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Week Fifteen and Sixteen

5/19/2018

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​These past two weeks have been a blur as we have finished up multiple projects, gone on a field trip, made more progress on our ArtPrize piece, and planning our big Art show. I can only assume the rest of the year is going to fly by like this as we get closer and closer to exams and the BIG celebration in New York City for Scholastic! 

Objects Complete

Last week, students finished up their objects projects and posted the results on Artsonia. It was fun to see how they interpreted the assignment and even better was that many of them tried new media in new ways because they could not use materials they had used before. 

For the past four years at least one of our National Scholastic Medalists' works have been a result of this prompt. I think the main reason for this is that when you are forced to go outside of your comfort zone with new media, you are more willing to try creative risks you might have otherwise avoided. 

Here are some examples of the creative risks students came up with for this assignment:
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Avery: For this project I created a bracelet made of many different materials. By using wire, magazine clippings, and clay I was able to compose a decorative wrist piece. This bracelet connects to the project theme because jewelry is often used as family heirlooms and can be very sentimental. I also based my artwork after Mitchell Feinburg's work because he uses ordinary objects and hides a deeper meaning within them. This bracelet has many hidden meanings such as, diversity, awareness, and recycling. By creating this artwork I hoped to show that even small objects can make a difference or impact people's lives.
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Chelsea: For the projects “Objects” I chose to do a tray of sushi because it is one of my favorite foods. The sushi rolls are made out of felt and wool to add texture to make them look real. The tray is made out of clay and it has flower designs to make it look more realistic. My artwork relates to Mitchell Feinberg because I used a 3D material and made a piece of food. Mitchell also had art focused on food. I liked doing this art project because I got to work with new materials.
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Gabby: For this project I chose to choose an object that means something to me that was given to me from my grandma. In order to execute this I chose to block print to put an emphasis on the necklace and my grandma passing it down to me. This piece relates to both Jim Dine's robe piece because of all the different lines making up the art and also Mitchell Feinberg's piece where he imprinted bags and other objects into flower just like with what you do when block printing.
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Aron: I took some paper and put it in a plastic mask face thing. Then I drowned it in glue, and after a few days of waiting I got a mask. After that I took a piece of paper, painted it red, cut it into shapes, took a reflective sheet, cut some shapes, and glued it together with the red paper. After that I glued it all together, after hole punching spaces to put yarn, so that the mask would be wearable. I believe this artwork is sort of like Audrey Flack because she uses a lot of color in her work, and I believe that this mask uses color.
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Olivia: For this artwork I created my own scratch art paper and scratched out my glasses onto it. To do this I used oil pastel and drew my image out with that. Then I painted black tempera paint over this and because water and oil resist I was able to scratch off the the paint. Now you can see the image of my glasses with scratched designs. This artwork relates to the theme of objects because it shows an object but in a fun way. My piece relates to the works of Wayne Thiebaud who draws lots of objects but in simple ways that interest you.
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Madeline: I like to make things that is out of the box, not just a typical painting, even though those can still be powerful. Gumball machines are in lots of stores and it seems like they are never empty, yet many people get them. I chose this material because it helps convey the message that every quarter you leave behind for the gumball, helps the store that it is in. Like Mitchell Feinberg my art shows things that get left behind but, in his picture of cigarettes that shoes how they effect the earth. In my artwork the quarters help the earth, so in a way they have the same idea of things getting left behind.
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Caden:I used block printing for the first time. This technique was good for making the object pop out at the viewer. I carved out a block and applied paint to it. Then I put the painted block to a piece of paper. I used the brayer to apply an equal amount of force to get all the paint from the block, onto the paper I think my art relates to Audrey Flacks art because I used a lot of color in my art piece. Audrey used lots of color in all of her art pieces too. Each color used in this piece of art makes the object visible in a different way.

Issues

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After students turned in their objects projects, we focused on the theme of Issues. Students looked at Wordless News by Maria Fabrizio as inspiration before doing some research and creating works that went into a topic or issue they thought was important to highlight with art. This was a very quick project, so students were limited to 2D media. We also got to use the iPad cart with new apps we received thanks to a newly funded DonorsChoose.org project! This has been a great resource in our classroom so far and I am so excited to utilize it even more next year! 

