Category: Competition

Last Week of School

6/7/2018

Meijer Great Choices Film Festival Awards

To start the last week of the school year, we celebrated the annual Meijer Great Choices Film Festival. It was very inspiring to see so many young film makers share their vision on the big screen and take home wonderful prizes to reward their work.

Two films created in my classroom were awarded in the Junior competition, giving our classroom $400 in grant funds to use towards a variety of projects. It was awesome to see the students who created those pieces be recognized and see their work on the screen. Even better were the conversations the competition started about how they can get involved again next year.

Thanks to your votes, Aron won 3rd place and Blake, Evie, and Zach were awarded a Judges Choice award.

Goodbye with GIFs

As a part of my final exam, I have students create GIFs using younger students' works from our elementary and intermediate schools. I first saw this idea from Ian Sands, who actually did this with my students and his high school classes.

Always eager to push my students to do higher level work, I thought I would give this a go a couple of years ago with great success. This is such a great way to finish the school year and test students on some of their basic understanding of how to manipulate images in Photoshop as well as work with animation.

Celebrating at the Scholastic Awards

Over the past ten years, I have helped students submit hundreds of pieces of work to the Scholastic Awards. Some years we have celebrated a lot of success, others not as much; regardless, each time we walk away from the experience knowing more about making art, taking risks, and sharing the stories that are held within each of us through the work that is made.

It was a joy to complete the school year celebrating student success with another WMS Gold Medalist. I am so proud of the work Tara made (her little felted dog shown below) that has earned her this recognition. I look forward to seeing how she uses her voice and skills as she continues to progress in our Arts programs (especially since she will be in my class again next year).

I am also very thankful to the donors who helped make this possible, especially Tanger Outlets and the TangerKIDS grant that helped fund this experience.

One of my favorite parts of the trip to New York is the celebration at Carnegie Hall. It was inspiring to hear from former winner and "Arthur" creator, Marc Brown about how he was able to turn his love of making art into a life-long career. He echoed sentiments I hold dear and reminded us all that everyone needs someone to believe in them and he was lucky to have people in his life that believed in him.

I was a little star-struck to also hear from my favorite author when I was in middle school, R.L. Stine. He introduced Marc Brown for the Scholastic Awards alumni achievement award. I do not know how I would have survived middle school without Fear Street novels in my life.

It was also inspiring to hear other former winners and how they have used this moment to give them permission to live creatively. The night started with film star, Ansel Elgort, getting down into the crowd and high-fiving winners before encouraging them to keep their creativity at the center of their lives.

It was a magical night and one that ends my school year. It is something that I will be thinking about as we start preparing for competition again next year and I will use when working on living my own creative life.

0 Comments

Week Eight

3/16/2018

0 Comments

National Medalists

It is awesome to announce that we have two BCWMS National Scholastic Medalists for the 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Congratulations to Sophia Bentley for her Silver Medal in Jewelry and Tara Rood for her Gold Medal in Sculpture. Tara's work will be shipped to New York City for the traveling show and we will get to celebrate her accomplishment as a Gold Medalist at the National Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June!

Awards were made on March 13th and students were thrilled to see their works made the cut. It is an incredible accomplishment to make it into the top 1% of all entries! I am also excited for the opportunity to take another student to NYC for the awards and celebrate the 10th anniversary of my first National Scholastic Medalist who received a Silver Medal in Photography in 2008!

Our high school also had a National Silver Medalist. It is always great to see my former students continue their success at the high school level. Harrison Kosack earned a Silver Medal for his Future New piece shown below.

BCHS Jr. Harrison Kosak, received a silver medal from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for his sculpture, Avian of Pollution. With nearly 350,000 works submitted by students grades 7-12, this award puts Harrison in the top 1% of all submissions! Amazing!!! #bchspride

A post shared by Byron Center-High (@byroncenterhigh) on Mar 19, 2018 at 5:05pm PDT

Working on Spaces

Students worked on their Spaces and Places themed projects this week. I am very excited about some of the work I am seeing and already thinking about Scholastic for next year. It has been a real delight to see how many students have opened up their options with new media like 3D printing. We will continue to work on these next week along with a Perspective Drawing Bootcamp to help students gain skills with perspective drawing concepts.

