies. Existing as a virtual space, these communities nevertheless function as hubs for communication and interaction. And within these hubs, new knowledge is being formed as our “cultural tools” are developed and refined. Where will this take us? In terms of public education in Ontario, e-learning is at a stage when much is possible, and little has taken place. However, through expanding on the notion of what community means, and what a learning environment is, these initiatives are moving education into an interesting and potentially transformative new space.

References

Ministry of Education, Government of Ontario, Canada. Reaching every student through 	e-learning. 19 March, 2008. http://www.elearningontario.ca/eng/

Toronto District School Board Virtual School. Frequently Asked Questions. n.d. 	http://www.tdsbvirtualschool.com

Woolfolk, Anita E, Philip H. Winne, and Nancy E. Perry. Educational Psychology 2nd 	Canadian Ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2003.

--Tearney (talk) 15:04, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Lesson Plan Example Using Technology and Art Interpretation in a History Course '''Lesson Title: Who is Napoleon?

Unit: French Revolution and Napoleon

Course: The West and the World, Destination 1'''

Background: Students will have learned about the height and wane of the French Revolution, and maybe have heard Napoleon’s name float around amidst these lessons, but never received a full lesson on him, his military achievements, and his ambition and rise to power. They will have had lessons on French nationalism, capitalism and slavery, the rise of the middle class in Europe and the declining intensity of the Revolution.

Expectations from the Ontario Curriculum 2005 edition:

S.W.B.A.T...

1.	Draw conclusions based on supporting evidence, effective analysis of information, and awareness of diverse historical interpretation (p.203).

2.	Analyse different forms of artistic expression and how they have reflected or challenged the societies in which they have appeared (p.198)

3.	Demonstrate an understanding of the importance and use of chronology and cause and effect in historical analyses of developments in the West and throughout the world since the sixteenth century (p.196).

Lesson: Day 1 Part 1 – In Class

Intro and Q+A 							10 minutes

The class will come in and sit in their desks, observing two pictures of Napoleon right at the front of the room, on the black board.

•	Suggestions: J.L. David’s The First Consul crossing the Alps via the great Saint Bernard Pass,1801; http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/The_First_Consul_crossing.asp; Adolf Northern’s Napoleon’s Retreat from Moscow; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Napoleons_retreat_from_moscow.jpg

Above the pictures the central question:

“How do we know who Napoleon was and what role he played in history?” 1.	What clues can you find in this picture that tell us what is going on? Let’s brainstorm on the board.

2.	How do you think this image portrays a powerful political leader?

3.	Now let’s look at the second picture. Can anyone tell me how this picture is the same or different? Let’s list the similarities/differences on the board.

4.	What kind of man do you think that this person was, according to the picture?

5.	Do you think this image was created at a high or low point in Napoleon’s career?

6.	Who do you think saw this image? How did this influence the public understanding of who Napoleon was and how influential he was at the time?

Students are going to be handed out a different online link to an image of Napoleon. For the remainder of the class, the students will go to the computer lab and discover the image to which they have been assigned.

Day 1 Part 2: In Lab

On the computer, they will write a paragraph describing the picture and what it says about Napoleon, at different times of his career. They may use the textbook to help them tie the image to the related part of Napoleon’s career.

Once they have completed writing and typing the paragraph, they will send the paragraph to the teacher’s class email provided on the handout. The teacher will take the text and post it online as part of a class blog, with credit to the students, and links to the images. This part can be done during class, or overnight if the teacher has extra time.

By the second day, they should have a paragraph ready, and the next class will take place entirely in the computer lab, where they will continue to send the paragraph or read the postings on the class blog.

Day 2: In Lab

Students continue to type up their entry into the blog and email it to the teacher. The teacher continues to post the entries onto the blog. The remainder of the period is given for students lagging behind in the computer entry process, and for students to read and make notes on the other student’s entries. By the end of the class, once every student has entered in their post with the url link to the image, every student is expected to read the other entries, and make some small notes on the reading homework of the day.

Information/images posted on the class blog may be used as part of a unit test.

If some students have completed all the work, they can get a head-start on the homework, which is the textbook chapter reading on Napoleon.

'''The West and the World

Who was Napoleon?

Student Handout'''

“How do we know who Napoleon was and what role he played in history?”

