Strathmore Website!

I have begun my first student teaching placement at Nanuet High School and my mentour teacher has been introducing me to some really great websites!

Strathmore has a website where one can sign up and register for FREE artist workshops!!!  This is a great tool and is great to keep the artistic juices flowing!!! In each workshop the instructor gives a supply list along with instructional videos that help give guidance, and downloadable instructions (great for printing and putting in a resource binder!).  There is also a place where the instructor answers questions and gives useful tips for the processes.

The first workshop that I am signed up for is led by Traci Bautisa, and is focused on doodling.  I am looking forward to experimenting in this lesson! 

New Paltz Middle School Final Projects

After getting some very sensitive secrets from our students, Melinda and I, along with our mentor teacher Kim Sturgis, decided to bring the focus of our lesson toward a more positive goal.  Students were to remember their secrets, and come up with how the bullying situation could be resolved, or how students could be an ally to those who are bullied.

We ended up getting some really great projects at the end!
Each grade did the project a little bit differently:

6th Grade: Brainstorm slogans and images that would help others recognize the issue of bullying and create a design for the front of a t-shirt.  The most successful projects would be combined to create a collage peace sign for a shirt that will be sold as a fund raiser.

7th Grade: Created wordle posters from words and slogans that described an ally and how they could be an ally for someone who is bullied.  The students each chose a place in the school to post their poster. A few chose in the cafeteria, in the hallways, and in the bathrooms.

8th Grade:  Students recorded video of different bullying situations and worked either alone or in groups to edit the film to create a bullying awareness video.  Some chose to change color, add quotes, and add music to the video.  

Overall, the students learned a lot...and I know that I did as well!  It was really exciting to see the changes to the original idea actually play out into something that I feel was even better than it would have been before!

Thanks Kim Sturgis for such a great learning process!

Show and Tell

For my show and tell for my technology class I came across a website which one can explore a multitude of other resources.  The site is titled Exploratorium (the museum of science, art, and human perception).  When reading about the site on their About Us page, I realized that they encourage people to question what is around them to search for understanding.  This site allows one to easily explore their curiosity by giving many self-explorable exhibits.

After searching through many things on this site, I found a really interesting site that I connected back to a lecture, presented by Jana Levin, that we attended in class.  This site documents the "First Annual Art of Science Competition at Princeton University" held in 2005.  The connection that I saw between the lecture and this site, is the incorporation of visual art and science.  These two subjects although at first glance may seem very different, intertwine and overlap in many ways.  I think that many of the artwork displayed on the website found through Exploratorium allows a viewer to take a closer look at things we may not pay much attention to, and we can appreciate it's beauty through these artworks.

Here is a video that (although a little dated) shows some of the past work that has taken place at the Exploratorium.  

I think that the Exploratorium page is a good teaching tool because it allows students the freedom to explore the art world and be drawn in by what attracts them.  This site has a wide variety of visual arts from contemporary metal work to drawings done by Leonardo da Vinci.  This site can be used to attract all different types of learners.

Lesson Presentation: Sell That Logo

Melinda and I have been working very hard to create a lesson plan to teach to our class.  In our lesson, "Sell That Logo", students were introduced to different symbols and how symbols are used in advertising.  Our lesson called for the students to work in groups, or design teams, which gave the lesson a realistic feel for designing at a design firm.

Preparing for the lesson required much thought and organization.  Because students were working in groups we needed a way for each student to keep busy while at the same time contribute to the group in a positive way.  We decided to start the class organization promptly as the students walked in the classroom.  Each student was asked to check out our bulletin board outside of the classroom so that they would have an idea as to what we would be doing in class that day.

Once students entered the classroom, they were given a post-it with a number that directed them toward the table that they would be working at with their group.  By doing this right away, it saved time and was a great way to mix up the groups that students would be working in.  

When the bell rang, we began our class by presenting a quick slideshow of different logos that were easily recognized.  We spoke about how symbols are used in logos to simplify an image, as well as how certain symbols have hidden messages inside.  

                                                           

After the slideshow, we discussed the topic of teamwork.  What does a team do?  What different kinds of teams are there?  We then introduced the term Design Team.  In a design team there is a group of individuals working together to create a design for a client.  In each design team we created 4 jobs that each student would take on.  We created posters about each job which were hung in the back of the room for reference throughout the lesson.

