Term II Recap

 It always frustrates me when I remember I forgot to post here and then realize it's been several weeks since I last shared any work! Since I last posted, students completed their Spooky Radio Plays and Synesthesia Artwork - both projects are featured on the Virtual Art Show (click the tab above). I was beyond impressed by the outcome of both projects. Students have been learning to think outside the box and be creative with the materials and supplies they have available to them at home. I especially enjoyed hearing the radio plays that featured family members - something we wouldn't have necessarily gotten to hear if we were currently in the classroom.

I'm sharing a few examples of the synesthesia drawings here, too. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon that occurs in only 4% of the population. Their brain connects more than sense together, so people with chromesthesia actually see colors when they hear sounds. In order to simulate this experience, students chose a song and created an artwork showing what they visualized when they listened to it. Some students created an abstract artwork, combining lines, shapes, and colors that conveyed the emotion behind the song, while others created a more literal drawing with imagery from the song. All of the submissions were phenomenal!

In order to plan for their artwork, students had to listen to their song and brainstorm what images or colors came to mind. From there, they created 3 thumbnail sketches where they quickly sketched out any ideas they had for their composition. Next, they narrowed down their idea (some used one thumbnail, while others combined aspects from more than one), and created a rough draft. The student artwork featured below shows a student creating his thumbnails and rough draft on paper, and then he chose a website to create his final artwork digitally.

Currently, students are working on the Latin America Passport project. I am so excited for this one! This project I crafted up with two other creative arts teachers. Students got to choose which pathway they wanted to learn about for this project: visual art, music/dance, or theatre. Students who chose the visual art pathway learned about a few Mexican artists, looking at the artwork they created during the time of the Mexican Revolution. For their final product, students are creating an original artwork that conveys their feelings toward a current event or social issue, while using a similar style, technique, or subject as one of the master artists they chose to research. Students working on the music/dance pathway learned about the Cha Cha and created their own Cha Cha rhythm using a program called Groove Pizza, and are currently learning how to perform the dance. Their final product will be a video of them dancing the Cha Cha to the song they put together. Lastly, the students who chose the theatre pathway learned about alebrijes. They created their own alebrije and wrote a monologue for them to preform that tells the story of a dream they had involving their alebrije. 

Each pathway allows for extreme creativity. My favorite part of this project is that students were able to select which project they felt more comfortable with and interested in. The submissions are due on Wednesday, so I will try to update the virtual art show during winter break. 

If I don't get a chance to post again before the new year - have a wonderful and relaxing winter break!

The End of Term 1

 Today is the last day of Term 1! I am seriously so pleased with how well students have adapted to virtual learning. I miss being able to see my students every day, but we are covering a lot of great stuff in our few sessions each week, and I've been trying to craft up virtual lessons that are both meaningful and fun for students.

I wanted to show off some of the incredible Draw Something! artworks students have produced over the last few weeks. This is a drawing activity that I gave to students often in person, and I recently discovered a digital tool that allows students to draw! Using Kami, students were able to use the lines that I left them and turn them into creative drawings! This is an activity I introduced on our Wednesday Doodle Days, so this is what students were able to come up with in the 30 minute class - here are a few highlights from the submissions:

Recently, students have been working on a spooky radio play project. We listened to some examples of radio plays, like Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, and students are working on creating their own short stories. I have been so impressed while reading through the scripts students are working on, and I can't wait to hear the final product! I am hoping to share some of the recordings on our Virtual Art Show once they are completed.

Elements of Art Presentations

 It's been nearly a month since my last post, but that's because students have been busy, busy, busy! We've had three areas of focus: interpreting artwork, writing strong discussion posts and learning about the Elements of Art. Discussion boards are a great way for students share their thoughts with one another in the virtual setting. Students have been practicing identifying how artwork can tell a story or evoke a mood through context clues within the art and sharing their ideas through discussion posts. I'm really proud to see how well students are taking to this concept, as it is one that will follow them throughout creative arts, and it is closely related to identifying mood or theme within literature, like they do in ELA. 

In the last couple of weeks, students have been working on becoming experts on one Element of Art. The elements are the building blocks of art, and each class was divided into 7 teams (one for each element) to research and create a slideshow to present their findings with the class. Students yet again have been doing a fantastic job collaborating with one another and making these presentations together even though they are working from separate locations. Below I'm sharing a few highlights from the presentations:

Red and Blue classes finished giving their presentations on Monday, so their Elements of Art quiz will be on Monday, October 26th. Orange and Purple classes will finish giving their presentations on Friday, so their quiz will be on Friday, October 30th. We are going to have a review day in class before the quiz, and I've also provided students with various study sources. 

 

And the winners are...