For this assignment, you are to discover a part of Napoleon’s identity through a variety of visual primary sources. Every picture each student is going to be assigned to research is unique, from a different part of Napoleon’s life and career. In your own words, answer the following questions:

1.	At what point in Napoleon’s career was this image created? How was his popularity at that time?

2.	Does this image paint Napoleon in a positive or negative light?

3.	Does the image focus on his position in politics or his military ventures?

4.	Does the artist take Napoleon’s influence, power, or policies seriously?

5.	Is it propaganda? How valuable is this image as historical evidence?

Once you have finished making your notes on the image you have been assigned, you will email your response to the following address: makeupanemailadress@gmail.com. Include in your entry your name, the url link to the image you were assigned, and whether it came from napoleon.org or wikipedia.org.

The entries will be compiled and posted online on a history class website, entitled www.createawebsitename.com. You will be given class-time to read other student’s responses and are required to do so as some information given on the website will likely be used on the final unit test. This means that the information you provide should be able to help your fellow students understand how Napoleon was portrayed over the years in a variety of situations.

Total Marks 				 /20

Knowledge/Understanding      		 /10

Does my explanation of the image correlate to the situation depicted?

Do I show how the events relate to France’s situation at the time?

Thinking/Inquiry				/5

Did I research the title and background of the image?

Have I examined the possible interpretations of the picture by different audiences?

Communication/Applcation		/5

Is my paragraph written clearly, with proper use of examples?

Have I checked my paragraph for grammar/spelling errors?

'''The West and the World

Who was Napoleon?

Teacher Aid'''

How to set up your class’ blog:

1.	Go to www.blogger.com and follow the steps given on the website to make a blog.

2.	You now have a blog, a webpage that can add pictures (jpegs) and text. Create an introduction and title for your class, and once the students send their information to your email, copy and paste them onto the blog, making sure to credit their name and the website where the url link to the image they’ve researched was found.

3.	If this task is too time consuming for you, you may be able to create an email for the entire class that they can all log in and post onto the site either individually or as a group. You can set up groups around one computer, and each group can log into the site and type their entries in one message.

4.	Remind students to put their name on the entry, however, since if it is not there you will not know who wrote it.

5.	Give extra class-time to the students to read the other entries, and from their entries to make at least 3 point-form notes on each image. Students are welcome to make comments on the image, as long as they are suitable.

The following url links are from napoleon.org. They contain an image, as well as a caption (sometimes) regarding the image. Here are some samples, but you are welcome to get more from the same website… just number them, print them out and hand them to the students. Every student will keep that slip with the url, tell you their number (to keep track) and type the url address on Internet Explorer or Firefox and begin researching.

1.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452737

2.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452733

3.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452723

4.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452729

5.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#449901

6.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452735

7.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp#452727

8.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/cp_aust_napbonaust.asp

9.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/cp_aust_apog.asp

10.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/Bonaparte_at_Arcole_bridge.asp

11.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/A_new_farce_which1.asp

12.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/Divine_Justice_and_Vengeance1.asp

13.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/Napoleon_on_St_Helena1.asp

14.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/The_eight_ages_Napoleon1.asp

15.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/Tiddy-doll_great_French_gingerbread.asp

16.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/The_Robinson_Crusoe_the1.asp

17.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/The_ConqueredThe_Conqueror1.asp

18.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/violette_chiffonnier_cherchant_sa.asp

19.	http://www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/pictures/files/Napoleon_I.asp

20.	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Napoleons_retreat_from_moscow.jpg

21.	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Evacuation_of_Malta.jpg

22.	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Delaroche_-_Bonaparte_franchissant_les_Alpes.jpg


text:
PsycholARTSical: Psyched about the arts/Teaching for Compassion & Wisdom

TEACHING FOR COMPASSION AND WISDOM - (Andrea, Jamie freakin' McB., Grace, Laura H., Philip, A.J.)

Thesis
When discussing teaching for wisdom and compassion, a great number of forms and methods emerge as to the best practice. One particular organization has developed many strategies and theories to educate teacher and parents on ways to incorporate wisdom and compassion into their practice and everyday lives. This organization is called Essential Education and has developed out of basic Buddhist principles, which they have transformed into a method called “The 16 Guidelines”.

These guidelines are divided into four spectrums that encompass everyday life and behaviour and within each of these spectrums are four of the guidelines the will lead to a wise and compassionate way of life. The spectrums cover: how we think (humility, patience, contentment, delight); how we act (kindness, honesty, generosity, right speech); how we relate to others (respect, forgiveness, gratitude, loyalty); and how we find meaning (principles, aspiration, service, courage). (www.16guidelines.org) Though, these principles were drawn from Buddhist teaching, Essential Education has made them universally accessible. The essence of the Guidelines have basis in almost every religion around the world and have been adapted so that they can be applied in every cultural circumstance.

