Why should I take an art class? I don’t want to be an artist when I grow up!

Alison Pilon Nokes teaches art, among other subjects, at Huntington-Surrey High School in Austin. Her guest contribution here is adapted from her recent post on the school’s own blog.

After about ten years in the visual art education world, I feel pretty strongly that everyone should take an art class—every year, if possible!

Throughout my own educational and professional experiences, I have always felt freed by the opportunity for creative problem solving and exploration of visual media provided through the visual arts. I was, and still am, able to process many different parts of my life through an art outlet. And while I do, personally, as an adult, identify as an artist, I think the benefits of working through an artistic process—much like the experience of working with the scientific method in a science course—are worthwhile for everyone to experience as they venture through their education, no matter what they end up doing and becoming. 

We are living in a rapidly changing world. In many ways, we cannot even imagine what the work force and daily life are going to look like for our kids when they come of age. This year of rapid adjustment to virtual learning and social distancing has certainly given us all a taste of how flexible we need to be and how quickly our world can change. What we do know is that students who can think critically and creatively about a variety of complex problems are going to have the best chance for success in just about any setting. 

Not every student who is taking an art class is planning to apply to art school for college. In fact, most aren’t (just as not every student who is taking a biology course plans to become a biologist). It is with that in mind that I design lessons and projects for my art students. My lessons provide students with opportunities to play with materials they may not have used before, discover for themselves how those materials work, and consider how they can use them to meet their needs. My lessons present students with a problem, a dilemma, or an obstacle and ask them to come up with an out-of-the-box solution.

As much fun as it is for families and friends to walk into a student art show at the end of the year full of beautiful finished work, the reality of art is that most often what students make is messy and strange. For every finished work of art that is “pretty,” there are often several unsuccessful attempts (I’m purposely avoiding the term “failures”). Those unsuccessful attempts—those messy and strange drawings, paintings, and sculptures—are what show the important lessons of art: the processes of working out a solution to a problem. As a teacher of art, the most important thing to me is not what the final product looks like. Rather, I want my art students to put forth their best effort, maintain a good attitude about trying, and work through the hard process of solving problems in innovative ways with materials that may be new to them.

Alison Pilon Nokes

An honest look at the fall

Pam Nicholas is an extraordinary educator who serves as executive director of Huntington-Surrey High School. Below, she shares her candid thoughts and feelings about the challenges and uncertainties of the coming school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently surging here in Central Texas.

I, like many other parents and people in the education community, have been glued to any news or information about what school district plans are looking like for the fall. As both a teacher and an administrator for our small private high school, I have so many emotions running through me about the idea of returning to school in the fall.  I know that many kids learn best when they are face-to-face. I miss hugging my kids (okay, students) every day. I miss seeing them face-to-face, and I even miss going on my occasional Starbucks runs for them. It was hard to see them only online in the spring and to know that they too were emotionally struggling with so much going on in the world.

On the other hand, having my own personal health issues, I am not one to take my health or anyone else’s for granted. I was proud of the fact that my school managed to both help flatten Austin’s curve in the spring and provide our students with an excellent virtual education with no missed days of school. Now, these summer months are leaving me with time to reflect on what went well, what could be improved, how we can keep our students engaged, and how we can best support our kids, our teachers, and our families in these very disconcerting times. 

With hospitals in Austin getting close to being overwhelmed, it is troubling for me to hear elected officials talk about having schools return to face-to-face classes in the fall. There is so much talk about how the virus is mild in children, but the facts of the matter are that some children do get quite ill and children can transmit the virus between one another, to their families, and to their teachers. There is no way to predict right now which one of us will have a mild case, who will have severe illness or ongoing medical issues to contend with, and who will die. As a private school administrator, could I ever live with the fact that I did have the “luxury” of keeping school virtual but I chose not to, and someone were to get seriously ill or die because of that choice? I know some of my parents are really wanting to return to face-to-face instruction because, of course, it is the best way for their kids to learn and there is nothing like face-to-face social interactions with their friends. However, I’m not one to gamble, and I am certainly not feeling comfortable gambling with the lives of the people in my community. 

As a private high school, we were and are extremely privileged in the sense that our kids are old enough to be home by themselves, if need be, and our kids are already extremely familiar with technology. With our very small student-to-teacher ratios, we could still pay a lot of attention to each student during class times and were able to be available to them outside of regular class times for extra help. I won’t say everything went perfectly transitioning to live, online classes (we were Zoom-bombed only once, thank goodness!), but I know that our kids knew we were there for them, got to have some pretty interesting conversations, still managed to learn new skills, and were able to practice those skills with the live support of their peers and teachers. 

