art ed digested

Ukuleles are not, in fact, magic as I had previously devised. They require practice, which is the sticky widget for me, as I’ve never been one to practice any new hobby for an extended period of time (eg: piano, knitting, archery, yoga, bento…)

I’m trying to stick to this one, because I actually enjoy practicing. Hopefully my roommates and neighbors can say the same for my practice sessions- thankfully the ukulele is a fairly quiet instrument.

Here’s the latest installment:

A music teacher and friend, Anne Sheridan, created this unit as part of her master’s thesis, and I love the intersections of dance, music, art and history. While her unit is geared towards middle school or high school aged students, the themes transfer easily to any age level.

This is a great example of how teachers can use voicethread to make a beautiful presentation, collaborate with colleagues, and organize lessons.

Our fourth grade students have been hard at work on their Artist-Inspired Masks, and are nearing the final stage of adding mixed media to the painted surfaces.

I am ecstatic with the range of ideas being expressed, and the thought process students are using! There will be exciting surprises once students bring in their additional materials from home to add texture and meaning.

Check out all of the masks here!

I’ve also set up a new ArtEdDigested wiki to collaborate on lesson planning with my colleagues here at Kingsley Montessori School, and hopefully my new educator friends that I am meeting here on Edublogs and in the Twitterverse. Ah, technology, I love you.

As a long-time enthusiast of sock puppets, I realize that I have never done a sock puppet lesson with my students. I think that perhaps the world at large does not understand what sock puppets are truly capable of… pretty much anything.

One of my favorite shows of all time is Sifl and Olly, a short-lived sock puppet show on MTV made by Liam Lynch. Sifl and Olly, though socks, have distinct personalities, mannerisms and even singing styles. There are also a cavalcade of peripheral characters that make appearances such as Chester the intern, and Precious Roy, home shopping network host.

I’d love to make music videos using sock puppets with the music teacher at my school, who also happens to be a fan of Sifl and Olly. For those uninitiated into the world of sock puppet, here are a couple example videos:

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Javan Ivey, a student at Pratt Institute, created this video using the “Stratastencil” technique, which seems like a great, yet challenging, project to do with a high school group. Unfortunately, difficult is an understatement for elementary students; a ton of X-Acto knife blades in the hands of reckless 12 year-olds, strict attention to detail, and the patience to continue without instant gratification. Who am I kidding? These are problems that I’d have doing this, too.

Ivey explains the process in great detail on his website, amongst many other projects to get inspiration from. (BTW-The audio track on that particular video is not kid-safe due to language)

There is no end to my longing for a computer lab in my school. Oh, the magnificent things we could create! I should research the grants available for this…

PITT Artist Pens are my new little pet. I love the ease of shading with these gray-toned brush markers, with two nice fine tipped black felt pens in the mix. I’ve been carrying these around in my purse for the last month or so and have used them fairly exclusively for the One-Drawing-A-Day challenge. The changes in gray tones from marker to marker are subtle, so it’s easy to get a smooth gradation using only a few strokes. They’re like watercolors without the mess.

Because I enjoy them so much, I will conveniently disregard that they are marketed towards Manga artists… which is too tricky a subject to get into here… fellow art teachers may already guess my views on that kettle of fish.

Their description on DickBlick:

Manga Marker Set of 8 — Faber-Castell Manga markers are recommended by leading Manga artists for their performance and range of colors. Waterproof, smudgeproof, lightfast, archival-quality ink contains a high proportion of pigment. Set of 8 includes five markers in five shades of gray with brush tip, one black brush tip, one black medium brush tip, and one black superfine brush tip in a durable plastic wallet. A leaflet provides helpful hints and advice on getting started.

I need to get a set of these in a multi-color pack, perhaps their sepia set as well. I’m a confirmed addict. For me, markers are fun again. Whoopee!

This video has some great ideas for using non-art materials to create something unexpected and wonderful.

Yesterday, I experimented with two upper elementary students to make drawing tools out of things we found laying around. Some of the most useful tools were:

• feathers, their plumes uses as brushes/stamps, their quills used as pens
• beads glued to string and dragged across paper
• hot chocolate as ink
• long dowels attached to just about anything
• burlap dipped in ink
• paper rolled in tubes and used as brushes
• our feet!