Developmental Assumptions
There are many developmental assumptions that underlie this approach to teaching for wisdom and compassion. Essential Education has a strong focus on educating adults to become instructors and in turn, transferring that knowledge to youth through modeling and formal education practices. Their youth programs and partnerships focus on youth in their concrete operational to formal operational stages of development, based on Piaget’s theories. Also, their techniques seem to draw from ideas and theories from people like Erikson, Marcia, Kohlberg and Gilligan.

During the concrete operational stage of development, youth are in the later elementary to middle school years and are beginning to develop their sense of identity. This would be when Essential Education recommends beginning infusing the practice of teaching for wisdom and compassion into the curriculum. It is best to begin in this stage of development because as youth move into the formal operational stage, they begin to make firm connections using hypothetico-deductive reasoning; which is the ability of the formal thinker to consider a hypothetical situation and reason deductively. (Woolfolk, page 36) If the basis for wise and compassionate living has already been instilled by this stage of development, a youth is more likely to put it into their common practice and use the guidelines as basis for problem solving when using deductive reasoning.

The Essential Education system also has assumptions that relate to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective; especially the idea that higher mental processes are co-constructed through shared activities. (Woolfolk, page 43) Co-constructed means “constructed through a social process in which people interact and negotiate (usually verbally) to create an understanding or to solve a problem, the final product is shaped by all participants.” (Woolfolk, page 43)  This idea is key to teaching for wisdom and compassion. If a student is raised and educated in a culture that puts a major emphasis on the 16 Guidelines to a peaceful contented life, this will become part of the natural behaviour of the student. Using activities and practices that support these guidelines allows the students to incorporate the learning into all of their practices.

Underlying Theories
Some of the theories that seem to be a basis for the application of the Essential Education are Erikson, Marcia, Kohlberg, and Gilligan. Though these theories are not directly referenced within the documents relating to the Essential Education System, their principles and applications are more than apparent in comparison. Erikson’s theory of the Eight Stages of Psychological Development suggests that at various stages of development the individual faces a developmental crisis; “a specific conflict whose resolution prepares the way for the next step.” (Woolfolk, page 62) These resolutions can be positive or negative and will affect their later stages of development. The focus on “how we relate to others” and “how we act” have basis in providing positive outcomes to the crises and help to increase the self-esteem of each of the students by encouraging an accepting and supportive atmosphere in the classroom. This will allow the students to feel free to move through their personal development and feel safe to share with their peers, knowing that everyone is operating under an attitude of cherishing others and making a better world.

The theory of James Marcia suggests “that there are four alternatives for adolescents as they confront their identity choices.” (Woolfolk, page 65) These alternatives are identity achievement (“strong sense of commitment to life choices after free consideration of alternatives”), identity foreclosure (“acceptance of other life choices without consideration of options”), identity diffusion (“uncentredness; confusion about who one is and what one wants”), and moratorium (“identity crisis; suspension of choices because of struggle”). (Woolfolk, page 65) This ties in directly with Erikson’s theory that most adolescents go through a phase of moratorium during that period of life. Teaching for wisdom and compassion allows the freedom and opportunity for students to safely journey through this phase of their development. The focus on finding meaning in life within the 16 Guidelines focuses on the fact that everything is changing and anything is possible. This is especially poignant for students in the midst of their adolescence, when they are being faced with many life altering changes from physical development to choosing career paths.

The theorists that most closely relate to the principles emphasized by Essential Education are Kohlberg and the developments by Gilligan. Kohlberg believes that all people move through stages of moral reasoning, which will ultimately lead to “post-conventional moral reasoning” which is guided by social justice and decisions based on the standard levels of individual rights. Gilligan challenged this idea, saying that studies based on Kohlberg’s theory showed that women did not achieve this higher level of moral reasoning whereas men did. Gilligan suggested that this upper level of moral reasoning that focuses on “universal principles of justice and fairness” (Woolfolk, page 80) is achieved by the “principles of responsibility and care for all people” (Woolfolk, page 80), which can be achieved by anyone regardless of gender. Essential Education’s goal is to aide people in moving into this higher level of moral development and through teaching for wisdom and compassion, students have the opportunity to internalize the standards and practices that are being demonstrated to them daily through their teachers and parents.

