This summer has been a great one. I have had some awesome opportunities to travel, get fit (both physically and mentally), and reflect on what goals I have for the upcoming school year. I purposely took some time away from planning at the start of the summer in order to clear my head and look at the last school year with a fresh perspective. I did this in order to know what I wanted to keep in my classroom, what I want to try from the heap of resources I have accumulated over time, and how I want my students and I to leap forward towards new ideas and opportunities. Rather than create a ridiculous list of a million and one things I could do for this next school year, I am going to focus on three ideas that I know will have the potential to move my classroom forward in tremendous ways. 

I am so excited that one of the highlights for my students last year when they filled out their was also one of mine. Overwhelmingly students expressed both an enjoyment and desire to work with others in collaborative ways in the classroom. We did this through our STEAM collaboratives and it is something I am very excited to continue as we get going with this upcoming school year. One of my favorite things about the start of the school year is that the STEM teacher and I combine our classes to work on a PSA collaborative starting on the first full week of school. This year we plan on continuing with our four STEAM collaboratives and I am excited to fine-tune this process as we will be looping various projects in new ways.

When I think of 'the heap," I think of a massive pile of various ideas that have accumulated over time; many of them are yet to be realized for one reason or another. These are things I have learned or have seen in other classrooms through professional development and social media, but haven't been quite ready or knowing how to implement in my classroom. These are things I have been inspired by when I see others put it into action, but where I haven't yet bridged the gap between admiration to implementation due to lack of confidence, total understanding, or most often, lack of time. 

Well, there is one thing from the heap of ideas that I am ready to try out and that is using Ozobots in my classroom. They are these really neat little bots students can program to better understand code through the variety of commands they give their bots. It is also a great way of incorporating art because you can program the bots to do different things depending on colors they encounter and other things along the way. I see this being a great way to get students engaged with design and problem solving and I am really excited to announce that you can help us get this project up and running by donating to our DonorsChoose page! 

I am beyond excited to announce that our STEAM collaborative, "Painting Under Paper Cuts," in the running to win our program $5000 through the Youth Collaborative Award in ArtPrize (VOTE 65259). This opportunity arose in late Spring and the STEM teacher and I worked together to get concepts and students together to make a work that was reflective of our student body and the nature of both of our classes. To put our name in the hat has been a big leap for this upcoming school year.

ArtPrize is in its ninth year; this is the first time my students or I have submitted work to it. It takes some courage to put your work out there, period; some might say it is a leap of faith. To add the element of having others to vote on it in the hopes that you will win both prestige and prize money for your classroom adds another element to the exhibition of the work. 

We almost didn't make it in to the competition, but thanks to Monroe Community Church, we were able to secure this fabulous venue and I look forward to working with parents and students to organize various ways we can promote the piece so people can vote for it. It is a leap I hope opens the door to even more opportunities for my students and myself to participate with these major events.

Now that I have had a chance to really hone in on some ideas using the keep, heap, and leap mantra about how I can make this next year the best one yet, I am getting really excited to start putting plans into action. 

I can't wait to meet my students in a few weeks and share these ideas with them and ask them to make their own lists of what they want to keep, take from the heap, and make a leap with to make their school year the best one ever! 

Do you have your keep, heap, and leap list going? If not, feel free to borrow from mine. If you do, please don't keep it to yourself. Be brave and declare it. 

See you on the Internets,

Mrs. C

I know that we should all still be in the thralls of summertime, laying out by the pool, drinking lemonade, and forgetting what day of the week it is. But, if you are like me, you have already had that first back to school dream (or nightmare) and have started to make strategic goals and plans for making this upcoming school year one the best one yet. Well, I have partnered with Scholastic to get your thinking about your classroom in this post and offer you a giveaway!

When thinking about plans for the fall, one that it a no-brainer for me is the inclusion of Scholastic Art Magazine to my curriculum. For those of you not familiar, it is a resource for your classroom that connects students to artists using a variety of timely themes, genres, and materials through print and online media.

I was lucky that I was first introduced to this resource during my student teaching days back in 2004. My mentor teacher said it was the single most important resource for her classroom because it organized artists and their work in ways that made it both relatable and age-appropriate for students. She had stacks and stacks of magazines that dated from decades before and that we both used them as ways to connect students with content in our lesson plans.

