One important set of terms has been important to our teacher residency at Crystal Bridges. Those terms are making strong choices and making weak choices. Our presenters from the local children's theater group have made the point that they no longer say good or bad choices, since certain children will try to make their mark on a class by being the "baddest". It is something to think about.
 These $5000 four-foot-tall green penguins greet us in a variety of locations around our hotel (and they mysterious move around when no one is watching). | They have also stressed that a strong choice for one student might be different than a strong choice for another student. That said, Mrs. Mouton, Mr. Culbertson, and I had an opportunity arise in the afternoon that we took advantage of. Donna H., the same tour guide who led our class around the museum, this spring, walked around the museum with the three of us, explaining the history and meaning of many works of art and spurring us to interpret the art for ourselves. We felt like we made a strong choice to take this tour instead of go through the rest of the schedule with others in our residency. With the museum closed on Tuesdays, we learned so much on our private tour that our brains were very full when it was time to leave. In looking at the schedule, we also feel like we covered the same material that was being presented, but that we practiced our skills to draw meaning from students (and each other) rather than simply lecture and provide lists of facts. |