3D At Work

Last week, students worked on their final collaborative by making the camera you see above. It was fun to see them recreate an enlarged version of one of the many vintage cameras you can find in the high school art room.

This week, we continued to manipulate size with the start of the Alter Ego project. For this assignment, students have the option to either create a mini version of their alternative self or a wearable that helps them transform into that self. Most of the students are electing to create the miniature version. We will continue to work on this project for the next couple of weeks then then finish the term with a project designed by each student.

Getting Ready for #NAEA18

I am very excited for the opportunity to present at and attend the 2018 National Art Education Association Conference in Seattle, WA! It is going to be a super fun time that will help me further push myself as an artist and teacher and I cannot wait to meet up with all of my colleagues from across the country to share ideas and art supplies!

I am presenting as a part of TEAM middle for the fourth year in a row. We are going to combine our efforts on Thursday, March 22nd at 2 p.m. to share our work with Technology, Environment, Assessment, and Management in our classrooms. I love presenting with these teachers and even better, I love our custom shirts we wear when we present together! Last year, I presented virtually so I am excited to actually be there this time.

I hope to connect with many teachers while I am there and bring back the best of what I learn to my classroom right away!

0 Comments

Week Six

3/3/2018

0 Comments

Happy Youth Arts Month!

March is Youth Arts Month! I am very excited about all of the things we have in store for Youth Arts Month, including the start of our ArtPrize10 piece. To kick off the month of artful festivities, we finished up some major projects, celebrated our Regional Scholastic Awards, and I even got to participate in an art show!

If you would like to help us celebrate Youth Arts Month, consider donating to our latest DonorsChoose.org project that is getting matching funds from AT&T for digital storytelling or voting for our student-made videos for the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival about Celebrating Diversity and Healthy Choices (you can vote once per day until March 23rd).

You, Me, Everybody

7th and 8th grade students finished their first major projects this week that focused on the theme "You, Me, Everybody." This is the first time that students got a chance to decide their materials and overall compositions for this semester to explore the theme. What is so awesome about this project is seeing the choices students make and reading what aspect of the theme they want to explore.

What is even better is how they use the tools they have been empowered with through the skill-builders we have done earlier leading up to this project. It is always a little hectic not knowing exactly what students will make in my class, but it is so rewarding to see them make choices and reflect on the outcome of those choices in their artists statements.

I am so thankful I adapted this teaching practice and built in a variety of ways to for students to find success. I am not saying that it is 100% perfect, but we are going to keep working on it until it is.

Allison: I choose to use Photoshop because I felt personally the end product would look better using the program. My technique consisted of separation, having nothing in common with the other side. Separation assisted me in communicating the difference between adult hood and childhood. It connects to the theme you because all the people that I meet are either embracing their child side or attempting to cover it up, like in the picture when the adult had is trying to cover the child's hand.

Jared: I used pencil shading and I used a variety of pencils.I darkened areas so that it looks like shadow.I did this for the me part of the project and I like nature so I wanted to employ that into my art work.The sun is setting because I like to read at night as in the picture.I'm reading under the tree.

Alex: For this piece I used the printmaking technique, for this I started out by taking a picture and then tracing onto a paper which I then applied to a carving block. From there, I then carved out the pieces I didn't want to have printed and started the actual printing process. I took different inks and painted them on a bench hook with a brayer and also used it to put on the carving block. I repeated this process five times to make the five prints on the piece. This connects to the, "You, Me, Everybody" theme because this is expressing myself just like the artist Frida Kahlo and I only focused on myself through this project.

Avery: For the you, me, everybody project I chose to focus on child soldiers. After learning about child soldiers in English class, I realized that the topic deserved more recognition that it was receiving. By using chalk pastels, I created flames inside two faces. The flames represent children's identities being erased when they are forced to become soldiers. I also incorporated shredded paper into the background to add texture and to create the illusion of the paper being signed I added water color. This shredded paper symbolizes the destruction that the child soldiers are forced to witness and participate in. Relating back to the theme of the project, this piece connects to the "everybody" category. Everyone should be knowledgeable about child soldiers and everybody should do there part to help.