Graphic Designer:  in charge of final image chosen

Editor:  in charge of final text chosen

Team Manager:  in charge of keeping the team on task

Project Manager:  in charge of presenting the logo to the class

We allowed time for each group to pick the tasks that they would be taking on in the design team and had them write it down on an index card so that we could collect it and double check that each person was on task.  From there, we went on to a demonstration about how they would be creating these logos and presented the materials that they would be working with.  There was a quick demonstration about the exacto knives, and we presented our teacher examples.  We had one example deconstructed so that we could show the steps that we took to create it (ex. color, text, slogan).  The other examples were of the logos that we created for the different clients that we had.  

These examples sparked a lot of interest in the class and everyone was eager to start working.  So we asked if anyone had any questions, and let them begin work. 

The students had 15 minutes to sketch out a design, apply color, create slogans and determine text for the different scenarios that they had received.  The scenarios ranged from a client wanting a new logo for their restaurant to a client wanting a new logo for the President of the United State's airplane.  Every student got right to work at creating their logo, however many students felt rushed in the creating process.  If I were to do this lesson, I would certainly allow for more time for them to play around with different ideas so that the could be happier with the logo that they were presenting.  Here are some examples of the student's work.

At the end of the period, the Project Manager in the group presented the logo to the class, who were prospective clients.  After the presentation of the logo, the class were to fill out a "Client Response" worksheet about the positive aspects of the logo as well as what they could do differently.  Each response was very constructive and offered many good ideas for the presenting design team.  

Overall, I think that this lesson was very successful and opened up many opportunities for follow-up lessons.  Every student was really interested in the topic and I think that by allowing students to work in high-pressure, realistic circumstances gives them a taste of what a real job may offer.  

Final Fieldwork

So my fieldwork at New Paltz Middle School has winded down, and I think that it was very successful.  Ms. Sturgis allowed Melinda and I to really engage with the class and the teaching process.

For our lesson that we taught the class, we began with the theme of bullying, which was being taught throughout the grades 6-8.  From that theme, Melinda and I came up with the idea of using the website Post Secret as inspiration.  Each student would write a secret they had about the theme of bullying, leaving it completely anonymous.  Melinda, Ms. Sturgis, and I filtered through the secrets and typed them up to make sure that they were appropriate and anonymous.  The next class students would be handed out a different secret which they would depict on a poster that could be displayed around the school to remind students that bullying truly does happen.  Some examples that we showed the class were taken from Post Secret and we also created our own example to show the class.

"Any time someone said something stupid I'd write it on a post-it, and put it on the back of my door & laugh about it later."

We showed a few different youtube videos that really grabbed the attention of the students.  The students even gave input as to what youtube videos they knew that we could screen before showing other classes.  The Bully Project is an upcoming movie that uncovers the many ugly and sad aspects of bullying.  It also shows students that bullying really does happen, and they can make a difference to put an end to it.

As an introduction to the project, we agreed that post cards depicting the secrets with a focus on a positive solution to bullying was a good place to start.  These post cards would then be posted around the school.  Each grade would then branch out into their own projects.
The 6th graders would begin working on life-size silhouettes that would be displayed around the school that would be placed where bullying may occur.
The 7th graders would be using the website Wordle to create an image from different text about bullying and their feelings about the subject.
The 8th graders brainstormed as a class, because the focus of their project was a video project depicting bullying and how it can be stopped.  Students could take inspiration from the situations that had been presented through the Post Secret cards.  These students' videos will be shown on the morning announcements.
Ms. Sturgis found a video that we showed for inspiration for the video projects was this:

The students were really excited about these projects and were very engaged in the topics that were being discussed during class time.  Bullying is a very serious subject and all of the students were very respectful and serious about the discussions.  I think that this lesson has a high impact on students and is important to present in all schools at all grade levels.

Documentary Video Project

For my 2nd video project, I created documentary exploring the lives of swimming.  I incorporated found clips of interviews of different Olympic swimmers about their daily routines, and also filmed parts of my daily life as a collegiate swimmer.  I hosted an interview with a team mate about the sport and explored different struggles and strengths that I see in the sport that correlate with thoughts of Olympic swimmers.

Here is the documentary that I created!

Video Project: Mash-up

Artist's Statement

Tis’ the season for some holiday shopping on Black Friday once again.  The one day where people line up hours early to get into stores and bombard the doors once the second hand strikes the hour of admittance.  For my video mash-up  I decided to work with the idea of the Black Friday shopping rush and mixing it with something as high tension and exciting, a horse race.  Many aspects of these two ideas parallel each other, such as the horses out of the gate and the people being let into the stores, the race to be the first horse to cross the finish line and the person to get the first good sale, and the winner’s circle with the happy customers leaving with their purchases.  Black Friday is hyped up for its sales, and who can resist during times when our economy is so low.  I decided to exploit the madness of this shopping day and express how mad it really can get.