Art 24/7

Mayan Codices Results

2012-01-31T16:22:00.000-08:00

Fifth grade is completing their Mayan codices art project: accordion books that used symbol systems to portray each student's "story". Here's a photo of a Mayan codex (the Dresden codex) made from Amate (bark) paper:

The "Timeglider" introduction via Smartboard worked well, and I left the fine artist connection (Beatrice Coron) until the following week so students did not confuse the social studies standard with the art standard (and the past with the present). Thank goodness my students had a good grounding in the concept of "positive space" vs. "negative space", because cutting paper to create symbols (like the Mayans, symbols told the story, without words or drawing) turned out to be a skill some students still need practice with (linguistic learners had the most trouble, spatial learners the least). Also, although all the fifth grade was supposed to start the social studies portion of the unit as soon as we got back from break, about a third of the homerooms were behind. This left the discussion of the Mayans to "art", which took up some of the studio time, but we managed nonetheless (synchronization of integration pacing is always something to allow extra time for). The very good news is that students really liked doing something that related to a topic they were learning about in another area. Some things I adjusted to support learning as we progressed: 1) how to take complex images, like Wii remotes or a downhill skier and simplify for a paper cut-out; 2)cutting larger, symmetrical pieces, before cutting out details--for example a softball or football; 3) using current logos as examples of simplifying complex concepts. Here is an example of a cut paper accordion book from 2011 (prior to the Mayan theme being introduced):

One of the interesting aspects of the Mayan accordion books, is that students are trading them and "translating" the images, which is a lovely synectic activity, I've greatly enjoyed the stories my students have shared with me from their codices.Fourth grade is done with their "plot mountains" and "narrative planning sheets" for the cartooning unit, and we are (finally) moving into the cartooning portion. We covered Language Arts concepts including: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution (ending), protagonist, antagonist. Chunking the plot mountain first, then using that to fill in the first column of the narrative planning sheet was definitely a great Smartboard activity. Based on class polling, about 1/3 of third grade covers this material, slightly more in 4th, and in fifth grade they all do (but at different times). Lots of 1:1 conferencing on storylines. The main resources I used are at Read/Write/Think.Finally, the animations (thaumatropes and flips-video below) with third grade were very successful and students loved them! Such a simple way to demonstrate "tension" (3rd science standard) and "persistence of vision". I only wish we had done them on paper plates (larger) instead of index cards.

More Thoughts on Design Thinking & Reverse Instruction

2012-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Lots has happened since the new year started which kept me from blogging, but I am caught up on grades, comments, and display work (for now). Also, the Master Teacher Portfolio is done and submitted (over 60 hours of work went into that, but I found it to be very reflective). So, now I can finally write about how my "design thinking" unit with the fourth graders ("The Wallet Project") went, here's some observations: a) in a nutshell, very successful based on engagement and student feedback; b) I need to give myself some time to photograph these projects, because as soon as they were done and assessed, students wanted their wallets back because they either wanted to use them or give them as presents; c) letting the students do multiple prototypes and the mindmaps, although time-consuming, really was a very successful pacing strategy. I only have one picture to show from the project, but the variety of media choices definitely inspired this artist to get very creative (duct tape over cardboard with puff paint and scrap fabric bow ties):

Here is a great site for educators with a downloadable resource foe "design thinking": http://www.designthinkingforeducators.com/Very recently, districts nationwide have been adopting "common core content" standards, and the idea is that we need to go deeper with knowledge aquisition, promote argument and interaction with developing the knowledge, and "design thinking" is all about that!

Isn't that what robotics competitions, science fairs, debate clubs, etc. are all about? I am trying to bring that "vibe" to the everyday classroom, for all of my students (all 700+ of them). Experiential, investigative learning should be for every student, especially the ones who might not learn via "standard" classroom practices (e.g. auditory/linguistic). This brings me to reverse/flip instruction. I've been able to implement some front-loaded videos and instruction via my school website, www.lgirbino.com. Fifth graders watched a class tutorial on shading in class, plus watched the video on their own, and this year was the year shading using values was most successful! Furthermore, students asked for the website that the shading examples I put up on the Smartboard was from (a first), and wanted to do more exercises (another first). Here's the link from "artyfactory": http://www.artyfactory.com/portraits/drawing_techniques/pencil_shading.htm Additionally, third & fourth graders accessed cartooning exercises on their own for several weeks before we jumped in with whole-group instruction. Of course, I cannot expect a lot of students to be doing "art homework", but I do try to plant the idea that expertise comes from practice, and that fun resources for practice are available---"here's some to try from sites that are safe and kid-friendly." Recently, students are starting to ask me, "Mrs. Girbino--are you putting that link on your website?" And that's how I know the strategies I've implemented this year are taking hold. (During second semester, I hope to have more videos uploaded that are student-directed).

2012 & Beyond

2012-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

If there is a theme to the first week back in art, it would be "integration". Third grade just finished some adorable 3D cartoons I call "critter cubes" (see below, plus 1 clay piece from 5th) based on the Apex HS art guru, Ian Sands' "Zonkey Street". This necessitated some discussions about "word bubbles", spelling, and other LA issues I had not anticipated (note for next year :). Then, 4th grade is moving into our big Anime/Marvel cartooning unit, which involves cartooning (of course), but also, planning narrative and the "plot mountain". Bonus--cartooning involves using PROPORTIONS ! Then, as noted in a prior post, we are doing accordion books in 5th grade again, but looking at the Mayan codices for our inspiration. Additionally, I'm almost ready to post a few more reverse instruction tutorials on Vimeo. Interesting aside, as we were beginning cartooning practice this week, a 4th grade student specifically asked me if I could post the cartooning source on my webpage, wwww.lgirbino.com, so before the next class, I did. Took half a minute. Then, I reinforced the resource via Smartboard the rest of the day. For some students, this is no big deal, but for others, they really do want extension information. This was a good way to end my week...So in 2012 & beyond, I envision more overlapping of core and complimentary content in a very organic, yet specific way.

Timeglider

2011-12-15T17:27:00.001-08:00

Basically, experimenting with another presentation app, Timeglider, & made a simple one for a core content integration in 5th grade social studies: Hint: click on "start", then "list", dates start at 1200.

Technolgy and Robotics and Art Intersect

2011-12-14T04:54:00.000-08:00

Found these two beauties on Google+ and had to share on my blog (Ted Talk above) & 15 things teachers and students can do with Edmodo.As for tech in the art room, working through the bugs of rotating students on the art room Macs for Photoshop. This year, I'm letting students take up to 3 sessions to complete their "Typeface Face", which helps for the process, but messes up the art schedule and is a management issue only saved by major organization and lists. Some of the spatial learners struggle with PSD initially, the task is bringing everyone into the ZPD. I'm thinking of having jump drives be an art room supply, then we could do Photobooth stuff, Pencil, etc., without worrying about print cartridge costs...

"Scoop It" Experiment

2011-12-04T10:04:00.001-08:00

So, I saw this app in Google+ posting & tried it (see left).

Sketchbooks REdux

2011-11-28T17:07:00.001-08:00

We are wrapping up clay in fifth grade and I had students make their own sketchbooks out of cereal boxes (great tutorials on Instructables or ScribD) while we waited for the clay to dry and get bisque-fired. Now we are glazing, and for some reason, these larger sketchbooks resonated with the students and they are into them. So, I'm adjusting my calendar and devoting a few weeks to pure SKETCHBOOKING (best resource yet here). Why did smaller sketchbooks in years past fizzle? Somehow, I think the size matters. Also, next year, I need to get a powerful stapler, because it took all of Thanksgiving break for my wrist to recuperate from helping staple, and we lost four metal staplers in the process. What else is new? The wallet project is humming along nicely as part of my drive to reinforce "Design Thinking". Lots of interesting ideas, plus having students bring in a few items for their wallets has a fun factor for everyone in the class. I think the prototyping stage really helped scaffold the unit, and student wallets needed to relate to their favorite prototype they developed (out of two). I thought we would have to keep an ongoing tutorial about folds, etc., but never needed to because students came up with great folding ideas on their own! I'm including this crazy-cool video Jeanne Bjork made using a turntable and an LED flasher. "Time interval from turning LED on and off is about 0.04s(40ms)", which I am struggling to understand, but now I've got to try it!

Technology, Teachnology

2011-11-19T13:16:00.001-08:00

I've been busy on post-grad work, but also am in the first stages of a possible tech grant-writing team, so the topic on integrating technology is on my mind. A conversation came up about the balance of studio technique with technology on Tricia Fuglestad's lovely blog. Marc Prensky's Technology Adoption Model came up, where he claims teachers go through four steps in adopting a technological innovation in the classroom: 1. Dabbling2. Doing old things in old ways3. Doing old things in new ways4. Doing new things in new ways I do think using Smartboards, iPads, cloud apps, are solidly in #3. I'm aiming for #4. Is it "reverse instruction"? Is it a hybrid of UbD/21st c/"A Whole New Mind" (Daniel Pink)? One thing I know for sure, the larger your professional palette, the more students are engaged. Random thought while driving to pick up one of my kids from a robotics team activity: "Maybe have students film their own art instruction insights." I think that's the next step, possibly addressing Prensky's step #4. You know, Steve Jobs took typography classes in college for fun (old school stuff) and that led to having font choices when we type Docs, so where would we be without his appreciation of fonts? I remember having to render fonts from memory as the graphics professor walked around the studio with menacing comments, now, my students can see typefaces dance in YouTube videos! To me, a much richer experience. In graphics, I suffered to make perfect spirals with black Plaka on carefully gessoed museum board (no brush marks or the curve could "bleed" which the professor could see when they put their magnifying glass on it). Projects were "A" or "F", and redone until they were an "A". Still, I gained a steady "hand" from the experience, but also a loathing of typography rendering. All a moot point now, and years later, we have elementary students making stop-motion animations, thanks to the balance of tech/studio, or rather, "teachnology."