 This week students voted on which flag they wanted to represent their class. It was very challenging for students to pick a winner because ALL the flags were OUTSTANDING! The winning flags are now proudly displayed as the course icon in Schoology. Here are the final flags for each class:

Red Class - made by Blake, Ellis, and Josh

Orange Class - made by Michelle, Callan, Jessica

Blue Class - made by Cadia, Mason G, Izzy

Purple Class - made by Martin, Silas, Gus

Are you able to tell what values each class hold most important? These four flags were chosen due to their creativity and excellent display of our class values & interests. All of the flags are featured on the virtual art show (click the tab at the top of the blog).

I received a ton of positive feedback from students after this project. I am so happy to be able to provide my students with a way to collaborate with classmates, even at a distance! I am going to craft up some more great projects that incorporate collaboration because they did a fantastic job of it and it is so nice to be able to communicate with friends!

Virtual Class Flags

 I always begin creative arts with a class flag project. Typically students come up with a design as a class, and then everyone creates a drawing that represents something important that the whole class values. Since we aren't meeting in person this semester, students are working to create a digital class flag, and so far I am beyond impressed with their collaboration skills!

We started the week off with a pear deck and discussion on culture - first reflecting on cultures we belong to and then looking at similarities between us that help create our class culture. I put students in teams of 3 and 4 and this is where the fun began: the challenge is to create a flag that represents our class culture using a Google slide and communicating only through chat boxes. I was so proud to see how well the members of each group were able to communicate their thoughts so clearly and share responsibilities in searching for items to include in their flag. Here are a few screenshots of the process:

Next week students are going to complete their flags and fill out a short artist statement explaining how the flag represents our class as a whole. The final step is to vote for the flag students like best and the winning flag will be proudly displayed as our Schoology image! I cannot wait to see how these flags turn out next week. Stay tuned!

Happy First Week of School!

 Hello and welcome back! I am so excited to be back teaching students, even if it is from a distance. I've chosen to teach virtually from my classroom because I missed my space so much!

I've enjoyed getting to meet my new students! I have one more class I will meet with on Thursday, and I am really looking forward to it. If you are reading this, then you must have clicked the link on my syllabus! This is the blog that I have been using since my first year of teaching (I can hardly believe that this is already year six), so you can scroll through and see stories and pictures about the assortment of projects my former students have worked on. This is my third year as the creative arts teacher at OMS and before teaching here, I was the 5th-8th grade art teacher at Frederick Classical Charter School. The projects designed for art students at the charter school were based on world history, so it was easy to adapt many of my lessons for my creative arts students here!

In creative arts, students explore world culture and look at the many different ways they express themselves through art. Students will also have the opportunity to talk about cultures they identify with and share elements of art with their classmates! Virtual classes may seem impersonal in a way, but this is a hands-on class that students can succeed in from any environment.

I also teach one section of year-long Invention & Innovation. If there are any I&I students out there who are craving a little bit of artistic creativity, I can always share some art mini lessons with you to work on in your free time - I know that it is so hard to choose just one elective when you have several interests, so I'm happy to share my resources!

Invention & Innovation is the other 7th grade exploratory opposite of creative arts. Next semester, my students in CA will take I&I with Mr. Kinloch. I&I is a class that allows students to explore  the history of inventions and innovations and apply the design process to create a new product, process, or system. Students are able to put their creative spin on any project and are always encouraged to show off their imaginative ideas!

Please explore the tabs at the top of my blog. The Virtual Art Show is a fan favorite because I keep record of all of the slideshows from my previous classes. The Spring 2020 Virtual Art Show will give students an idea of some of the artwork they may produce during our semester together. 

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to message me on Schoology or through email! I look forward to an awesome year!

Cultural Dance Fashion

I have been floored this week by all the fantastic submissions students sent in! Their assignment was to select a cultural dance and create an article of clothing or a prop that is used in the dance with materials from their homes. I was sent an array of creations that I've been happily featuring on my Instagram. One student even submitted a VIDEO instead of just writing an artist statement, where he filmed all the information as if he were giving a newscast (so creative!!!). I just wanted to show you some of the highlights:

Apache Crown Dance baton

Chinese Fan Dance fan crafted from sticks and tissue paper.

Regalia from the Navajo Dance of the Deities.

Chinese Fan Dance fans crafted from sticky notes.

Chinese Fan Dance fan crafted from sewn fabric.

A pigs head from the Cabeza de Cochino Dance of Latin America.

Happy Friday!

Wow! I cannot believe that it has been SEVEN weeks since my last post, marking seven whole weeks since I've seen my wonderful students! First of all, I MISS YOU! Secondly, I am so incredibly proud of how well students are adapting to online learning. You are rockstars! Today is the end of week 5 of COL and each week students have shared such incredible artworks with me. I'm so excited that I can provide these kiddos with a creative outlet during this stressful time.

