Blog Archives

STEAM collaboration #3

3/31/2016

This year, the STEM teacher and I made a big effort to collaborate more. We set aside at least one week per marking period to create works that delve into the intersection of our subjects through STEAM collaborations.

First semester, we worked on PSAs (three of which finished in the top three for the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival and two won recognition at the State Film Festival). Second semester, we ended 2016 with a collaborative origami mural to remind others to "be nice."

This semester, we decided to get a little more blended in our approach through an Architectural unit that asked students to design and create a structure in a group setting.

We were nervous about how it might work out because students were asked to do a lot in only a little over a week. They had to come up with a purpose statement for their structure, make a blueprint, make a sketch-up, and make a model.

Although time was tight, students really pushed themselves and created some great works that combined both hands-on and digital building.

Check out the process below:

And some finished presentations:

Overall, this was one of the more successful collaborative projects we have done so far this year. We do not plan to do the exact same work next year, but will definitely work in the use of sketch-up for future 3D rendering as well as having both digital and physical components for students to create.

Environment Results

3/25/2016

Students finished up working on their Theme 2: Environment, Space, and Place art works this week. It was fun to see students work through ideas, media, and methods as they creating their individual pieces to demonstrate their understanding of the theme.

Here is a sampling of some of those results from their projects.

Nicole O. : These piece is showing how our cities are polluting the earth so the hand ripped it out of the earth to make the earth a better place. I choose to use sketching pencils and easers for my materials, I choose theses because I love to sketch and I thought I try it out for one of my projects. I used the different shades of the pencils to show different values in my drawing. I made the city have a little color in it with color pencils, to make the viewer really look at the city and how it was torn out of the earth. Also I made the hole in the earth a really dark value to exaggerate the hole. This was fun for me to make this sketch, and I'm really happy with the result.

Allie M. : This piece of artwork I created has a lot of meaning once you think and look deeper into the picture. My concept for this piece was to have the Earth falling a part in the distance, as the world had come to an end. I did this because if we keep treating the earth the way we do, then it may actually occur, except the world would actually be gone. If you look closer at the picture, you can see many new forms of trash and items floating around that have come from the polluted earth. Some of the things floating around are what we use on a daily basis and throw out instead of recycling or taking care of it, such as news papers, bottles, trash, and more. Some of the things in the picture are what we don't think about, such as plastic trash bags and plastic water bottles. And finally, some of the components in this picture are not and what are what we use on a daily basis that continue to pollute our world, such as chemicals and cars. Others in the photo are household items, such as a dumpster, a bed, a house, and part of a backyard or field/forest, showing how humans will be affected. I used the cow in the picture to show how badly pollution and the Earths treatment is actually affecting the creatures, agriculture, and even people of the world. Pollution of our earth is an on going problem, I hoped to bring even more attention to it by creating this piece.

Matt M. : I chose to use clay in this project for many reasons. When we were given the project of environment I thought that clay made the easiest way to show an environment. I also chose to use clay because I thought that it would be the most unique since most of the other examples we looked at were either paintings or drawings of some sort so I wanted to be different. Clay really showed what I was trying to accomplish pretty well. I wanted to have a piece of art that had something to do with trash since there is a lot of pollution now a days and making a clay trash can was pretty simple. I also chose to have a raccoon in the trash holding another piece of trash because I thought that that showed an environment pretty well. I want this piece of artwork to send a message to others. I hope that people take in to consideration that the world right now has too much pollution and this is not only affecting us, but animals and other organisms as well. I also hope that people make an effort to change this and take away some of the pollution in the world.

Ethan B. : I selected the smudge tool to create this piece of artwork. I chose that because it made the work seem strange, blurred and confusing. I also used the filter tool to make the work appear different and colorful and catch peoples' eyes' as they pass by. During my work I accidentally used the blur tool and thought that I wrecked my project. Then I used that to my advantage and make it look surreal and different. This shows environment because it is a dream-like physiological landscape.

Marissa M. : I took this picture Downtown Grand Rapids. I took this picture because that is one of the big cities where I grew up in. Also that's the city where I was born at.

Ella P. : My artwork that I have created is the view of the inside of my house to the outside of my backyard and to do that I used one point perspective to make it look like your looking into a house. Every day in the spring my sister and I would fill up the birdfeeder that hangs on a metal rail in our backyard by the trees, we would wait on the couch inside for the birds to come and eat. After a couple of days the birdfeeder would become empty and we would have to refill it again. When I was drawing I had to use lots of shading and texture to my piece, one thing that I gave a lot of detail to was the couch by doing cross hatching, well as the trees in the background with lots of shading. On the outside of my work you can see a bird and tree branches coming out if the corner and also grass along the edges of the paper, I did this because it brought the piece to life more and it also helped tie the whole artwork together making it feel outdoors. This artwork I call Backyard Birdy because it tells story about the birds and me on a nice spring day.

