Entry 4

I think I am finally finished with Entry 4 of my National Boards! Ok, so I'm sure I'll need more revisions, but I'm well on my way to being done with Entry 4. A couple of you mentioned in the comments of my last post that you would be willing to read my writings, and I would appreciate that so very much! My mentor is a third grade teacher, and she has already made my entries so much stronger than they started. However, we all know that being a specialist teacher is it's own thing entirely, and I would be eternally grateful for an art perspective. That said, here is the link for my entries for my Accomplishments. These are supposed to be significant accomplishments that have linked my classroom with the community (local community and/or teaching community) and increased student learning. The link is set up as viewing only, so suggested edits can be emailed to jodiyoungman@gmail.com. Thank you in advance for your time and thoughts!

Post-It Mural-Day 1

 I planned on starting our Post It mural with my fourth and third graders today. I got an email from the fourth grade teacher that they would be 15 minutes late because of a presentation. They ended up being over a half hour late, and got ten minutes to work on this. They were really bummed, but I assured them that they would get more time another day. The third graders worked on it for the whole class period. We started by watching the video of the business creating their mural that I posted last time and moved on to how to read my Excel chart. I then showed them how to mark each square with what color Post-It should be attached there. I'm not sure I should have started this way. It may have been easier to just start with the Post-Its, but I plan on having them add double sided tape to the bottom of each Post-It and that stuff really sticks. I don't want to risk the paper ripping if they make a mistake with that stuff! 

 I got smarter after watching the fourth graders. Originally, I had printed four copies of the chart, one for each long roll of paper. That proved to be a little confusing for the students working on the middle two rolls. Before third grade came in, I cut each of those charts to show only the squares that the students would be working on in their specific strip of paper. This worked much better, and the kids got a lot of work done. 

National Boards

I got my kit today! I am excited, scared, and intimidated. I am also almost a quarter of the way completed. I have to write one more paper on a professional accomplishment and then I'll start the other three writtings. I have been recording my teaching since the week before break, and I have started photographing for the first entry. Part of me cannot believe I am doing this, but one of my colleagues is a NB Certified teacher and is mentoring me through the process. She is amazing, and I am thankful for her dedication to the process. Now I am off to set up my camera for this afternoon's session! If any of you out there are thinking about or would like more info on NB, just let me know! 

National Boards

I've decided to work for my National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Certification. Commonly called "National Boards." It is a LOT of work. A colleague of mine has hers as a "generalist," and equates it to getting a masters degree except teachers complete their National Boards in 3-15 months. I have contemplated participating in National Boards for about six years and decided now is the time. I was upset to find out that the Federal Subsidy through the Wisconsin Department of Education may not be available next year, so in order to be eligible for it I have to have my portfolio complete by March 31st. If you're not familiar with National Boards, here's the highlights of it for an "Art Early/Middle Childhood" Certification (ages 3-12). 

Process: 

There are four portfolio entries and six essay questions that must be taken at an assessment center.

The first portfolio entry consists of a storyboard of ten photographs proving the teacher met certain standards and goals. The teacher must write up what they did, how it met the stated goals, and how it effected student learning. The write up is a ten page maximum, with an additional submittal of assessment practices up to five pages. The second two portfolio entries each have different standards for the teacher to prove and require video of the teacher teaching, assessment materials, and another write up of ten pages maximum. The fourth and final  entry is a ten page maximum write up of the teacher's accomplishments in including family and community in their work. 

Benefits: 

In Wisconsin, we have two different types of teaching licenses. There is a "Professional Educator License" which is valid for five years and a "Master Educator License" which is valid for ten years. With the acquisition of a NB Certification, a teacher can apply to become a Master Educator. This is nice because to renew a license teachers have to either take six graduate level classes or complete a PDP (Professional Development Plan) that is accepted by the state and pay a fee for the renewal (about $100 currently). 

Currently, Wisconsin offers a grant of $2,500 per year that the certification is valid (ten years).

If a teacher completes all ten aspects of the process and does not get certified they earn three graduate credits. If they do get certified they earn an additional six (total of nine) graduate credits. These can be issued through the college of their choice (upon approval) and applied to district payroll advances.

Validation of quality teaching

Draw backs:
It costs $2,565 to attempt certification. Depending on what you teach and where you live, there may be scholarships available to help with this and the benefits certainly outweigh the cost, but what teacher has an extra two grand laying around? Certainly not me, which is why I'm rushing to complete this before the subsidy is (possibly) gone next year. This subsidy is half the cost, which will help a lot. 