Some of the things I've been working on:

• Completing my Grad school capstone paper (whoohoo!)
• Sewing masks - donated to a local skilled nursing facility
• Making an armful of friendship bracelets
• Practicing my color guard skills so I can teach my team new things when marching band starts up again - I'm teaching myself how to handle a sabre for the indoor season and WOW I underestimated how challenging this piece of equipment was
• I just started a monthly art challenge from my favorite YouTuber Sea Lemon where I draw a different fruit each day - I'm documenting my progress on my Instagram and encourage everyone to give this a shot, too!

May 1st is May Day, the festival of spring! One of my favorite traditions is the May Pole Dance. My high school German teacher (shout out to Frau McDonald, the greatest teacher in all of FCPS!) had this fabulous May Pole that we would use for the dance. The dancers hold ribbons that weave over and under one another, braiding them around the pole. Check out this video I found that demonstrates the dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mqfuNbpP0. I'd love to hear if you have any springtime traditions!

Happy Friday the 13th

This has been a busy week in the art room! At the end of last week, students engaged in a new artist statement activity where they interviewed one another about their artwork. This activity had students think about describing their artwork with extreme detail because they had to convey their thoughts to their partner who was taking notes during the interview. Using the notes from their partner, students generated really strong artist statements at the beginning of this week. I was so impressed to see the improvement between the first and second artist statements!

Wednesday students took their Elements of Art quiz and impressed me with their knowledge there as well! With this understanding, students will be able to consciously incorporate the elements of art in their future artworks, creating stronger compositions. The Elements of Art Composition project that students completed last week are all outstanding! I am updating grades as I receive the last few artworks and I will be adding them to the Virtual Art Show next week.

Students have also been working on their Design An Ad. Each class has been given a specific Frederick-based business to create an advertisement for the Frederick News-Post Design An Ad contest. The best part about this contest is that there is a winner in every classroom! The winning artwork and the student's photo will be printed in a special May issue of the FNP. The businesses my students are creating ads for are Hillside Turkey Farm, Inc., The Frederick News-Post, Clearview CarCare, The Affiliated Barbershop, and I Made This!. I will let students know today further instructions about their DAA artwork, as the contest rules state that final artwork cannot be created at home. Students should plan to create detailed rough drafts at home (if incomplete by today) so they can create their final artwork when we return to school. I will be sending the DAA permission slips home with students AFTER the break.

More details will be shared via email later today regarding any work students are required to complete during the break.

Elements of Art

Students learned about the Elements of Art through a digital scavenger hunt activity. To apply their knowledge of the elements, students are in the midst of creating a composition of their choice that somehow displays all seven elements. This is a great project because it allows students to show their creativity because it is the only project where students are given complete freedom of what their artwork looks like. Students are coming to realize that the elements work hand-in-hand with one another and it is easier than they originally thought to include all of them within one artwork. Yesterday students engaged in a TAG critique to share ideas before starting on their final artworks. TAG is a great critique to give thoughtful suggestions and allow the artist to think about the direction of their artwork.

T - Tell the artist something you like.
A - Ask the artist a question.
G - Give the artist a suggestion.

Next week students will finish up their artwork using any dry medium of their choice (marker, colored pencil, pencil, crayon, or chalk pastel). We will also be reviewing the definitions for each Element of Art so students can study for a quiz.

First Full Completed Project!

This was a spectacular week! Students successfully completed their kaleidoscopes, took part in a critique, and wrote their first artist statement. As I explained today, artist statements are written for two important reasons: 1) for the artist to be able to explain their intent to the audience, 2) to show what they have learned throughout the unit. I am looking forward to reading the artist statements this weekend so I can discover more about their beautiful artwork. I will be taking photos and updating the virtual art show sometime this weekend. For now, here are a couple images of completed kaleidoscopes:

This is a reminder that the February Doodle Calendar due date is quickly approaching - Monday, March 2nd! 

Kaleidoscope Name Design

This week was filled with a lot of art-making! On Monday we looked at examples of Islamic art and learned about radial balance - a type of balance where elements are radiating from a center point and the weight is equally distributed around the center. Each day this week the warm-up prompts related to radial balance to reinforce the concept. Students demonstrated their understanding of radial balance by creating a kaleidoscopic image of their name by tracing a stencil of their name as a flipped tessellation. I've been sharing in-progress photos this week of this fantastic project - each name kaleidoscope looks completely different!

Now that students have created the image, they are working on coloring the artwork using a combination of harmonious colors - colors that have a pleasing appearance.

I will post more pictures all next week and add completed artworks to the Virtual Art Show! The Virtual Art Show is where I showcase student work. There is a tab at the top of my blog where you can click to see the slideshow for my current classes and also the slideshows from all my previous students. Students can look at the slideshows from last semester/last year to preview some of the artworks they will be able to complete while in creative arts. The first thing I am going to upload to the Virtual Art Show are the class flags. It is great to have so much artwork on my walls!

Happy Valentine's Day & enjoy the three day weekend!