Oil Pastel Idea & Design Thinking

2011-10-26T04:58:00.000-07:00

Ellen Sears shared just the coolest idea to help students with oil pastel composition: they outline with white chalk first, focusing on LARGE areas outlined, then do the oil pastels, then the "batik" method (wax resists the black paint). So smart and effective.

Getting ready to do a huge unit on "design thinking" and am lucky enough to have a fellow teacher taking the journey with me. Focusing on essential understandings and teaching for transfer. Some resources I have are here. From the Stanford site:"The Wallet Project is very quick overview of the entire design process. In one hour they have students: * Sketch their ideal wallet * Interview their partner to gain insights about his/her wallet use * Define a point of view based on the insights they found * Sketch some new alternatives based on the point of view * Test these new ideas with their partner to gather feedback * Act on the feedback and build a wallet in the form of a physical prototypeWHY do we do it? * Fast-paced * Experiential * Project-based * Biased towards action (more doing, less talking about doing)"Much like the IDEO process of brainstorming/ideation then prototyping from found materials, revisions, market testing & finalization. Sounds like the real world, right?One last thing, in sharing my "digital footprints" research (from my UbD/CW unit plan) with "the world", I posted the TILDEcast online at ArtEd2.0. Here's a picture from that:

TILDE cast on Digital Footprints

2011-10-15T08:01:00.001-07:00

I was pleased to be a guest via Skype on our technology department's latest webcast (#9), on "Digital Footprints".

Episode 9: Of Footprints and Credit Cards from TILDE Netcasts on Vimeo.

"Flipping" in Art, the Start

2011-10-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've posted two videos on my school art website for instructional purposes and overall, I think the response has been very positive. In the first case, I posted a value scale video, somewhat jumpy as I was filming with my left hand and drawing with my right, but still, the students really responded to it when we played it before each fourth grade class. They were EXCITED to do value scales! My first thought was, "Don't overdo this technique", and my second thought was, "Awesome resource for students to review at home." Sometimes, there were "Cool!" and "I can't wait to try this!" type responses, and even applause. In the second case, I posted a "Typeface Face/Avatar in PSD" tutorial, which students could access for reinforcement of what they were already doing in class. The "test" group was much smaller, as only students who wanted to design avatars on the computers viewed the tutorial, but still, several students went from beginning proficiency to total mastery in one week. The "Innovative Educator" has some thoughts on reverse instruction, basically calling it "Lecture 2.0." I agree that would be a bad thing, but if reverse instruction is used as a tool, one of many, and is used as a differentiable tool (meaning, some students will love it and use it, other students will want other delivery methods), I am still very much in favor of it. I also made a Voki avatar, so easy and fun!

10 Studies on Arts in Education & Avatar Unit

2011-09-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

10 Studies Always an advocate for art education, I found this great page of study summaries on Google+ linking arts education to positive learning outcomes, including "in "Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts and the Brain," Johns Hopkins researchers shared findings showing that arts education can help rewire the brain in positive ways." Also, "Arts education may not just help raise test scores, but also the learning process itself, as a recent study revealed." (source: see link, "10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education"). In my art room, 5th graders are starting our very big unit on avatar design including QR codes and investigating our digital footprints. This unit was designed using reverse design, essential understandings ("big ideas"), and connecting content to the real world. Lots of alignment and planning work on my part, but so far, the results have been overwhelmingly positive! Students are very engaged, love the idea of doing something so "cool", and just yesterday, a fifth grade teacher stopped by my room to tell me how excited the students were about this unit (making my day for sure). We'll see how it all unfolds as we move from final drafts to finished art, especially because I have 6 computers and even with media options, I'm worried that students who want to design on the computer will be waiting. I put up a QR code outside my art room door linked to my school website (in time for curriculum night) & that has been a big positive , also (practicing what I'm teaching). Here's the code:

Drawing to Learn & Surrealists' Game

2011-09-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

Once again, the importance of drawing and learning is being discussed outside of the art classroom (this time, in a science forum):You can also read the full text in Science magazine at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6046/1096In the interest of promoting community, collaboration, and experimentation in the art room, I had my fourth and fifth graders create a collaborative drawing based on the Surrealists. Overall, we had a lot of fun while the giant drawings "in the round" were rotated a quarter turn every 7-9 minutes, then added on to. The Surealists called it something else, but I decided to call the activity "360 degree Zentangle".

Exquisite Corpse Drawing from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Flash Tutorial & 2011/12 Art Year Commences

2011-08-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm revving up for 2011/12 & the first few days in art have been delightful. Kudos to Ian Sands who posted the easiest Flash tutorial for stop-motion that I've seen yet...

Stopmotion in Flash Part 1 - Unit 4 from iansands on Vimeo.

Additionally, I'm posting my updated curriculum map, where I've really gone back to "essential understandings". Also, tried the "funny voice" technique for art routines and other than getting a bit of a sore throat, it was a really fun, easy, effective :).

Whole Brain Teaching & 21st C. Learners

2011-08-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

The title links to the WBT website, lots of freebies & resources there. I would like to make the first day expectations review more fun, so this elementary art video has a fun WBT take to it.

I wonder how the "funny voice" thing would go over with 5th graders?
Last thing, some thoughts on the "12 most important things to know about kids today."(my 2 favorites: #1-"They are bright and creative"; #4-"They are global learners and excellent teachers.")

The Big Month

2011-08-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Finished my Tip-In pages, the first 6 credit hours for new license, and starting to finalize my 2011-12 curriculum map. August is always "the big month" for teachers, where we unpack our reflections and sculpt them into the goals for the new school year ahead. I've put a lot of thought into alignment, enduring understandings, integration, and even more real-world connections. I got a lot from the post-grad curriculum & instruction classes, even more from the deep inquiry into curriculum which my team undertook. Of course, we'll be teching it up in art again & here's the link to the Adobe Education Exchange 2011 Educators' Choice contest: http://edexchange.adobe.com/pages/09a1b0d5f2
Here are the inquiries I am talking about (annotated from original document by Dr. James Henderson, © 2011, KSU):
Critiquing: "Individual and collaborative critical inquiries into the strengths and limitations of curriculum actions..."
Envisioning: "This envisioning work requires sensitivity to the vital relationship between schools and society. Educators must work as cultural visionaries who can translate their imaginings into active learning experiences..."
Poetizing:"Individual and collaborative inquiries into the poetics of teaching for 3S understanding."
Deliberating: "This deliberative artistry is consistently applied through all phases of the ‘circuit’ of valuation,including designing, planning, teaching, evaluating, and organizing decisions."
Personal Journeying: "These inquiries are informed by the “currere” interpretation of curriculum, which was initially articulated by William Pinar and Madeleine Grumet and by Robert Nash’s concept of 'scholarly personal narratives.'"
Cross-Paradigm Negotiating:"Individual and collaborative inquiries into ways to create openings for constructivist best practices and, ultimately, for curriculum wisdom..."
Lead Learning: "Individual and collaborative inquiries into ways to inspire, encourage, organize, facilitate and support informal and/or formal practitioner inquiry partnerships and communities."
Peer Reviewing: "This collaborative evaluative work can be practiced in a wide range of professional learning contexts,including mentoring, coaching, and in-servicing."
Public Inspiring: "Individual and collaborative inquiries into ways to inspire curriculum stakeholders to understand and value 3S education."
I realize these sound weighty, but in practice, looking deeply into your curriculum & aims via these nine lenses really helps focus educational goals.
By the way, "currere" is Latin for "to run or to flow", making it the infinitive form of "curriculum". Basically, the "flow" of classroom learning, evolving & interactive rather than unyielding. Don't you feel smarter?

Tagxedo

2011-07-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.tagxedo.com/art/292f26b865854360

STEAM, Game Theory, & Design Thinking

2011-07-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, as a result of these Teacher Leader classes I am taking, I'm re-envisioning what art education is all about (essentially, adding more clarity). First, we all know about STEM, but what about STEAM?
Check out the site for neuroscience research, brain-based reasons why we need MORE art in education, etc. Then, there is the cool but I'm still wrapping my head around the implementation curve of introducing game theory to educational praxis (better for HS?). There is also a TedTalk on this, see http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html Then, the one I'm especially enamored of, Design Thinking. The company readily associated with this is IDEO, and ABC News did a story on them 10 years ago: "The Deep Dive". Lastly, for kicks, check out the science songs from "They Might Be Giants" on their album "Here Comes Science". Also, great shadow puppet video here--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCPQws-4v2I

Generative Curriculum Leadership

2011-07-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

We just finished our Teacher Leader self-examining forms and I admit relief at my "critical friend" review being close to how I perceive my own understandings of curriculum wisdom, which is a step beyond constructivist best practice. So now, to put it all into context, see the title link for a book resource on being a "generative leader." I will post more about how this all could relate to art education specifically...
Okay, here's the nutshell version and I am officially inviting my teaching peers to join in: Constructivist Best Practice (CBP)--you faciltate students working through the knowledge, applying, synthesizing, exploring their own tangents.
Curriculum Wisdom--Using CBP, but also using backwards design, aligning all that you do with big ideas or essential concepts so students have clarity on connections. Equally important are the 3s's: student, subject, society as the curriculum is developed and aligned.
An example of a big idea: "Does art change culture or culture change art?"
An example of 3S: "What digital footprint am I making?", another one:"Who decides what is 'art'?"
Now for the leadership component, a professional always seeks discourse & inquiry in their practice (e.g. a doctor or architect), and an educator does the same, ideally. But also, invites others to join them in the inquiry model (deep curriculum inquiry). If you use the architect's blueprint as an analogy, the curriculum is standards-based (the blueprint-the what), the contractors get it built (the how) but the aesthetics of the house are left to the artistry of the craftsmen and decorators (with the client in mind). So, I'm building more time for tangents and reflections, really attending to the alignment and clarity pieces. I'll let you know how it goes!

