iPads in the Art Room

I am extremely excited tonight. This morning I learned that a grant I wrote for six iPads was approved by the Education Foundation of Hudson. This fabulous foundation consists of Hudson alumni and accepts proposals up to $3,000 twice a year. They also funded document cameras for each of the elementary art classrooms a couple of years ago. I feel so fortunate to work in a district that not only supports teachers, but also the arts! 

Last summer I took the iPads in the Art Room class through The Art of Ed, and last week I viewed the Creating on iPads Master Class on Education Closet. Both are fabulous resources if you are looking to get started using iPads in your art room. I am glad that I took the AOE class first, as it begins very basic, with setting up the iPad and learning basic features before moving on to finding, sharing, and using apps for projects. I came away with a lot of great ideas, and still have to go through some of the other students' final projects. There were just so many great ideas I haven't gotten to them all. Tricia Fuglestad's presentation on EC was fabulous, but fast. I was glad I have background knowledge on iPads and the video was recorded so I could backtrack and pause when I needed to get everything completely understood. I showed a few fifth graders her portrait project and asked if they would like to do it. At first they declared there was no way they could possibly draw like that-then I showed them a quick demo of the process and they got very excited and asked if we could do it next! I already have a project planned, and have to get Sketchbook X on all the iPads (and hopefully obtain my new ones!) before we can start that project, but I am encouraged by their enthusiasm and am optimistic about the art they will create on their personal iPads after learning how to use the layers feature. With the addition of six iPads from the grant, I will now have eight iPads designated just for my art department, so look forward to more exploration of using iPads in the art room on One Crayola Short!

Phantasy Zebras

My second graders are about 2/3 of the way through this project. I will post the how-to drawing guide I used with them on Monday, as it's saved on a work drive that I don't have access to from home. (Here it is!) So far, they used the drawing tutorial to draw the head of a zebra after looking closely at photographs of zebras to notice details about their faces. We talked about the shape of their noses, how wide their head gets around their eyes, and that their heads get more narrow above their eyes. We looked at the shape of their ears, and even their Mohawks before starting our drawings. I love using drawing tutorials with a presentation remote for many reasons. First, selfishly, I don't have to draw it six times. More importantly, however are the benefits for the kids. I can be out with them, checking their progress and giving tips instead of being stuck near the board. Also, I had a kid absent and I was able to keep the rest of the class on task and give her the remote to work at her own pace. She not only caught up to the rest of the class (because she didn't have to wait on me at all), but her zebra looks stellar!

Once they were done drawing their zebras, I showed them how to distinguish between chisel tip, fine tip, and extra fine tip Sharpies. My sub called them "Daddy, Momma, and Baby, " which the kids had fun with. I even heard some role playing with markers. "I love you Momma, I'm going to use you on these stripes!" I gave them tips on when to use each size marker and how to color thoroughly without looking scribbly and set them to work. 

The next class period, we finished up the Sharpie and then used watercolors for the background. I asked them to go around the zebra head using rainbow order. We reviewed primary and secondary colors and talked about how when the colors go in rainbow order they mix to form the intermediate colors.

Next cycle, I will be borrowing iPads and having the students manipulate the image they drew and painted. They will use the Phantasy App, which changes the background of the image into something new. There are many images to choose from. Here are just a few examples using my sample zebra. 

Kindergarten on the iPads

I braved using the iPads with kindergartners to start the Percolator Gumball Machine project today. I feel so fortunate that my colleagues were willing to let me borrow their iPads for the day! I will be doing this again with kinders twice next week, and starting with second grade next week as well. If anyone has an easier way of doing all this, please let me know. Here's what I did. . . 

My colleagues started dropping their iPads off right away in the morning, even though I didn't need them until after lunch. I used that to my advantage, and logged into Dropbox on each of the iPads. I then downloaded one child's artwork (which I had already photographed and put into Dropbox after loading them to Artsonia) to each iPad. I put a Post-It note on each iPad to let me know which child's image was loaded. I even went into Percolator and loaded the child's artwork to the iPad. After my demo, all the kid had to do was turn it on and start manipulating the image. 

I had one more iPad than I needed for the kids (it's a small grade level), so I used that to project on the SmartBoard and show the students how to change the different parts of the image. I then set them to work and as they finished I showed them how to save it to their camera roll and keep working. Most kids had more than one image saved-one even had eleven!

When the kids left, I went into each iPad individually and uploaded the images to my Dropbox. I changed the name of the image to the artist's class code followed by their name so that when the computer reorganized the photos the whole class would be together. Next, I logged out of Dropbox on the iPad and deleted all my students' work because they are not my iPads. If anyone knows of a way to change the image file name on the iPad, I am all ears as that would have been a huge time saver today (and even more so next week, when I'm doing more than one grade level!).

When I had all the images transferred, I was able to download them in one large group and load them to Artsonia. I love putting iPad artwork on Artsonia. Not only is it impressive looking, but it's so easy with no editing needed!

These images are all from the same class. I am thrilled with the variety of results and debating about making photo collages like the one at the top of this post to load to each kid's Artsonia account. It would be a fun triptych, but lots of work.

Name Fish

I haven't done this project for a couple of years, and with a sub coming in this week Thursday and Friday so I can go to the Wisconsin Art Education Association Fall Conference and again on Tuesday because my district has a fine arts expert coming in to teach us how to write effective SLOs, I decided I needed a tried and true lesson that the kids enjoy. I like to have video intro/demos, especially when I have subs so I feel like I'm there even when I'm not-our counselor jokes that I'm working myself out of a job. I designed this video to be paused after drawing the basic fish and again after adding their names with bubble letters. I'm hoping it will make my subs' lives easier. I also had a student request that I put my videos on YouTube so she can do the projects at home! How convenient that one of the WAEA sessions I am attending is for flipped classrooms! Here's the video I created using PhotoStory3 and Camtasia with music from Soundzabound.

