Cultural Identity Project

 This week students worked on the tech tool playlist, where I gave them tutorials for 6 different tech tools (Biteable, Canva, Lucidchart, Piktochart, Powtoon, and WeVideo), and they had to select three tools to explore and practice using. I had students share simple "about me" information just to get used to using all the features, and the ones that I have seen so far have been great! These tools are so much more interesting than Google Slides, because there are so many customizable elements that are very easy to use.

Yesterday and today I introduced the final product of the Cultural Identity Project, where students must select a tech tool to present information about their chosen country. Students will be working on this over the next couple of classes, with the final product being due on Tuesday, June 8th. Beginning Wednesday, June 9th, students will take turns presenting to the class, either in a live presentation or by playing a clip with pre-recorded audio. I am so excited to see students' research come to life!

Enjoy the long weekend! 

Midterm

I can't believe that after today we only have FOUR more weeks of school left! Midterm was last Friday, so students' official Midterm grades are not posted on Schoology. Students recently completed their Art of Latin America projects, where students were given the option of selecting a visual art, music & dance, or drama pathway to create their own original work. The submissions that I have looked at so far have blown me away! I will be posting artwork to the virtual art show next week, but here is a sneak peek:

For the visual art pathway, students selected a Mexican artist to explore, and created an original composition that was inspired by their style and also depicted a current event. The music & dance pathway project allowed students to learn the Cha Cha dance, resulting in a video of them dancing along to a Cha Cha rhythm they also created. The students who chose the drama pathway wrote and performed a monologue inspired by a dream of an alebrije. I will be sharing some of the recorded performances and more artworks on the virtual art show next week. 

The final project that students began this week is titled "Cultural Identity Project." For this project, students are exploring a culture that is significant to them and will create a presentation to share with the class that provides an overview of the country, with a focus on the arts. This is the first time I have done this project with students, but I'm so excited to see the diversity among students, and have them share a little piece of themselves and their families with each other. Next week, students are going to work through some mini-lessons that teach them how to use a variety of tech tools, because the rule for the final presentation is that Google Slides are not allowed! Depending on the format of the projects, I may be able to share a few of them to the virtual art show at the end of the year. 

19 more days until summer vacation! 

End of Semester 1

 The first semester has officially ended! I am so proud of all of my students for successfully finishing the first half of the school year all while learning virtually! I know everyone (including myself) went into the first day of school a bit nervous for this new learning platform, but everyone did a fantastic job in creative arts. Now that the semester is over, I am spending my day finishing up with term 2 grades and collecting artwork to display on the virtual art show. I am going to add artwork from Art of Africa this week, and I am also working on putting together the class cookbooks.

I was so excited for the final project of the semester! Since we started the year talking about personal cultures, I wanted students to reflect and think about their personal cultures again. In doing this, students selected one dish that represents a culture they belong to and created a recipe card to share with the class. The best part of this is that each of the recipes are going to be assembled into a slideshow cookbook for students to keep and remember their creative arts class by! I have been so inspired by several of these recipes, I might even try a couple myself! 

It has been an absolute pleasure teaching these four classes this semester. I told students on our last day that I hope to see them in the school soon so we can wave to each other in the hallway. I look forward to when I'll be able to meet each student in person for the first time. Thank you all for being a part of my class this year. Keep in touch & happy art making! 

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!

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!

Class Flags Build Community

During the first week of school students were introduced to "culture" in many of their classes. In CA, we talked about how individuals can belong to a specific culture, but we can also have a shared culture within the classroom. Students first brainstormed a list of things that were important to them and then discussed their lists with their tablemates. The entire table then had to generate a list of similarities that they shared with one another. Many cultural commonalities classmates shared were friends, sports, food, and technology. Each table worked together to design icons that symbolized part of their culture to add to a collaborative flag. Some tables displayed great collaboration by working on one icon together, taking turns designing, drawing, and coloring. Once all the icons were created, the class voted on the final design and layout of the overall flag. Each flag is completely unique and visually symbolizes the community the five classes have already established.

pets, friends, family, sports, sleeping, cell phones, Fortnite, video games, teal

food, trampolines, music, sports, dogs, family, football, art

friends, dogs, money, family, sports, Internet, water

friends, family, food, dogs, sports, art, music

Girl/Boy Scouts, entertainment, food, sports, Starbucks, family, friends