13 years later, I not only have stacks and stacks of my own Scholastic Art Magazines dating back over the last decade-plus that I can use with my students in various ways, I also have access to an online portal that allows students to view the content of current and past issues whenever they want. In addition to the text of the issue, students can access videos, slideshows, and other resources to deepen their understanding of artists, media, and concepts through the online portal. 

Here are a few of ways I use this resource in my classroom:

• Integrate reading and writing strategies in my classroom. 

If your school is like mine, we are always looking for ways to meaningfully weave reading and writing strategies into all of the curriculum. Using Scholastic Art Magazine offers an easy way to do this. Not only can you adjust reading levels on the online portal, you can also print reading comprehension questions at various grade levels to differentiate instruction based on your student population and needs. I use it most often for a writing prompt I call "Artist of Interest" where students use a specific-standards based rubric to write about an artist of their choice from any of the issues offered. 

• Easy substitute teacher plans.

Sometimes it is easier to go to school sick rather than figure out what to have students do when you are gone. As an art teacher, the amount of mess you might come back to when you leave your classroom can make the the idea of going to Professional Development Conferences seem impossible, too. With the amount of grade-level resources included in the subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine, I know that I can be away from my classroom without leaving a basic project behind for kids to do. I can use the worksheets, activity guides, and other resources to engage students in learning that can deepen their understanding of what we are learning in the classroom without the worry of it getting lost through a substitute. ​

• Connect students to Art Careers.

One of the more emerging areas of interest for me is connecting students to a career opportunities. There is a strange false narrative out there that artists can't make a living. I am not sure where it started and why it persists, but it is really not true. All you have to do is turn to the back pages of Scholastic Art Magazine and read the various careers they highlight in their issues. In addition to interviewing various professionals in the field (ranging from Crayon Engineer to Roller Coaster Designer and Wildlife Photographer), Scholastic Art Magazine's online portal showcases these careers in one spot and allows students to learn more about the professions including skills and education needed and even range of salary. I want my students to make art because they enjoy it and I want them to understand that they can also make a living from it.

I have also shared various projects my students have done on this blog using the magazines for research on their Elements and Principle Videos from several years ago as well as their Artist Rooms from just this past year.  I am also obsessed with the student showcase offered in each issue from former Scholastic Art Award winners and use that as a way to show students what their peers are doing in the art world, too.

So, now that you have heard some of the great ways I use Scholastic Art Magazine in my classroom, it is your turn to tell me how you would use it in yours! Thanks to Scholastic, one lucky teacher who comments below about how they would use a Scholastic Art Magazine subscription in their 2017/18 classroom will win a class set! Deadline to participate is July 17th! 

I am excited to read how you would use this great tool for your students, so please share your ideas! Then you can go back to drinking that lemonade, evening out your tan, and wondering what day it is... or more likely start prepping for the school year. 

I tried something new this year to finish up learning in my classroom. In addition to review guides, games, and an active project-based part of the final exam, I also asked students to help me close out my classroom prepare for the fall. 

This is something I have traditionally done myself over the years. As I was thinking about how to end the school year, I started toying with the idea of having students who were earlier finishers to help with many of the tasks that help inventory and organize tools so that the next year begins smoothly.

Some of the important things students helped with involved labeling 3D stations with student numbers, refilling paint, emptying glue bottles, cleaning out student storage, and checking/sorting markers. It was such a good opportunity to teach students care of classroom materials, creating an inventory, as well as the process of how we go about making choices for ordering supplies for next year. 

I cannot remember my classroom being cleaner or more organized at the end of the year and that means instead of focusing on that when we start in the fall, I can get right into the material and means of teaching my students. 

To finish out the year, we worked on part of our exam that piggy-backed on the idea of remixing from the last challenge. Instead of remixing work from our past, we looked to the students from our three elementary schools and intermediate school for inspiration. 

Students in my class went to the Artsonia galleries of Nickels, Marshall, Brown, and Countryside and selected a piece of their choice that they would like to animate. Some picked family members and others picked randomly from the galleries. 

Using Photoshop's tools and functions in the Motion workspace, students used the clone stamp, layers, and other tools to create the pieces below:

In addition to the project above, students finished my class out with a final exam that includes multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, and ordering questions. I have been giving a test to finish out the course for years.

