The status of affairs in America in the years following the First World War spawned a generation of authors termed “the lost generation.” In response to the political and social atmosphere of the United States these authors sought cultural...
Getting kids to understand theme can be tough. Really tough. It’s one of those ideas that seems to be just outside of their reach, but you can see them trying to grasp the concept. This ye…
This week they are finally stripping and waxing the floors in my high school art room so I've spent a lot of time at home working on school stuff. I started making my to-do list for the room and the first thing I'm checking off my list has to do with critiques. A while back on Pinterest, I found this link for ping pong ball critiques and I LOVE the idea! My husband bought me a box of 36 ping pong balls and I spent the night writing critique prompts on each ball! Some of the questions came directly off of the free PDF download above, others came from my head and some came from other random pins. Here's what the balls have written on them: If I were the artist, I would have... Are there any symbols in this artwork? Give an example. What would you title this artwork? Why? Does this artwork make you think of something else? What? What style is this artwork completed in? What kind of composition does this artwork have? Would you hang/display this artwork in your home? What culture and/or country do you think this artwork comes from? Why? Can you trace movement with finger? Where? In my opinion... Do you see any repetition? Where? What art principles do you see? Where? What elements of art do you see? Where? Where did the artist use contrast? What art medium/media is this artwork created with? How do you know? Does this artwork have a color scheme? What is it? Do you think this artwork belongs in a museum or art gallery? Why or why not? Did the artist create space? How? Where is the emphasis/focal point? How is it created? Is this artwork realistic or abstract? Explain. What is the subject matter of this artwork? The weaknesses of this artwork are... The strengths of this artwork are... If I could ask the artist one question, I would ask... Is there rhythm in this artwork? Where? Are there patterns in this artwork? Where? Does this artwork have depth? Explain. What do you think the artist wants you to see. Do you think the artist was more concerned with emotion or realism? Why? Do you like this artwork? Why or why not? What creates unity in this artwork? Where do you see texture? Does this artwork tell a story? What is it? Is the balance symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial? Explain. What emotion or feeling did the artist create? How was line used in this artwork? I plan to use the ping pong ball critique during class for group critiques (of personal and famous artwork), as well as for an exit slip. I saw this pin on Pinterest and I decided to make a post-it note exit slip poster. I have made one for both Studios, both 7th grade art classes and electives, all of which will be laminated. There will be times I will give students a specific question for an exit slip and other times we may use the ping pong ball critique questions. Students will get a post-it note to write their answer on. They'll use the same post-it note until it's filled up and then they'll get a new one. Each student will be assigned a number for the year so they don't have to put names on their slips. This will help ensure that I am getting students to review content before leaving class (that was something my superintendent noted on my evaluation as something I needed to work on) as well as having a closure of some sort. Since I made a poster for each class, I won't have to look at their answers until after school during our 2:45-3:15 teacher time, thus making sure I have my 3 minutes in between classes to get between the classrooms. The ping pong ball critique questions will also be great to use as a bell ringer too. I think I want to plan on having students use their sketchbooks as a place to write bell ringers, notes, project sketches and homework sketches. I envision having a famous artwork on the board when students come in, ask them to grab a ball and answer the question in their sketchbook. As students get settled, I'll ask for some volunteers to share their responses. I feel this would be less of a waste of paper to have students do bell ringers in their sketchbooks instead of on copied slips of paper. Plus, it will ensure that sketchbooks are brought to class every day and not wasted. Since all of my SLO's will be coming from high school art classes this upcoming year, my gears are drastically switching. I am going to be more concerned with getting classroom management routines down in a way that works (such as the bell ringer and exit slip...something I haven't used before). I would eventually like to work a bell ringer/exit slip into the elementary art room, but I don't want to stretch my time too much now that I only get those kiddos once a cycle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On a side note, I just figured I'd share some artwork I did today...for the first time in forever! Very rarely do I sit down and do artwork for myself. Two years ago I did similar up-close flower paintings for Christmas gifts for my family (we were on a tight budget that year ;) ). I usually have to be in the right kind of mood to do any artwork, or even scrap booking for that matter. Any time I'm creating something, it's usually a project example for school or posters/displays for my classrooms. Acrylic on canvas...my preferred choice of painting medium! It's actually kind of ironic because in college, I did not take a painting class. I did sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, photography, digital design and the mandatory art design class. I was never able to fit the painting class in my schedule (and to be honest, I was not very fond of the professor who taught it), so I've never been trained in oil painting, or painting for that matter. Painting with acrylic was something I picked up and enjoyed in high school. In this instance, my husband has been given a promotion to which he now has his own office. He is a kitchen manager for Thatcher Kitchen at SUNY Potsdam. Now that he has moved into his office, he's been begging me to come decorate! I surprised him today with these paintings for his office. Tomorrow I'll go pick out paint for him to paint his office with and decide where he needs to hang his artwork!