Here are some of the results:
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Jeffery: This work is about being stressed out about school and everything you have to do.
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Allison: The inspiration for this piece was the world issue fracking. Fracking is the act of forcing a high concentration of gasses and chemicals into the earth to make it crack open to get to natural gasses and oils. The act of fracking causes an immense amount of damage in habitats and the earth in general. It was also inspired by my English class where I read a book talking about the issue. This images was aquired for PBS LearningMedia teachers and students from Getty Images. Provided by: Science Source.
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Hannah: I decided to do my issue on anxiety, its something I have dealt with for such a long time now.Many other people deal with anxiety as well,I decided to do photography because it can capture the real meaning and the time.I decided to do my pictures a bit blurry and crazy,because people with anxiety knows how it feels durning an attack.I wanted people to see what it was like.Alot of people are scared to speak up about there anxiety or just don't recognize they have anxiety, but I have a voice and I want people to know there not alone.
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Alex: I chose homelessness as the issue for this project. Homelessness is a problem across the U.S. and people walk by it as if these people don't matter. However, they may have a mental issue or never got the chance to learn education or have enough money to even start for a job. This piece of work can be related to the hardships we learn about in history class and how that has made things increasingly more difficult for people. I was able to really understand this topic by looking at a video on PBS learning media which had a video from 2017 about a student athlete who didn't have a home.

STEAM projects

The past two weeks have been busy in the Art classroom. In STEAM, we go through five units (one for each letter of STEAM) that have two parts: a "Have to" and "Can do." "Have to" projects are projects I direct students through that connect with the letter of focus for the unit and "Can do" projects are student developed. Students completed their "Can do" projects earlier this week and uploaded them to Artsonia.

t was fun to see students work through a variety of solutions. To help them brainstorm, I directed them to the "Hands-on Projects" section of our online subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine. This helped many students gather ideas and take bits and pieces to make their own project. 

It was so much fun to see students develop their own ideas and implement techniques from their "Have to" videos that they shared the week before. It was even more fun to be able to make additional artist connections to students' works and help them develop the creative courage to take bigger risks in their own art.
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Sophia: The artist that inspired me to do this artwork was Robert Rauschenberg. He does colorful printmaking and layers the things he prints on top of each other. For my artwork I did 2 different block prints of Paige in black. Then I took two different pieces of paper and put colorful mono prints on it, and did a collage background. Lastly, I printed the faces onto the collage background and put frames around them.
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Evie: For my project of choice, I decided to try felting again. I tried to do something similar to this last year, but I ended up with far less details, the work being smaller, and just lower quality art. Revisiting this, I had more materials and more time to work on this, which helped me make it far better from last time. The art work also has more personal meaning behind it which made me more passionate to complete it, something that makes my work far better than when I'm just doing it for a grade. I got to use buttons (which I forgot last time) and I made two (which I wanted to do last time) instead of one. While some parts were more rushed and look not as good, I feel like I did a lot better and I'd love to keep working on my felting skills.
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Jenna: For this project i did mono printing and cut the prints in to shapes and glued them down.The spots that didn't have a shape i used a stencil and a pencil to fill it in.
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Khiem: One of the thing that I learn through out this steam years is a mood board. So I organize my past art with some changes in them into a mood board because I think it would be a good way to end the marking period, is to include most of my art in to one with some extra idea or idea that I have before I created my final art. So to round it all up I use the mood board design to organize my art or sketch that I have over the year to remember what I accomplish.
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Marie: In this piece of work I was inspired by artist Tom Friedman in Scholastic Art Magazine. Friedman developed a piece of artwork made from corners of cereal boxes. In his work, he put all of the geometrical triangles together to create a cereal box sculpture. With my own work I used the idea of 3 dimensional triangles formed together in order to create larger piece of work. But instead I used paper folding and origami techniques, as well as mono printing and mixed media ideas.
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Ashtyn: For this project I made a wire hand, because in STEAM we are on the art can do and Mrs. Campbell said that we can do what ever we want as long as it is art related. I made a wire hand because I have never used wire before and thought it would be interesting to try out, and it was.
Students also worked on their Math "Have to" projects this week with a look at radial symmetry. We did this in a variety of ways: first we worked on making buttons, then we made chalk art outside, and finally worked on digital works. This lesson was adapted from Liquitex and I will also be sharing this on Instagram in hopes of winning a $1500 contest I found out about at NAEA in Seattle. Wish us luck! 
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Trever
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Jenna
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Sophia
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Kenzie
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Chloe

Meijer Gardens Field Trip

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For the past ten years, I have been able to bring students to the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture park. It is one of my favorite parts of Spring and we could not have had better weather for our trip!