At first, it was the only test I gave to students and because of that, the results were really hard to track in terms of growth. Then, I did the pre and post test model, but I still felt that it was too difficult to gauge learning with only administering two tests during the term. That is when I decided to start giving smaller quizzes after Challenges and then use questions from those to formulate the exam. The questions range from art identification, material usage, and other art terminology and application.

I am not sure I quite have it right yet, but so far this has been the best way for me to track student understanding and retention of content in addition to using student work and artist statements to document student learning. It is also quite satisfying to both the students and myself when we review the difference in pre and post test scores and see students have made some kind of gain over the school year.

The VERY last thing I do in my classroom is ask my students to give me feedback on the semester with the understanding I will use that feedback to help plan for the next time I teach the class. 

First thing I ask in the survey is why students signed up for Art. Here is a breakdown of responses:

Then I ask them what they learned about in class:

Then I ask about what they wish they could have learned more about:

What is interesting for me to see in these responses is what students hoped to learn, what they think they learned, and what they wish they could learn more about. It offers me a nice recap and understanding of the students I serve and what their goals were for their learning and if they were met by my goals for their learning, too. I think I am happiest with the middle chart and the consistency I see across various aspects of art making that students felt they learned. It is validating to reflect on these responses and teaching practices and see that my goals were met for students (but I am always looking for new things to make it better).

In addition to this kind of data, students are able to give me feedback on what they thought the best part of class was, what could be changed to make it better, and any other final thoughts they had for me. This is probably my favorite part of the end of the term because it allows me to see the good in what we did, the things we can make better, and anything else that is on students' minds. 

Here are some of reflections on what students liked the best this year: 

​"I really loved building rooms with the Stem Class, and getting design and create the spaces using different materials that reflect off of an artists work. ​"

"I loved the group projects with the other class because it let us get together with other people."

"I liked the video making collaboration. It was fun to make the game and fun to learn to work with coding. I also liked that we had the freedom to use whatever material we wanted for our art."

"I really liked being able to collab with the stem students and I loved making the artprize piece. I also enjoyed having the same theme but everyone getting to do each project in their own, creative way."

"I really liked how we got to make stuff that we wanted to. It was nice to not make something that looks exactly like everyone else's work."

"Saying good things at the beginning of class and being able to choose materials."

"The freedom to choose what your art will be and what it will be about."

"I enjoyed the fact that we got to pick our own art work. ​"

"The freedom of what kind of materials you get to use for the projects."

The survey is anonymous and the nice thing about it is that it gives me feedback I can reflect on to improve practice for the future. A few students questioned whether we needed to learn 18 different artists over the term and if they could have more choice on the artists they studied. This is something I think I will revamp for next year.  

I also appreciate the response to "Anything else you think I should know" part of the survey. I have really nice students and many offered thanks for a great year.

My favorite thank-you's are the ones that reflect what I try and offer all of my students and I hope resonate the most once they leave my classroom: 

"Thank you for teaching me so much about art this year and helping me advance in my skills and learn that everybody can be good at art."

"I wanted to thank you so much for everything you have taught me. I honestly feel like I have really improved as an artist. I really enjoyed this art class, and getting to experience and work with so many different materials, that I have not had the chance to work with before. I really hope to continue art in the future, and wanted to say thank you for pushing me to be the best artist that I can be."

"I enjoyed being in art so much. I loved how nice and kind you were and how you gave back feedback to people. I really enjoyed that we had a project challenge to do and I loved that we could come up with some exciting things. I really also enjoyed the field trip, and making art work for Artprize. Learning more about artists I didn't even know about was fun as well. I was so excited to finally figure out I was doing Art and once I did I was never so happy to go to school everyday and starting out my day with my favorite subject, Art. Thank you so much for being my art teacher I enjoyed every second of being your student at Byron Center West Middle School."

"Thank you so much for teaching me about art, and showing me that art is a lot more than people act like. I loved being able to be creative and create my own art this year!"
​
Although it was the best year ever (for so many reasons), I know I can use their feedback to improve and help 2017/18 to be even better! 

​Happy Summer! 

There are only two weeks left of school. And to say that there are two weeks left is being kind of generous. There is actually only seven more times I meet with my students from each of their hours before we say good-bye for the summer. With two more weeks left to go, here is a recap of what we did this week (which was a big one).