So, what were some lessons learned, and what can we, as parents, educators, or, like me, both, do this coming fall? All of us need to have some positive interaction during the day. Having good, interesting conversations, even virtually, keeps kids engaged. Teaching using Socratic methods also helps to keep them engaged. We’ve learned that some kids are still going to struggle, especially those with ADHD. Our ADHD students can spend hour upon hour on a screen playing Minecraft, but it is quite different from taking an online course. We have found that having them attend class via cell phone in a well-lit room with just a table or desk really helps with mitigating the temptation to use other apps during class time.

Parents helping kids stay organized and on top of their homework as they adjust can help a lot, too. When kids were out and about during the day, it was easier to make sure they were doing their independent work at a regularly scheduled time. Now with them home all day, it is easier to assume they will just get it done. That really isn’t the case. Parents with children of any age can help their kids find success by having them on a consistent routine, including time slotted specifically for homework. Regular sleep times, physical activity times, and homework times can go a long way.

Another way to help our kids in an online environment is for teachers to record their classes. Our school will be posting them online so that if a student wasn’t able to focus, for whatever reason, the class is there for them to see at a better time. We are also continuing our study halls during the school days so kids can get their homework done with a teacher live to help them and make sure progress is being made on assignments. It’s important for schools to be able to provide one-on-one help if they can, even if it isn’t academic help. Our teachers will continue to simply check in with each of our students to find out how they are coping. Offering frequent “just for fun” opportunities can help, too. This summer and beyond, we will continue to offer online social opportunities for our kids to virtually get together. Working hand-in-hand with our parents, students, and faculty, we will give our students the best possible educational experience we can provide.

Times are tough right now for most of us, and alt-ed schools have a lot of difficult decisions to make over the coming days and weeks. The balance between the grown-ups having to work, the children needing in-person attention, and everyone wanting to help keep everyone safe is an exceedingly difficult one to find. I know we are all going to try our best, and hopefully working together with a lot of patience and empathy, we will make the best of what seems like an impossible situation.

 
Pam Nicholas

Creativity and play in distance learning: Alternative schools help Austin kids thrive during COVID-19

Bet your bottom dollar we work best under pressure.
(Yo teachers, I wanna like THANK YOU!)
Get your yoga pants set.
Gotta earn that paycheck!
On your mark, get set, let me go, let me Zoom!

—Emily Glankler and Akina Adderley
Zoom! A "Shoop" Parody for Teachers, Griffin School

 
We’re back again with more survey results from 35 Austin-area alternative schools. The first article looked at the broad topic of education in emergencies, and the second tackled social emotional education in this period of social distancing. This week we’re diving into the importance of creativity and play in many forms.

The educators who contributed to our survey suggest that making space for creativity in the curriculum—and unstructured play with other students—is an essential component in their child-centered learning strategies. As a recent article by illustrator Louis Netter noted, we are all necessarily turning inward at this moment, “to the vast inner space of our thoughts and imagination,” and we feel more keenly than ever how important the arts and creativity are to our well-being.

We’ve probably all seen some of the outpouring of creativity and humor from students and teachers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook—with music, creative writing, theater, and art taking center stage. Locally, Griffin School’s Emily Glankler and Akina Adderley jumped into the fray, offering students a funny, timely comment on Zoom school life in a musical parody of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop.” 

For isolated theater kids, unable to mount their productions in person, Skybridge Academy’s Brian Oglesby is donning a new costume each day to turn the ordinary into something a little more special, explaining that there’s a lot of joy in this innovation-by-necessity:

It’s like we’ve landed on this desert island. It sucks on this desert island. When we discover that by rubbing a couple of sticks together, you can make fire, there is triumph and a certain joy. Sure, it would be better not to be stranded, . . . but in the meantime, look at this cool thing we did.

Oglesby adds that his students are developing flexibility and even more creative thinking in a school that prides itself on always pushing boundaries. “Other schools are having to cancel their productions, and my heart breaks for them. We’re trying to figure out how to perform through video conferencing. It’s going to be its own weird thing, fit to the form.”

Play and child-led discovery—from giant bunnies to a virtual Earth Day

Lulu Bautista of Corazón Neighborhood Preschool offered us some valuable insight into her deeply held beliefs about the value of play, creativity, and discovery. Lulu calls what she does “Respite Care,” and it helps relieve children’s anxieties. It’s clear that lessening anxiety is one of the most important aspects of creative engagement in all the schools we surveyed.

