First Year Reflections

One year ago today I returned from the FAEA conference in Daytona Beach. The very next day October 5th I posted my very first blog entry! In the past year I've written 77 posts and, as of this moment, have had 20,895 page views. I gotta say I'm pretty happy with those statistics.

My blog looked very different a year ago. I have learned a lot since then. I believe I have also covered many different topics over the past year. From professional development: in Santa Fe, at Penn State and online with The Art of Education to getting free stuff in the form of grants or just getting lucky!  

   

 I have written about using recycles to make art here, and here. 

The FAEA conference takes place starting on Thursday, October 8th. I will be presenting a workshop on using museum activities in the art room. Which I wrote about in this post and this post.

 

Attention Florida Educators: There is still available space! It is on Thursday morning and it's titled Look! Listen! And Learn! AND I have some amazing goodies to give out! A big THANK YOU to Faber-Castell and The Art of Ed for their donations.

I will also be doing a presentation on blogging on Friday, October 9, titled Born to Blog. It is similar to the one that I was a part of in New Orleans at the NAEA conference. Details here!

My blog is intended to INSPIRE! While many of my projects have been ones I came up with on my own-there are SO many wonderful art teachers out there that blog and inspire. The project that I am doing with my 3rd, 4th & 5th graders are one of those projects.

 

 We are exploring how to show movement with lines. We also had a discussion on craftsmanship.

 

 

I originally found the lesson on Pinterest but then managed to track down the directions with some wonderful visuals THANKS to Art with Mr. E. Check it out!

Thank you to all of you reading this.  I hope you will all agree it's been a great first year!

If you enjoy reading my blog, please consider following me or joining my Google circle. Thanks!

Museum Activity: You Be the Critic!

In preparation for our 4th grade museum trip I wanted to do an activity, with my students, that I learned about last summer through NAEA's Summer Vision, DC.  This program gave me the opportunity to visit different museums and learn how to use art to teach art.

 

 

 I pulled out a variety of art posters and put them out on the tables. Photocopied the form, which I had redone, gathered up the tokens I had made and laminated and gathered up clip boards. Ready or not here they come.............

You can see icons in the column on the left side of the form, and the explanation in the right column.  I made a class set of each icon into a token using different colored paper, you will see them further down in this post. 

Before students entered the room, I explained what we were doing and handed out the sheets. Students were told to walk around, look at the art and fill in the boxes.

 

 

Then I gathered up the students, gave them tokens that matched the worksheet, and instructed them to leave them by the posters.

 

 Next, we walked around to all the tables and discussed our findings. Renoir's painting of Monet Painting In His Garden didn't go over quite as well as The Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella.

 

Students were not wild about Paul Klee's Head of a Man, some thought it was scary. They really disliked Orange and Yellow by Marc Rothko because of the lack of details.             
 George Seurat's Seine at the Grand-Jatte didn't generate many tokens, however students DID believe it took a lot of time to make, but thought the whole dot thing to be weird. They LOVED the realism of Albert Bierstadt's In the Mountains and the marvelous texture in Young Hare by Albrecht Durer. The last one Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw by Augustus Saint-Gardens confused them, they based their opinion on the photography of the art and not the art in the photo.

The last part of this activity was for the students to draw one of the artworks in their sketchbook.

   

It was funny to see how many students decided to copy the Rothko, which they didn't like, but acknowledged would be the easiest.
One of the reasons I signed up for Summer Vision last year was to bring more historical and global connections to my students through the arts. It was a wonderful experience and I know my students really enjoyed this activity.

The variety of art posters were chosen based on what I have in the art room and the different styles of the artists. Anything that will generate a conversation will work.

I have downloaded a copy of the You be the Critic form and sheets with all the icons to my resource page.

Thanks for reading!

Looking Back at 2014

In the last 12 hours I read 2 blogs What the Art Teacher Wore and Art is Basic from art teachers in which they looked back over the past year. Since I'm new to blogging I thought I would follow their lead and look back over the last year.

In February we had our county fair and we were encouraged to do still life with our students. They really enjoyed learning how to shadow. In addition to the school exhibit in which we are required to participate, we have a separate art exhibit to showcase other student art. AND that's the one that gives out RIBBONS!!! This year we received  a couple of honorable mentions!

 

March was the month in which I drove the entire school community crazy reminding them, daily, to vote for me at Thank a Million Teachers so that I could win a grant for iPads in my art room.

   

As you can see it WORKED!!! We actually had a presentation and I now have one of those SUPER BIG CHECKS! Thank a Million Teachers is funded by Farmers Insurance. You might want to consider talking to them about your insurance needs as they are doing really great things for educators.

 The National Art Educators conference was in March in San Diego. It was the third national conference I attended and the first time I presented at one.

 

At conference I was part of a teacher advisory committee for Faber-Castell (not sure how I got so lucky!) but they gave us free stuff! My students were extremely impressed with the quality of the materials. Oh, happy day! Oh, happy day! (actually singing this in my head...)

 

In April, I brought my 4th grade students to see their art displayed at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs.  This was the first time many of my students ever visited an art museum. It gave me the opportunity to expand their knowledge on a variety of art related careers.

May is mask making month for our 5th grade students and they did an incredible job this year! I promise to blog about this in May 2015.

SUMMER VACATION this past year was filled with wonderful professional development opportunities as well as time to play! I played at a workshop given by the Florida Art Educators Association at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.

 

I also did a family vacation in DC for a week, sent them all home and stayed another 2 weeks on my own for 2 of the most incredible teacher institutes. The first one NAEA's  Summer Vision DC with Renee Sandell. This is where I had the opportunity to visit several different museums and learn how museum educators teach art using the art they have on display. The activities I learned were priceless and I promise to share them in the future!

   

The second week I was at The National Gallery of Art for their Summer Teacher Institute. I actually received a fellowship to attend which helped offset the cost of airfare and the hotel. The focus was on the French Impressionists and I learned so much, not so that my head would explode, but enough to feel like an intellect! It was just amazing how all the information about the artists and art movements came together and made so much sense. And they gave out a ton of free stuff, for me, to use with my students.

 

August was back to school and the really special thing to happen was that my daughter accepted a 7th grade math position at my school. We would work together this ONE year as my home school, that is being renovated, will be ready to go back to in 2015.

October was the conference for the Florida art educators where I had the opportunity to hang with Nancy Walkup, editor of School Arts magazine. She is the ONE person that has inspired me the MOST to attend conferences, professional workshops and to blog!

 Also, got to chat up our president of the FAEA, Karen Noble.

 And I met the Florida Teacher of the year, who happens to be an ART teacher, ChristieBassett.

Upon returning from that conference I started my blog! My goal is to inform and inspire other art teachers to do fun activities with their students while teaching art to them. Hopefully I am succeeding.

November was a crazy month which found me in Nashville for 2 separate weeks. The first week of the month was mostly spent at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center, where my son had open heart surgery. Long story, he is doing great and is back to work! And let's say after the sub that was in my room that week, I feel really appreciated! Then I was back up for Thanksgiving and enjoyed some fun family time.

December was our first concert/art show for the school year. Apparently didn't get around to taking any photos. It's still up and I guess I have a photo op to get back to. Also, starting to think about the exhibits for next year. Two more concert/art shows, the county fair, the museum and the district office display. AND I will need to start packing to return to my home school. It's all good!

Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year! And thanks for reading!