New art teaching blog

I like the info on this person's blog. I can relate.

Pixel Picture

Cool idea regarding pixels.. Found here.

Creative Photo Projects

These creative photo ideas are found via this website. These could be great long term or extra credit assignments.

Theme Ideas

Urban vs. Rural
Solitude vs. ____
Private vs. Public
....to be continued

Curriculum & Resources: Understanding Multiracial America — YES! Magazine

Powerful. Covers a lot of aspects - reading, writing, video, images, etc.
Curriculum & Resources: Understanding Multiracial America — YES! Magazine

Visual Learning: Paper Cranes for Peace — YES! Magazine

Beautiful full encompassing idea.
Visual Learning: Paper Cranes for Peace — YES! Magazine

Visual Learning: Are You Really What You Wear? — YES! Magazine

This is an interesting concept for Edina, and any teenager. Teach around Homecoming or Prom
Visual Learning: Are You Really What You Wear? — YES! Magazine

Visual Learning: Self Portrait in Waste — YES! Magazine

Interesting expression of symbolic self-portrait. This is Chris Jordan (show in THINK post below).
Visual Learning: Self Portrait in Waste — YES! Magazine

Bearing Witness: Chris Jordan on Art, Grief, and Transformation by Brooke Jarvis — YES! Magazine

Photographer Chris Jordan’s latest project left him feeling grief and hopelessness. Now he wants more people to discover how productive those emotions can be.
Bearing Witness: Chris Jordan on Art, Grief, and Transformation by Brooke Jarvis — YES! Magazine

THINK

I picked up a copy of Lisa Bloom's book, THINK: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, and haven't been able to put it down since I started reading it (well, except when I took a short nap, BUT that was only because I didn't get very much sleep at yearbook camp). I am astounded by the problems in America and how out of touch its citizens are. We coddle kids and push them along the system in our failing school system. Women's perceptions and priorities are distorted. It brought up the point that breast augmentations are rapidly becoming a popular high school graduation present. Ugh. How devastating. It referred to the fact that every, every celebrity image in magazines are Photoshop-ed, which made me think of Adam Turman's TED video talking about his photography that touches on this issue.
My goal for this semester is make my students smarter about what's happening in the world. To make them aware of their decisions and how their artwork and photography can expose these twisted realities. Turman's work would be wonderful to study in class, whether it was for ethics or how photographers show social issues.

school's out for the summer!

There is a sense of relief and excitement at the end of the school year. The cycle of a beginning and end is so refreshing and renewing. As I look out towards summer, a plethora of ideas come to my head about what I want to do all summer. Here I start me list:

• Create art: draw, paint, photography, build. Anything that allows the energy inside of me to release. I want to finish the charcoal hands - it's so beautiful. Paint nature imagery, take portrait photos of my friends and paint or draw those. GOAL: 2 drawings and 10 paintings done by August 28th. :) I better get started.
• Compost: I want to make my own compost bin, fill it and roll it around the yard as M rolls his eyes at me.
• Drawing Co-op: Getting involved with the local artist community is so important to me. I want to join a Mpls co-op and figure draw with them.
• Write Engaging Lesson Plans: I am a beginner teacher ready to know it all. I want to have the best lessons that capture my students and get the learning things they don't even realized. This takes time, but over the summer I will create amazing individual and collaborative creative challenges.
• Rework Curriculum: I have a great foundation for my classes and I am ready to take them to the next level with what they are learning, gaining and feeling from the classes.
• Paint the art room: Greenish blue. its going to be beautiful.
• Study schools to find ones that are doing well and investigate why. bring their ideas and art together to create an exciting class.
  

The Best of 2011

It's the last week of school and finals are underway. I am cleaning out the photo room, going through all of the work that's been left here. It makes me feel so satisfied, and even excited about how amazing this year was. Let's look back:

1. I got my bearings with Digital Photo. The work that came from the students this semester was awesome. The creativity was higher than it ever has. I look forward to evolving the curriculum more over the summer and creating a Digital 2!

2. Bonding with students. I really grew close with some of my students. This makes my heart feel so happy. There are so many students that I will never forget and that I will always hold dear to me. I learn so much from them. They are amazing.

3. The yearbook was a success. So much more than I ever thought it would be! Keys to success. Hold everyone accountable. Oliva was amazing at editing writing, which I am really going to have to work on with Clara for next year. She needs to be incredibly accountable, but so do the writers, head editors and peer editors. It's everyones responsibility. Always think towards our end product. Do we want people to be elated with what they see, or upset?

ArtsConnectEd Honor

This is back from October, but check it out! Here's another link to the blog regarding the awards. I received an honorable mention for an art lesson that I created for the Walker and MIA. :)

"Congratulations also to honorable mention winner, Kim Raskin, from Edina High School, for her Art Collector Set “Photograms: A Cameraless Image.” Kim wins a catalog to the Walker exhibition From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America.
Check out these two outstanding Art Collector sets. You, too, could be an ArtsConnectEd iPad winner. Stay tuned for the next challenge coming up later this month."