Pop Art, Pointillism, and the iPad

Pop Art & Pointillism Kindergarten Unit

by Wayne Thiebaud

My kindergartners are finishing up their Pop Art Gumball Machine a la Wayne Thiebaud this cycle. They used printmaking to create the gumballs and collaged it all together. I really wanted to use the Percolator app with them but needed to find a way to link our Pop Art work with Percolator. I decided this is the perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of types of art and specifically Pop Art and Pointillism. I found this great gumball machine worksheet on Mandy's Tips 4 Teachers and printed them out so they could get right to painting after my intro. 

Next, I created a video, as I will be having a sub coming in to teach this to two of my classes while I am off at Art Ed Conferences. This video took me for.ev.er to make. So I'm sharing it here so that all of you can enjoy the fruit of my labor without the intensive work! 

When they are done with their Pointillist Gumball Machines, I will be borrowing the school iPads to use Percolator with them. I am already taking photos of all the work for Artsonia, so I will load those in folders according to class in my dropbox account. This will make them available on the iPads. I will have to spend my lunch break loading each iPad to an individual image as I'm sure my kinders aren't ready for that, but Percolator is pretty easy to use, so once the images are on there I'll give a quick demo on the SmartBoard and let them get to work. I'll have to circulate around the room sending the completed images back to my dropbox. I'll be sure to post when we're done and let you know what I learned about using iPads with kindergartners!

Printmaking & Collage

Pointillism

Technology

Artsonia Classroom

Have you tried Artsonia Classroom yet? I have been using it with my third through fifth graders and I love it!

With the coming implementation of Common Core State Standards, I have been integrating more and more writing into my curriculum. Projects, Pre-project work, and assessment can all include writing in some form. Artsonia Classroom makes it easy to not only add writing into the assessment process, but teach about Artist Statements and assess if the kids actually understood what I was trying to teach them. As an added benefit, students can upload their own artwork AND their artist statement will be published with their artwork for all to see their writing! The process requires a lot of steps, but is very easy to use. My students have had very little questions, after watching me go through it on the SmartBoard. I have created a how-to for both the computer and the iPad and posted them here for all of your classrooms as well. I'll post a few screen shots here, so you can see what it's like. On my actual documents, I added arrows to show the students which buttons I am referring to.

Uploading using an iPad  Please note, I access Artsonia Classroom through the free QR Reader app. 

Uploading using a computer: Please note, if the artwork is not already published, you or the artist will need to take a digital photo of the work and have access to it.

I have three laptops and one computer in my classrooms, which I carry from school to school for this purpose. I also have a class set of iPads at each school and try to borrow 3-5 for my third through fifth grade students when they are available. I also have two binders at each school that have printouts of both of the how-to guides above and all the QR codes, sorted by grade level. I have in/out boxes in my classroom and when a student finishes their artwork they are instructed to put it in their grade level IN box and take a rubric from the OUT box. The rubric asks questions about the project and is designed to help the students form complete sentences to then type in as their Artist Statement. For example, my fifth graders just learned about the Principle of Art, Emphasis by creating Zentangles with emphasis and then using the Color Effects App to show emphasis in a landscape image. Their rubric asked 1. What is Emphasis, 2. How did you used Emphasis in your project? (Here's their gallery) The best part? Their writing gets sent to me to review before being posted. I have to approve their editing of their artwork AND their writing before it is posted. This allows me to read what they wrote, grade it, approve it, and add their grade to my grade book all with a few mouse clicks! Simplicity at it's best-while integrating writing AND technology! This seriously makes me feel like an awesome teacher. 

A New Year

I've started picking a theme for each year. Last year was Superheroes, which went over really well with both boys and girls. Seriously, who doesn't want to be a superhero? With so many great cartoon movies coming out this summer, I had plenty of material to choose from. I chose Despicable Me 2 as my inspiration, although Monsters U came in a close second. There are so many images and memes on the internet that they are both easy to use. I will post pictures of my classroom later, as I was in meetings this whole week and haven't finished it. However, I discovered a great video site called Powtoon and created a video to review expectations with grades 1-5. This way I won't have to recite my expectations 32 times, I'll just get really sick of this video.

Post-It Mural

It's done, it's hung, and it's AMAZING!

In the words of one of my third graders "I think we outdid ourselves this year."

Come see it LIVE and IN PERSON at the 9th Annual Art & Music Show TOMORROW 5-9!

Art Show Prep

It's almost time for the NINTH Annual Willow River Art & Music Show! Parent volunteers will flood our school and the show will magically emerge in the next few days. I have all of the student works of art sorted and organized for the fun to begin tomorrow. 

All of the art show projects, waiting to be displayed.

Fourth grade Keith Haring Tunnel Books.

Third grade Claes Oldenberg Sundaes.

K-2 projects all labeled and ready.

Fifth grade Romero Britto Sculptures.

The show will be held in the Willow Atrium and Media Center on Friday, April 19th from 5-9 p.m.

Vincent van Gogh's {woven} Sunflowers

My new fav van Gogh project. Third graders made these, straight from here.

Post It Mural

It's DONE! We actually got it done a bit faster than I thought we would. I don't have a photo of the whole thing finished yet, as it will be hung just before the art show, which is now officially scheduled for April 19th!

Not quite finished, it took two more classes after this photo was taken. The bottom strip is not photo'd, as it was already finished and in storage. 

 I couldn't get more red Post-Its, so I ended up making the sun a little bit smaller. It is going to be amazing, I can't wait to get it hung! 

FINISHED!

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.