Interactivity #5

     

The teacher that I interviewed for this assignment teaches Middle School art/technology courses in Wycoff school district in New Jersey. Some of the projects he has done in his digital imaging classes include animation, reinventing masterpieces, digital post-impressionist painting, magazine covers, colorizing images and manipulating photos, and logo design. I love the idea of technology and art. Art is about expression and technology has endless amounts of creative ways to express oneself. I think that his district is fortunate to have this as a class for students because not many schools have that as an opportunity. When I brought up the ISTE and the NETS my interviewed teacher was very familiar with both ISTE as and the NETS and a lot of great things to say about the organization. He mentioned that he had attended 4 of their conferences, which he felt were very impressive as well as informative. His school is very up to date with the latest technologies and more and more technologies are being implemented in the different classrooms at his school. The science classes in his school all have iPads for their students to use and the 6^th grade social studies classes in his school all have a set of chrome laptops for the students. I was surprised when he said this, I imagine that the students in these classes must really enjoy as well as benefit from these tools. Having these up to date gadgets get students to actively participate as well as enhance their learning. Technology is a major part of their lives and a form of entertainment for them. I think that incorporating things like iPads and laptops’ when teaching lessons can make the subject matter more appealing for the students. Technology in the classroom can make learning more comfortable for them since they are so used to using it when they leave school. My interviewing teacher said that his school uses the NETS when writing and revising the curriculum and that he believes that the state technology standards are based on NETS. The transition of NETS in his school, he mentions, is an ongoing process. The standards are always revised, as is the tech curriculum, which is revised every three years according to him. I believe that revising the curriculum every three years is completely necessary due to the changes and advances in technology. The curriculum needs to change as the technology changes so that the lessons are relevant. It is important that we as teachers do not fall behind and educate ourselves on the advances of technology. This also means staying up to date with what the younger generations technological interests are in order to provide effective and engaging lessons. We must work together as educators when coming up with new lessons that utilize the technologies that we are surrounded with. This is extremely important for our student’s future of learning as well as our own learning of how to better our lessons and make use of these technologies. 

                                                        Link to My Spreadsheet 

Art Blogs

Click here for a List of the Top 20 Art Blogs

Before this class I knew very little about blogging. I didn't realize how much you can learn from other people that have blogs such as teachers for instance. Since I have been writing my own lesson plans I am constantly on the search for new and exciting things to do with the kids. I have gotten so many ideas from looking at different art teachers blogs and reading about their successes as well as their downfalls. I think it is very useful to take the time to explore the net for blogs created by teachers in your content area in order to generate new ideas for lessons. I will most definitely create a blog geared toward my lessons once I start teaching. Hopefully I can inspire other teachers like they have done for me!

YouTube Demo

This is a demonstration video I created to show different tools that students can use to blend oil pastels. The students in my fieldwork 8th grade class were practicing using oil pastels and drawing eyes in particular so I thought this would be a good way to demonstrate the techniques of blending so that they could reference this while making their own pieces.

Brain POP

This is the BrainPOP video that went with our lesson on Surrealism

Yesterday during my fieldwork hours my Coop teacher introduced me to this website called BrainPOP which is a site developed as an educational resource that students and teachers can use in the classroom. You can search from practically all subjects, Art, Music, Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Health, even Engineering and Technology. The site teaches difficult concepts on a level that depending on the grade, will be able to understand. In my 8th Grade art classroom my teacher used this site to give more information on Surrealism. As the animated video played I could see every students eyes on the screen, most likely because it was a cartoon which is something that most kids that age are already watching. I think that this is such a great site because the kids are learning about things that might not be as understandable if we just told them about it. The video was played after me and my Coop discussed surrealism with the class, it was a good way to reiterate some of the things that we said to the class in order to make sure they understand the movement.

YouTube Bio

I created this youtube video on the iMovie program, it demonstrates the Ken Burns effect pretty nicely I would say. This is a great way for you to introduce artists to your students and you can say exactly what you would like them to know and not drag out an outdated art history video made in the 1980's that students will surely fall asleep to.

Interactivity #4

     

Link to my Spreadsheet

     I chose this particular lesson plan because I feel that it exemplifies how creative you can be while exploring different technologies and design concepts in the 21st century art classroom. Most students are fascinated with technology and working with computers being that some of the programs they have out now are so new and cutting edge. I think that this digital imaging lesson would be an excellent way for the students who are discouraged by their skills in studio art making (painting, or drawing) to make something they can be really proud of as well as show off their creative abilities. The lesson is also a great introduction into the world of graphic design along with the career options it is accompanied with. It educates students on how to achieve a visual impact through font, color, and thickness of the line. The lesson also promotes students to think abstractly and gives them the freedom to come up with a subject matter that speaks to them. This will encourage them to explore different kinds of media and their properties in order to see the visible effects they can achieve.
      I believe that I was able to align the goals, strategies and technologies completely in this assignment. The one thing that I added to my strategies that I thought would make for a more cohesive lesson is having the teacher provide more of a background on typography as well as examples of successfully used typography in media/design. This lesson would show the students that creative design is essential in all of the marketing that we are surrounded by on an everyday basis. Teaching elements of good design and how we can achieve this by using technologies such as Photoshop or Illustrator will help students see endless possibilities of creative design through technology.

Interactivity #3

I had a lot of difficulty getting on my computer and online this past week due to the hurricane so this assignment was challenging for me to get started on. I think as a whole my group and I found a lot of different technologies that would assist with our teaching as well as make it the class more interesting for our future students. As I was researching various technologies for the art classroom I stumbled upon a lot of sites (such as kid blog, glogster, and school tube), which I will definitely use in my future classes.  Many of us agreed on certain technologies like iMovie, digital cameras, video cameras, and tablets. Some of the technologies the other girls mentioned I did not even think of until they posted it. For instance, Nicole mentioned video conference calling which I thought would be very interesting for students to part take in. It would be a great way for students to take a look at other cultures besides their own and also get to know other students. Going along with that I was also impressed by the link that Julie posted, Art Education 2.0. I think that it is important to assign students multicultural activities in order for them to gain an understanding and respect of the world they live in. This site is wonderful because I can see what other teachers are doing with their art students around the world and together we can gain a greater understanding of one another as well as expand our boundaries when creating assignments for our students.