We had another great year celebrating the Arts in our school with our culminating activity: Arts a la Mode. This evening that begins with our annual Empty Bowls event and ends with performances and making opportunities for guests is something special that I am proud to be a part of for over 10 years. 

I want to thank Hudsonville Ice Cream for helping us with the ice cream through their Fusion program and all of the volunteers who helped set up, clean up, and help out during the night. It was a great time and we were able to raise over $450 in food and funds for Buist Community Assistance Center which will be used to help feed those in need in our community. 

It was fun to showcase the student talent this year through our large ArtPrize entry (we are still waiting to secure a venue). I also really enjoyed seeing students take leadership roles in the maker space this year and lead printmaking, lego building, and cardboard creating in the STEM room. 

I have been taking students to the Gardens almost every year since I came to BCWMS. I love the space and the sculptures offered and the current exhibit of Ai Weiwei was perfect for linking to the learning back into the classroom.

Each year we try something new for our field trip and this year it was all about a scavenger hunt! I have to thank another teacher for this idea (like most I post, it seems they were sparked somewhere else). We did this hunt as a group activity with 5 groups because of the rules of the gardens. Each group was shared what to find in a Google Doc and then they were to upload their responses to the shared document. 

It was fun to see the different things students found and what areas of the park they were able to go to. We also were stumped on a few of the items and appreciate the on-site librarian who helped us track down the answers (yes, I did not know some of the answers when I formed the questions). It was great fun and everyone was a good sport about it. 

The current exhibit was also great and it was really nice to have the space almost to ourselves for it. 

Sometimes I think it is crazy to plan this trip the day after our Fine Arts Night, but it seems to work out great and something I will plan to do again next year. 

For our final Project Challenge, students worked on rethinking past pieces to make new work and show new skills and ideas. We looked at the concept of a remix and how artists and others have used remixing various ideas to make something new. It was fun to see the variety of ways in which students selected works they were interested in revisiting and how they were going to adapt their new ideas and skills learned from the semester when creating their new work. This is my 

The STEM teacher and I decided that simply one more collaboration was not enough for our students, so we did a JAM PACKED week and a half that included three! It was a perfect way to finish our last collaborations as a group and release some creative energy during State Testing.

​Here are some of the results: 

When we plan out our collaborations, we want to make sure students are getting equal parts Art and STEM. This Mandala collaboration really is one of the most perfect blends we have found and offers a chance for everyone to help out. 

First students get into groups of four and learn about various ways cultures have used radial design as a strategy to communicate ideas. After we look at some examples of various designs, students fold and cut their own mandala, using the fold lines as their lines of symmetry to transfer the design so it is symmetrical throughout their piece. 

After students completed their designs, we went outside to translate them into LARGE replicas with chalk. I happened to be sick on the day we did this, but my students made sure to turn in images of their work. Here are a few:

Students also explored radial symmetry through digital means using Sumopaint and Photoshop. 

In the spirit of translating images from one platform to another, students created images using the online program PiskelApp and then recreated them on our Lego Board! This Lego Board and the Lego pieces were purchased through a DonorsChoose project earlier in the year and funding from The Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters.

It was an awesome use of materials and it was fun to see all of the different creatures and creations students came up with to add to the board. This was our first time doing this collaboration and only had about a day to complete it. I think we will do some other really cool things with the Lego board in the future based on this experience. 

Inspired by my trip to The Lab School in Washington, D.C. for The Power of Art Conference, I knew I wanted to do a large collaborative with students that would ultimately hang in our library. The new Youth Collaboration Award offered by ArtPrize was just the incentive to get something done by the end of the year and we hope we are able to connect with a venue in order to have it as a part of this year's competition. 

The above video walks you through the five day process students went through to create this colorful work. First, students looked at the combines of Robert Rauschenberg and used his application of paint to inform their approach to attaching the canvas by making marks using a variety of tools. I was able to use donated paint from X-rite that was given to us a couple of years ago for this and a variety of paint brushes, sponges, texture tools, yarn, and stamps for applying it to the three 4x8ft foam boards. Even some teachers and our Assistant Principal got in on the action. They were simply encouraged to make marks and attack the surface (I had a great painting teacher in college who would say the same to me).