How do schools do it? At Corazón, they use both tactile and virtual learning:

We've taken a trip to the moon . . . the children "hand" me items through the screen to pack in our group bag, and then we all buckle in our seatbelts and blast off, calling out the things that we see along the way and floating around our screens in slow motion! We've used our magic wands to turn each other into everything from sleeping robots to gigantic bunnies.

Tactile, “real world” play that moves kids away from screens for part of the day is a priority at many schools. For Bloom Preschool kids, dancing together and reading together are as necessary to the curriculum now as ever, even though it’s done at a distance.  At Acton Academy, educators are creating care packages of project supplies and other items that help with inspiration. Skybridge is putting together weekly “grab bags” of science and art supplies. And Ashley Reinhardt says WonderWell’s teachers have designed experiences around easy-to-get household items as well as curated learning kits they provide. For example, they give little ones who need some fine-motor-skill development an ear of corn covered with coffee grounds and a toothbrush!

WonderWell distance learning supply kits ready for “contactless” pickup by preschool families

The contents of an art supply kit made available for Skybridge teens to pick up at specified times

Anne Remme of Speech-Language-Play is creating an entire set of short videos for Facebook that allow kids to be involved in a virtual playgroup with reading, “table time” art activities, cooking, outside play, and even pet care.

Back at Corazón Neighborhood Preschool, children are encouraged to choose their favorite items at home and make up games with them spontaneously, which can lead to a lot of new learning opportunities on the fly. “One child created a pretend marshmallow store and roasted marshmallows to sell to us. But she only had enough for a few of us!” says Lulu. “We walked through our problem solving skills, and together the children came up with an idea so that others could partake. We did this all from behind screens, all through the magical world of pretending that children live and thrive in.”

At International School of Texas, older kids had the chance to do similar experiments in adapting their ideas to the world of screens. They held an art contest in a virtual art gallery and they also created a whole-school Earth Day project online.

Art with Ms. Bo: The International School of Texas art teacher shows kids how to make and use stamps from recycled objects found around their homes.

With so much time spent in virtual classrooms and chat rooms, it’s inevitable that students of all ages will get creative with colorful and crazy virtual backgrounds and morphing faces. Pam Nicholas of Huntington-Surrey says they are using an app that turns people on Zoom into hilarious creatures. They use it sparingly, but it works to bring the community together through laughter. Chris Ready, assistant head of school at Austin’s Academy of Thought and Industry, said:

Our student government is coming up with weird contests to keep the student body engaged. We are going to launch a ‘guess that student's workspace contest.’ David, our student body president, has sent out a survey asking everyone to vote on what should be done with his facial hair . . . 

Kids at Huntington-Surrey are revising their school yearbook to include the new world of distance learning they’re exploring together.

What’s also happening, says Kori McLain of Lake Travis STEM Academy, is that educators and students are becoming closer as a result of sharing and getting a peek at each other’s spaces, including all the “learning forts” kids are building. And students always come up with new ways to add some pizzazz to ordinary meetups. “We celebrated a teacher’s B-day by surprising her with virtual B-day backgrounds, and we all wore funny hats and sang ‘Happy Birthday,’” says McLain.

We’ll let Lulu Bautista have the last word on this topic. She says:

Our version of creativity comes from the same place it has always dwelled, the children. . . . [it] centers on finding ways to ground ourselves in the familiar and hold onto something consistent to help children retain a sense of joy and relief from uncertainty when we gather together, even if that means virtually.

Shelley Sperry  |  Sperry Editorial

Social-emotional learning during the COVID crisis: Lessons from Austin’s alternative schools

We have made the emotional health of our students the top priority in decision-making.

—Chris Ready, Assistant Head of School
Academy of Thought and Industry

Learning to manage emotions and maintain empathetic, healthy relationships in ordinary times is as important for young people as other kinds of learning—and it’s doubly important in times of stress and crisis. Education researchers call this aspect of education social-emotional learning, or SEL. It’s strongly tied to all kinds of supportive relationships schools build among students, educators, and parents. Most alternative schools make SEL a pivotal aspect of their curricula, offering programs like Austin Rising School’s “Kids of Kindness.” 