I’m still going strong on my drawing-a-day challenge, and will post some new images soon to prove it! My students and colleagues are doing a great job keeping up on their own challenges too, I feel quite proud.

What art teachers really make:

• we make students learn to love their “mistakes” and look at erasers as violent weapons
• we make students look into a mirror and see possibilities instead of flaws
• we make students see beauty in a pile of trash
• we make students realize that creating Art takes thought, planning and practice
• we make students see through the eyes of our world’s history of artists
• we make students pour their guts out onto a page or into a lump of clay
• we make students create more than they thought possible
• we make faculty and staff see their students in a new way
• we make parents proud and jealous, because they “were never good in art” like their children
• we make reality-tv-free culture a hopeful possibility for the next few generations
• we make people believe that they can change the world with  a pencil, a pixel, a camera or a block of stone

What do you really make?

I’ve been playing around with this simple, yet amazingly rich tool, voice thread. It’s like PowerPoint, but web-based, incredibly user friendly…. and awesome. Imagine sharing actual spoken comments about a book with a class across the world, or having an art critique using doodled lines to define exactly which part of the art piece you are discussing!
Currently, it is FREE for teachers to obtain a pro account, so grab one and start experimenting! I have also heard through the grapevine that voice thread is considering opening a site just for educators soon.

I whipped this example voice thread up in about 20 minutes to play with a few photos from a recent trip.

The possibilities seem endless for this tool.

Edit- I just received this message from VoiceThread:

Download:

Our third graders started their stop-motion preparations today, making backdrops, creating storyboards and dance moves for their puppets. Here’s a very quick example that using one of the student puppets and my demo puppet:

(includes what not to do- my hands make too many cameos! must practice more!)

I love this time-lapse video.  My co-teacher and I plan to attempt this later in the winter with some of our upper elementary students!

Tomorrow, I begin my position at Kingsley Montessori School.  I’ve just set up an online student gallery and can’t wait to start sharing the artwork my students create! I am full of energy, excitement and ideas.

I have been taught, throughout my art education, that art and craft are separate entities- and for a long time I believed this to be true.  Lately, perhaps due to a near obsessive knitting jag, I have begun to question the validity of craft as “high art.”

Sure, many of the pieces made in the guise of “arts and crafts” are meant as decoration, nothing more- but as I see artists and craftsters alike displaying and selling their subversive crafty work, I notice they are playing with many of the same issues any artist, tucked away in their ivory tower, would.

Places like etsy and craftster, whose motto is “no tea cozies without irony,” seem well aware of the stigma that the word craft has put on what is just another form of intelligent creation.  I see these sites as a great source of inspiration and motivation to create, and to have a sense of humor. To take yourself too seriously just saps all the fun out of creation.

Will knitting now become my preferred medium? Stay tuned…

I first saw La Jetee as part of a media/performative arts education class in college. I was moved by the powerful marriage of still images and storytelling.

I would like to adapt this technique into a film/photography lesson for children.  Right now it feels like a perfect time for lesson planning to me. Hooray for inspiration!

It’s been roughly two years since I taught in anything other than a school setting. This Summer, I am teaching an art camp via a United Way community center and finding it a tricky transition.

Usually classroom management is a snap- I set ground rules and boundaries, have clear consequences for inappropriate behavior and rewards for doing exemplary work. When in a naturally unstructured environment such as a small neighborhood art camp, these measures go in one ear and out the other of my students.

My current sticky widget is inspiring my students to go beyond the first few steps before they become distracted by the 30 kids playing kickball mere feet from our classroom. There are (and will always be) students who aim to please and take each art project to new heights- but those few who decide not to try at all really kill the mood. I hate to force a project on students, I prefer to “invite” them to join me as we experiment together.

The students who choose not to try seem overcome with apathy and unwilling to imagine or play- a horrible thing to witness when it comes from a 6-year-old. I’ll take these children as my personal challenge… this will take some creative problem solving.

Silliness, thou art the answer.