Lipscomb, MacAllister and Bregman discovered that children who had been more exposed to caring, generous adult models were more likely to adopt those same qualities and principles and demonstrated greater concern and caring for the rights of others. (Woolfolk, page 80) This study shows the effect of teaching for wisdom and compassion. Youth emulate that which they see, and as a teacher, you have a fantastic opportunity to shape the future behaviour of the students you work with. The Essential Education program gives guidelines and strategies as to how to incorporate this idea fully into life and interactions with youth. Creating a better world, begin with creating a more compassionate society.

“The tendency for a person to behave morally is largely dependent on the extent to which moral beliefs and values are integrated in the personality, and in one’s sense of self. The influence our moral beliefs have on our lives, therefore, is contingent on the personal importance that we as individuals attach to them – we must identify and respect them as our own.” (Woolfolk, page 81)

--Ajlaflamme (talk) 19:29, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

How Teaching for Compassion and Wisdom is used in the Classroom

 * Many teachers in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) are actively incorporating the principles of teaching for wisdom and compassion into their classroom teaching methods. For example, a drama teacher in Toronto implemented a strategy that incorporates many core elements of improvisational theatre to develop wisdom and compassion in his students. Although this strategy informs many elements of his teaching, this section of the essay will look specifically at his strategy for teaching for wisdom and compassion in a grade 10 drama unit, dealing with children’s theatre. While other teachers in the school who were teaching the same unit focused on creating a “hierarchy” for their units, with each student taking clearly defined roles (director, stage manager, script writer, etc.), this teacher actively fostered a spirit of collaboration, allowing students to work together to create all the elements of the play by themselves. There was a lot of preparation that was needed before he could have the students begin work on the assignment, but it was all done with the intention of creating an atmosphere where students could learn for wisdom and compassion. He planned the unit for later in the year, so he had a good sense of which students could work well together, and he also allowed the students to select a myth from any culture in the world to dramatize and stage. This allowed the students to have a proper foundation to begin working on the project.

 * Through the assignment, the teacher incorporated many of the key elements of teaching for wisdom and compassion. At various times through the rehearsal process, the students were required to write a journal, reflecting on their group’s progress, and how they feel they added or detracted from the group, and what they can do to help their group in the future. This is an example of a reflection technique that is designed to help the students develop a sense of compassion, through introspection, and considering how they interact with others. After the students completed the journal assignment, there was a noticeable shift in group dynamics, as students were made more aware of their positive and negative behaviour within a group dynamic through this assignment. Aspects of improvisational theatre were also actively used by the instructor. Acceptance of ideas is a core principle of improv, and in teaching the students to respond to new ideas with a “yes and …” or a “let’s try it, and see what happens,” instead of refusing the offer, students gained an understanding how the mental environment they create in a group can allow all the group members to function more effectively. In having the students perform children’s theatre assignments, the students had to reflect on learning and development, as they were required to think about to engage a group of younger students with their performances. This idea of understanding learning and development also appeared in the elements of mask and shadow puppetry that were also brought into the assignment. The myths that they were adapting all had fantastic elements that were impossible to stage in a traditional manner, so in having the students think in the abstract, about different ways to represent reality, but to do it in such a way that a younger audience would be able to understand.

 * While this assignment has many aspects that are designed to teach compassion and wisdom, there were still areas where the teacher met some difficulty. The main issue was motivation. Students would often come late to class, or if they were in class, would occasionally “zone out,” and not be active participants in the rehearsal work going on that day. This would happen most often after many days of straight rehearsal, with nothing to break up the rehearsal routine of “come to class, rehearse and leave” over a span of several classes. However, if a new aspect of children’s theatre was introduced to the rehearsal, simple musical instruments for example, a sense of group focus, energy and willingness to work together returned to the group dynamic. This speaks to the value of using variety, and specifically different forms of motivation, to properly engage a class. While the unit plan incorporates elements from the behavioural approach to motivation (preparation for an upcoming performance, the desire to do well on he assignment) and the sociocultural approach (journals, reflecting on one’s role in a group), the inclusion of the humanistic and cognitive approaches might help not only break up monotony in the rehearsal schedule, but allow the activity to “hook” students who are affected by different forms of motivation. Activities using different forms of motivation, for example having students reflect on their cultural and personal connections to the myth in a short written assignment, might motivate students who respond to the humanistic approach to motivation. Bringing in different elements of children’s theatre frequently (for example, musical instruments) that the students can play with, and use in their rehearsal if they choose, would be a good way to attract naturally curious students who respond to the cognitive approach to motivation. Trying different motivation methods throughout the rehearsal process might allow students to become more engaged in the material, and become more motivated to participate in the collaborative aspects of the group activity, and through this collaboration, be in a position to become more open to the opportunities to learn for compassion and wisdom.