Chelsea: My earrings are related to the “You” part of the you me and everything project. It connects with you because there is one person hanging from the earrings and in the necklace the theme is everybody because there are other people hold each other up to make one piece of art. They are made of gold and colorful wire to show the detail in the arms legs and body. The colorful wire represents a bunch of different people that come together. The colorful wire was easy to turn and move but the little people took a lot of mistakes because it is so small.

Hunter: For you, me, everybody, I chose to do me, this represents me because this is something I am interested in doing and I like making different intricate designs. This consists of circles and like and weird shapes together making it into a big collage of shapes and lines.

Olivia: This artwork connects to the topic because the mug is a very simple person showing that in the end everyone looks the same without the small details. This kind of goes with the theme of everybody because our faces are all the same after you take off the freckles, hair, and more. To make this I used the techniques we learned about clay, like armatures. The materials I used to create this project were clay and glaze, and it made a beautiful mug in the theme of everybody!

Ceramic Forms

In my 3D class this week, students continued work on their miniature hideaways and were also able to upload their ceramic forms from earlier in the term. Not everyone's work has been glaze fired, but it was great to see these completed. It was also interesting to see what reactions were to the glaze choices students. made when completing their forms. I am so pleased with the work from this group so far this semester.

Scholastic Awards

The BCPS Visual Arts program had another strong showing at this year's West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art Awards. With over 50 works recognized and one American Vision Nominee, we were able to celebrate this success on March 3rd with our students.

Kendall College of Art and Design hosts our regional show and they did a great job of recognizing students and displaying the creative works of the 2018 Gold Key winners.

It will be exciting to check back on the Scholastic Art and Writing website on March 13th to see if any of our Gold Key winners received National Medals. Good luck to WMS Gold Key winners Sophia, Bryanna, and Tara!

It was also very exciting to see past students soar, like Emma McCloud (pictured above with our high school Visual Arts teacher Greg Reinstein). She received her first Scholastic Awards as one of my students and she is now an American Vision Nominee for our region as a high school student. I can't wait to see what she does next with her work!

The show was a great one! I am so proud of our students and thankful I get to be a part of their art journey. These students are so inspiring and their work makes me want to be a better teacher and better artist.

Art Show

To cap of this first week of Youth Arts Month, I got to see my own work on display as a part of the CAMPUS show at The Urban Institute of Contemporary Art. This is a group show featuring faculty members of Ferris State University and Kendall College of Art and Design. Thanks to my work with KCAD as a Dual Enrollment instructor, I was able to apply to be in the show.

I feel pretty proud and overwhelmed to have been able to submit a work and have it on the same space as artists like Kehinde Whiley and Nick Cave (just last year)! One of my personal goals this year is to push myself to make more art and show my work more this year. This show was a great step forward in doing just that.

ArtPrize10

We had a half day with students on Friday, which meant we had PD in the afternoon. I am so lucky I got to spend part of that PD with my fellow Visual Arts teachers to plan out our ArtPrize10 student collaboration.

Before our meeting, we had a basic idea about what we were planning to make. Now it is much more clear and specific. I don't want to give to much away, but I am so excited to see how it all turns out in the end. I am so lucky I work with an awesome team!

This is what hard work looks like.

0 Comments

Week Five

2/23/2018

0 Comments

Working

It was exciting to see student use the smART lab space this past week. I still need to organize items to best fit our needs, but this was a great start!

Students finally began to dive into their first major theme of the semester: You, Me, Everybody. In doing so, they started developing sketches and ideas of what they wanted to create for their work and using the various skill-building exercises, applied the media they deemed most appropriate for the assignment.

This is always an exciting time in the classroom because there is so much happening and so much potential for what can still happen. I am excited to see these works develop over the next week and be submitted to our online gallery for a grade.

Here are some of the works in progress below:

Panels Complete

We finally finished the larger set of panels this week. It was a lot of work to get them completed, but I think the results were worth it. These will now go into the office for display in our conference room.

Miniature Hideaways

In my 3D Design class this week, we glazed our descriptive word ceramic forms and started the miniature hideaway project. We are using celluclay to cover the forms and so far it is working out quite nicely.

I am excited to see these works finish up next week and then get photographed on location.

