Jackson Pollock for Elementary Education

I recently discovered a fantastic way to teach elementary education about Jackson Pollock. In case you do not know, he was an Abstract Expressionist artist. Pollock is very famous for his giant paint -splattered canvases. There is a website called jacksonpollock.org where you can create your own Jackson Pollock on your computer. You move the paint around with your computer mouse. Every time you click he mouse, the color of the paint will change. If you move your mouse around quickly, you will get thinner lines. If you move slowly, the lines will be thicker. That is also how you get globs of paint.

Even though this is not the same as throwing actual paint onto a canvas, it is rather enjoyable! This program is even better to use with elementary education because then there is no mess with paint. Plus, there will be more time to create and less time spent on cleaning up. There will be no worries of children eating paint either. Even if the young students do not remember Jackson Pollock, they will get the chance to learn about colors, patterns, and self expression. This program will work on any electronic device. Laptops, smart phones, iPads, even the smart board….Think of the possibilities for them to work on the smart board as a huge canvas! You could make one Jackson Pollock with the entire class that way, too. To present these little masterpieces, you could set them up in a slideshow or print them out and mount them.

This program has a lot of potential. I have used it when I substitute teach. Sometimes if the students are finished with an assignment, I will let them go on the computer to make their own Pollock paintings. I found that it keeps them engaged and under control. This is a program that I highly encourage. It is student friendly, keeps students entertained, and above all else...no mess!
Here is the website: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Collaboration Canvas

I selected Amanda S’s Unit Plan on Bullying to remix. I saw her canvas, and it reminded me of my claymation unit question: “How could you overcome your greatest fear?” For some students who are bullied, that is their greatest fear. It hurts to hear when students are bullied every day, and live in fear of what is going to happen to them in school. I thought this would be an excellent collaborative unit plan. In the new plan I remixed, the students would be working together to create a short 1-2 minute claymation video on how they would stop someone, or themselves, from being bullied. I

In my case, the original canvas would not come up in the remixed canvas, so I added a text widget with the link to it. I referenced most of the major points in Amanda’s unit description, and added my part. My question related more to my art project, but is very useful for the language arts part as well. With the photo gallery, I added examples of claymation characters for the students to reference when making their own. I looked for a claymation video where someone was being bullied and the protagonist resolved the conflict, but I did not find any video like this. I did find a video about students who created an anti bully video in their media arts class, which seemed appropriate for this remixed unit. I also added more resources for students on things that they can do to stop bullying.

Link to collaborated canvas: http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2568&mode=edit#network6

Seeing Artwork in a 360 Degree View

This post may not seem like anything special to the average person. However to me, and I hope all of the other art education majors, this is a fantastic tool for teaching art history. I stumbled upon this site a couple weeks ago. It is a 360 degree view of inside the Sistine Chapel. You can see everything! It is simple to navigate and crystal clear once it loads. You can also zoom in extremely close. You can probably see more on this website than standing in the Sistine Chapel itself. There are advantages to having a site like this one when teaching Italian Renaissance Art.

For obvious reasons, it is important to show students artwork in art history. Looking at artwork from all the time periods gives different artists and movements in history an image; a style. When looking at a painting off of a power point, it is easy to explain everything going on in the piece because it is all there on one plane, Artwork on the larger scale, such as sculptures and buildings are difficult to explain in a classroom. The photos of that kind of artwork only have one perspective on pieces with endless view points. To have a site like this one to access the entire Sistine Chapel is wonderful. It is like taking a class on field trip to inside that room, which is rather engaging.

In general, the idea of a 360 degree view would be ideal for all three dimensional art pieces. Since we have this technology, it is more popular to find this technique. I have seen it on several web sources, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I feel that this is a huge step forward. Rather than showing students these giant art pieces in disconnected sections (even some sections missing), show them the entire space. That way they are seeing everything that makes up the artwork. Not only that, but they will better understand the lesson being taught.

Link to Sistine Chapel: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

 

Unit Plan Canvas

My unit plan was on clay animation. It is a form of film making in which the characters are made of clay. To create movement, you have to move the figure ever so slightly, and take a picture each time you move it. Running through those pictures creates the video. This is an incredibly tedious process. For middle school students, this will be an opportunity to teach them patience. The students would be teaming up to create their own clay animations. The reflection question helps them start thinking about their assignment. The students are to create a short stop motion video about someone conquering their greatest fear.