Every English teacher has experienced the frustration of introducing a writing skill, like how to write a thesis statement, over and over again without it “sticking.” Three years ago, I began “flipping” my writing instruction, so students watch videos on my YouTube channel, take Cornell notes, then come prepared to class to do the actual […]
Explore the nuances of effective technology integration in education with our comprehensive guide.
In my last post about teaching Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, I mentioned a writing assignment I like for my students to do: an analysis of Juliet’s relationship with her nurse. In my …
An anchor chart can and should be a useful teaching tool, but there are tricks to making and using it that make it so. Click through to read these tips!
There are certain messages that serve to get you “back to one” when you find you’re going off course. Whether you use tools such as a manifesto, a
This was an idea I got from another teacher and I thought was a great way to display what was going on in the classroom each month.
What students should know starts with themselves and moves outwards to a content area. Here are questions students should be able to answer.
I give you the following paradox, presented in advice given to a district going through budget cuts: "What would be one of the first places we should look to cut from our staff?" "The media specialist." "Is there something wrong with the individual?" "No, not at all!" "So, a media specialist isn't critical for a school?" "On the contrary, a media specialist is very critical!" That dialogue doesn't seem to make any sense at first blush, but there is a lot of truth to that statement for many districts. The truth resides not in that somehow media specialists aren't important. It lies in the fact that the way schools are using media specialists is grossly inefficient. Let's back up for a second. There has been quite a bit of debate around the blogosphere recently regarding the role of media specialists in 21st century schools. Most of the discussion is geared around how media specialists who are not adopting technology knowledge and specialty are becoming irrelevant to a school district. Darren Draper sums it up by saying that "21st century library - technology = 15th century library (- all the monks)". The collection of a bunch of print books is not crucial to a school now, and Draper (as well as several commentors) argues that if your media specialist is not a specialist in technology, they serve no purpose. That statement is beginning to look like a harsh reality, as the more I talk to administrators who are hiring, technology expertise is now tops on their list. But, even a harsher stand would be to say libraries themselves should be eliminated. Doug Johnson addresses the question of what purpose do libraries serve in our schools, as some critics see that information is often a click away on the internet. Wouldn't a couple of computer labs serve the school better than the shelves of occasionaly perused books? I certainly have my own thoughts on these two debates, as I can't imagine a learning environment without a hub of information discovery like a library, but I equally could not justify having a media specialist that was not a building leader in technology. However, I feel there is a debate that is missing from all of this. One where, even if a media specialist is savvy with technology, they still might not be a crucial asset to a school. The question that's missing is whether a district regards the media specialist as a "resource" or a "curriculum supervisor". If it is only as a resource (and sadly, I would say that's the way it is in a majority of Iowa's schools), that resource can be reproduced in many different ways that doesn't require the cost burden of a paid position. But, it shouldn't be that way. Instead of "helping students find books" and "helping teachers find websites", the media specialist should be developing the comprehensive media literacy (and in many smaller districts, the infotech literacy) curriculum. They should be a curricular leader, looking at the big picture of student achievement in media literacy. They should be looking at "what gets taught where" within the scope and sequence, overseeing building-wide professional development around media literacy, and supervising the assessment of the curriculum to determine if what they are doing is working. They should be the driving force behind cross-curricular units that meld media with core content, team-teaching during key lessons. I would also argue that the media specialist should be a key figure on the schoolwide reading committee, doing those above tasks with reading literacy in addition to media literacy. If a media specialist is more concerned with what a student is reading than they are how well they are reading, then we're missing the boat. Now, none of this is to say it is the media specialist's fault if they aren't in a position of leadership. There are many factors that have played into the setup of media specialist as resource only, and many of those are beyond the specialist's control. But regardless, the curriculum supervising tasks are often then left to teachers, which ties down their time to do other things. When that happens, much like technology integration, media literacy results in an add-on program, not an integrated one. That's not the way it should be. But if it is, I can see why schools cut specialist positions at the building and go through the charade of assigning one specialist for all the media centers in a district.
The viva is an oral exam about your written thesis that you present near the end of your doctoral studies at University. It needs good preparation and I am preparing for mine. This is how!
When Djuna Barnes was in her early 20s, she walked into the offices of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and announced: "I can draw, I can write, you'd be foolish not to hire me." The paper did. Nearly 30 years after her death, a collection of her writings and illustrations is on display at the Brooklyln Museum.
The Design Essentials Session is a collection of tutorials covering subjects such as Typography, Print Design and Logos. This session is an ongoing collection of tutorials and articles covering all...
An English educator's blog about teaching, classroom organization, and Common Core resources.