Delicious Resources on Digital Footprints & More

2011-06-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm doing a deep investigation into the "curriculum wisdom" paradigm, which has a large "backwards design" component with a 3S (subject, student, society) overlay. As part of the unit I am developing, I am parking lots of resources for both "reverse instruction" (also called "flip instruction") and digital footprints on my bookmarking site, Delicious. Eventually, I will post more in-depth curriculum ideas regarding both. Among other ideas, I am planning a unit around avatars and QR codes. "QR" stands for quick response, and it is a barcode that can link to multiple kinds of data, including URL links, addresses, and text. I just read an article recently about companies wanting more artistic bar codes for their products, they call them "vanity barcodes" (see Wall Street Journal). That could be a fun lesson, too, now that I think about it...

TedTalk on Videos in Curriculum

2011-06-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

Summer Symbaloo

2011-06-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

I created a "Summer Symbaloo" for my students: sites we visited on the Smartboard, etc. & I tried to make sure the sites were free, age-appropriate, did not require downloads, etc. Here's a screen shot...

End of Year Teching-Up

2011-05-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

In addition to all the artwork being taken down & returned, the last projects (700+) being graded, cleaning-up, and order organizing, I'm getting inbox messages regarding all the freebie tech apps I signed-up for expiring. So now, I'm re-upping for next year! Animoto--yes! My Bluehost (okay, I pay something, but locked-in a good rate)--yes! Both blogs--yes! Slideshare--yes! Voicethread--yes! The title links to another site highly regarded by fellow art teachers, Edmodo. I also have to do an e-portfolio this summer, so I'm sure that will entail other resources I am not even aware of yet. And yes, I am teaching an animation seminar this summer, so I'm seriously thinking about Framethief. If I had used that for Rotoball 2011, I think our animation would have been so much easier (plus, a tripod). Now, back to grading....

Snippets of a Show

2011-05-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

Today is our spring concert/art show for our elementary. Here's some snippets of the foyer display for parents to enjoy when they come to our vocal concert. Believe me, there's over 300 pieces of art down the halls & in showcases, too! The main display is limited by the amount of display boards available, but we also just had our huge district art show (k-12) a few weeks ago.

Art Club Kudos

2011-05-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Spring concert season is in full force and my LES Art Club was honored to do the bug theme decorations for the Miller concert (kindergarten/pre-K building). It was great fun and we also whipped a few decorations for our LES spring concert/art show on May 19th. We even got a mention in the Miller newsletter (see pictures below). I'm grading and reviewing all the art from April/May, and it has just been wonderful to see where we started in the fall to where we are now in the late spring.

Shows: Evidence of Learning

2011-05-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

These past 2 weeks, lots of time has been devoted to our district art show (750+ pieces, k-12), and coming soon, the school art show (grades 3-5). I hang & label up to 200 pieces of art every 6 weeks or so anyway, but I try to glean the most creative and interesting pieces for these shows, plus mix up newer stuff as it gets completed. The title links to Dr. Marvin Bartel's show suggestions, but what really resonates with me is this comment from the website: "Philosophy: It takes extra work to make a nice looking school display of student artwork. So, why should we do it?
1)Children gain self esteem by seeing their work seen by others. 2)Art is incomplete without an audience." Agreed, and among the many reasons I make the time to honor my students' creativity and effort with ongoing displays, plus those 2 time-intensive shows.
So, during the early morning hours, I like to grade, label, hang, and photograph art (the digital photos are part of my ongoing digital gallery at ARTSONIA).
I always get happy looking at a completed "spread", which is 2 hinged boards, each board about 5 1/2 feet by 4 feet. They tell a story--not just about whatever project/media we were focusing on, but the progress that was made, the strides! I see each piece and remember a snippet of what a student told me (e.g. "those are flying ninjas in the trees"), or how we moved through a block ("I did not know I could draw/paint/etc. this good!"), and I simply forget about any other educational worries (usually along the lines of "no time").
So, spring always means extra work for a "creative" educator ( art, band, music, choir---we all do shows), but then, there is the evidence of learning--the performance, the art, the smiling face. Totally exhausting, but totally worth it!

April Animoto

2011-04-28T16:46:00.001-07:00

Culture Integrations in Art

2011-04-21T08:54:00.001-07:00

In third grade, we created original texture templates using tagboard, based on the theme of "Cultures". Currently, the third grade students are reading fiction stories about cultures in "Reading Street", and 2 of the stories, "Suki's Kimono" & "Jalapeno Bagels" served as our jumping-off point for imagery. We looked at kimono fabrics (see title link) on the Smartboard, and discussed images you might see in Mexican/Spanish designs, before careful cutting and gluing of their templates.Students were very creative with their crayon rubbings, rotating their templates, offsetting colors on the same page, creative borders, etc. Just like snowflakes, no 2 were alike!

Adobe Story

2011-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

So, I just signed up for a free program, called Adobe Story (see title link). It is free until April 30th (like many Beta programs, freebies have a shelf life). From Wikipedia: "Adobe Story is a collaborative script development tool from Adobe Systems Inc. It can be used to accelerate the process of creating screenplays and turning them into finished media. Adobe Story is capable of being integrated with Adobe Production Premium Suite.

Adobe Story is available both as a web-based application, and a desktop application. The desktop application helps you work on your scripts when offline, and sync up with the online version later.

Adobe Story is currently under development and available for preview." Pretty cool, most applicable for MS/HS. But, I decided to give it a quick run anyway. The 3 tutorials are straightforward, but it is optimized to run with CS5. Something to think about before downloading and bogging down your hard-drive. I worked online, without downloading & whipped up a quick script. It seems like a video pre-production app, but I could definitely see collaborations via Smartboard and an iPad or hooked-up computer. Here's a screenshot.

Photoshop Ideas + Visual Thinking

2011-04-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

In my quest to engage elementary art students with cool technology, I just found these great tutorials on Vimeo called "Photoshop for Kids" (see post title link). Rotoscoping, PSD “scratch art”, PSD “video art”, etc. So fab and accessible, thank-you Adobe for having Education Leaders! Also, this tech/5th grade teacher does a huge blog of tutorials for all sorts of apps (“Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Flash, and lots of open source “freeware.” These are tutorials and user-friendly, free or cheap resources on how to edit photos and/or videos in a creative way”). Yes!!! Bringing me to the grad class I taught last weekend on “Visual Thinking”. I am fully on-board with the integration of art processes to engage students. It is vital to keeping our students eager to learn in this digital era. I had the honor of facilitating that very concept with a P.E. teacher, Science teacher, Special Education Interventionist, French/Art Teacher, 4th Grade Teacher, & 3 Art Teachers. This diverse group GOT IT, meaning that everyone moved into the synthesis/creativity mode and embraced the value of learning THROUGH the arts. I had so much fun and was impressed with all the integration processes. More integrative resources at http://edexchange.adobe.com/pages/d4178d15ff
Examples---
Geometric Concepts (ages 8–10)
Graph Plotting (ages 8–11)
Marine World Digital Encyclopedia (ages 8–13)
Patterns (ages 6–8)
Plant Growth (ages 9–13)
Visualization of the Atom (ages 11–17)
Volcano Eruption (ages 9–13)

To that end, here’s a quote from one of my favorite “TED talkers”: “My contention is that creativity is now as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
—Sir Ken Robinson
Almost forgot the Photojojo geniuses came up with a fun kaleidoscope/photo project, HERE.

Hexagon Project

2011-04-08T04:35:00.000-07:00

"High school and junior high school/middle school students (grades 5-12) respond creatively to the many themes of global interdependence - real-world issues - and become a part of an international movement to create a more civil, peace-minded and just world.

This project is a meaningful vehicle for allowing young people to think and respond about issues of personal and global importance. There were more than 250 pieces exhibited at an exciting, participatory event in 2008 and more are expected in 2009!" from Hexagon Project, Flickr gallery, http://www.flickr.com/photos/interdependencedayscranton/sets/72157613056452488/
What a great way to integrate art/culture/social studies/math for the upper levels! I also think, the main project, available here, could be adapted for elementary grade levels. Always a great idea to make multiple connections to the real world.See the title link for 250 art images from this project on Flickr.

Also, the resources at Kathy Schrock's site are abundant & full of rubrics, content integrations, etc.: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/indexa-b.html

The Golden Mean

2011-03-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

There are a multitude of projects that can integrate math & art framed by the concept of "The Golden Mean", here's a brief video (converted from a Powerpoint, Copyright 2010 The Incredible Art Department), that can be shown/paused as needed. Additional resources at this site.

2D Design: It's Not Just A Poster

2011-03-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

From Art Ed 2.0, Dr. Martin Rayala has some suggestions for those "poster contests" we get requests for:
"2D Graphic Design should be part of a complete visual literacy program. A poster design involves students in doing a variety of jobs:

1. Art Direction - the whole thing has to be managed and pulled together.

2. Writing - the main concept for the poster - headline and body copy - need to be written.

3. Type designing - the poster is going to need special lettering for the main theme.

4. Illustration - a well executed illustration or photo will be needed to anchor the poster.

5. Layout - All of the above needs to be laid out.

6. Production - The final poster needs to be printed or produced (adding credits, etc.).

Run the students through the typical design process:

A. Ideation - what will the theme of the poster be? What do we really want to say? What is more unusual, effective, unexpected?