 * The teacher who designed this unit has a very strong sense of teaching for compassion and wisdom. The idea of collaboration, community, introspection and critical thinking informs all areas of the classes he teaches. Giving students the opportunity to direct their learning, and choose the path they would like to take with the material, and allowing students to reflect on their behaviour, and the ramifications of positive and negative behaviour is a great first step to successfully teaching students the principles of wisdom and compassion. Although there are still areas of this unit that can be improved with some application of a variety of motivational techniques to keeps students interested, there’s no doubt that students in this class are well on their way to learning elements of wisdom and compassion that will benefit them in the future. Students in his classes learn not only drama and performance skills, but skills that will help the students become wise and compassionate individuals both inside and outside of a classroom.

--Chareth Cutestory (talk) 10:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Suggestions for Improvement of the Program
Improving Teaching for Wisdom and Compassion through Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Intro

Teaching for wisdom and compassion can be improved by Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Although both Piaget’s theory and the holistic curriculum applies to students in all levels, this section will be focused on students in high school level, since there is strong need of teaching for wisdom and compassion in adolescents. Piaget’s theory provides characteristics of adolescents, which enables educators to understand the importance of holistic education, the advantages and challenges in applying the holistic curriculum.

Characteristics of adolescents

In Piaget’s theory, there are four stages; and the students follows under the last stage of the four, the formal operational stage. Students in this level have some characteristics that has significant meaning in education. First, they are able to think in abstract concepts. As the name ‘formal operation’ suggests, they are able to do mental tasks involving abstract thinking and coordination of a number of variables (Woolfolk, 35). Also, they are able to identify all the factors that might affect a problem and then deduces and systematically evaluates specific solutions (Woolfolk, 36). This ability of hypothetical thinking enables them to imagine things, and imagination leads them to be very focused the ideas and beliefs that they have. This makes teenagers egocentric; which means that they assume that everyone else is interested in one’s thoughts, feelings, and concerns (Woolfolk, 36). Moreover, adolescents have imaginary audience- the feeling that everyone is watching them (Woolfolk, 36). This explains why teenagers are often sensitive about how they look. How these characteristics of adolescents can be helpful towards teaching for wisdom and compassion?

Importance of holistic education

Adolescents are perfect for holistic education. They have ability to think hypothetically which is a great tool to compassionate with the others, yet their egocentricism calls for the need of teaching for wisdom and compassion. It is important for them to learn how to be thoughful and compassionate about the others in both individual and social aspects. For individual growth, holistic education provides the best way of effective student learning. How do students learn? Piaget’s fundamental insight was that individuals construct their own understanding learning; learning is a constructive process (38). Accodring to him, students have to be actively involved in the learning process, including both physical and mental manipulation of objects or ideas (39). This idea enties with the focus of holistic curriculum- to step out of the plain lectures and focus on building relationship between body, mind, and spirit. Holistic education fosters individual growth by stimulating the constructive learning of the students. However, If teaching for wisdom and compassion means to develop how to be thoughtful of the others, it would be meaningless to think of holistic education apart from the social context. Although the adolescent egocentrism is part of students’ development, they cannot stay in the egocentric point of view for the rest of the lifetime. It is one of the key roles of the education to help them break out from the egocentric view and be able to think about the others; in other words, be compassionate to the others. Teenagers know that everyone has their own thoughts, feelings, and concerns; the educator’s job is to transfer them from knowing to respecting and understanding.