I am particularly excited to see how students apply the finishing touches and where they decide to photograph their work.

Meijer Great Choices

Finally this week, students were given the opportunity to participate in the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival by creating videos on topic-specific content like Celebrating Diversity and Making Healthy Choices. We had two entries for this year and you will be able to vote for them starting on March 1 by going here.

0 Comments

Happy New Year!

1/6/2018

0 Comments

SchoolArts Magazine

Ever since I was around eight years old, I wanted to be a writer. I used to create newspapers by hand, documenting stories in my house. When I was in high school, I joined the newspaper staff at school and ended up becoming the features section editor my senior year. With the support of the rest of the newspaper crew, we split that section into two: student life and arts & entertainment. Because of that move, I actually had an award named after me in the class.

I am proud to say I am writer. I write on this blog, I write stories for myself, I write lesson plans and papers for school, and I even write for some publications like the one featured above in this month's issue of SchoolArts Magazine. One of my goals this year is to write more articles for submission to SchoolArts. It is a great way to share processes of successes in classroom management and outcomes and it is a great way for me to reflect on and grow as a teacher. If you are interested in learning how to submit, I encourage you to review the requirements here.

This was a great way to start 2018, especially since the work featured in the article happens to be our ArtPrize 9 piece, "Painting Under Papercuts."

2018 Scholastic Art Awards
West Central Michigan Regional Results

Our students worked really hard this year to try new media, push their ideas beyond the obvious solutions, and work with ideas that explored concepts both personal and universal in theme. I am really proud of the results of their efforts and how they took the creative risk of placing many of their works into competition this year for the 2018 Scholastic Art Awards.

This year seems to have been a particularly tough competition. Our district had 55 works place for recognition:

High School
Hallie Baker: Silver Key and Honorable Mention
Krista Bartholomy: 4 Silver Keys and 4 Honorable Mentions
Leah Cook: 2 Honorable Mentions
Lauren Daly: 6 Honorable Mentions
Lauren Doyle: Silver Key, Honorable Mention
Saige Dykhouse: Honorable Mention
Kennedy Emmons: Silver Key
Harrison Kosak: Silver key
Ryan Lotterman: 2 Gold Keys, 2 Silver Keys, 2 Honorable Mentions
Emma McCloud: American Vision Nominee, 3 Gold Keys, Honorable Mention
Anna Pavlak: Silver Key
Elise Pechler: 2 Silver Keys, 2 Honorable Mentions
Ella Petit: Honorable Mention
Ethan Pipe: 2 Gold Keys, Honorable Mention
Sydney Randall: Honorable Mention
Middle School
Sophia Bentley: Gold Key, Honorable Mention
Ava Bont: Honorable Mention
Leila DeHaan: Honorable Mention
Cade Fortier: Honorable Mention
Chloe Grabowski: Honorable Mention
Evan Granger: Honorable Mention
Sophie Millhouse: Honorable Mention
Emma Pavlak: Honorable Mention
Hannah Reda: Honorable Mention
Tara Rood: Gold Key
Bryanna Tromp: Gold Key, Silver Key

We are so excited for our students whose works were awarded Gold Keys that get to go on to the national competition in New York City. It is extra exciting that we also had a high school student achieve an American Vision Nomination. We will find out the national results later this spring.

To view the works that I helped enter this year, check out the images below. I am so proud that these students were willing to put themselves out there and I look forward to seeing what they make next!

Middle School

Gold Key

Tara Rood

Bryanna Tromp

Sophia Bentley

Silver Key

Bryanna Tromp

Honorable Mention

Sophie Millhouse

Leila DeHaan

Sophia Bentley

Evan Granger

Ava Bont

Emma Pavlak

Chloe Grabowski

Hannah Reda

Cade Fortier

High School

Gold Key

Elise Pechler

Silver Key

Krista Bartholomy

Honorable Mention

Krista Bartholomy

Elise Pechler

Ella Petit

0 Comments

Week Fifteen

12/15/2017

0 Comments

This week was focused on celebrating the work students have done so far this year. It is amazing to think that in just a few short months, students have completed and published over 1,500 artworks. Some of those works were showcased at The Van Singel Fine Arts Center this month as a part of the district student showcase.