B. Visualization - everyone do a bunch of sketches to show some possibilities. Brainstorm - build on each others ideas.

C. Prototype - mock up some possibilities to see which are most promising.

D. Implementation - produce the final posters."

I have used similar structure in an advertising unit I've done with 5th graders in the past, and it has been quite successful. Right now, I'm reworking my curriculum map for next year, and possibly, this could be a huge literacy/technology integration.
Check the title link for 27 design tips structured by the elements & principles of art.

Origami Math & Soundsuits

2011-03-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

The journey for relevant integration is never-ending, but several nuggets of gold were unearthed today in my continual search: 1) possibly the best origami artist, whose website totally covers engineering/technology connection, Robert J. Lang (see title link). You can even download origami simulation code (not on Intel Macs, though)! Then, Nick Cave the sculptor/dancer, and his amazing "soundsuits". I think a lot of Chihuly's glass sculptures when I just see the suits, but the videos show how much the experience of hearing them is important. So, beautiful things, from humble materials, with incredible potential for integrative connections.
(image from Creative Commons of a Nick Cave soundsuit made from spinning tops)

Smartboard Figure Drawing/Cartooning Reflections

2011-03-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Just found a very helpful online site called “Figure It Out”, which really lends itself to drawing figures proportionally. I wish I had it when we did our cartooning unit, but better late than never. Basically, you just pose the figure, draw over it, then drop the figure out. Perfect for the Smartboard. Okay, so this year, we really focused on trying to come up with good story lines for the 4th grade cartooning unit as a Language Arts integration: Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure. Students got the proportions right, the process of drawing simple shapes first, etc., but I felt like the writing support needed took away some instructional time on the drawing end. I’m reconceptualizing the whole unit for next year, starting with doing “Figure It Out” first, then possibly making a game out of the pre-writing component. Then, maybe students can choose a narrative layout sheet, flipbooks, or collaborative brick films for cartooning. Just seems like a new “hook” is needed. I’m also including a link to a portal for digital portfolios, possibly a way to tie all my technology ideas together…

Resources/Rubrics

2011-03-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

We've been talking a lot about assessments in our school, and I've always used rubrics to assess artwork. The title links to a great resource for them, "Rubistar". You can click on a project-based content area, and customize a template really quickly. Other good resources, some repeats from earlier posts:
Thinkfinity
Teachers.net (does not seem to work in Firefox browser)
Schmoop
Teachnology (also has rubrics)
TeachAde
Cybraryman (has everything!)

LES Art Club Rotoball 2011

2011-03-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

This took a ton of time, 225 stills without a "real" tripod, so a little jumpy, but I'm still very proud of our entry for the 2011 Shanghai Student Film Festival.

Digital Natives and Design Thinking

2011-03-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been thinking deeply about "design thinking" and how structuring more lessons around real-world applications is important. A book has been recommended to me, "Teaching Digital Natives Partnering for Real Learning", by Marc Prensky, and it is on my next-to-read list.I'd like to make the ideation and prototyping stages more important, and even pull-in architectural thinking, game design thinking, technology skills---all of it spiraled in with the hand-skills. Much of what we are already doing is so good; having just hung art for the annual spaghetti dinner, I was really proud of our k-12 art program.
Some ideas Dr. Martin Rayala suggested to me through an education forum: "Look at what Ideation and visualization look like - post-it notes, sketches, mind-maps, photos, notes, etc. - show the process the students go through. Make the thinking the display. Parents will love it. Teach the students to think visually - with designed text (different hand-drawn type faces), sketches (of people, places and things), photos, frames around topics (thought balloons, boxes, explosion boxes, etc.), connectors between related ideas (arrows, lines, dashes, etc.), bullets of various design to show ideas on a topic (stars, black dots, open circles, squares, etc.), and shadows to make these things pop out from the wall.
Everyone will love to see for their own eyes the process of thinking the students go through to come up with ideas and to solve problems. Show them 10 sketches the students did beforehand that show how they were thinking through the problem."

Snakes & Graphs

2011-02-24T04:38:00.000-08:00

This video is a hilarious depiction of math/art integration, featuring a doodler "par excellence."

The Books of Beautiful Trash

2011-02-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on some units thus far: definitely adding a "Purple Hands/Palaces" project (see prior post (3rd grade integration with guidance); wishing the cartooning unit (4th grade) was "jazzier" and I'm looking at the artwork of Rama Hughes for inspiration (collaborative comics or comic anthologies or comic "jams")--to make the project more collaborative/"Passion-Driven"; puppets---possibly a performance component? Then, I'm also thinking "Girbino Strands", which align with state standards of course, but connect to at least one of four main organizing media categories (I'll post more on that later, but suffice to say, one category is "animation/technology", plus I want to get a sketchbooking component in there). So,having lots of interesting discussions in class about leaving your marks/not erasing, or at the very least, not giving up on your art. Found this great idea from Rama, who pulled items out of the trash all year and bound them into books which he called "The Books of Beautiful Trash"---brilliant! Right now, we are investigating "pattern" in art, and so far, students seem to love the initial project stages. The French curves that fourth graders are using have been a particular hit, I just wish I had more since sharing the six sets (18 curves) I squeaked out of the budget were not nearly enough for 28 students, but they all shared pretty well. The "old school" art tools might be making a comeback! Here are some oldies at "The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies". If you know what "pick-up" or a "Lucy" is, then you know what I'm talking about :).

Purple Hands

2011-02-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

Find more photos like this on Art Education 2.0

Integrating this art idea with the "hands project" (see title link) is one idea I'm considering for 2011/12 :)

Creativity Pedagogy & Drawing Practice

2011-02-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

We wrapped up a lot of big, messy, fun, time-consuming projects and are now transitioning with some drawing practice and formative assessments/scaffolding activities to get ready for working with "pattern" in all grade levels. Since 4th grade did so much work on cartooning, and many students had to be encouraged to "leave their marks" instead of erasing as they designed their cartoon layouts, I'm including the link (to title) of Monet's sketchbooks. A beautiful resource that illuminates how building a drawing requires lots of lines, even ones that may be less than great are still part of the process.
Now, I've compiled some pedagogical resources on how using some guidelines (or limitations) actually fosters creative growth:
"Creativity is often misunderstood. People often think of it in terms of artistic work -- unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. If you look deeper, however, you'll find that some of the most inspiring art forms -- haikus, sonatas, religious paintings -- are fraught with constraints. They're beautiful because creativity triumphed over the rules. Constraints shape and focus problems, and provide clear challenges to overcome as well as inspiration. Creativity, in fact, thrives best when constrained" (FEBRUARY 1, 2006, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Insight by Marissa Ann Mayer:"Turning Limitations into Innovation").
"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." (Orson Welles)
"In fact, the worst thing a designer can hear is an offhand 'Just do whatever you want.' That's because designers understand the power of limits. Constraint offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth and innovation" (Wired Magazine, "Design Under Constraint: How Limits Boost Creativity" by Scott Dadich, 02.23.09)
“When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl."— T.S. Eliot
"If I ask students to do whatever they want to do, they often avoid risk by doing something they already have learned in the past. The amount of creative thinking may be zero. When there are limits, there is a better chance of having a challenging task. Limits can encourage new and creative problem solving." Prof. Marvin Bartel - © 2001 to 2011
"Lessons without limitations are not very effective. Without limitations, students are prone to fall back on easy left brain habits and fail to practice new or difficult skills. We naturally avoid the risk of doing the unknown unless a good teacher assures us that the new way can help us grow. Well planned lesson limitations make it harder for the left brain to dominate while encouraging the right brain to practice." Prof. Marvin Bartel - © 2001 to 2011

So, there you have it, and it is an ongoing practice to balance limits and expression to promote artistic growth.

Great Lino Demo

2011-02-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

Anatomy of a Linocut by Bill Fick from Jim Haverkamp on Vimeo.

Since I love linoleum block printing so much and teach graduate seminars in it, thought I would post (thanks Craig Roland for posting originally on Art Ed 2.0).

The Myth of the Solo Scientist

2011-02-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I read a great piece by Jonah Lehrer in The Wall Street Journal (link to title). Essentially, Mr. Lehrer posits that scientific discoveries are no longer happening in isolation, by young geniuses. Rather, "If America is going to "out-innovate" the world, it's not because we have more youthful geniuses, toiling away alone in a lab. The age of the great scientific thinker is over" (WSJ, Feb.5,2011). He refers to Da Vinci, who made vital contributions to broad areas like medicine, civil engineering and geology. In today's academic world, future scientists will spend years in graduate school developing a specific expertise. In the real world, teams work together now, with integrative connections powering innovation. Hmmm---doesn't that sound like how teaching and classrooms should be? Of course, students need to learn their content (math/science/LA), etc., but how do they learn to collaborate? Much eduspeak is involving PBL, "problem-based learning", but the testing/data drive takes up much of the day. We just finished a big collaborative unit in fifth grade, and students answered questions as a reflection component. Three of the questions: "What did you like about this project?"; "What didn't you like about the project?"; "How would you improve the project?". An overwhelming majority of the answers sounded like the following (in order of the questions): "I liked everything!"; "Nothing, this was fun!"; and "Let's do more stuff like this." In our tech-savvy students' world, it is all about collaboration, and I just think we need to put more PBL into our curriculum for our future innovators. CMS Wire has an interesting article defining 3 types of collaborations:1)"Peas in a pod", 2)"New partners in crime", and 3)"Challengers".

New Animoto: A Day in the Art Room

2011-02-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Third grade completed puppets in January and fifth grade made huge sculptures from recyclable materials. Fourth grade completed a large cartooning unit, which worked out well because I was running out of room to store sculptures. Here's a new Animoto documenting a day in the art room.