Steps of applying holistic education

If holistic education is that important, a teacher must know how to apply them in classroom. There are steps to do so. The first step is to know what it means to be holistic. Miller said that holistic curriculum means to focus on relationship; between linear thinking and intuition, mind and body; various domains of knowledge; and individual and community (Miller, 73). The second step is to know some characteristics that can be used toward the holistic practice. For example, Miller suggested to use visualization and metaphors to help the students explore the relationship between linear thinking and intuition, and this is where teenager’s ability of hypothetico-deductive reasoning, which is the ability to generate different possibilities for a given situation can be useful (Woolfolk, 36). With this, a teacher can easily lead them to visualize or to imagine ‘what if I were this person’, which is the first step of forming compassion for the others. The next step is to be aware of the challenges in applying holistic practices and find strategites for them. There are various challenges, and the first one is that although Piaget divided stages according to the ages, it is not necessarily that everyone is in the classroom are in the formal operational stage. Piaget suggested that his theory is not universal, and even adults can use formal-operational thought in only a few areas where they have the greatest experience or interest (Woolfolk, 37). A teacher may find some students having difficult times when a problem involves hypothetical thinking. In this case, the teacher needs to help the students to develop the formal operational skills. Woolfolk suggests some strategies to help students to use formal operations such as using visual aids, or teaching in broad concepts using materials and ideas relevant to the students’ lives (Woolfolk, 37). Another challenge is the case where students refuse to participate in holistic practices. For instance, Miller suggested meditation, yoga, movement, and dance to build the relationship between mind and body. However, students might not concentrate, interrupt the class flow, or making fun of the others who is participating. This can be explained with the teenager’s imaginary audience; feeling that everyone is watching what they are doing. It is natural for them to refuse to participate in something that they think they might look silly. Therefore, the teacher has to make sure that the degree of the activities is on the level that everyone feels comfortable participating.

--GraceHa (talk) 21:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

From The Student's Perspective
There are various branches of educational philosophy and perspectives incorporated into holistic teaching. They each existed prior to the definition of holism, conceived at various points during the twentieth century. It wasn’t until the 1970s, however, that different strands of the work of educators such as Montessori and Steiner, among others, were woven together under the name of holism, a belief in fostering the development of the student as a “whole person with body, mind, emotions and spirit” (J. Miller, ascdnetwork), not just a brain with a memory centre. Robin Ann Martin has asserted that teachers choosing to work in a holistic manner are finding opportunities to act as community leaders (2000). In fact, those who teach for wisdom and compassion are practicing what they preach by becoming wholly involved in educating their students instead of simply functioning as an information conduit. So what can the student on the receiving end of holistic education expect?

First of all, there is no one type of child to which teaching for wisdom and compassion applies. Any student would benefit from having a teacher who encouraged them to have opinions about their course material, who showed them the interconnectedness of all parts of the world, and who accepted that creative thinking is equally important as analytical thinking. One necessary trait for the student is openmindedness. Depending upon the cultural and family background of the student, breaking away from the transmission model (R. Miller 2004) of learning could be difficult. However, it is an approach which can be learned. Given the emphasis on process in holistic teaching, one individual’s need to take the time to adapt their mode of thinking would be accepted and not penalized. On the other hand, an immigrant student adjusting to the traditional Ontarian educational setting would not be treated differently as they adapted to those parts of Canadian education that are different from that in their native country. However, if the student is not open to change, their success with this style of learning will be limited. Without their commitment, the teacher is stuck reverting to the traditional methods of “I talk. You listen. You memorize. I test. You regurgitate.” While entrenched within the system and successful to a certain point, the transmission model does not encourage holistic growth and will not result in the creation of fully engaged young citizens. Teaching for wisdom and compassion will.

If a holistic teacher can convey to their students that “who [they] are, what they know, how they know it, and how they act in the world are not separate elements, but reflect the interdependencies between our world and our selves” (Martin 2000), they have succeeded. The range of development for students exposed to teaching for wisdom and compassion becomes nearly infinite. So long as the intrinsic motivation of both teacher and student remains at a high level, the end result of the school year becomes fluid. Classes would need to strike a balance between the more freedom-based educational philosophies (allowing children to set their own learning paths) and critical pedagogy, with the teacher taking a leadership role and provoking students into realizing the moral perspectives related to their field of study and viewing the world through a critical eye. A child experiencing a combination of critical pedagogy and Montessori philosophy, where the aim is “to explore and experiment according to their own pace and interests” (R. Miller 2004), learns to value their teacher’s input and guidance of the educational experience while simultaneously building confidence in their own thoughts and feelings as well as trust in the reliability of their motivations.

To make a more specific point, the range of development for students taught for wisdom and compassion would have to vary depending on the individual. After all, this is an educational philosophy that highlights the developmental process of each individual student. Especially during their teens, people develop the different aspects of their selves at different rates. One Grade 10 student might gain great benefit from learning to view ideas from the perspectives of others but not make the connection that this learning tool applies to personal growth as well while one of their classmates does.