We had our reception on Monday, which brought out a great crowd. Even better was seeing the growth of student skills through each grade level. This annual show is an awesome demonstration of the work our school does to cultivate creative thinking and encourage the development of artistic skills throughout their educational career.

It is one of my favorite events because it allows me a chance to meet with parents and students, my colleagues, and former students and offers opportunities to connect these groups together in meaningful ways. The conversations with students as they have gone through our program have been instrumental with the continued development of curriculum. These events help foster that and I am so proud of our students for showcasing their work.

Scholastic Entries

This was also the week students submitted works to The Scholastic Art Awards competition. It was a crazy time getting works screened, finalized, uploaded, forms printed and signed, and payments sent to our regional affiliate. I am so proud of our entries this year and know that we will have some luck thanks to the hard work and dedication of so many towards this process. We entered work in 11 categories this year, ranging from Film and Animation, to Sculpture, to Mixed Media, and more. It will be fun to find out results on January 5th!

Here are a few of our entries:

I am also excited for the works I entered with our high school teachers, too. Here is a sneak peek at some of those:

It will be fun to see how students achieve this year. We have a lot to live up to, with our school usually being in the top tier each year and routine national medalists. Even so, students continue to amaze at the lengths they will go to push themselves to try new ideas, experience with media in new ways, and grow into artists in their own right.

I could not think of a better way to spring into the last week of school before break, nor a better way to start out 2018 with finding out the results!

Good luck to all who participated this year!

0 Comments

Week Eight

10/24/2017

0 Comments

More Finished Work

Last week I pointed out that some students need a little more time to do their best work. Due dates in my classroom are firm, but flexible for those who would benefit from a little extra time. We need turn in dates to help hold students accountable, but we also need some ability to be flexible so that arbitrary dates do not hold back those who want to do something extra special.

It was exciting to see the following works find their way to the finish line this week. I am very excited for how they turned out, but probably even more so for the process in which each student found their way to the best possible solution. I appreciated reading their learning statements and how many hope these works will make their way into competition at some point this school year.

Oliver: In my artwork I was inspired by Julian Opie. But instead of doing a piece like his, I desisted to do the opposite of his art. I did a pencil and paper of a realistic face with lots of shadows. I used huge eye because Julian Opie's art has small beady eyes. My art relates to the theme of this project because it is of the "Me" in the project.

Leila: In this piece, I have a print of myself reaching for the stars. I literally took the saying, "Reach for the Stars", and incorporated myself. I decided to add wings to the figure to have a dreamy effect. I used newspaper that had been painted on for the feathers. For the stars, I opened up certain sections of the negative cardboard space and placed reflective material inside. I ripped parts of the cardboard off, so the piece would have a variety of different textures. In the end, this piece turned out really well and I hope to enter it in to Scholastic!

Mitchell: This piece has helped me learn how to use various techniques such a molding with plaster and clay and using many different colors to really help bring out my artwork.The art work connects to the theme of the project by symbolizing the ME in you me everybody,the project shows how my face can just be a plain piece of artwork but when you add different textures and visual elements such as unique indents into the clay and using a variety of colors you make or break a piece especially when it's clay.

Tess: This work focuses on the everybody piece of the project theme. It deals with the current political issue of whether or not football players should be allowed to kneel during the national anthem in protest of equal treatment for all people. I chose to use mixed media to create this piece. For the background, I used block printing, and for the rest of the work, I used cut paper. These materials help convey the message I am trying to communicate because they are bold, and simple, making the message heard.

Chloe: In this piece I used mixed media and for the background. I used different sponges and techniques to make the background look the way it does. And then the people are made out of black construction paper and I used a xacto knife to get a lot of little details of the peoples faces and hair. This piece ties in with the theme you, me, everybody because I focused in on the people who are really mean a lot to me and these people are my friends so I decieded to do everybody.

Marie: In this piece of art I chose to portray the idea of 'everybody' by using bottle caps and portraits. I intended that viewers would receive the message that everyone is different, and in a world of differences it is important that we find our own way to stand out. To help push this theme I placed one portrait out of place that had a different background, and a different skin color. By using bottle caps and randomized paint colors, I hoped to communicate this same idea of everyones differences. But by placing them all together, I hope to show viewers that we can come together as a community to create something bigger than our differences.