When I Was Gone

3/22/2016

All of the above images are from the same student artist.

Before I say too much about that, I want to do a small recap of why I was out of my classroom the end of last week. I had the honor of attending and presenting at the National Art Education Convention in Chicago!

It was great fun to share, learn, and create with 5,500 of my closest friends... ComiCon was also at the conference center, which made for even more fun!

Here are some images of my time in Chicago, learning and sharing:

It is always tough to be away from the classroom. Figuring out meaningful plans for a non-art person (or anyone who isn't me) is a challenge. Luckily, I didn't need to clone myself because I had some sure-fired Photoshop Challenges ready for the kids to tackle.

Some created Graffiti names and placed them on buildings:

Julian D.

Some students redrew the hall, using perspective and the pen tool:

My T.

Others decided to create some out of this world environments:

Katie H.

And some made their own landscapes using different brushes:

And then there is Matthew. Matthew decided to really dig into Photoshop and take his skills to the next level by searching out tutorials and experimenting with a variety of tools to create the above three images and the following three:

Exploring Environments Via Media

3/16/2016

Students are working on their Environment, Space, and Place projects this week. This theme is always an interesting one to see unfold because some students stick to more standard definitions of the theme, where as others go way out there in exploring ideas around how we interact in environments and how places impact our lives.

Here are some images from the week of students working on their art:

2016 National Medalists

3/15/2016

ModernHome2 by Ethan Pipe, National Silver Medal

Modular Necklace by Cam Schuelke, National Gold Medal

BCWMS had two National Scholastic Medalists for this year's competition. Nearly 320,000 works of art and writing were submitted this year and only the top 1% earned this acclaim at the national level.

Cam has been invited to be a part of the National Awards Celebration and Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in NYC June 1st-2nd and his work will be a part of a two year Art and Writing exhibition that will travel the country.

#bestschoolday

3/11/2016

Yesterday was exciting for a lot of reasons.

I had a great time at MACUL, learning about various technologies as well as sharing how my students and I utilize various tools in our classroom to leverage our time together into a lasting impact.

I also found out that our project on DonorsChoose was fully funded as a result of a generous donor, Elsa, who gave to all Michigan projects as a way to celebrate the #bestschool day campaign!

The project we had funded had been posted ever since this past Fall when I had returned with a cool scarf I had made during the MAEA conference. My students were so excited about it, they wanted to create a "Think it Up" project on DonorsChoose so we could get the materials and do it at our school as a part of our Fine Arts Night. Even though I had over half of the project funded before the #bestschoolday campaign, we were left with $567 still to fund and only about two weeks left to do it.

That all changed yesterday, thanks to Elsa!

I am so thankful for everyone who helped make this project possible for my students and for DonorsChoose providing a space where I can get new materials to implement projects I learn about when I go to conferences in my classroom with my students.

We are so excited to be able to bring this project to our Fine Arts Night and will be sure to post the pictures as soon as we start testing out the materials!

Please Vote

3/9/2016

Please take a moment and help our students with a vote! Students created the videos competing during our STEAM collaboration first marking period. Winning videos are awarded classroom grant funds to purchase additional experiences and materials!

You can vote once per day until the 25th.

2016 WCM Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

3/6/2016

My favorite part of programs like this is seeing parents celebrate the creative accomplishments of their children.

Fountain Street Church was packed this year as they hosted the awards program again this year.

It was a great Saturday as I watched some of the most creative Michigan teens be recognized for their work in the 2016 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. It was one of the most packed ceremonies I can remember as the speakers took a moment and framed the accomplishment for those in attendance.

Dr. Schuitema gave great perspective on how taking creative risks and sharing your work takes courage.

The featured speaker, Dr. Adam Schuitema (Associate Professor of English at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University), helped frame the accomplishment for this year's winners as he invoked the names of Scholastic alumni like Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Lena Dunham, Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, and more. He praised students for taking the risk in sharing their work and competing in this prestigious competition which has a 94 year tradition. In his talk to students, Dr. Schuitema made note of the courage creativity takes and how much hope it brings to all of us to see these students share their talents as they look to find new solutions for the future.

In addition, he shared the statistics from this year's Awards:

1,667 individual Art entries received
428 individual Writing entries received
45 Art portfolios received
22 Writing portfolios received

859 Awards granted:
5 American Vision
5 American Voices
179 Gold Key
262 Silver Key
408 Honorable Mention

In addition to sharing the names of notable alumni, this year's award ceremony also had a former Scholastic Writing winner, Ken Burns, share encouragement and words of wisdom via video. He ended his video welcoming this year's winners into the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards family.

