Local teacher's ideas featured in national reference magazine

A new take on curriculum has put one local teacher into the pages of a nationally recognized teacher reference magazine.

Kathleen Day, a Northeast Vernon County High School art teacher, has been given a place in an edition of SchoolArts magazine, a nationally read publication offering art teachers across the country ideas and examples for expanding their curriculum and effectiveness with students.

Day, a teacher for six years at NEVC schools, has spent the last four years in the art room attempting to give more meaning to the subject she teaches.

Day has taken her frustration with projects being tossed aside or forgotten about after they are complete and used it to fuel her "Big Idea" approach to teaching.

"Everything was going in the trash. As soon as they got it done it went right in the trash," said Day. "So I thought maybe it will have more meaning if we tie it to these big ideas."

These big ideas are classified by Day as broad, important human issues, such as; good and evil, relationships or the environment. She uses these ideas to form a relationship between her students' work and their individual lives.

The inspiration behind this new technique of teaching came by way of a book titled, "Rethinking Curriculum in Art."

Day said that after hearing one of the co-authors speak during the annual state art teachers' conference she became intrigued by the idea and immediately bought the book. After reading through the book she decided to simplify the criteria and spent most of her summer break communicating ideas and concerns with other art teachers and those who had also read Rethinking Curriculum.

This is the first year to put the "Big Idea" curriculum into effect in her class, and Day said it is going well. "I think that my students are taking more away from the class and the projects are more meaningful to some of the students," she said.

There are some drawbacks to the new style of teaching though, according to Day. "The state came up with Grade Level Expectations and so they have told everyone in every subject now that this is what you've got to teach them (students). So, you have to juggle that with your big idea, with your budget."

Day admitted the new way of teaching does make for added hours in the work day; however, some creative views on what the state requires makes the process easier.

"We do something cross cultural like I really studied our local involvement in the Civil War and as a result then we studied a Missouri artist because that's in the GLE. So, we studied a Missouri artist and you've got George Caleb Bingham, who did 'General Order Number 11,'" said Day. "He was so appalled when that happened he made a painting about it. So, obviously what happened here effected him enough to make a painting about it, but there are local artists still doing art on the Civil War, so we got a modern artist and his art then compared and contrasted it, so that all tied in with the GLE's."

Beyond the positive response by Day's students, she hopes to assist in helping a much larger cause. "I think with art funding being all the time threatened and of course it's been threatened for 30 or 40 years, you know at some point they are going to think they can get rid of art. They're going to say 'why do we even need this? We can do art projects in history class,' and it's already happened in California schools and Texas. I worry about them getting rid of the art in Missouri schools too. So, I thought this helps justify us a little bit better," said Day. "We are doing important stuff. Instead of just studying the Civil War, we are actually looking into the feelings and the people and the emotions behind it."

Day also has been working with several students in the area on an upcoming theatrical performance of the "Jungle Book." She has recruited around 16 local students to perform in the show which opens at the FOX Playhouse in Nevada on Thursday, Feb. 21, and runs through Sunday, Feb. 24. This will be the second year for Day to direct the annual children's play through the Community Council on the Performing Arts.

Day's article regarding "Big Idea" teaching can be read in February's edition of SchoolArts magazine or an example and copy of Day's unit plan can be viewed online at: http://www.davisart.

com/Portal/SchoolArts/SAdefault.aspx