Social-emotional learning is the foundation all other learning rests upon for students experiencing tragedy or trauma. Even in families who are in the very best situation—without loss of life or income—most kids are currently experiencing some significant anxiety and disruption. In response, family members and educators are stepping up to act as role models for emotional support. As the National Association of School Psychologists suggests, “This is a tremendous opportunity for adults to model for children problem-solving, flexibility, and compassion.”

In an effort to help Austin families dealing with the sudden transition to distance learning and to highlight what our community of alternative schools is doing right now, Alt Ed Austin conducted a survey that returned detailed responses from 35 schools. In this second installment of our series looking at changes in education as a result of COVID-19, we’re doing a deep dive into the answers to our survey, with social-emotional learning as our first topic.

Lunchtime hangouts, like this one at Griffin School, bring everyone together in a relaxed way.

Faster transitions to distance learning ease anxiety

For some schools, moving out of a physical space and into distance learning has happened quickly. We discovered in our survey that because they are smaller and more nimble, most of the 35 schools have been able to adapt easily to the new circumstances. 

Parents and students at Austin’s Academy of Thought and Industry and 4Points Academy reportedly have been surprised and pleased at the ease of the transition. The speed of the transition in small alternative schools has been a big part of limiting anxiety for students—an anxiety kids in larger school systems are still dealing with, as the machinery of transitioning to online learning for thousands of students grinds slowly and fitfully forward.

Many of the schools in our survey had some component of online learning available before the pandemic arrived. As Amanda Garret of Fusion Academy notes, her school already offered virtual classes for students who had to travel or were sick. “Most teachers had already experienced teaching this way and also many students, so it was a super easy transition for us!” 

In our community younger students seem to have embraced technology just as readily as older kids. Certified reading specialist Alexandra Eliot, founder of Bridges Academy Austin, which will be opening in Austin in the fall, says elementary students often adapt well to the Zoom platform. “In fact, some students pay attention better to tutoring when it is done virtually. [To help them,] I can increase the font size in their reading and point with my mouse.” 

It’s important to note one key issue in terms of implementing distance learning: It’s clear from the evidence in the surveys that the relative lack of economic inequality among the students at Austin’s alternative schools has made a big difference. Most of the students already have the technology they need; they and their parents are able to use the technology; and in most cases, they have at least one parent working from home who is able to support their learning and emotional health. For kids of essential workers, those experiencing financial and food insecurity, or without the essential technology, this transition looks very different and is inherently more difficult emotionally and socially.

“We met in our gardens”

Finding time for nature and for quiet mindfulness are two aspects of emotional and social wellness that are often linked, and both came up in the survey. 

Integrating time outside in nature is something parents and kids can easily forget now that we spend so much time in front of our screens. In keeping with their core mission, Earth Native Wilderness School encourages all kids to get outside and do some exploration and play. “Our Wild Life Forest Preschool has been producing some really amazing content for kids to do at home,” says Earth Native’s executive director, Dave Scott. “Seeing how excited the kids are to get on with their teachers and tackle their at-home nature challenges has been very inspiring.”

Mary Belton of Bloom Preschool said that her students “have been excited to share their gardens, so we met in our gardens one day to share what we are all growing. We also had lots of fun painting rocks together!” And Woodland Schoolhouse’s Nicole Haladyna uses Facebook as a gathering point for sharing songs, stories, updates on class pets, and nature lessons based on the trails near the school—including identifying poison ivy!

Students from Earth Native Wilderness School put their own spin on sheltering in place.

In the pursuit of good mental and emotional health for everyone, Ascent: An Acton Academy offers yoga for parents and “morning mindfulness” calls to all the learners. At WonderWell, Ashley Reinhardt says that “each day includes a “social-emotional check-in and an experience to promote self-regulation, self-awareness, and empathy.” 

In a recent newsletter, Carolina Peredo of La Tribu explained her preschool’s longstanding approach for little ones: “Our Mindfulness Program has been evolving throughout the years and now includes mindfulness practices like “La Vela de la Paz” and Yoga classes. They are now available as recorded sessions led by our guides on our YouTube Channel.”

Human connections at the core of SEL

Ultimately, it’s through fostering human relationships every day that these schools support social-emotional learning. At the majority of schools surveyed, teachers are still able to connect with students one-on-one weekly, and sometimes daily. Students connect with each other in myriad ways, and educators are also connecting one-on-one with parents and offering them emotional and social support. 