A-Z Websites Starting with A & B

2011-01-26T04:31:00.000-08:00

The tech and learning advisor of Tech & Learning magazine has just posted the first page of great websites A-Z. I'm already looking into "Animasher" & "Animata", but there's plenty for non-art types like an automatic citation website, and online reading forum called "Bookglutton". See the title link for these & more! We are deep into our cartooning unit in fourth grade, which has a huge pre-writing component, and art club is firing up the stop-motion this week for "Rotoball 2011", so I am totally immersed in cartoons and sculptures (3rd/4th) this month. Soon, I'll post some thoughts on that and how crazy the art room looks right now, stay tuned!

The Passion-Driven Classroom

2011-01-19T04:36:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading a book from our curriculum director, The Passion Driven Classroom.From the Eyes on Education website (see title link):"This book presents ideas for planning and implementing a Clubhouse Classroom, where passion meets practice every day. In the Clubhouse Classroom, students learn new skills and explore their talents with the help of educators who are invigorated by the subjects they teach." I've always felt that I could never be an art teacher unless I was totally passionate about the subject, facilitating creativity, hence the name of my blogs, "Art24/7" & "More Art 24/7". What really resonated was the list of student comments about how you know if students are vested, too. Things like, "WOW!", "When do we get to do that?", "Can I come in to work on this?", etc. I hear these types of comments a lot in my art room! I revisit the curriculum and my teaching when I don't. From the preface:
"Unbridled enthusiasm, engagement, and passion gradually fade. By the time they reach secondary school, these have nearly disappeared...As teachers, our role is challenging. We operate in a standards-based,data-driven educational era (Hargreaves, 1994). In subtle and in not-so subtle ways, we are asked to ignore the creative, critical, and powerful force of passion in teaching and learning. Fidelity to the curriculum and preparation for the test have become the priority...We have teacher-proofed the curriculum and ...as a result, we have passion-proofed the learning" [p.xviii, preface, Maiers and Sandvold, The Passion-Driven Classroom: A Framework for Teaching & Learning, copyright 2011 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved. www.eyeoneducation.com]
One last thought, about the word origin of "passion"; it comes from Latin,"passus" which literally means "suffering". So, passion is not just about having fun "projects", but working hard, wanting to work hard in your learning. That's when you know the learning experience is rich.

The Cybraryman

2011-01-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

More snowy days messing with everything! Yet, the puppets are getting painted, the fifth grade sculptures are starting to look like the design sketches, and we have had a lot of good discussions in fourth grade on how to create a cartoon narrative (nice planning sheet at Read/Write/Think). About the writing integration for fourth cartooning: "A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind" (source: Read/Write/Think). Even better, the cartooning part is all about proportions (yes-math integration, too :). So, why am I titling this post, "The Cybraryman"? Well, I've found him to be a superb resource portal, and was sharing with our Spanish teacher. The online repository he has compiled has, indeed, made order out of discord (to paraphrase Einstein).

First Week Back

2011-01-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

You never really leave your art room, but the two weeks of winter break helped me catch up on planning while relaxing. This first week back was full of sculptural units (puppet making in 3rd grade and recyclable sculptures in 5th). I've gotten pretty good at managing all the messes we make, and the pre-mix papier mache powder was quite the mess. Loved seeing students dragging in all the boxes and tubes from the holidays as the basis for their sculptures, and you know the project is a success already when so many students remember over break! I actually prefer old-fashioned newspaper strips /wallpaper paste for sculpture units, but I had two boxes of the pre-mix to use up (no waste here ;), so 3rd grade has nice, puffy puppet heads layered over their newspaper/paper towel tube armatures.
Next year, I'm going with plaster strips for third, I think. The puppet unit is new, and I researched the history of puppets, creating a SB interactive time line for us to sort through. Quite interesting, and I'm glad I took the time to do that. We are behind on the Mon./Tues. people, so the mess continues for a few more days, then on to painting and embellishments. Management-wise, fourth grade is on a large cartooning unit (all about proportions, nice math tie-in), so there is a break in the media management. I always thought a stop-motion video of "a day in the art room" would be hilarious---studio clean-up by the students is top notch by second semester, but we really mess/clean-up the room six times a day, every day. Talking about motion, the title links to a compare/contrast of a static magazine cover featuring Emma Watson, and the "moving" version for iPad. Now, that would make an interesting HS composition project, "design a cover for both static and dynamic media."

Get Motivated

2010-12-30T08:08:00.000-08:00

Building on the idea that students need to be encouraged to experiment, extend their creativity, and be willing to take risks, I am posting this video. Sometimes, setbacks help us get our priorities straight, and serve as motivation.

Also, see the title link to an article on the importance of arts education (of course).

The Gift of Art

2010-12-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for 2011! I thought a good way to end my 2010 postings was to provide an art advocacy article, originally in the January 2011 SchoolArts magazine (see title). From the article, written by Rama Hughes,"Art is about making an idea into a reality. There isn't a single crafted or manufactured object that didn't pass through an artist's hands. That is art's life skill. It applies to everything from the telling of a story, to the functioning of a home, to the building of a business."
So many people tell me how lucky I am to have "the gift" IN art, but maybe, it is better to think of "the gift" OF art, of art being in the world, executed through many hands and minds...Just a thought.
I'm embedding a strong TedTalk which speaks to the education paradigms, and I think very relevant to art education:

One last site of interest, seeing as how I've been saving tons of paper towel tubes for puppets, Design Inspiration has creative ideas for that other paper tube we all usually throw away:
http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/amazing-toilet-paper-roll-artworks-collection/

The Gourmet Papier Mache/Site Tabbing

2010-12-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Dan Reeder started out as a teacher, but his passion for papier mache developed into a whole different career. His site (see title link), replete with videos, galleries, links, is fun and informative (his specialty is creatures like monsters, and especially, dragons.) My favorite video he has posted is a 5 minute talk for “Ignite” in Seattle, which is on the main page, lower left. Most of the videos he has seem to be age-appropriate for elementary, but always preview first to be sure.My third graders are doing papier mache puppets, and we started with a cool timeline activity I developed for the SB. Who knew that they found ancient Egyptian wood puppets that could knead bread? Well, my 3rd graders do now, and I even found the picture of it (after much research)!
Also, here is a quick link to a k-12 art mix on Symbaloo (thanks, M.G.). Symbaloo is a visual way to create live tabs for apps and sites on your desktop. From the site:
"What is Symbaloo?
*Discover pages with the best links about a subject
*Create your own pages with favorites
*Share your page with the rest of the world"
...I’m still experimenting with my own tab mix, plus I'm still just a big fan of Delicious bookmarking, arranged by content, and Stumble Upon. Yet, I can see the advantage of being in a rush with a class, and having that one set of tabs just a click away. Just this last Friday, I had all my tabs, SB lessons, and sites loaded for 3 grade levels' worth of art, and my PC suddenly froze and I lost it all. I had to reboot, re-enter passwords, etc. Still, I'm "quick on the draw", and all was restored in a few minutes (luckily, I did not need to set up a lot of supplies in that 5 minute or less turn-around). (FYI-Just read an online post about maximizing your OS, which recommends minimizing your log-in dock goodies, so just be aware that lots of tabs may be OS cloggers)

Cartooning and Yupo

2010-12-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

Third grade artists completed a shorter unit on “cartooning the Emberley way”. This involved learning about drawing with simple shapes and building up the cartoon forms (which is what cartoonists do in the real world, and is a basic drawing skill to master at this age level). The drawing alphabet is posted here, and Mr. Emberley has a wonderful site for young artists at the title link...Fifth grade artists completed a two-week project, watercolor on “Yupo”. Yupo is a synthetic paper which is reworkable because the media "floats" on top instead of soaking in. We started by doing large washes of color, then applied cling wrap to the wet paper. A day later, I took the plastic wrap off to reveal already stunning textural watercolors! The second week’s cognitive challenge, involving higher-order reasoning skills, was to “find” an overall image to unify their composition, then reinforce it with careful additions with outlining and detailing with watercolor.

Art, Design, Engineering

2010-12-10T04:47:00.000-08:00

This was a crazy week---with snow days, delayed starts,etc. Continuity is always a concern, but I was able to use some of the time brainstorming for next year. I would like to keep on reinforcing the connectedness of the visual arts in everything, and thanks to "inDesign" online magazine (please see title link), Dr. Martin Rayala beautifully sums up the importance of including "design thinking"in the curriculum:
"Students need to learn design thinking today:
1. Ideation (Identifying, clarifying and researching a problem)
2. Visualization (brainstorming, generating potential solutions)
3. Prototyping (selecting a possible solution and testing it by making models)
4. Implementation (present the best solution, produce it, disseminate it and evaluate it.)"
Which brings us to PBL--we are starting a PBL project in fifth grade next week, and it will run for at least four weeks. I also want to revise my Yupo project a bit, to scaffold the synthesis and application components (technique-wise, all is good, but I still think this unit could be richer).

Fun With A Pencil

2010-12-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

We've been doing a ton of drawing in art right now, cartooning (third grade), the design challenge (fourth grade), and several sketchbook pages (fifth grade). There's a long-ago author of drawing books, Andrew Loomis, and although most of his books are geared to older artists, he still has a great point about the "5 P's" of a good drawing: proportion (the three dimensions), placement (position in space), perspective, planes, and pattern. I've included a screenshot from one of his out-of-print books. Now, I just need to think about how to break this down for my younger students...

Cut Paper

2010-11-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

The title links to the absolutely incredible paper cut art of Peter Callesen, but I just wanted to share what my third and fifth graders have been up to: tunnel books and accordion books, respectively. I decided to really work on those small motor skills of cutting and gluing, not to mention the spatial/motor skills involved. Everybody sort of groans when they see the construction paper being pulled out (myself included), but then, as three-dimensional demonstrations with each class get underway, I've even gotten applause from the students! Yes, a lot of fun can be had with our old standby, paper, if everything in the curriculum is scaffolded and supported right. Check them out....