It was inspiring to hear Ken Burns explain how winning the Scholastic Award as a student positively impacted him and his future.

It was exciting to see some of the winning work be displayed as winners were announced and to know that of them, many are from BCPS. Not all of our students were able to attend the ceremony, but here are some images from those that were. It was especially fun to see my past students Emma McCloud, Tommy Sadler, Krista Bartholomy, and Kennedy VanLeirop continue their Scholastic success and win as high school students.

This is always a special day for me and my students. It is a time to celebrate accomplishments and recognize the hard work it took to earn their awards. It is also a great time to view the accomplishments of others and be inspired to think about what is possible next.

I had such a great time talking with parents and meeting extended family members as we admired the creative courage so many students shared for this year's awards.

Some of our 7-12th grade winners pose as a group during the reception at KCAD.

I am very excited to find out if any of our Gold Key winners have National Medals in their future when we find out those results on March 15! Until then we will be still smiling from the great accomplishment achieved this year and may even start planning for next.

Identity Results

3/2/2016

For the past few weeks, students have been stretching their creative legs on this first project theme dealing with Identity. It is always interesting to see the results of the first project simply because it is often one that is the most timid. I think students are still getting used to the responsibility of selecting and enacting their materials for their plans, which can be overwhelming.

This seems to have some students stumped and they settle on solutions they feel more comfortable with instead of taking big risks. The good news, though, is they they learn a ton from this experience and use that to help shape projects going forward.

Even so, I am still pretty satisfied with the results of their efforts and look forward to what choices are made for the next works.

Here are some highlights from finished works with this theme:

Brayden: In my art work, I did print making. It is a picture of me holding a basketball. Basketball is my favorite sports and it is one of my favorite things to do. I used Julian Opie's idea by creating people. In his artwork he uses a lot of pictures of people.

Sydney: To create my art work that shows Identity I used many different techniques to complete my piece. First I had decided to cut out eyes of all different sizes and color. Then I had collaged them all over the poster board in a way to bring out each eye. Later on once all was glued on I had done a wash of paint over the eyes and the board. To make it more personal I had taken come up with a quote and written on notebook paper to make it more original yet special and then I had added extra eyes that I had and glued them on to pop more color. These techniques had help me create an identity peace that meant a lot to me. I had taken the signature of Julian Opie who always had two beady eyes in his art work which had given me the idea to center around eyes. The identity piece that I had created is personal to my identity because I get complemented on my eyes and I have seen things that no one else have seen and have gone through things that no child could imagine. Eyes and the secrets they hold and the stories they tell mean a lot to me because I seem to see the stories of someone through their eyes.

Eli: For my identity project, I used printmaking and ink to make the red objects. I used a tool with ink which is normally for texture in clay, but I thought the design would look cool as the background. I used complementary colors, red and green to really show the two parts of the image, and to express both as a whole piece. I used Identity by making and carving things I like into the print (red) I put glasses, a pillow, glass cleaner, and I filled the absence with designs. There are many ways you can make your Identity in art, but I thought the coolest way was to make a print with stuff I like in it. I wanted this to show the things I like and also try to use the rule of thirds.

Samantha: n my work I wanted to tell a story about identity. I used Frida Kahlo as inspiration because she always tells a story with her art, just how I wanted too. My story shows a black and white portrait, and then puzzles pieces covering some of the face of this person. This represents that even though you may think you know your identity you will really never fully know what it is just like how it takes forever to finish a long puzzle. I had the puzzle pieces covering some of the face because maybe she knew that part of her identity but didn’t know the rest of it, which is the black and white portrait. While creating this piece I used a collage technique over the puzzle pieces to create images that might have made up someone’s identity. I also used a drawing technique where I shaded the hair outline and strands of hair them I got a paper towel and blended them together to get a shaded hair look. I think that the techniques I used helped the picture stand out to the eye and made them wonder.

Abigail: In my drawing, "It's The Inside That Counts", I use drawing pencils to both shade, and get the color of the skin, hair color, and ect. I use also use pan paint for the background, and use the sponge technique to get the unique texture. One reason I used the pencils is because all my life, sketching with pencils has been my big connection to art, and so I thought, what better way to show identity than by using the tools I've worked with for so many years. The reason that I used the sponge technique is because I thought the texture would compliment my drawing quite well. This art overall shows the concept of identity, by showing how I use my artwork to explain things. For example, inner beauty is a big thing that I like to promote, and I also love to draw portraits (that's my strong suit), so I thought this project would be a great way to show both of the things that make up myself, make up my identity. When it comes to artist's, I believe my art relates to Frida Kahlo's the most. We both use personal connections in our art, her with her Mexican heritage, me with my portraits. In the end, I am happy with my project of identity, and can't wait to do a project like that again.