So, that is what I am working on now. I am partway through the fourth entry (the community involvement entry) as that one does not require much more than writing. I will start recording  my teaching tomorrow. I have lessons picked out for the second and third entry and am just a little stumped on what to do for the first one. I have an idea, and plan on exploring that one more this weekend. With each class only meeting every six school days, I have to get rolling on this NOW!

Statue of Liberty

One of our third grade classes was ready to have their Statues of Liberty spray painted last week. Here are some photos of the progress.

Gelatin Printmaking

When I came across this blog post on Pinterest, I was a bit intrigued. Admittidly, it took me over a year to get back to it and thoroughly check it out. I am in love with this process! There is a product called Gelli Art that mimics the gelatin printmaking technique, but I have too small of a budget to invest in those. Enter gelatin. Notice I didn't say Jell-O. I used Knox Gelatin, which I found at WalMart in a box with four packages in it. I used two cups of boiling water and all four packets of gelatin to create one cookie sheet of gelatin to play with. When I do this with students, I plan on using disposible tins that I already have on hand. They are brownie pan sized. After mixing the gelatin, I poured it into the pan and let is sit overnight. The next morning I had a flexible, rubbery surface for printmaking.

I like the lesson that is found on the blog post linked above, so I decided to try that one. Luckily, in Wisconsin in October, there are plenty of leaves to be found! I inked the gelatin with black ink and layed the leaves out on the gelatin, vein side down. Time for the first print. This one will give students an image focusing on the negative space.

Negative image, next to the printing pan.

Next, I removed the leaves. Most of the ink around the leaves was removed with the first print, but the leaves blocked off an areas with a great vein pattern. Once the leaves are removed, I created the second print. I LOVE these! They are simply stunning!

Pulling the second print.

Side by side; negative and positive space.

Negative space.

Positive space.

I plan on having the students mount these side by side. We will look at some Andy Warhol prints and talk about dyptichs. I love that there are so many concepts in this one, simple project! Students will be learning printmaking, negative/positive space, Pop Art, and dyptichs!

Post-It Mural



I thought about saving this post until our Post-It mural is complete, but that won't be until April and I figured perhaps someone out there may also be inspired by this idea, so here's where we are right now:

I have been completely inspired by a blog post that I came across while searching for images for a presentation on Andy Warhol. Despite finding the video on YouTube, I cannot get it to load into Blogger, so you can find the post, with a time lapse video of the Post-It note mural they created here. I am so inspired, that I have decided to create my own Post-It notes mural with my students! Their image was Pop Art, and it works really well for this techniques, so I decided to stick with Pop Art.   Pop Art is one of my favorite styles, so it's amazing it's taken me this long to decide to have an art show with a Pop Art theme.

To begin, my student teacher and I chose an image. We decided we wanted to go with something from Roy Lichtenstein, as I thought his comic book style would not only interest the students, but also work well with the pixelation we needed to create. While searching, we came across his painting, "Sunrise," and we agreed that that's the one. Mrs. Leland (my student teacher) pulled the image into PhotoShop and used a filter to make it appear in squares. Each square represented one Post-It note. Because we are doing this with elementary students, we decided to transfer that image into Excel to make the squares more obvious to the kids.

Transferring the image into Excel. Each square is one Post-It note.



Finished the transfer! It took me about 3 1/2 hours and is eight pages to print!



It's going to be AMAZING!

Close up of the Excel spreadsheet.

Our plan is to tape roll paper together to make a canvas large enough to accomidate our image. Together, we'll draw out the squares on the large paper. We have an atrium, which is where it will be hung for the art show. It is also where we will work on it. The plan thus far is to have grades 3-5 work on it once during their art classes. I have all of those classes before lunch, so the paper can be rolled up when the last class of the day is done with their contribution.

Artist of the Week

One of my students is in Artsonia's artist of the week contest for her Dot picture! Please go to this link and vote for her daily through Oct 6th. Her name is Karin, and she is in the PK-3 age group. Thanks!


http://www.artsonia.com/aotw/vote/0/19892813

Big Reveal

No one guessed correctly! We are making mini Statue of Liberty figures. This one is still missing the tissue paper fire in the torch, but you get the gist of it. These will be on display along with some drawings of American Gothic for the 2nd and 3rd grade art show/music concert in November.