Finding Stuff

2010-11-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Some days, you can look and look online and never find that "quick reference" for the brainstorm you just had regarding curriculum. Today was a very good day for "Googling", because I found "Teachnet" and those lessons and resources are wonderful (see title link). What was I looking for? Well, it was not in there, but I did find the puppet making resources readily enough elsewhere. Currently, grading accordion books (5th), glaze-firing the 5th sculptures, and wrapping up tunnel books (3rd). 4th is on a large colored pencil unit. I just decided to change-up a sculpture project based on today's research.

Project H

2010-11-11T04:52:00.000-08:00

A story of "public education" and how implementing design education, even in a rural community, energizes and reinvigorates schools (see TedTalk on that topic from post link). From Dr. Martin Rayala's andDesign blog:
"Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation. She's teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers' minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state.
Emily Pilloton and her Project H Design initiative are looking at:
(1) Design For Education - the physical construction of improved materials, spaces, and experiences for students and teachers;
(2) Redesigning Education - a systems level look at how education is administered, what is being offered, and to whom;
and (3) Design As Education - actually teaching design in schools by coupling design thinking with real construction and fabrication skills fulfilling an actual, useful community purpose."
cited: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, http://anddesignmagazine.blogspot.com/

So, in my own little way, I have been encouraging "design thinking" with our current 4th grade project (designing robots, rockets, or translation tessellations) and I have found a recurring issue: students sometimes confuse "design" with "decoration". Even after showing pinboards, having reference books of inventions/rockets/robots, drawing samples, demonstration, and discussions about DESIGNS REFLECTING THEIR FUNCTION. (I put that in caps, not to show frustration, merely emphasis). I know some students have construction/build toys, at least some of them, so this was a surprise for me. Next year, I need to extend the unit by at least two weeks to allow some scaffolding of that concept---that there is a huge difference between "design" and "decoration".

Artful Thinking

2010-11-04T15:46:00.001-07:00

Busy, busy, busy grading and labeling art, and processing what has been happening in the art room (hint: good stuff). Which led me down a familiar rabbit hole: assessing creative thinking. The title links to Harvard's "Project Zero" resource on the topic, but the visual (also from the PZ Artful Thinking site) conceptually sums up what I aim for with our art experiences. Today, students happily made "M" folds for their tunnel books, and most thought it was pretty fun. In one class, in particular, we came up with the phrase, "Art is like P.E. for your hands!", which I truly adore. I might just have to make a classroom poster on that...

Sketchbooks are Back!

2010-10-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've gone back and forth on the "sketchbook issue" for the elementary level. We've made them and used them, but somehow the results were not as good as I had hoped. This year, though, I resolved to give it another go, but with the fifth grade. Plus, to get them more vested in them, we made them by hand & not just the old "fold & staple". I had the students use paper punches and take their time for one, then we went through a modified "Japanese stab binding" technique. Maybe it was the novelty of using yarn, or the "safety needles", or just the idea of learning an old-fashioned bookbinding technique in a Kindle era, but the students really, really liked making their sketchbooks. I actually heard students say, "I like the idea of my own sketchbook!" YES!!! It was also kind of nice to sit myself down and do a little drawing of my own (we were drawing dragons this week) alongside the students. I found myself more relaxed afterward, wishing I could find sketch time more often during my crazy day. So, we will keep them in the flat file, to sketch in here and there, and hopefully see some nice progress (I had the students date their drawings). The title links to an extensive visual bounty of artist Jim Pollock's sketchbooks, plus I've added the "Sketchbook Project" button at the bottom of my blog (good resources there, too). Just to be fair to my third and fourth graders, their projects are turning out nicely, too (collage and printmaking, respectively), but my mind is on how cool it was to just DRAW.

Teacher Portal

2010-10-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

I just found the "teacher portal" art teachers' blog listings----see the title link. The expertise of hundreds of teachers (not just art teachers[100+], but ALL subjects and grade levels [1,000+]). This is just about the best thing I've found to extend my PLN ("Personal Learning Network" since "TweetGrid"). And, don't forget about the incredible blogs listed at ArtEd2.0.

Pacing and Mock-ups

2010-10-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

I had a great early morning;days like today just feed the creative juices! I spent some quality planning time mocking-up a project I decided to transform from a simple "Paper Story" to a more interesting accordion book project based on an integrative conversation I had with a fellow teacher after our staff meeting yesterday. Long story short, I believe in working out the possible kinks with a mock-up of my own, then plan the lesson (reverse designing), yet still giving some open-ends to the creative process. The title link is to Marvin Bartel's wonderful source on planning/pacing, but here's an excerpt: "(Students) need confidence to experiment with expressive approaches. They need to appreciate the learning that comes from mistakes and to see how "happy accidents" happen. Sour lemons make great lemonade with the right additions. Empower them by building their confidence...Do not be tempted to tell them that quality doesn't matter...Say, 'I often make mistakes when I am learning a new thing...'"
"Never do any of the work for the students...Good teaching is making the hard stuff easier and making the easy stuff harder, but a good teacher never does the work and never solves the problem for the student. If you must draw to illustrate a point, do it on your own paper - never on theirs."
Here's a picture of what I worked on, based on the lovely work of Beatrice Coron.

Clay Gargoyles and Dragons

2010-10-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

We are having fun, fun, fun in 5th grade art right now! Starting with a Smartboard walk-through of some of the amazing gargoyles on the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. (see title link), and a discussion of architecture (the sculptures are actually downspouts!), we moved into making 2 pinch pots. Storing 250 pieces of wet clay is a challenge, but I've been saving those plastic grocery bags forever...Then, this week (week 2, art once a week for 50 minutes in 5th grade), we started adding gargoyle or dragon features. We will finish up next week. I told the students that we have to wait to add long tails or horns until next week so they do not get "smushed" in the bags. Also decided to stuff them with crumpled paper before we adhered the 2 pinch pots together (a good call, as some students are a little heavy-handed with their Score/Slip/Secure method). What a fun, exhausting week! It will be at least Thanksgiving before we start seeing the pieces come out of bisque-firing because I want to air-dry SLOW, fire even SLOWER. Of course, then we will glaze.

The Art Story

2010-10-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

I just found this resource online called "The Art Story", which succinctly explains Modern Art. The title links to a section on Richard Diebenkorn. We have been comparing and contrasting two Modern art pieces all week in third grade (Rothko's "Orange and Yellow" and Pollock's "Convergence"). First, students watched & discussed the meaning of colors, using the awesome Cortes website animations. We will start painting next week. I am always impressed when we discuss artwork at the elementary level, students have intelligent insights and make the most interesting connections! I love using Socratic method to draw out the conversations, I only wish that we had more time...

Drawing Games and Data

2010-10-01T04:40:00.000-07:00

"October 2010 is Big Draw month in twenty countries and on five continents. Launched in 2000, this annual initiative has grown from 180 events in the UK to over 1500 worldwide. The Campaign aims to use drawing to connect visitors with museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces – and the wider community – in new and enjoyable ways." (cited: The Big Draw website, see title link). As an extension activity to our "Line" activities in art, students who were done with their main projects could do collaborative drawing exercises (see this link for more resources to support drawing in the classroom). Based on the results, students really enjoy a one-day group activity like this!...Then, there is the data conundrum, which has cropped up in the Getty Listserv forum for art teachers. One teacher had students draw scissors from memory and label that drawing "before". Then, another day, they do a whole-group instruction on drawing from true observation (very Betty Edwards-type drawing instruction, which I've found successful at all age groups but be prepared to be on your feet the whole time). Those drawings get labeled "after". The "befores" and "afters" were the VISUAL data of efficacy. I have done similar exercises not so much for my own analysis, but to show students how much they improve with practice.

Vision

2010-09-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

from "andDesign":
"Scott McCloud has written books about 'Understanding Comics' and 'Making Comics' but everyone has come to understand that his ideas are about much more than comics. McCloud is one of the world's top analysts of visual communication - how it is done, what it means, why it's important.
McCloud talks about three types of "vision".
1. What one can not see - the unseen and unknowable. (Humanities)
2. That which can be proven or ascertained. (Sciences)
3. A vision of something which can be, which may be, based on knowledge, but is as yet unproven. (Design)" ---citation: Dr. Martin Rayala, 2010.

Even after a rigorous week of teaching studio skills and perseverance, I still am amazed by all the connections we make in the art classroom. How I love to hear, "Now I get it!"

We are wrapping up or line units and moving on to "color" in October (fitting, as the temperature is expected to drop 30 degrees in one day, which I imagine will jump-start the leaves to unfurl their glorious hues). One thing I am doing vastly different from last year, opening up the fifth grade clay project from slab-construction to a nearly pure sculptural experience. Of course, this means that I will be storing 250 clay pieces for nearly a month & trying to keep them workable. Here's a hint to the clay concept...

Two Integrations

2010-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

This past week, I reinforced curriculum in two grade levels, in two content areas. The first one was 5th grade Science, where a teacher grabbed me in the hall, excited about using paint techniques to help students understand animal camouflage. Immediately, I was able to share that as third graders, we covered many paint techniques like spatter, combing, and wash. I pulled together an original Powerpoint with the techniques explained, visualized, and the related animal camouflage, ending with science websites to explore and current artworks using camouflage as a technique. Second integration reinforcement was at the request of the fourth grade teachers, who have asked me to reinforce geometry terms, and especially things like symmetry and tessellations. I found an excellent resource, which blended seamlessly into our Smartboard-based discussions during the "flip-flop drawing unit". As "Arts in Education" week ends, I really feel like this past week exemplifies how important the arts are in learning (see title link for more on that topic, including integrative units).