Building Skills and Understanding

Students were introduced to our next Challenge Theme: Spaces and Places (real or imagined). We looked at the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, David Hockney, and Nathan Walsh before starting out plans for possible ways in which students could explore ideas surrounding the places we visit.

It was fun to see students dive into the sketchbooks right away and start planning out ideas without hesitation. The work we did for our first challenge has helped spark the importance of thinking through ideas and trying out various approaches in a smaller format before making a commitment on a larger scale. This shows me that students are able to generate ideas on their own, do the research they need to help inform their choices, and try out solutions before making a choice on what interests them most.

We also used this week to broaden our skills with various mini-challenges using collaged paper and digital works. Students learned about how to establish an environment by activating the foreground, middle ground, and background of a work as well as how to use various tools to achieve desired effects. It was fun to see students use these skill-builders as a springboard for generating ideas for their project and the results of their learning.

Landscape Fast Collage Challenge

Students created the following landscape collages to demonstrate their understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background while also using collage skills to complete a work. We started out by looking at The Art Assignment Video featuring landscape artist Robyn O'Neill before getting out the glue and scissors and getting to work.

What made this a successful challenge was that the size of these collages were kept to 6x4 inches big and students only had about 25 minutes to create them. Students sometimes struggled with the limited size and time, but by keeping it small they had to forget about being perfect with their choices and focus on demonstrating the various aspects of a landscape as well as the figure/ground relationship. Some enjoyed the process so much, they made more for fun.

Riley

Tobin

Cierra

Photoshop Challenge 2

Students were given another Photoshop Challenge to complete this week as well. These works help build students skills while producing works they are proud of and that they were able to have a say in making. It has been fun to see some students really grow their understanding of how to digitally manipulate images and how to make images from scratch, rather than always relying on the internet.

Here are several examples to show the range of methods in which students created works to demonstrate their understanding of creating visual space while manipulating the methods and tools within Photoshop.

Finn

Jenny

Jake

Emmie

Almost The End of the Quarter

With the end of first quarter next week, it has been such a delight to see students grow and shape their understanding of art in new ways. Students have been exposed to a variety of artists, methods, and tools to use as a starting point for their own creative journeys. I am excited to see this quarter come to a close and how students leverage their learning from this quarter to push themselves even more next!

0 Comments

Week Four

10/1/2017

0 Comments

ArtPrize 2017

As another week of ArtPrize 9 was in full swing, so was our excitement to be a part of it. For those of you not familiar with the competition, it is a 19 day annual event in Grand Rapids that really begins much earlier in the year with creating work and connecting with a venue.

This year was the first year that a Youth Collaboration Award was offered, which was the incentive for us to pull something together rather quickly last spring. We almost did not make it in, though. It was not until the last day of venue connections that we found ours in Monroe Community Church. We are so thankful they took a chance on us and the response to our display has been amazing!

Students this week were especially thrilled when our work showed up over the course of several days on local news because our venue was named by the Jury Shortlist as a Most Outstanding Venue finalist. Even though our work may not win the $5000 grant for the Youth Collaboration, being a part of a venue to receive this kind of recognition makes us feel like we won.

When we came up with this concept to create a work that was a visual response to standardized testing due to the timing in which is was made, the goal was to make something that went beyond cliche kid art. We wanted to make something that we could put up in our school as art in and of itself. I think we did that and I am very proud of the response we have gotten for it.

Names Complete

I have a hard time with remembering names and I share with my students that as a visual learner, it helps me to learn something when I am able to see it connected with an image. This introductory project not only does that, but it also helps me learn about my students and what interests them most. It is fun to see how they approach this challenge and the variety in solutions as well as rationale behind the visual choices they make to complete it.

Kaylynn: In this piece I used objects and colors that I enjoy to spell out my name. For example for my L I used a lighthouse because I enjoy going to the beach. This project was a really great way to show who I am as a person in the form of art.

Cooper: Everything in the name Is something i like c is for the game rocket league the 2 o's are a soccer ball and the chrome symbol, the p is for science the e if for one of my favorite numbers 1,111 and the r is a alligator, my favorite animal.

