Week Three

A lot has occurred in the art room this week! I posted earlier this week about the Balance drawings students were working on and they are now complete and will be uploaded to the Virtual Art Show this weekend (as well as more images of the class flags). I believe I've said it before, but the VAS is used to showcase strong examples from each project and I try to take photos of everyone's artwork at least once.

Thursday students wrote their first artist statement. I explained to them that artists will generally write a few paragraphs about their artwork if they are exhibiting it in a gallery explaining to the viewers their thoughts about their work and why they created in. In creative arts, students will write an artist statement after every project for a few reasons: 1) To let the viewer know about their intent for creating their artwork. 2) To show me what they've learned about the culture or content we studied in order to create this artwork. 3) To further practice their ELA writing skills. Creative arts is a class that ties in to just about every other middle school content area, so I try to make the connections clear to my students!

I'm including a few photographs of completed drawings. I have a handful of students who are not quite finished, so I will be pulling them for ELT next week to provide them additional time to complete their drawings.

 

I'm excited for students to dive into their next project, the Kaleidoscope Name Drawing next week. Check out my social media pages for images of their progress throughout next week!

Week three of I&I had students building and testing their marshmallow launchers. I was impressed by the many different designs students came up with, all of which were successful! You can see some images and videos of the marshmallow launchers on my Instagram @msstrasserart_fcps. This was students' first experience using a design log and working through the design process. Thursday most students began working on a design process playlist, a mini-project that I'm excited for students to work through. The playlist allows for students to experience several different design challenges at their own pace and even selecting which order they would like to complete them in. Most of the lessons in I&I are designed for students to conduct their own research and spearhead their own learning, allowing for students to take their time and work at their own pace. Look for more snapshots on Instagram and Twitter as they begin sketching and building!

Class Flags

Good morning art loving people! Last week classes completed their class flags. I was able to hang them on Friday so yesterday was the first time students were able to see their artwork on the wall. Each class voted on an overall design for the layout of the flag, showing off just how creative each class is. Here are a few snapshots of what students created:

Students are currently working on creating their own composition that displays the three types of balance: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. I am impressed by the subjects and examples students are coming up with! No two artworks look the same because they have the freedom of arranging their composition as either one large scene or by dividing the page into sections. This project serves as a precursor to the Kaleidoscope Name Designs, where students take a deeper look into radial balance and Islamic art. This balance composition also helps students practice their composition arrangement and coloring skills, two techniques they will be using quite often in creative arts. Below are a few works-in-progress.

Follow my Twitter @StrasserArt_OMS and Instagram @MsStrasserArt_FCPS for more frequent updates! 

First Week

Happy Monday! Last week was a great first week. I enjoyed meeting all of my new students and I look forward to seeing their creativity blossom.

Our first project in Creative Arts is the class flag. We discussed culture and explained how we had a class culture among ourselves. Students created a list of topics that were most important to them as a class and began creating artwork to add to a flag. My favorite part of these flags is that the students vote on what the actual flag with look like, so once they are hanging you will be pleasantly surprised at the designs each class chose! In this first week, students were introduced to the planning process of thumbnails and rough drafts and even experienced their first critique, which is used to help one another generate further ideas before moving on to their final artwork. Below are a few images of the planning process from the first week:

Students also completed their first Draw Something last week! Draw Something is an activity I enjoy using to get students to think creatively. I supply them with a few lines or shapes for students to turn into a picture of some sort. I was blown away by the artwork I received on Friday because students thought of so many different objects to turn the lines into.

This week we are compiling our class flags and moving on to our next project - Kaleidoscope Name Drawings. Check out my Twitter and Instagram for more frequent updates!

Happy First Day!

Hello and welcome new students and families! I am excited to begin my second year here at OMS teaching Creative Arts and Invention & Innovation. Creative Arts is near and dear to my heart because I thoroughly enjoy all art forms, and it is a class where students explore visual arts, dance, music, and theatre in relation to world culture.

I was born and raised in Maryland, graduating from TJ High School in 2011 and earning my Bachelor's in Art & Archaeology from Hood College in 2015. I will also be graduating this spring with a Master's in Curriculum Instruction from Hood College. This is my fifth year teaching; I began my career as a part-time art teacher at Frederick Classical Charter School. This is a busy and exciting year because not only am I teaching at OMS, but I also co-instruct the Oakdale High Color Guard and I will be the OMS yearbook adviser! More information will be released soon about the ability for students to join the yearbook committee.

My favorite art media is charcoal, but I also really enjoy book arts and creating my own journals! In my spare time I like to take walks in Baker Park and around my neighborhood. I really enjoy theatre and always do my best to fit in each high school musical in the spring so I can #SupportTheArts and see former students on the stage. I encourage students and families to follow me on social media because I like to post frequent snapshots of happenings in the art room. My Instagram is @msstrasserart_fcps and my Twitter is @StrasserArt_OMS. I use this blog as a weekly contact with families to write about what students are currently working on in class. I like to post pictures in the blog posts, too, and at the end of each unit, I will post a select artwork to the Virtual Art Show. Head on over to that tab to see some artwork from last year's 7th graders to get a taste of some of the projects students might be working on this year.

I am looking forward to getting to know each of you!