Mr. Hall - Sub 111813

Hey there Mr. Hall!  Here is the schedule and all the "to do's" for today.  Have a great time!!

Mentor - Announcements and Storyboard for Video 3.
1st Hour - Speak Up worksheets, Stand Up 2 Cancer videos here and here
2nd - planning
3rd - Art Journal Powerpoint here, worksheet is printed, or found here
4th - Line and Pattern in Profiles, worksheet printed, or found here.
5th - same as 3rd
6th - The One and Only Ivan

Ms. Mitchell has printed everything for me just in case.
Let me know if you have comments, questions, concerns!

Ashley

Shades of Meaning

In last week's activity, I formally assessed that my students a. need help writing complete sentences, b. need time to create their own sentences, instead of copying what I say or what they see on the board and c. they can see what element/principle is used in an artwork, but they need practice describing how it's used.  

I get a lot of:  "The artist used line, shape and color."  "The artist used line to make the rocks."  "The artist used color in the fish."

So, I did some research and found a Content Literacy activity I wanted to try "Shades of Meaning".  I had some paintcolor bookmarks from Home Deport that I cut in half and passed out to each group.  We reviewed and listed the elements and principles on the board, then I let each group pick one.  They wrote the E/P in the first box, then we looked at an artwork and they wrote adjectives in the other boxes describing the E/P in the artwork.  (This took awhile).  Then, we passed around the paint chips and groups got to write sentences based on the adjectives from another group.  

I think in the future, I will have artworks placed on the walls with descriptive sentences next to them, or make a powerpoint of some artworks and students write the sentences as we talk about them.  

Here are the paint chips from the activity.  If I had enough, I might give each student a paintchip as well, not just the group.  Time to stock up  :)  

The One and Only Ivan

So, I have finally found a book that I love, love, love and have incorporated it into my art class.  The book is The One and Only Ivan, website can be found here.  My kids loved this book, they really got into it, there are even questions and mini-activities that can be done throughout the reading.

In an attempt to incorporate reading into the art class, I read this book to them whenever we had extra time, you know that last 10 minutes of the class or day when the closer is done and you are searching through your bag of tricks to keep their attention.  Totally grab this book, start reading, pass it around, let them read.

Video Flipbooks inspired by blublu.org

A while back I saw a video by blublu.org and I immediately thought "I want to do this!" The video can be found here, it's almost 10 minutes long, so prepare yourself.  It's basically a large scale flip book - still motion video, so I tried this out in my art class a couple weeks ago.  We watched the video and started out making small scale flip books from wads of post-it notes.  They worked great!  Then I attempted to have the students go larger and integrate a 2D plus 3D element.  I gave the example of a drawing of a ball rolling down the hallway, then maybe a few shots of a real ball rolling down the hallway, then back to the drawing.  Let's just say it is still a work in progress....

I don't think I "chunked" it down enough for complete understanding, and I left it too open.

I think for next time, I will still start small with the flip books (that was a success), then as a class we can decide on the sequence and we all just do it together.

Here is one student's flip book.  I took photos of all of his drawings and then pieced them together in a keynote powerpoint and made a Quicktime recording.

Why I love my kindle even more!!!

So, I am in the midst of writing yet another grad paper (last one for this class, yeah!) and we had a class meeting on campus yesterday.  I decided to attend because a. I love meeting people face to face and asking clarifying questions (so much can be lost in an email) but also b. APA format scares me/confuses me and I want to make sure that I am somewhere on the right path.  

The meeting was very nice, just our professor and 2 other students, and we talked, got to know each other a little more and got all of our questions answered.  One of my questions happened to be about my kindle and adding a reference from a downloaded book into my paper in APA format.

I am currently reading Making Learning Visible (MLV), from a Project Zero and Reggio Emilia partnership and I love it!  I am applying many of the strategies and practices into my own teaching and love the outcomes!  Anyway, so my question happened to be 1. how to properly cite my source in my reference section of my paper, but also 2. how to site my in-text reference and 3. how in the world do I find a page number when all I can see are % at the bottom?    it was a lengthy question

My professor showed me a neat little trick that I can do with the Kindle that eased all my worries!  I had to do a few little steps first....
1. I downloaded the Kindle app onto my Mac laptop.
2. I logged in and "opened" my MLV book
3.  I highlighted a section that I wanted to add to my paper
4. Copied said section 
5. Opened a pages document
6. Pasted said section into document and .....BAM!!!

Not only is my highlighted section there, BUT there is also a cited reference with Kindle reference page numbers!!   Hello, does it for you!  It's amazing!

Long story short, copy and paste from kindle book into a document and it cites it for you.   

Now, I only get to read 5 more articles, synthesize them into my paper, finish writing my paper and I am good to go!  Where's the coffee....... 

Optical Illusions

My 7th graders made optical illusions this week, we looked at organic vs. geometric lines and warm vs. cool colors.  Everyone really enjoyed this little art activity.  Next time, I might add a value component where the edges are darker and a "light source" is hitting the top of the area to really make it pop!  A few days into the activity I had them switch with someone at their table and do a peer critique.  I made a template that I project on the smart board to facilitate this activity.  It looks like this:

_____________'s Feedback

I see_________________.

I think _________________.

I wonder____________________.

The peer write's their name at the top and then provides feedback based on what they see so far, what they think they can do to improve/finish, and then offer a suggestion for higher level.  I thought it was really interesting to find out that a lot of the students were extremely supportive and encouraging, but also continued to provide feedback even after the activity.  They even asked to work on writing complete sentences in art because they want to be confident when providing feedback to their peers.  WIN - WIN!!!  

YMCA Fall Festival 2013

My school had the honor for the second year in a row to plan, create and "perform" the YMCA Fall Festival here in Lexington.  Last year, our theme was "Mysteries of Ancient Egypt" and we scared the little pants off of some of the kiddos.  Granted, the little ones cried at first, but then they came rushing back through to do it again!  We made a scary haunted room which featured all the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.  It was pretty grand with the set design, costumes, props, etc.  

This year, we wanted it to be a little more kid and activity friendly.  So, we picked the theme "China" and created a room where there were art activities, costumes, coordination activities and a dress up photo booth (which one of our teachers loved!  she wouldn't stop trying on all the clothes!)  love you Mrs. Galla!

Our activities included calligraphy (both stencils and with brushes), zodiac calendars and puppets, tangrams, scrolls, a literacy table with featured books and student designed bookmarks, a Chopsticks Challenge, sky lantern riddles, Panda habitat games, costumes and masks about the 8 Immortals, Feng Shui design, and a photo booth with outfits and props.  I am so thankful to work with such amazing and creative teachers!

Many of our teachers and students "worked" the event..... I say "worked" loosely because it was so much fun!! 

Lots of laughs, lots of pictures and a very good time.  What I love most about times like this is getting to know my students even more.  One instant that will stay with me:  The YMCA provided some pizzas for me and my students while we were setting up the room during the day.  The pizzas were delivered and most of the students sat down and one student started passing out the plates, bottled waters, and offering pizza boxes.  In true Ashley Baker "I must get this done now before I forget" fashion, I grabbed a slice and kept working.  The student said "No, no Mrs. Baker, we are all going to sit as a family and eat."  

What can I say to that!  Other than "Yes, sir, thank you" and I sat, ate and enjoyed my company, my family.