Anna: What inspired me to draw in this style and what to draw for each letter came from what I love and what I care about. I love to go to Anna Maria Island which is my A, and I love art which is why I did that for N, I love plants and succulents which inspired to do that for N, and last I love to be happy and I love rainbows so thats why I did that for my last A.

Logan: I love this project, I chose all my letters based on scooting. It my favorite thing ever. The L is a scooter, The O is a brand that sells scooter parts.(outset select) The G is a brand also that sells scooter parts. (proto scooters) the orange things are allen wrenches. and the A is a wheel. The N is a rail for grinding on with the scooter.

Photoshop Challenge 1

In addition to finishing up their names this week, students also learned some new skills on Photoshop by selecting a level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and completing a tutorial within that level. It was nice to see students use their technology to advance their skills and try something new. Here are some of the results:

Overall, this past week was pretty exciting. It was so incredible to see our work on the news, learn more about my students, and see my students try new ideas using technology.

I am very excited to learn about the ArtPrize results later this week and everything else that is planned with my students!

0 Comments

Week Three

9/23/2017

0 Comments

ArtPrize 2017

I am going to start out by showcasing our final event of the week first: ArtPrize9! We had a chance to spend a day downtown on Friday and make our way to venues that included the place where our work is being displayed. Our piece, "Painting Under Paper Cuts," is in the running for the Youth Collaboration Award of a $5000 grant. You can help us win with a vote. Voting for the YCA ends on September 30th. None of this would have been possible without the help of parent and teacher chaperones.

It was a very warm day outside on Friday, but students stayed hydrated and in good spirits throughout the trip. One student reminded me how important experiences like these are when she explained this was her first time ever going downtown in Grand Rapids. I am happy I was able to be a part of that memory and introduce her to the awesome sights and sounds of ArtPrize9! I am also thankful to the ArtPrize Education team for offering this opportunity of both showing our work in the Youth Collaboration category and for having grants available for traveling downtown.

Check out the video below for more highlights from our trip:

Names to Know

Students worked on a project I use to help me put names to faces this week. I am a visual learner and I explain this to my students as I go through this challenge. Students start out by creating interest lists (what are five things that are essential to you, what are your favorite colors/objects/shapes) and then use those lists to generate ideas for transforming the letters of their names into their interests on their portfolios.

We also use this challenge as a way to explain how we will be using sketchbooks this semester. It is a great way to get students used to the idea of sketching out ideas and working through solutions on a smaller scale before tackling it larger.

Students also learned a variety of colored pencil and marker techniques to apply to their names. We will be finishing these up on Monday and posting the results to Artsonia.

This week had a lot of action in it. We started it with presentations of their Spinning Tops in the STEAM challenge and ended with a trip to ArtPrize9. It was super fun to see students begin to stretch their creative minds through projects that ask them to rethink and reconsider things we see or use everyday in new and interesting ways.

I am looking forward to seeing how students finish out their names on Monday and work on our first major challenge that starts next week. I am also excited to meet with students about The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards next week and to find out the results of the Youth Collaboration Awards when voting ends on the 30th!

0 Comments

Week Two

9/16/2017

0 Comments

Spinning with STEAM

We kicked off our first full week of school with a STEAM collaboration. For those of you who are new to this blog, the STEM teacher and I combine our classes once a marking period to create a STEAM experience for students. In these sessions, students use Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math to create and collaborate on solving a variety of problems.

This year, we decided we wanted to jump on the spinning craze that we all experienced with fidget spinners last spring and have students create spinning tops. After doing some research, we found an awesome resource at TryEngineering.org. We also found this video about the Physics of a Spinning Top that was posted by high school students on YouTube to share with our kids (they especially liked the background music):

Through this challenge, we wanted students to implement Design Thinking using the DICE model (Discover, Ideate, Create, Evaluate) and to work collaboratively to meet performance standards for the top they were going to make. Students were given the following items to use in their bag of materials to work with and many used the materials to create more than one top:

CD
2 hot glue sticks
2 toothpicks
1 black plastic cup lid
2 small clear cup lids
2 marbles
2 washers
1 nail
1 screw
1 plastic bottle cap
1 string
2 craft sticks

Before building, students created a variety of sketches showing how they could use the materials to create their top. They also had a series of performance standards to consider in their design that outlined both the criteria and constraints of what was expected in their work. For example, the top could not be more than 20g, had to spin for at least 10 seconds, and they could not use extra materials outside of what they were given in their bag of goods. We also asked for them to consider aesthetics in their design and gave them an option to earn extra points for designing additional spinning tops.