At the Fusion Academy Homework Cafe, teachers are available to help kids both socially and emotionally in addition to helping with normal schoolwork. Fusion’s Amanda Garrett explains, “Teachers can do breakout rooms with one or two students if needed.” For kids at Growing Curiosity Community School, connection comes in the form of fun music and Spanish mornings.

A form of one-on-one “office hours” is common at many schools, including Lake Travis Stem Academy and Parkside Community School; at the Academy of Thought and Industry, each student has a guide who acts as a coach and checks in to see where they are emotionally.

Acton Academy hosts read-alouds and hangouts at lunchtime so kids can just meet up with friends casually. They do offline challenges, which they later share online. For example, says Laura Sandefer of Acton, “We had a virtual talent show that included voting for the best of three categories. . . . We had a day for the whole community to eat popcorn and enjoy the show.” At the Westlake Campus of Acton, students do virtual PE together and are encouraged to organize virtual play dates outside of school to stay in touch. Huntington-Surrey gathers kids for Friday Night Social Hours to play games and chat in addition to their check-ins during class.

At Clearview Sudbury School, they not only help kids connect with their regular school friends, but they also facilitate connections with other self-directed learners around the world in order to share learning experiences and make new friends.

Parents and kids learn together with Lake Travis STEM Academy.

Family Gatherings and “Heroic Parenting”

Both parents and students are able to meet with teachers one-on-one at International School of Texas and have access to a Licensed Clinical Social Worker once a week. ACE Academy has enlisted its full-time counselor and is regularly sharing resources for student and parent motivation via social media. 

In addition to meeting with learners in groups daily, and one-on-one each week, Abrome gathers families on Wednesdays to make it easier for them to find community. Abrome also created a mutual aid network for all its families. Griffin School calls its weekly family gatherings Town Halls.

The world of support for parents is as varied as for kids. At AHB Community School there is a big demand for adult interaction, so the school is adding coffees and social hours. Jeffrey Couvillon explains that Acton Academy Southwest Austin is focusing on parents in a new way: “We are going through a set of challenges with families called ‘Heroic Parenting,’ focused on closer family bonds and stronger family mission.”

In the end, whether it’s Griffin School’s Quarantine Quad, where each student leader checks in on three classmates, or Growing Curiosity Community School’s private Facebook group that lets families share ideas and time together,  the common denominator in social-emotional learning in this period of transition is the variety and depth of human connection.

Join us in the next installment of this series for more of our community’s creativity in the time of COVID.

Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

What’s new in Austin’s alternative education community?

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Here’s a brief roundup of some of the latest developments in the local alt ed scene as the 2019–2020 school year gets underway. Kudos to all the educators who have been working hard all summer to better serve each member of their learning communities.

Apple Blossom Center for Discovery and Gantry Academy have joined forces in Leander to offer a number of options to serve students in the community. They are launching homeschool enrichment days (Wednesday afternoons and Friday all day) with activities including Sportsball athletics, cooking, art, music, STEAM, entrepreneurship, and more. Options range from $100 to $300 per month.

Ascent is the latest Acton Academy to launch in the Austin area. Founders Janita Lavani and Samantha Jansky are some of the most experienced Acton guides and curriculum creators anywhere. They spent the summer acquiring and beautifully renovating the campus at 5701 Cameron Road to create both the Spark Studio for ages 4–6 and the Elementary Studio for ages 7–11, where the school year begins right after Labor Day.

Clearview Sudbury School recently added a music room to its campus and a new staff member, Rose Hardesty, Clearview’s first to have graduated from a Sudbury school. This fall, Clearview will celebrate its 10th anniversary by bringing in Jim Rietmulder, the author of When Kids Rule the School and a nationally recognized expert on self-directed democratic schools, for a talk on Friday, November 15, at 6pm.

Huntington-Surrey School has moved to a new location in north-central Austin: 4700 Grover Avenue. The school has served high school students since 1971 and has now expanded its programs to work with exceptional 7th and 8th graders, either part-time or full-time.

Julia’s Garden Montessori is launching its elementary program, called Taller, based on the Scottish national Curriculum for Excellence. The school’s staff has grown this summer to include new administrative, wellness, and education specialist roles to meet the needs of all learners, from the toddler stage through 9 years of age. It is currently in the home stretch of the accreditation process with the International Council for Accrediting Relationship-based Education (ICARE).

Progress School has renovated and moved its classrooms into a larger building on the same campus to better accommodate its growing enrollment. Learners will be grouped into three rather than two multi-age classes. Progress is currently working with ICARE toward accreditation as a relationship-based education school.