Best use of technology in an art classroom November 21, 2007

When my childrens’ school invested BIG BUCKS in doc cameras for every room, I have to admit I was a bit sceptical.  It seemed like so much money and there seemed to be so many other things to spend it on.  However, when the principal did a presentation for the PTA, I was completely convinced at the educational value of this technology.  The funny thing was, although he never once talked about using the doc camera for art lessons, I saw the immediate advantage the technology had for teaching art.  Anyone who has tried to teach a lesson on using clay or mixing paint when only the five students in the front row could see what was going on can appreciate how the doc camera brings hands on (literally) lessons to the entire class – even the kid sitting in the back row. 

 I have also come to love the use of the digital camera in the art process, although I have not used it as much in the classroom yet.  In an art class I took recently we had to submit several different versions of a piece – drafts – to the teacher.  Being able to photograph the various stages of the process was very informative and instructional. 

 I love getting cameras into the hands of students.  Only a small percentage of kids will ever really get into painting or pottery, but almost everyone will have access to a camera at some point in his or her life.  Why not teach them how to be the best photographer they can be?  It’s a great way to teach about composition, lighting, color, value, texture. 

DAIJ November 21, 2007

No art blog of mine could be complete without a mention of Describe, Analyze, Interpret and Judge.  I think that this four step process or framework might be one of the most important things I can imprint in a student’s brain.  It’s really quite an easy scaffold that can be used to discuss visual arts of all formats (including movies, tv shows, advertisements) as well as literature.  Here is a “cliff notes” version of the process:

Describe – Tell me what do you see.  If students don’t respond you can encourage them to share by breaking the idea down into smaller chunks.  What colors do you see?  What shapes do you see?

Analyze – Tell me how you think the artist made the piece.  This is where you can discuss what medium are used.  How long to you think it took?  What was the process? 

Interpret – Tell me why do you think the artist made this piece.  What is the artist trying to say?  Art is about communication, so what’s being communicated.  For younger students, I will insert a mini art history lesson at this stage.  Art is never created in a vacumm, so for students to understand the why’s of an artist’s piece I think they need to have the history around the piece.  What was going on in the world at that time?  What was going on in the art world at that time.  But this is also a stage where kids should be encouraged to have different interpretations.  OK, maybe a piece doesn’t communicate “that” to me, but it can communicate “that” to you.

Judge – Tell me do you like the piece and why.  This stage has to be supported by evidence.  Opinions can vary but all people have to learn how to support their opinions with evidence.  I also explain that there’s a difference between liking a piece of art and wanting to have it hang in your living room. 

Process vs Product November 21, 2007

For the past several years, my mantra about art education is that it has to be more about process and less about product.  So much of the art done in schools is product oriented and the process, where the real learning takes place, is ignored.  But it is still a struggle.  Right now I’ve been trying to come up with a woven beading project for 5th graders.  It has lots of learning possibilities.  It ties into art history since to introduce the project I’m giving a mini lesson about jewelry as a form of art and its history.  It is a great lesson to go from 2D when the kids design their piece to 3D when they make the piece.  It has tons of sequential processing skills involves.  I am sure that any kids who does this project and then looks at a Native American beaded article will have an appreciation for the skill and time that went into creating the piece.  BUT the product may be beyond many in the class.  This project will really stretch them and I think that makes it a good project.  But they might not be able to have a finished product at the end.  Am I just bothered by that because it’s around the holidays and I feel this unspoken pressure to have the kids create something that could be given as a gift?

A way to save time November 14, 2007

One thing that has surprised me in the art classroom is how much time is spent distributing and collecting papers, and then how many of them get misplaced.  My master teacher has a good system for collecting and storing work, but somehow there still seem to be pieces that get misplaced or lost.  I keep thinking there has to be a better way, but as of yet I can’t figure it out.  Being a specialist and having so many people in and out of the room on a daily and weekly basis makes the collection and storage of work a big job.  I’d like to figure out a way to do it better. 

When I get my own room November 14, 2007

Spending time in the art room at school has been such a joy for me.  For so many years I thought about what my own art room would look like.  There are many things about the room I am currently working in that I like and would want in a room of my own.  However, there are somethings that I would like to change.  First, I’d like to have an area where I can “collect up” kids.  A place on the floor where kids can gather around and look at art or just be out from behind a desk for a few moments.  The other thing I would like is a large art library where children can explore art in books.  I think this would be particularly helpful for when some students finish before others, as some always do. 

Simple is sometimes best November 7, 2007

This week I witnessed a simple assignment that dealt with creating overlapping images.  It was with a kindergarten class and the tools needed were no more complicated than paper, pencil and a template.  The children were instructed to trace one image, then trace two more behind the initial one.  To successfully do so, they had to understand that the image behind the first would not be drawn in its entirety.  While that doesn’t sound too complex, it did give an interesting insight into the cognitive development of the students.  I was struck by the fact that the lesson could easily link to a literacy lesson when children are asked to identify the beginning, the middle and the end of a story.  I love seeing the integration of art to core curriculum.  And I love seeing how simple it can be.