Ron Miller has stated that a holistic approach to teaching “aims to cultivate the emotional and spiritual life of the growing human being, and to deepen the young person’s awareness of his or her place in nature.”(R. Miller 2005) and that education as an entity should strive to be “dynamic, spontaneous, self-organizing and emergent” (R. Miller 2005). Those four adjectives sound suspiciously like a description of an ideal life where people respect one another and support each other’s development. On a cognitive level, the biggest advantage gained by students who experience teaching for wisdom and compassion is learning the skill of critical thinking. Because of holistic education’s focus on questioning and discussion combined with experiential learning, students learn to reflect on both their own thoughts and actions and those of others. This skill is often sorely lacking in traditional school systems that focus on rote learning. On an emotional level, students experience twofold development. The focus on discussion forces students to listen to the opinions of others who may hold very different opinions or simply come from different family structures or cultural backgrounds. With equal respect given to all sides of a topic (hopefully modelled by the teacher), students start to empathize with those who are different from them and also get the chance to start developing critical distance. Put bluntly, it is okay to hate the idea but that does not mean you hate the person putting that idea forward. Not only does teaching for wisdom and compassion provoke compassion for others, it also encourages emotional self-development. The encouragement to develop critical distance applies to one’s own thoughts and feelings as well. A student who can start operating at this level of emotional maturity while still in their teens has a great advantage over their traditionally-schooled peers. On a spiritual level, the ever-present push to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings and to learn through questioning encourages students to really get to know themselves, to define their own beliefs (fluid though they may be), and to recognize how they connect to their evolving world. The “flowing interrelatedness of all life” (R. Miller 2007) becomes clear as these three levels of development intertwine, creating a whole student and a whole human being. SwordPhilip (talk) 23:23, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

 References

Miller, John P. The Holistic Curriculum OISE Press: Toronto, 1943.

--GraceHa (talk) 17:34, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Woolfolk, Anita E.; Winnie, Philip H.; Perry, Nancy E. Educational Psychology  Pearson Education Canada, Inc.: Toronto, 2006.

http://www.essential-education.org/index.php

http://www.16guidelines.org/

http://www.lkpy.org/index.html

--Ajlaflamme (talk) 19:29, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Martin, Robin Ann. “Teaching as a Profession: Historic, Public, Union, and Alternative Perceptions”. 2000. Prepared for: HPC 690: Special Topics on U.S. History and Redefining Public Education with Chris Lubienski, Iowa State University. http://www.pathsoflearning.net/resources_writings_Teaching_Profession.php

Miller, Jack. “What is Holistic Learning”. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/field-centres/miller-ascd.html

Miller, Ron. “A New Culture Needs A New Education.” January 2007. Originally published in online journal Global Intelligencer.

Miller, Ron (2004). Educational Alternatives: A Map Of The Territory Paths of Learning, 20. Found at  Miller, Ron. “What Are Schools For? Alternative Philosophies of Education” November 2005. Presented at First International Conference on Educational Alternatives.

--SwordPhilip (talk) 23:23, 23 April 2008 (UTC)


text:
Cookbook:Cuisine of Costa Rica

| North American cuisines

Costa Rican cuisine is known for being tasty, yet fairly mild, with high reliance on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Gallo pinto
The main staple, known as gallo pinto, consists of rice and black beans, which in many households is eaten at all three meals during the day.

Gallo pinto is also known in some Southern Areas of Costa Rica as burra, though still recognised the name is rarely used as it is mostly referred to as gallo pinto. Also, Costa Rican gallo pinto is made with black beans, while Nicaraguans use red beans traditionally.

Other foods
For lunch, the traditional national dish is called a casado. It again consists of rice and beans, though this time they are served side by side instead of mixed. There will generally be some type of meat (carne asada, fish, pork chop or chicken) and a salad to round out the dish. There may also be some extras like fried [plantain]s, a slice of white cheese, and/or corn tortillas in accompaniment.

Fresh vegetables are a primary ingredient in most main dishes, and members of the squash family are particularly common. These include varieties such as zucchini, zapallo, chayote, and ayote. Potato, onion, and red pepper are other common ingredients.

Coffee and bananas are the two main agricultural exports of the country and also form part of the local cuisine. Coffee is usually served at breakfast and during traditional coffee breaks in the afternoon, usually around 3:00pm.

The Plantain, a larger member of the banana family, is another commonly used fruit and can be served in a variety of ways. Ripe plantains have a sweet flavor, and can be fried in butter or baked in a honey or a sugar-based sauce. Green (unripe) plantains are boiled in soups or can be cooked, mashed into small round cakes and fried to make patacones. Sweet corn dishes are common traditional meals like pozole (corn soup), chorreadas (corn pancakes), etc.