Brain Buffet & National Arts in Education Week

2010-09-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am seriously toying with the idea of getting fifth graders on Illustrator & I think making "spooky skulls" might be fun---the title links to an mp4 tutorial (about halfway down the tutorial page). I also rediscovered Adobe Education, which has some excellent integrative Photoshop elements stuff. & the tech list for Art Club is growing: One Day on Earth on 10.10.10, FLOAT in Feb., plus Rotoball (start soon, due in spring 2011)...Lastly, every week is "Arts in Education Week" for me, but as part of the nationwide effort to support the arts, let me just say that you cannot promote innovation without the mindful skills creating art instills! Not to be trite, but making art is a "buffet for the brain". For more specifics, see my other posting at More Art 24/7.

Math and Art

2010-09-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Now that we are back at school, I've chosen to be more explicit about the connections between art & other areas, such as math. We are doing line drawings, basically, but third grade is talking about "parallel", "diagonal", & "perpendicular" lines, fourth grade is working on mirror reflections/symmetry in their composition, and fifth grade is making geodesic spheres. The photo (and title link) are about the science of art as related to origami. I also found another resource for symmetry and tessellations at:
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbsymteslk.htm
(30 activities, with at least 3 solid links per). I say it a lot, but art is in everything!

How Artists Use "Line"

2010-08-31T04:34:00.000-07:00

Line Power Point

View more presentations from gdimock.

We are talking about line and how to use it during the months of August & Sept. The title links to a page on NGA.gov (about "line") & this Slideshare is pretty solid, too.

Data Can Be Beautiful

2010-08-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

We are all back at school, and the meetings have started, too. Gathering data to inform curriculum is important for the grade level teachers, and it got me thinking about how data comes at us from everywhere in our lives. Here's a TedTalk about "Data Visualization"; David McCandless explains how visualizing data can be "beautiful"

And We Return (Yet, Never Left)

2010-08-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Back to school on Monday, but really, I've been back & forth doing school stuff. As an art teacher, you never really stop brainstorming, making art, thinking about your students. I think I'm going to download a free app, PENCIL, and see where that takes us on the computers and with animation...New website for my class hosted by Bluehost...Shooting a video yet also going back to sketchbooks...Title links to computer art resources megaportal...I'm including this link to Temple Grandins's TedTalk about visually thinking to problem-solve.I loved the "staycation" we had this summer, but excited to see what my students will create.

What Does Art Mean to You?

2010-08-15T07:35:00.001-07:00

What is Art? from Joseph B May on Vimeo.

Gallery Full of Ideas

2010-08-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

A gallery in Santa Fe called FiacobbeFritz art gallery has a beautiful website and a stable of artists that are very inspirational, both as potential art projects, and for their style. In particular, artwork based on clever homages to artists like Dali and Warhol done by a Ben Steele. Possibly, cool entry points to art history. Just brainstorming...Also, check out Shelfari.
You can create virtual bookshelves,discuss literature with like minds; go into "groups" and search "art teachers", over 560 groups there alone.

P21=Art & Design

2010-08-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

I started a discussion on Art Ed 2.0 relevant to our BTB 21 class, regarding P21 as it relates to art. A much-admired art teacher responded right away, "Three approaches to education are on the table right now:
Common Core - more specificity about the content of learning (history, science, etc.)
NCLB - focus on tools for learning (reading, writing, and math)
P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills) - developing problem-solving skills

If you expand the P21 Skills what you have is "Design Thinking" - problem solving by 1. identifying and clarifying the problem, 2. researching the problem and previous attempts to solve it, 3. Developing criteria necessary for a satisfactory resolution of the problem, 4. Generating possible solutions (brainstorming), 5. Apply the criteria developed in step 3 to possible solutions developed in step 4 to selected the most likely candidate, 6. Generate some prototypes of the selected solution, 7. Present the solution and implement it, 8. Evaluate the results by seeing if it works in the real world.

This is the standard Design Thinking process but is not really the kind of problem-solving we do in Art. I suggest we add Design to our identity - Art and Design - in order to signal our willingness to address and work to solve real world problems."
I am in complete agreement! Check out the online andDesign blog.

Ning Alternatives

2010-08-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Ning sites, especially Art Ed 2.0, but the formerly free service might be cost-prohibitive. An alternative is "Spruz",from the site: "Spruz is a software-as-a-service company, our websites are powered by the Spruz Social Website Platform. A cutting edge social website creation technology that makes it easy for you to build a website with fully integrated social features. Enjoy continuous updates, improvements and new features without the worries of having to install a software update again! Our websites are a complete solution with a robust website, hosting, support, and maintenance." Although the basics are free, optional features start at under ten dollars a month...For the past three days, I've been trolling the countryside, antiquing, taking pictures, and going to local arts festivals. Inspirational and a good way to get imagery for the busy months ahead, meaning once school gets started. Found an odd Russian Orthodox church in the middle of Amish country for instance, definitely an image to be explored either in a lino cut or drawing. It is the shrine and church of Mariapoch. It was quite a visual icon, seeing a small "onion dome" amidst the rolling Amish farm fields!

ATC Animoto

2010-07-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

Also, see link to title for "Art Through Time: A Global View examines themes connecting works of art created around the world in different eras. The thirteen-part series explores diverse cultural perspectives on shared human experiences."

P21 Arts Map for K-12 Learning

2010-07-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

From eSchool News: "Working with national arts organizations, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has developed a first-of-its-kind Arts skills map that clearly defines how arts education promotes key 21st-century skills.

The map, the fifth in a series of core content maps from P21 (others include Geography, Science, Social Studies, and English), gives examples how critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation (P21’s “four Cs”) can be fused within arts curricula (including dance, music, theater, and visual and media arts).

The map comes at a critical time for arts education in schools, which often are the first programs to be cut when budgets are tight. Having an outline of how arts education can reinforce skills that are viewed as critical for success in the new global economy could help keep arts programs in schools.

'We think that this map will work as a motivator for administrators, as well as funders, when considering art programs in today’s schools,' said Michael Blakeslee, senior deputy executive director of MENC, in an interview with eSchool News."
get PDF here: www.p21.org/documents/P21_arts_map_final.pdf

TweetGrid

2010-07-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, as part of my summer technology class, I followed a "Teacher Tuesday" #edchat on Twitter. It was a great topic, textbooks vs. online sources. I had a hard time jumping in just off of Twitter, and noticed some people were using "TweetGrid". It is a cloud program, no downloads, and I found that I could follow 3 columns of discussions pretty easily. I learned a lot from all three discussions that I followed, one art ed, one ed chat, one tech chat. Very cool and intense professional development.

Color Theory Slideshare

2010-07-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Color Wheel #2

View more presentations from Susan Convery Foltz.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity | Video on TED.com

2010-07-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com
So true & so good regarding nurturing creativity, makes me wish I had enjoyed her book more ;)

Rotoball 2010 Revisit

2010-07-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

Since so much of our BTB class is about 21st century skills and problem-based learning, I've reposted our LES art club's animation (linked to title). One of the 225 stills is to the left.

#BTB21: Ted Talk

2010-07-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

As part of my tech class, I researched some "TedTalks" and found a beauty (linked to title), Benoit Mandelbrot himself ( I had assumed he was dead!) describing, in his lovely French accent, "order in the world of roughness". As I teach fractals in art, specifically designing the easiest ones--Scierpinski Triangle, I had to watch. Mandelbrot did not disappoint. He explained that, if you fill in a Brownian Motion, you get an island. The three math whizzes who took twenty years to derive the proof ended up with a Fields Medal in Mathematics. You can find fractal aspects in such widely varied things as cauliflower, ancient Japanese art, the Eiffel Tower, music, and the stock market. The Mandelbrot Set (see pictoral representation of formula) predicts all these things with the elegant equation of z->z(squared)+c...This just proves my theory that art is in everything!

#BTB21

2010-07-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

The title is our "Beyond the Buzz: 21st Century Skills" class Twitter "hashtag", which I've linked to a page I added on teaching creativity (from a Newsweek article). I'm almost done with my "Tip-In" pages, which I will add a scan of later. So far, I've enjoyed my technology class, but getting interactivity when people are on summer break has not been easy. Skyped with Nancy this morning & later, tweeted, but now I'm ready to get back on the art...Here is my completed "Tip-In" (the printing ink finally dried enough for a scan) for the Getty Listserv, the theme was "A New Way of Seeing".

Completed ATC's

2010-07-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

I completed my first art project of the summer, the Art Ed 2.0 ATC's. Basically, I like them, although I needed to wrap some jeweler's wire around them at the end to get the funky feel I wanted. Also, if there's a next time, I plan on cutting windows into the center, add a tag, possibly joint them somehow for a kinetic feel. The limitations included the size and they needed to be flat enough to fit into a plastic trading card sleeve, though. This is going to be cool enough to show my students when we do ATC's in the fall.

Chapters 2/3 in "Powerful Learning"

2010-07-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

The blog title links to ORC resources for metacognitive teaching: "ORC enhances teaching and learning by promoting standards-based best practices in mathematics, science, and reading for Ohio schools and universities. ORC serves as a trusted source of easily accessible, peer-reviewed, high-quality, and effective resources" Basically, both chapters about teaching for understanding, whether it is in reading (chapter two) or math (chapter three) focus on the importance of teaching not just procedural knowledge, but conceptual knowledge. Additionally, best practices research shows data supporting inquiry instruction as more cognitively powerful. Okay, sold on all counts, but where does art (my content expertise) come in? A:
Embed math/reading curriculum "throughout the curriculum and throughout the school day." The description of the "five interwoven strands of mathematical proficiency" for instance, just as easily describe my art curriculum: "conceptual understanding...procedural fluency...strategic competence...adaptive reasoning...productive disposition. (p.142)" Using reading strategies in the art room can engage students and support literate behavior, which projects like CORI and GIsML exemplify...All the more reason why the sketchbook revision to my curriculum is necessary (more on that in the fall).

