Friday, June 11, 2010

Big Green Monster Or What?

I'm going to get on my box and let my opinions run--- for a paragraph or so then I will be done.
It will all be forgotten--

   Back in my early days of teaching, I'm talking the first couple of years, 1991-92ish I had some truly amazing, talented art teacher friends. Four in particular. When I first started teaching in Derby I of course loved to get together with them and see what they had been doing in their schools, and share my small offerings of lessons I'd been doing. These nights recharged my creativity, kept me motivated, and soothed my sanity. We shared all kinds of lessons, stories and fun.
   As the years went on we would occasionally add a person or two who would join us for a night but the five of us were the core. Generous to a fault, we painstakingly made extra copies of lessons and units to share with who ever could come that time. Never worried about anyone using our ideas because it was a friendly group.......
    Later-- much later. I'd say it was around the time I took a break from teaching for a while, 2001, that I ran across a website of someone I knew from the old days. She only came to our meetings once, and she brought ideas and shared them with us so we were happy to include her since she made the longer trip down to our neck of the woods. She had the unique job (out of our little group) of teaching in a district K-12. So she was always looking for ideas. Hard enough to plan for K-5!
   The problem was when I ran across her website; she had obviously used our lessons in her classes but posted them as hers. I know it had been a few years and she may not have remembered who exactly did which lesson but really give us some of the credit. This has been a thorn in my side for a number of years, and it is feeling fresh since I just ran into her site again as a link on someones blog.
   Now I ask you-- is it too much to ask that everyone mention or give credit to those shared ideas? I have been impressed by the blogs I read, giving credit each time to the artist, author, or just a picture they saw. We all admit we can't do it all alone, and if I can't remember the exact name, blog, website I will still admit it and let you know I found the project.

Ok so I got that off my chest, such as it is. It happen a long time ago and people who know me think this doesn't sound like me at all. Mostly because I often share and if you just ask or say "hey can I. . . ?" the answer will be fine, great, go for it. It is nice to know in advance, I guess the surprise of it was the worst part.
Tell them your sharing the idea, then they will feel flattered.
Enough- Forgotten--
Bye.

2 comments:

  1. Kathy, point well made! As I've been reading lots and lots of blogs lately, I do see many similar lessons posted, whether dancing giraffes or even variations on the cute artwork you have posted in this blog entry. Yes, we absolutely should give credit! I know for one, I am thrilled that people may want to use my ideas, and certainly by posting them I am allowing it...but my idea is still my idea and it shouldn't be a problem for the person posting to say so. As for the artwork in this blog posting, with the traced hands and feet, I have to laugh, because SO many people present it as original, with just their own little variation (people falling, astronauts, scuba divers, etc). BUT - I recently came across an old, I mean OLD book with easy lesson ideas for classroom teachers - I believe it was from the 60's - when I was still in school and many of the people blogging weren't even born, and there it was: the lesson idea of tracing the hands and feet, and creating a person using those tracings. sigh...

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  2. I love it. I guess nothing goes out of date, it all comes back over and over again.
    Thanks for the comment.
    Kathy

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