After their tops were created, they had to test them on two surfaces and record the results in a data table. To complete the project, students worked in teams to create a presentation that included images of their sketch, top, results of tests in the form of line graphs, and overall findings from the project.

We like to combine our Art and STEM classes for this STEAM collaboration because it gets students to see the connections between our classes and how we are going to use common language and expectations during their time with us. This is the third year we have been doing these types of activities and students will be presenting their finished work for this first STEAM collaboration of the year on Monday.

ArtPrize 9 Preview

Here is our work on display at our venue. Thanks to Steve Fridsma for sharing this image on Facebook!

ArtPrize 9 opens this week! That means starting on September 20th, people can vote for our work at Monroe Community Church and help our classroom win $5000 Youth Collaboration Award! I am so thankful to Jamie Dennett, our STEM teacher, for helping our work make it to our venue and to Steve Fridsma, our Venue Coordinator, for connecting with us and hosting our piece. There was an awesome team of volunteers at Monroe Community Church on Saturday who worked for hours on installation. In addition to that, I would also like to thank The Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters for covering our costs and our greater Byron Center Public School Community for their support in this endeavor. It has been a humbling experience and I look forward to celebrating at the opening reception on Tuesday, September 19th from 6-8:30 p.m. (here are the details if you would like to join). We would love to see you there!

Here are some details sent from the ArtPrize Education Team about how to vote:

Voting for the Youth Collaboration Award is just like ArtPrize voting. Before you vote, you will need to download the ArtPrize app to your phone, or vote online. You will also need to visit ArtPrize in person. Visit this link to learn more about how to vote.
Eligible voters must be age 13 years or older to sign up for an artprize.org account and register to vote at ArtPrize.
You have to attend the ArtPrize in person in order to vote. You can verify attendance by downloading the ArtPrize mobile app and having your location services turned on while inside the ArtPrize district; or stop by an ArtPrize HUB.
For the Youth Collaboration Award, voting begins on September 20th at 12pm and ends on September 30th at 11:59pm. This is also the end of Round 1 voting for general ArtPrize. You will not be able to vote for these entries during Round 2.
The winner of the Youth Collaboration Award will be announced at the ArtPrize Awards Ceremony on October 6th at 7:30pm and can be viewed at the Rosa Parks Circle viewing party or on TV!

One of the best parts of this experience is getting to see other artists' work on display and talk to them about their process and work. The images above include works from artists who traveled from Toronto, Oklahoma, Montana, North Carolina, and of course, Michigan. It is such an honor to have our work with such skill and talent and it will be so fun to see our students react to the exhibition.

The next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind of an experience! Even if we don't win the $5000 grant, it has been worth the effort. We are already talking about what might be possible for ArtPrize 10...

0 Comments

<<Previous

Meijer Great Choices Film Festival Awards

Goodbye with GIFs

Celebrating at the Scholastic Awards

National Medalists

Working on Spaces

3D At Work

Getting Ready for #NAEA18

Happy Youth Arts Month!

You, Me, Everybody

Ceramic Forms

Scholastic Awards

Art Show

ArtPrize10

Working

Panels Complete

Miniature Hideaways

Meijer Great Choices

SchoolArts Magazine

2018 Scholastic Art Awards​West Central Michigan Regional Results

​Middle School

Gold Key

Silver Key

Honorable Mention

High School

Gold Key

Silver Key

Honorable Mention

Scholastic Entries

More Finished Work

Building Skills and Understanding

Landscape Fast Collage Challenge

Photoshop Challenge 2

Almost The End of the Quarter

ArtPrize 2017

Names Complete

Photoshop Challenge 1

ArtPrize 2017

Names to Know

Spinning with STEAM

ArtPrize 9 Preview

Archives

Categories

2018 Scholastic Art Awards
West Central Michigan Regional Results

Middle School