These are a few of the sights on the way to my first class as a student at Case Western Reserve University. It felt like a dream to be on campus because for years, I had hopes and dreams of someday being able to attend graduate school but didn't know how to make this a reality and I hadn't done anything about it. Tim Shuckerow, director of Art Education and the Art Studio, encouraged me to apply. I had no idea he had been quietly observing me as and artist, teacher and person for years. So, do and be your best because you never know when someone is watching you and how you handle yourself in the community. This was quite a long walk (for me 
) especially since I didn't gradually warm up to it. The parking situation is a legendary beast on campus and so expensive by the day that it is essential to pay for monthly or semester parking passes and permits. I paid $10 a day this week! Others ride bicycles, take public transportation or walk if they live closeby. There were many more people on the street but I didn't think it was polite or right to take their photos without permission.
When I first waited in a big group to cross the street I was like, 'Wow, look at all of these young, energetic people! How am I going to keep up physically?' It was funny because I was so excited on the first day I had all of my books, notebooks and binders in my backpack. So I am hiking over to my first class with about 60 lbs. on my back! Proves that I am real student, right? Ha! I am learning to lighten my load with just the essentials for the day and walk quicker and with a purpose like they do. When it's time to cross the street you get going or people will cut in front of you or right across your path! I am anywhere from about 15 to 25 years older than most of my classmates. I hope I'll discover that there's an advantage in that somewhere in the months to come. Ha!
When I was a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the early 1980s, I rarely ventured to this part of the campus. No reason to really. I had no curiousity about it because I was an artist and this is where all of the doctors and scientists were. So many white coats and green scrubs. Yes, I know I missed some opportunities to meet some great people.
Kristin and me reading articles for a class discussion. We are Proactive-Scholar-Practitioners in training. Tim said we'll naturally become close knit and rely on each other for friendship and support as we go through this unique experience. Through the writing, reading, thinking and discussing we are also developing a personal teaching philosopy that will evolve over time. We begin with the question if we believe we are teachers who teach art or artists who teach? Is teaching a calling for us? I know that art is a calling and I hope to discover that teaching is, too. We are also encouraged to stay active and involved in the community and pursue other things outside of work and school.
Friend and Art Ed. student Corey studying under the gaze of Tim Shuckerow's masks
Radiant and feeling successful after the first day of class and about to head home
On Tuesday, all of the Art Education undergraduates and graduates met for orientation with Faculty Tim Shuckerow, Sandy Noble, Supervisor of Art Education and Clinical/Field Based Experience Elementary Student Teaching and Judy Flamik, Supervisor of Art Education Secondary Student Teaching. They went over the syllabus' for their classes, their expectations of us and their personal positive and negative experiences as teachers and of the students who have gone through the program. Tim informed us that he and Sandy were among the educators who designed the Ohio Art Education standards. Also, this is one of the most successful and most comprehensive graduate art education programs in Ohio and the country. About 140 people have graduated from it over the past 20 years with Tim at the helm and everyone has stayed vital in the profession in some capacity. There are many diverse career options for people with this degree we are earning. For example, one recent graduate is teaching in China. Sandy emphasized that we will work hard and that the pace will gradually pick up and to expect to feel stressed. The program is designed this way so our instructors and advisors can observe how we react to stress, how flexible we are and how well we keep up with the demands. For example, if we have problems with these schedules then it will be much more difficult when we become full time art teachers in our careers after graduation where we'll be expected to design curriculums for multiple age groups and teach several times a day for 5 days a week and run our own classrooms in schools where the demands will be much heavier. One rule is DON'T procrastinate and get behind on reading and assignments. If you feel like you're flipping out then go talk to someone who can help you. Stay balanced with school, work, life and play. Take a break to excercise and be with family and friends. Personally, I like long quiet walks in nature and some furious dancing to some fast alternative rock (Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Puddle of Mud) or hip hop or dance club music.
Jared Bendis, instructor for Multimedia Technology, stopped by our meeting to introduce himself and tell us about the Multimedia class we will take with him. We must confront and master technology as teachers. He briefly discussed things like ePortfolio, Blackboard and PowerPoint, our course.
As they spoke, I wondered how we are going to learn all of this in the first 15 weeks before finals? But I also realized that our teachers have designed a grand roadmap for us to travel and explore on our journey. As students, we'll all have our moments of confusion and clarity, fear and courage, brilliance and being dumb, fragility and strength we didn't know we had in us. Or teachers are there to guide and push us beyond our comfort zones and to bring out the best in us. Sandy said when we graduate we will be ready for our careers.
After our orientation, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by Tim that featured salads, homemade organic tomato soup, Italian wedding soup and fresh fruit. Judy brought a delicious spinach quiche.
There was Educational Psychology class with Bellini later that afternoon. He stressed that it's much more than reading about research and case studies and listening to him lecture. We are expected to be active participants at all times.
On Thursday it felt like fall...finally... but it's only late August and we have about one more month of hot weather. I have a cool leather coat and some fabulous scarves I want to wear. Ha! I also waited in a line at Crawford Hall to get my student photo ID made. Wow, now that's beautiful!
Students as far back as you can see
More friends and Art Ed. classmates Beth and Will...
...and Jill
In class on Thursday, and after lectures, tackling some reading and writing assignments and a heck of alot of walking during the week, the reality of what's before us is setting in. However, I am grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime challenge and wouldn't want to be in any other place at this time in my life. Believe in yourself with a fire of desire and others will recognize this and help you to get where you want to go. You're not stuck and it's never to late to transform your life.
At one point, our Thursday instructor Bernetich, asks us if we had any comments on current news about education or if we had been watching the Democratic National Convention? Did we know where the Presidential candidates Obama and McCain stand on education and teachers? It was silent and then one woman in back quietly gave an answer about the importance of education that allowed Barack and Michelle Obama to graduate from Ivy League schools. The rest of us were quiet. To me it was like BAM! We're so focused on studying that we forgot there's a world going on out there everyday and as educators and in our careers we have to stay current and know what's going on. We have to tap into that on a daily basis.
So, after I arrived home last night, my attention was on watching the Democratic National Convention and listening for words like education and teaching. Wow, a diverse crowd of 85,000 charged up people there in the stadium in Denver who believe and are ready for change. Obama was making history as the first African American man to accept the Democratic nomination for President of the United States on the 45Th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" that he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in DC. Damn! And it turns out, the education of American children and helping teachers get what they need to teach successful children is an essential point in Obama's campaign. My mom and Lisa have been trying to tell me about it for days and stress the importance but I was so focused on school and books that I didn't hear it or pick up on the significance. How's that for dense? If Bernetich hadn't mentioned the DNC I would have missed history. Then it really hit me about what I was witnessing and I started crying out of pride. And I cried about the joy and miracle of me being in grad school at 47 years old after I had just about given up the hope. The tears were just rolling. I was just overcome with emotion. It's not something where I needed to be consoled. These were tears of celebration about how far African Americans have come since King's speech, how far all Americans have come and how far I have come. Part of King's dream for us was real and that people could put their differences aside and join together to improve the country and the world seemed so possible last night.
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