Then students were shown some images by Caledonia Curry and how she uses printmaking and cut patterns on paper to create collaged and layered works. We used the idea of paper cutting to create a series of portraits of students from our school (some of the images were from photos I had taken for the yearbook and others were from students own images) and various circle patterns. Students worked in pairs for this and it was fun to see the patterns and faces emerge as they cut into the colorful pieces of paper.

Once that was complete, we worked together to arrange the cut outs on top of the painted background until it seemed to look "right." Using Modge Podge and sponge brushes, they were sealed on top of the surface.  

The end result is bright and colorful and reflective of the wonderful chaos that is both the end of the year and frequently in my Middle School Art room. I think we are pretty much finished (although we may add in some Sharpie outlines in the background - we are still debating this). We have until June 22nd to connect with a venue so our work can be a part of the ArtPrize Youth Collaboration Award consideration. 

If you are interested in hosting this work, please visit the link and request a connection. 

This work will be on display in the BCWMS Lobby during our Arts a la Mode/Fine Arts Night on Tuesday May 23rd.

Students finished up two challenges that I did not get a chance to post about until now. As we finish up the school year, I am trying my best to keep up with every fast-paced movement forward. Here are some of the results from the last two Challenges: 

For this assignment, students had to think about the objects in their lives that they cherish or not. They also were challenged to use a material they had yet to try and that offered for some fun experiments. 

For this challenge, students were asked to create work about a cause they cared about. It was interesting to see what they made, especially since they only had a week to do it. 

I had the most awesome opportunity to apply and be accepted to participate in The Power of Art Conference at The Lab School in Washington D.C. This three-day conference allowed teachers from across the country to come together at The Lab School and discuss one of the most important topics in Arts Education, which is Arts Integration. I was fortunate enough to arrive early enough on the first day to make my way to several important spots around our Nation's Capitol and take in the history and the art (often times at the same moment). 

I had an amazing experience learning more ways to integrate the Arts at this conference. I am very passionate about this topic and actually wrote my Thesis on this for my MA in Art Education back in 2010. As a teacher who is also certified in English/Language Arts, I try and cross other content curriculum into my Arts lessons and it was really eye-opening to see an entire school use the Arts in their content curriculum throughout grades and subjects. It was also really inspiring to see the various collaborative works students did around the school, many of them hand-in-hand with Robert Rauschenberg! 

This annual conference is available to teachers and administrators from schools all over the country. I highly recommend going and applying with other teachers and school leaders from your district! 

One of the biggest events of this week were my students finishing their KCAD Dual Enrollment class and presenting their final projects. After fifteen weeks of learning various manual settings, editing techniques, and how artists use both of those things to make compelling images, students worked on their final presentations on a topic of their choice. 

I was impressed as students explained their ideas and presented their final series. The difference between this assignment and the ones previously done is that the work must tell a story both individually and as a group of images. 

​Here are the results:

Elise's final series focused on the use of glitter to gloss over images we may not notice or want to see. She used glitter to capture ideas of greed, jealousy, hope, and wonder within her final eight images. She is planning to submit her series to Scholastic in the Fall.

Kathy's final series explored her heritage by using her friends and family in the Vietnamese market where they do their grocery shopping. She explores how she views herself through the items she captures and the development of her  personalized definition of an American identity.

Krista's work goes through the exploration of self though the use of water, paint, skulls, and how the model for her series interacts with those objects. She is planning to submit her series to Scholastic in the Fall. 

In Anna's series, she resisted her grandparent's basement where she was greeted by old toys and memories from the past. She decided to pair the well-worn objects with dangerous items and severe lighting to get an effect that shows a darker side to your once loved friends. 

Emma finished out the term with this series using her sister as a model and various special effects through light, prisms, and overlays to create a surreal feel with the portraits. Emma used the visual language of her drawings to inform the ideas behind these works as well as the color story woven throughout.

In her final series of images, Kennedy was interested in capturing fear and anxiety through images of what lurks just beyond the frame or in the shadows. Her images use some objects we encounter routinely, but dramatize them through placement, light, and shadow. 

Students worked on a new challenge this week that asked them to consider the items we value and those we do not. In doing so, they also were tasked with using media or materials that they have yet to use in their work. In addition to viewing artists' works that focus on objects and items as their subject, students were introduced to the idea of repurposing materials that are not usually thought of when making art or using materials they have yet to try this semester.