Other Costa Rican food staples include corn tortillas, white cheese and picadillos. Tortillas are used to accompany most meals. Ticos will often fill their tortillas with whatever they are eating and eat it in the form of a gallo [direct translation: rooster, however, it resembles a soft Mexican taco]. White cheese is non-processed cheese that is made by adding salt to milk in production. Picadillos are meat and vegetable combinations where one or more vegetables are diced, mixed with beef and garnished with spices. Common vegetables used in picadillos are potato, green beans, squash, ayote, chayote and arracache. Often, picadillos are eaten in the form of gallos.

Drinks
The traditional breakfast drink, besides coffee, is called agua dulce ("sweet water") and is made from tapa de dulce. Sugar cane juice is boiled down in traditional trapiches and put to solidify in molds in the form of conical sections with the top cut off called tapas which can literally be translated into "lids". Then some of this tapa is scraped off and dissolved into boiling water or milk to make the sweet delicious agua dulce.

The traditional drinks for lunch are called refrescos or frescos for short, and consist of liquefied fruits diluted in either water or milk and sweetened to taste. They come in many varieties such as melon, blackberry, strawberry, watermelon, mango, tamarind, passion fruit, guanabana and cas.

Another popular drink is known as a granizado, a slush drink made of finely shaved ice and flavored syrup. The most popular flavor is kola. This is not the cola usually associated with carbonated soda but a fruity cherry flavored syrup. It is sometimes served with evaporated/condensed milk on top depending on the preference of the drinker.

The national liquor of Costa Rica is made from sugar cane and is called guaro. Ticos drink guaro as a shot or mixed with juice or soda. The cost of guaro is very cheap compared to the cerveza (beer) in Costa Rica which is run by a monopoly. Imperial is the most popular and is an American style lager; the Pilsen is a Bohemian style pilsner; and Bavaria is offered in Light, Dark or Gold. The Dutch beer, Heineken, is also produced in Costa Rica but tastes a little different.

title: Cookbook:Cuisine of Costa Rica


text: Cookbook talk:Cuisine of Costa Rica

title: Cookbook talk:Cuisine of Costa Rica


text: Category:Costa Rican recipes

title: Category:Costa Rican recipes


text: Template:History of Spain/TOC

title: Template:History of Spain/TOC


text: User talk:68.162.24.248

title: User talk:68.162.24.248


text:
Futurebasic/Language/Reference/get field

=GET FIELD=

Syntax
GET FIELD ZTXThandle& efID

Description
Creates a " "-formatted block which duplicates the text and style contents of the edit field specified by  in the current output window. A handle to the block is returned in, which must be a long-integer variable or a   variable. You can save this information to disk (using, for example, the  statement), or you can copy it to another edit field, using the   statement or the  statement. A " " block is formatted as follows:

NOTE IMAGE NEEDS TO BE INSERTED!!!!!

Note:

Your program should dispose of  (using, for example, the  or   statement) when you're finished using the   block that the handle refers to.


text:
History of Spain/Visigoths

History
The Middle Ages started in Spain with the creation of the Visigoth Kingdom in the 5th Century. It would last until 711, with the conquest of Spain by the Umayyad Caliphate. In 409, the Roman Empire was very weak and was invaded by German People from the north. Some of these people, like Vandals, Alans, Swabians and Visigoths, settled in Spain and Portugal. The Visigoths arrived to Spain from the Pyrenees and settled in the middle of the Peninsula. The Visigoths founded a kingdom, with capital in Toulouse. Later, the capital was translated to Toledo. Between the Visigoth Kings highlighted Leovigildo, Recaredo and Recesvinto, who conquered the entire Peninsula. The Visigoths divided their kingdom in five provinces (provincias in Spanish), named ducats (ducados in Spanish). The kingdom was ruled by a king and each duchy was ruled by a duke. The Visigoth Kingdom disappeared in 711, when king Rodrigo was defeated by the Muslims in the Battle of Guadalete river.

Society
The Visigoth society was made up by nobles and farmers. The nobles had the political and military dominion, they were the owners of the lands and they had many riches. The farmers were the majority of the population. A few were the owners of their lands, but the majority tilled the lands of the nobles in exchange of food and housing. The Visigoths adopted the Latin language, the Catholic religion and Roman laws. They lived in villages and their houses were simple. Their jobs were the agriculture and animal husbandry and they were experts in the production of objects with stones and metals.

Visigothic Inheritance in Spain
The Visigoths have bequeathed to Spain their constructions and their goldsmith works. The Visigoths built simple and small romanic churches, made of stone. They produced many jewels with metals and stones.

title: History of Spain/Visigoths