Art 21 - Lesson/ Theme Ideas

Art 21 is so fantastic. This link is to its online Lesson Library. USE IT for lesson ideas. Things to photograph.

Public/Displaying Art

I previously posted about this photographer, but thought this would be a great inspiration for public art/ displaying your art to your viewer. Students hate matting, so why not have them come up with a solution on how to display it themselves. Could also include Banksy, Exit through the gift shop, etc.
This would be a great group project!!!! Yah!!! Use this video about Wing Young Huie's University Project as a guide. Work with the Edina Community to get them involved :) Think big and scale down ideas after that.
More of this artist, JR, and his project here.

You know when you have moments of creative inspiration and your mind keeps moving with excitement from one idea to another. I am having that moment with regards to planning my digital photography class. This book is bringing up ideas that I could bring into the classroom.
Ideas that are popping into my head right now:
*Jehad Nga - Use of Color: Portraits with dark backgrounds where parts of the subject show up, but mostly the colors they are wearing pop out.
*Alec Soth: conceptual Minnesota photographer
*Neil Stewart: Use of color - vintage-y
*Anton Corbijn: Color - B & W with overlay of color

Art Assessment

Art Educator, Frank Curkovic, is definitely onto something with his wiki, website and assessment regarding the arts. This is how I want to set up my class online. Also, if you go under grade 10, he's got a great view of his assessments.

Something that really struck home with me was his categorizing of what he assesses on. He breaks it up into 4 sections: Knowledge & Understanding, Application, Reflection& Evaluation and Personal Engagement. I relate to this because this is how I already assess my students, I just didn't know how to break it into categories.

I also love his streamline design the ties his assessments together. I've got an idea for this as well :)

Street Art

Street art is really hot right now, so why not incorporate it into photography? Discuss setting up the photo, editing it in Photoshop, and an alternative display method (no matting - students will love that)!!! Apex HS has a great blog about it.

Watching parts of the documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, would be a great way to get students excited about it.

Forced Perspective

This will be a great lesson on perpective! Look at the fun photography tricks!

Image was found here, which also has other creative examples of forced perspective.

Art History Video Remix

Ha! This made me happy!
This is the original song and video 70 Million by Hold Your Horses

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

...that was redone by Apex High School

70 Million, Apex HS Version from iansands on Vimeo.

Super exciting light painting video.

Found here.

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

This is the best part: Here is the video of him talk about about his work :D

Wow. Inside Out - A Global Art Project. Think about how you can take what you are doing with your portraits unit and turn it into something powerful.

JR updates here showing the photos that have been posted.

Here's a description of the project:
INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually.

A Visit with Ian Sands, Art Teacher at Apex High School from Craig Roland on Vimeo.

I really like how this art teacher, Ian, incorporates technology into his art curriculum. In the video he also talks about his lessons on light painting, use of historical and contemporary media, student collaboration projects, using Facebook & Twitter in his class, and having a "sister" school to connect with another school to see what their art students are doing. (Hello Renee?)

Here is a link to his class blog.

Found here.

Teachers.tv is a site that offers wonderful art and design videos.

re:form

There is an immediate need for change in our school system. It's starting to happen and some people are resisting the change, but the reality is that is does need to happen. Standardized tests are setting our students behind the rest of the world. What was supposed to help has actually hindered. Redu is an incredible site that has a focus on using the arts as a resource to drive learning.

Re:Form School by The Masses from Redu on Vimeo.

Adobe Youth Voices

The Adobe Youth Voices Essentials website here gives fantastic examples of youth using media to share their stories. For photography it has curriculum, yes a full 12 week step by step with handouts, on creating a photo essay and digital storytelling. It also has processes involving Creative Learning, Inquiry-Based Learning, and Community-Based, Contextual Learning. There area layers of where you can go in this site, including videos from other art teachers, examples of student work, etc. It's a super inspiration.

P.S. Kimbo - your login is your school email address. You know the password :)

Empowering Art Education

In the midst of 10 hour days, grading piles of projects, and the run around of paperwork, its easy to get caught up in the daily grind of teaching and lose sight of why I'm doing this and what its purpose is. I went into teaching because I want to help students be the best they can be, view something in a new light, question what they know, and freely express who they are. I think that what I'm teaching now inhibits my ultimate goal as a teacher. I am dedicating this blog to inspirations, curriculum, ideas and anything that will progress me as a teacher, which in the end will create better students - our future. I feel the arts are an ultimate means to a creative and innovative society. I will absorb, change, and evolve for the benefit of all students.