Chapter Reflection: Powerful Learning

2010-07-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm a very fast reader, but I took my time with the introduction and first chapter because I agreed with so much of the content, and saw many parallels to what I try to do in my art room. Insights from the intro: Today's worker will hold more than ten jobs before the age of forty and that new technical information is doubling every two years, and predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010. So, how can we continue to educate the same old way? We should use inquiry-based methods and a meta-cognitive approach.Insights from chapter 1 ("How Can We Teach for Meaningful Learning?"):firstly, multiple research projects prove the efficacy of meaning-oriented teaching for all students, not just for high-achievers; challenges include time, but also teachers need to carefully design scaffolds, make the tasks meaningful, and engage the students in "cognitive apprenticeship". So much of what I read was how I try to teach, or want to teach, my biggest limitation is time sequence (elementary art once a week for 45 minutes). I do find the issue of balancing "creating time" against "reflecting and discussion time" a problem, tending to give as much time as possible to creative process. Most of the projects discussed were group projects, which I love, but students want their own art to take home, too, another issue. 2 truths from pages 68, 69: "focus on process and tasks that allow students to see prowess not as a fixed trait but as a dynamic state that is primarily a function of the level of effort..." & "(PBL)practices are grounded in a conception of learning as developmental and a belief that all students will learn from experience and feedback, rather than being constrained by ability."

21st Century Skills Reflection 1

2010-06-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

We had our introduction meeting this morning from 8 a.m. to noon, and it was nice to see a colleague who went to another building, plus meet three new people on staff at other buildings. The whole class, I was pretty much thinking, "Glory Hallelujah!"; this is a class that will extend what I already do with tech. Joined the wiki (helped that I already had an account), ditto for adding my 2 blogs to the contact list, got a Twitter account (which I had previously, erroneously, thought was for tween texters and celebs). I linked the post title to our wiki, and I'm planning on going all-in for those 30 PDU's...I think it will be tremendous fun, in fact, I anticipate getting a whole new world of resources from this. I knew things would be good when Andrew showed my favorite "TedTalk" with Sir Ken Robinson. My favorite quote: "Creativity is as important as literacy...and should be treated with equal status!"

ATC Progress

2010-06-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

I started on my ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) for the 2.0 group, but still thinking about my Tip-In design. So far, I cut apart 6 Altoids tins, flattened the lids and sanded them. Then, I adhered poster board to the backs and put some textural gesso on them. I'm still working on how to honor the tin design and make my own art, plus keep them visually intricate. I linked the title to a resource for things like altered books and collage at "go make something" blog. Additionally, I'm starting a technology class next week. So, I'm making good on those plans outlined earlier. Here's some Photobooth piks of the early stages of my ATC's.

Make Your Own Sign

2010-06-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sign generator for fun.

Sketchcast is Back

2010-06-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

For a while there, Sketchcast disappeared, but it is back and I plan on making several over the summer to support my curriculum. Of course, Jing also is available, and that will come in handy for the Photoshop tutorial I plan to make over the summer, too. I'm starting a "tip-in" project with 29 other art educators all over the country, where we all design an art page (10X) to mail out & share, getting 10 other pages in return, which are then inserted (tipped-in) to a discarded book. Here's a lesson plan for tip-ins. Plus, the usual summer plans of gardening, family, catching up on the house projects, and the summer is full. I'm hoping to complete a print for an upcoming art show, plus I got a cool present from a student--a sketchbook! I'd love to fill it up, then bring it back for all my students that I exhorted to draw over the summer.

Motivation

2010-06-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

End of the Year Reflection

2010-06-10T04:23:00.000-07:00

Last night, I wedged up that huge pile of clay left over from the last clay project--probably 200 pounds worth. I always leave it to the fall, then curse myself for doing that because I get crazy-busy almost immediately. I used the time while wedging to reflect back on the year. One of the coolest websites I found was this past week (see title link), which I used with my third graders to reinforce the concept of "pattern" while they designed their own Grecian urns. They loved it and the interactive timeline works great with the Smartboard. Other surprise successes--the shadow pastels & early in the year, zentangles. As always, students love the cartooning unit (so do I). Big change for next year--a recyclable sculpture project for third grade and more emphasis on story boarding for fifth grade; we will use a sketchbook for that, I think. Another cool end of the year find, a visual bookmarking site, called Symbaloo. I personally still love Delicious, and use Stumble-Upon to find original sites, but students would love the visuals in Symbaloo as they are very "I-Pad-ish" (nice word I just made up). Final thought: Art is at the center of the 21st century, here's the link that discusses that point. That's it for my end of the year reflection, I'll be posting over the summer--have a good one!

E-Learning Edublog

2010-06-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to "Artfully" who already compiled a masterly list of e-learning sites specifically for educators (main link). Then, here's "55+ Extremely Useful Online Generators for Designers" . Lastly, online instructional design resources... I have done "e-learning" for some of my graduate credits for license renewal, plus this year, my son will take an online class, yet I admit to mixed feelings on this topic. In a recent ArtEd2.0 thread, we discussed what makes a teacher "boring". I have to wonder, if students are not engaged in a classroom setting, will an online venue be any better? I've gotten a lot out of my own PLN (personal learning network), but for me, the "magic" happens in the classroom, with the students, and each day brings a different dynamic that I enjoy. I guess that I look at this as another media in the teacher's palette; I hope we can still engage learners in multiple modalities.

Timeline Creation Resources

2010-06-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of the year, I am always revisiting that original curriculum map...What were the successes? What needs to be changed? To that end, I've been researching more art history connections, and found a mega-list of timeline resources (see title link). I've also decided to revisit sketchbooks as a learning reflection and embed sketching into more projects (which is hard to do when art is only once a week). Incredibly, the year is almost over and I'm starting a bit of prep for next year! I am so glad that every student has a piece on Artsonia as the art room is starting to look pretty bare, but there's always the online art.

Art Flarf

2010-05-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

The art order is done, the projects are graded, shows are over, taken down, and the artwork returned. I just read about this poetry movement very similar to Dada art, which involves "Googling" words or phrases that are not normally considered together (e.g. chicken + archeology), then compiling the the results into a poem. Here is my art advocacy flarf based on the two phrases, "creative + world without":

World Without by L. Girbino ©2010
A world without imagination is like living in the past.
Experience is everything, but
I can't run a marathon without starting to run right now.
People are different and it is in these differences that
This feels like a creative world without limitations.
Without it, life would be like everything, with a silence.

Paper Airplane Time & One Day

2010-05-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Now that spring is here, summer just around the corner, here's a great link for paper airplane patterns from world record holder, Ken Blackburn (end of the year lesson plan incorporating engineering maybe?). Also, signed my art club for the "One Day on Earth" project next year, filming 24 hours on 10.10.10. Here's the site. Educators can get a free toolkit.

The founding principles of "One Day On Earth" (source: www.onedayonearth.org)

1. Perspective: We are creating a time capsule for the whole world to better understand itself.
We strive to find out who we are as human beings because it is beneficial to our sustainability as a species.
2. Inclusivity: The project is free and open to all people, cultures, creeds, and nationalities.
3. Individuality: We are here to empower your voice. The individual, you, are being given a chance to put something in the world's time capsule. You have one day to document what matters most to you.
This is a celebration of individual beliefs, expression and perspective.
4. Community : We strive to connect people through both their differences and similarities. We strive to
create and support future collaborations amongst participants. We strive to create a community that fosters communication.
5. Education: The process of creating, interacting and viewing our project will have educational value for students of all ages. We will strive to support any educational institution that wishes to participate in the project with the necessary tools to do so.
6. Technology: We will always embrace any technology that better allows us to live up to our principles
We realize this project is only now possible because of the evolution of technology and we will always grow with technology to make an even better picture of the world.

Sketchbooks in Schools

2010-05-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to redesign my curriculum map for next year and I am tempted to revisit sketchbooks based on the great UK website linked to the post title. If I have each student create one at the beginning of the year, put their reflections and rough drafts inside, it might just work better than a "stand-alone" sketchbook unit (I have tried these in the past in multiple grade levels with mixed results). Another sketchbook resource (there are several, so noodle around the site): ArtJunction
Since I am also trying to reinforce language arts skills, I am just about convinced this is the way to go, even with 700 students :).

Let Out Your Creative Beast

2010-05-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

The title post is linked to a really cute slideshare presentation about being creative: simple, short, neat for kids. I like the style of it, too, with the usage of post it notes...Right now, the "creative beast" is roaring, as students are trying their hand at several drawing challenges: one & two point perspective, and a design challenge called "Vormator". The big, messy projects are over as most of those supplies are long-gone, but we still have some colored pencils and our creativity. Over the summer, I think I need to make some slideshare post-it presentations myself. Another excellent resource is at Edubloggerz! (go to the technology/education tab, then read about "animation", for instance.

Art Education and Cognition Websites

2010-05-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

The title links to Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites:
The internet catalogue for students, teachers, administrators & parents.
Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience.
This is very topical for me, as I have been thinking and talking about the cognitive benefits of learning through the visual arts! See this link for more regarding brain cognition and art.
Also: Milbrandt, Felts, Richards & Abghari (2004) from " Teaching to learn: A constructivist approach to shared responsibility"
Overview: "Cognitive theory has been found to support the traditional approach to teaching a comprehensive art study program using the constructivist approach...Students actively engage creatively in art production & utilize cognitive skills of analysis, interpretation, problem solving, & construction of meaning called cognitive divergence...Students integrate fragmented information into previous stored information, Efland calls flexible cognition."