Due to the topic of my unit, I felt that visual examples were the most important thing to show students. I found other videos on You Tube that looked inspirational. From there, I added on the pictures of different stages of clay animation and the materials used. The other information just followed naturally, helping the visuals support the unit. The last thing I added was the description. The description of the unit connected everything on the canvas.

PLAYground has so much potential, but some things were irritating during the process. Ridiculous as this sounds, I never found the option to delete a widget. I wanted to change my document widget (with the standards) into a text widget. The program would not let me delete it no matter what I clicked! I also can not stand how you can not see the complete video without making it full screen. I know how to embed a video and make it larger on YouTube, but that larger video would NOT attach to my canvas. There is a good chance the main problem was because I was using a PC. When I worked on the mac during the orientation session, the program worked flawlessly. Once I worked on my PC everything went spastic. If I could get PLAYground to work right, I would use it again.

Link to my canvas:
http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2287&mode=view#network6

Technology and Pedagogy

This lesson is for 7^th grade art where the students learn about clay animation, and create their own short animations using new knowledge. I admire anyone who uses clay animation in their work because it can be an incredibly tedious process- especially with kids. However if it is done right, the results are rewarding. The main reason I chose this lesson was because students are creating movies with multiple technological devices as well as fine art materials.

This lesson was created by Connie Ferguson from Arizona. Her lesson plan was very thorough; she had the lesson separated into stages. Starting with having students watch clay animated movie clips, such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, to forming groups, the movie making process and so on. Connie also had a list of materials and equipment used for this lesson. Many of those materials were electronic devices to make their movies. Connie also included a list of standards that her lesson covers, which is important to include. (Of course, they are Arizona’s standards, not New Jersey’s.)

These technological devices (cameras, tripods, PCs, Macs, and software etc.) were absolutely essential to the lesson. Without them, the students could not do the project. After being taught how to use the equipment, the students were able to use them and make something. Interactive activities like this are good for students; they learn by doing. Honestly, I can not think of any major improvements to this lesson. Connie did an excellent job at clarifying what the students were to do, and what was expected out of them. She even included a rubric for the students to see their expectations. When it comes to lesson plans, it is important to be specific, as well as clear.
Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AialxCNkXgNWdEI5WS05Y1FEa21Ca3Q5ZmNPTTlzREE&rm=full#gid=0

Lesson Plan Website:
http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/Clay-Connie.htm

Teaching Art with iPads

I recently read about art teachers incorporating iPads in their classroom. Some thoughts ran through my head as I read the title… How did these teachers acquire so many iPads for art class? What could they possibly be teaching that needs an iPad? How can teaching art on an iPad compare to using the fine arts? Turns out there are many benefits from this new art tool, that I never realized.

There are a couple different stories and scenarios to how these teachers got iPads for their classes. One teacher works for a school that has iPads that circulate all over the school; one grade uses them at a time. She has enough iPads for everyone in her class to have their own. The other teacher only has six iPads right now. She has gotten these iPads from different sources. Some were donated, others she earned from a grant she applied for. This teacher has to come up with two lesson plans, one that includes using iPads, and one that does not (but they have to work together). That way her students can rotate lessons. This could be difficult at times, and it would be ideal to have an iPad for each student. That way everyone is on the same page.

These teachers stated many things that the students learn from using the iPads in art class. They do learn various fine art techniques such as drawing, painting, transparency, color theory and much more. On top of that, with the iPad they learn new digital skills along the way. Some digital skills that students learn can be applied to other classes. One teacher mentioned how forgiving art on an iPad can be. It is so easy to undo a mistake, and re-arrange a composition. There are obvious differences between the fine arts and art on an iPad. Thanks to certain apps on the iPad teachers are able to teach what is in their curriculum, whether the project is done on an iPad or with the original medium.

According to one of the teachers, “It is important for students to learn how to create digitally using 21st century technology in order to succeed in the future.” There is a lot of truth to that. As we have learned, technology is constantly evolving, taking us with it. Having the students learn these technology skills will help them down the road.
Check out the reading here:
http://ipadsinart.weebly.com/

History of Technology in Art

 

Pencil...Probably still the most effective and basic tool in art class.