In the middle of the week, I demonstrated felting and used the wonderful resources of Cassie Stephens to my students. Many decided to try their hand at it (as you can see in the images below). 

This project has been one of my favorites for years. It has also been pretty successful in yielding unique pieces that have done well in competition. I am excited to see where students end up with these works and which we might be able to save for next year's competition cycle. 

After School Art students have been hard at work making the banner to represent their class that will hang with the others in the cafetorium. After months of sifting through ideas, plans, and lots of cutting and arranging, students started to finalize their work by actually putting the pieces together. The hope and goal is to have this complete and ready for display by our May 23rd event, Arts a la Mode! 

In addition to motivational messages written on my whiteboard in the hall to meet students that included "It's the beginning of the end" and "Be like the Patriots this 4th Quarter," I welcomed students back from break with some quick creations that exercised their understanding of a variety of media. 

I thought this would be a good way to ease back into the swing of school after a little over a week away from the grind and it would help students focus on successfully completing the skill-building tasks and use that to springboard into a successful 4th quarter and end to the school year. 

Before we left for break, students spent time with on a Challenge and STEAM collaborative that both looked at spaces and places as their subject. I decided to welcome students back from break by continuing that subject into four possible Photoshop Challenges for students to select and complete over the course of two days. Students had the opportunity to create a landscape, perspective drawing, altered graffiti name, or space image and in the process learn more Photoshop tools and experiment with ideas and their understanding of how to create images digitally.

​Here are a few of the results: 

The middle of the week transitioned from digital work to more traditional drawing methods. We spent one class period this week simply working on our observational skills and thinking about how our eyes work when we are using them to help us draw from life. One of my favorite exercises if to just simply walk students through a looking/seeing process and verbalizing how to really examine what is in front of you before you start to draw it. 

Observational skills are important and can be fostered, just like any other skill can be. During our day of observational drawing, we practiced non-dominant hand drawing, dominant hand drawing, and abstraction through enlargement. Students used their shoes and strings to do this and then worked on turning one of their smaller drawings large on a bigger sheet of paper for our Mixed Media experimentation. This is a great lead into our next challenge, where still life can play an important role. 

As I did with students last semester, I set out materials at each table group with introduction cards to using collage, watercolors, ink, pastels, and sharpies/gell pens with stencils. Students then rotated in 5-7 minute increments around the groups until their observational drawings had each of the media processes on it. 

It is a really fun way to introduce students to new media (or even old media in new ways) and they ended up with a work that many enjoyed as a finished piece. I think the best part of this process is that the emphasis is really on experimentation with media and the end product is secondary; however, many students will use their experience to help formulate choices for their upcoming project Challenge that brings the focus in on objects. 

Here are some results from the process: 

My Dual Enrollment students focused on Light and Shadow as a subject matter for their 4th assignment in our Intro to Photo class. It has been really exciting to see students advance their understanding of how to adjust the settings on their camera and how to frame their images to get a variety of effects. 

Here are a few of their solutions to capturing the idea of light and shadow: 

There are only a couple of weeks left before Dual Enrollment is over and I am very excited for what students have been working on for their final thesis. It will be fun to share what their solutions and ideas were as we close out the term and I look forward to seeing what my 7th and 8th graders do as we finish the 4th quarter strong! 

I am incredibly thankful that I get to work with the talented students and staff at BCPS and each year at our k-12 show, I that feeling is magnified. It was great to showcase the works of our students in this show that will run into the end of next month at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and close out Youth Arts Month with a reception that honored those student-artists on display. 

We finished out our 3rd collaborative project this year, just as we close out 3rd marking period and leave for Spring Break. I had my doubts about whether or not we were going to keep these kids engaged so close to break and how well they were going to pull off the work required with only 8 working class days to get it done. As usual, students did not disappoint and really turned out some of the most creative and interesting interpretations of artists works as various rooms. 

To cap off the project, students presented their slide show and work to other members of the class and then placed them on display in the library.  With the help of our LMC specialist, we got out the Scholastic Art Magazines students used and placed them between the maquettes. It is a great display and one that we plan to keep up for the rest of the year. Another great way to close out Youth Arts Month as well as March is Reading Month.