Winter Arts Festival

http://www.parisbeacon.com/articles/2010/12/22/news/doc4d1235cd9086e628566261.txt


Wanted to put the link up from the Newspaper on Our Winter Arts Festival. The kids did a great job and the article has a virutal slideshow as well as article! So proud of them!!!

Water as a graphic element

photo by Haleigh

photo by Lexie

water created in photoshop by Lexie

The first assignment in Photo II is to use and create water as an element in potography. The first assignment was to photograph water and use our programs to tweak it, so to speak. The second was to research online how to create/alter water in photoshop. This has been a technical struggle for the students, but I am enjoying the fact that they are truly making an effort to make it through the assignment successfully.

Hand Arts

Our second project of the year....recycled denim bags. I am laughing because all I heard yesterday from the former students of Mrs. Propst's sewing courseswere, she would not like how you were doing this! I laughed and laughed as I told them , I know she would not, but we are focusing on what were are going to do with it once it is made! Thank you Mrs. Propst for teaching the right way! And thanks to my kids for learning the right way! And ironically as I am finishing this blog, she walks in the room ;)

I swore that as soon as school started back in January, I would make it a point to begin putting in a blog every single day, even if it were a small one. So how's that going for me....ahhh not so great. But I am determined as ever to start up again. Between being sick and snow days, there really hasn't been enough time in the day. I find myself here, heading to my daughter's various school functions, home to make dinner and sadly in bed by 8:30. what a life I lead.

This new semester has proven to be a unique challenge for me. One I place on myself, but it is actually working out well. I decided to make spring a time for change in my curriculum. I decided to write my new lessons to follow the changes implemented by the state next year and follow that, so that I can tweak it now and be solid next year. So in a nutshell the kids are my guinea pigs. I laugh sometimes when I start a new project, especially in my semester art 1 class which is being taught as an art history class. I honestly look like I don't know what I am doing. They see it and I see it and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. But it will get better and I will get better.

Right now we are finishing a project in Egyptian Art and beginning the study of Greek and Roman architecture. But how I have approached the class is a little different because rather than focusing on the facts, etc., we talk about the styles and the art a little and then create a project that reflects on the idea. This one, however, I am taking and running with as the kids are working in google sketchup. It is a drawing program, a free download from google. I told the kids upfront, " I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT!" and then I informed them, by the end, they would be teaching me. Yesterday was the first day and as I played with it, I could barely make a wall, as my students were already adding doors and windows to their creations. Wow. But that goes to show you that you cannot be afraid to fail as a teacher. You have to be willing to step out of your comfort areas sometimes and let it roll. I think that this will turn out ok.

Finals

After completing the Photostory, my students were to complete one assignment in an allotted amount of time. They were to find their top images and create a single piece that displayed those images. A few are attached.

Photostory

After attending the IETC convention in Springfield a few weeks ago, I decided to try, with my photo 1 students, the idea of creating a simple photostory. Photostory is a free download on the Internet and is slightly different than movie maker, but an easy program to use. In the past as a final project, I have taught them to create moviemaker slide shows of their work for the year. To be honest I was getting a little tired of the same ole idea. The idea of a photostory is that the student tells a story that is both memorable and reflective. I found that the kids really took off on this lesson. Stories were written within days and they were pretty excited about this adventure. It isn't really like writing a paper, but rather I encouraged them to write like they talk. I want to hear them in their stories. I wanted them to tell me a story that was engaging me and to keep the images simple and significant to the story. I encouraged the use of the thesaurus as a reference and using their peers as peer readers. Students added their own photos to the work. Some that they had taken in the class and some that were simply pictures from their past. I look forward to sharing these with you next week. I few have been turned in and will be having a few re-record as they are reading slightly fast or without expression. Easy fixes for a very cool project.

2 day self portrait assignment for photo

We took a couple of days in class to learn about brushes and backgrounds in photoshop. Students were allowed to create self portraits. These are some of their "stories"