Heaven on Earth

A few days on Lake Superior with a whole lot of people I love is the perfect way to get ready for a new school year. Beautiful days, wind and waves and more stars than one can imagine. It is what it is.

M333: Why Art is important for the elementary teacher

I believe learning about art and making art is important for all students because it makes us all better humans. But in the days of No Child Left Behind, time, energy and money are being used for those areas being tested. Recent studies show the arts are important in developing the brain in children.

flickr in an art room

I found flickr to be easy to use and plan to use it more in the future.

Imagining one another
http://www.fwmoa.org/education/selection_9.htm
A few years ago I worked with the Fort Wayne Museum of Art on a digital photography project that kids and parents loved. There was only had enough money to do this for a few years and limited schools to a one time thing. With flickr I think it would be possible to do this in school without quite the expense.

I have three digital cameras at school and would bet a lot of my students would have one they could use at home. I could let the students take cameras home over a weekend and create a photo essay. The more students have their own phone the faster it could be completed, but it could be something we worked on for a longer period of time while working on other things in art class. We could put the photos on flickr, they could choose one to be printed and could share their photos with family and friends they choose.

Of course not all my students have internet access, the digital divide is not as evident in elementary school but certainly can cause issues. I could let students access their photos at school for those without a way to do it at home.

Using YouTube

I use YouTube in my class a lot. It is a great resource for elementary art. I know some schools block YouTube, so I am very lucky and am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to continue using it.

Here are a few videos I've found:
Vincent
A lovely slide show of art work by Vincent Van Gogh set to Don McClains "Vincent". I use this after showing students a Powerpoint presentation on Vincent Van Gogh's life.

Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQwnFVikmo&feature=related
video of butterflies and windflowers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1YRC18U7E&feature=related

During an integrated unit on Butterflies using art and movement I used the first video of musicians playing a beautiful concerto while the students act/dance the life cycle of the butterfly. Using the video of butterflies in flight I have students create music and art to show how it feels to fly like a butterfly.

Origami
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iVP0tzwhVc&feature=related
Fun video showing the creation of an animation of a origami crane. It shows making an origami crane a couple of times, which is nice for kids to see.

Not so bad

I am still struggling with technical difficulties. But it is pretty amazing what you can do.
Using GarageBand you can easily add images and record audio over those images.
- Students could scan their art and discuss/critique their own artwork.
-Adding some photos of local architecture and students could read reports on the history of the buildings.
-Interview with a famous artists would be a great way for them to display their knowledge of artists.
-Cultural artifacts could be another way to share reports.
-As a teacher, I could use a podcast to explain some basic technique, like perspective drawing that is usually pretty cut and dry. Students could rewind if they need to.
With more practice I think I would find other applications.

Podcast

Not having a lot of fun.

Part of my problem is I am so NOT an auditory learner. I have a hard time listening to information without pictures, and I know I can add pictures or do video and once I make it all work out I may do that. Technical problems are frustrating me at this point.

Maybe its a male thing. My husband, son, and daughters' boyfriend were definitely more interested in this than I was. All of them are musicians and more performance oriented than I.

I am much more comfortable putting up photos than comments. I'm working on it.

critical thinking and technology

Creating these blogs, wikis and podcasts for this class makes me think about all the information out there that anyone can put out there, even me.
We need to teach our kids to look at what they find and think about what they read, hear and see.
This site offers teachers and students some ways to help evaluate information they find on the internet.
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.htmle

Support bloogs site

http://supportblogging.com/Blogging+Options+for+Educators
Good site for blogging in school info.

Blogs on blogs

For the last week I have been taking a computer class at IPFW. As part of the class I am required to read a number of articles on technology. This one was one I thought might be interesting to others in the class.
http://techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196605279&page=1

ASCD brief

Educators say arts integration boosts participation, recall
Thanks to their teachers' integration of arts into math, reading, social studies and science class work, students in one Mississippi district became more engaged and bettered their performance. "Every classroom learns better if the arts are part of the learning process. That transcends private school, public school, economics," said Marcia Daft, an arts-based education consultant who taught Greenville, Miss., educators how to incorporate the method with her workshops, funded by a Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts grant. Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), The/Delta Democrat Times (6/29)

visual world

After all that whining about the problem my hope is that using internet blogs, wikis... could be part of the solution. Kids today are more visual and learn with images and interaction. (Can you say art class?)

TV, internet and video is so much a part of their life. They read in small chunks, see short bits of video and connect the dots. A talking head in class isn't going to be as captivating as being involved in the discussion the way they can be on a blog.

Surviving NCLB

When I was an undergraduate student some 20+ years ago a lot of research was coming out about learning styles and the multiple intelligences. A few years later I was beginning my masters and getting a gifted/talented endorsement I was excited about how we would reach divergent thinkers. About the same time my own children were born and I thought how wonderful that they would be taught in new and exciting ways that might understand the creative mind. And then...

No Child Left Behind became law and one-size-fits-all high stakes testing and we were being told that every child needed to know this then and that next and I watched my children and many others not just left behind but confused and angry and turned off to school. These brilliant creative children who just don't think or learn logically/sequentially but intuitively and globally wanted to know "why" and were told "because".

A few years later my daughter was now in school and I was teaching gifted/talented in two elementary schools in a small school district south of town when I heard a wonderful presenter at a G/T National Conference speak about the gifted Visual/Spatial learner. Linda Silverman described my children to a T. A bright, inquisitive uneven student, a late reader but with an extensive vocabulary, a puzzle solver, horrific speller, understanding math concepts very well but not able to pass a math calculations timed test to save their life, artistic, musical, dramatic...

We survived elementary school but middle and high school were (are) a pretty awful. My daughter never had problems passing The Test, and, in fact, did OK in school, not great but she got through. My son has will no doubt get through the system too. But how sad that that is all I am hoping for them to play the game and get through the classes and not to learn, think, express themselves and grow as people.