Students were led on a tour of the Japanese Gardens (which is a new addition to the park) by docents and learned a lot of information about how they created this part of the park. They were also in the process of installing a new exhibit with cranes that lowered sculptures into place, which was exciting to see in action. 

Getting Ready for Arts a la Mode

This week is going to be another action-packed one! We are so excited about Tuesday and hope to have a great turn out for the events planned and look forward to sharing the results in our next post! 
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Week Fourteen

5/6/2018

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Show and Tell

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This week in STEAM class, students moved on to their Art "Have to" project where they were asked to team up and work on videos that explained how to use a variety of materials. We were even able to use our newest DonorsChoose.org funded project with pop-up green screens for this assignment. My hope for this project was to create a pool of videos I can post for other students to use in our classroom (which will be so great for kids who need reminders, are absent, or joining our class mid-way through the term).

In addition to demonstrating use of material, they also needed to show where to find them, care, and an artist who uses it in their own work.

​Here are a few of them:

Working With New Materials

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Students worked on their project that centered on the theme of Objects, Artifacts, and Things You Leave Behind. One of the challenges of this assignment was that students were required to use media they had yet to implement in a project so far this semester. By requiring them to go beyond their comfort zone, students turned to a variety of alternative methods which is resulting in so many exciting outcomes. 

For the past four years, a National Scholastic Medal has yielded from this prompt. My guess is that because I am requesting/requiring students to try something new in their art making, they are taking bigger risks and being a little more bold with their creative expression. I also think they are more than half way through the curriculum in the class at this point, so they are more open to experimenting with ideas and have seen so many examples of other artists making bold choices with big rewards to show for it. 

Regardless of the reason, I am excited to see students trying new ideas and get excited about the work they are doing in class. Even better to see is the resilient nature in their approach to the process and pushing through blocks by finding alternative routes or improvising along the way. The finished works will be posted on Artsonia by the start of next week. 
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One interesting outcome in one of my 7th grade classes was the collaboration you see below. One student created the pencil and sharpener and two more wanted to join in on the oversized fun by making the notebook and eraser. Seeing students view other students as artists and partners in the creative process is what I am always striving for in my classroom, so this was a real delight to see. Anytime you get kids excited about what others are doing and then want to make more art because of it, is a win. 
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Connecting to Careers

One of my favorite things when I attend a conference like the National Art Education Association gathering is connecting with professionals in my field and those who have benefited from strong backgrounds in Art Education. It is awesome to connect with colleges and universities that offer teachers great resources to share with students who are thinking they would like a creative career in the Arts. 

I was able to add to my collection of informative posters this year by hanging up two I have collected from multiple conferences by Ringling College. As soon as I put them up, students we a buzz with the companies where graduates of SO many varieties of Arts-focused areas worked. They were especially interested in Epic Games (which is the maker of the very popular "Fornite"). I am excited to see my students excited and thinking about how they can turn something they find enjoyment in doing into a career they can make a living doing. 

Students love these @RinglingCollege posters I got from @NAEA #artsed #dowhatyoulove #startswithart #k12ArtChat pic.twitter.com/L7SNiFLvig

— Janine Campbell (@campbellartsoup) May 4, 2018

ArtPrize Progress

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We are continuing to work on our ArtPrize piece. This week was all about sealing the mirrored paper and getting more portraits created on the bottle caps. Next week, we hope to have all of the sealing complete for our panels and begin to focus on placement of the caps. The goal is to have this ready for our May 22nd Arts a la Mode Empty Bowls/Fine Arts Night at BCWMS. We also hope to have a venue secured so our work can compete for the Youth Collaboration Award! If you are interested in learning more about that, you can visit our ArtPrize page. 
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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

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This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week! Although I appreciate the week of appreciation that is to come, I would feel even more appreciated if we have a good turn out for our students and community at our annual Arts a la Mode Empty Bowls/Fine Arts Night on May 22nd. 

If you are are student who would like to volunteer, visit this form. If you are a parent interested in volunteering, visit thisform. We are getting really close to this year's event and I am pretty excited about it and hope to see a great turn out for the evening filled with celebrating the Arts. 

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Out of the kiln for Empty Bowls! pic.twitter.com/hd5YRmEqbu

— Janine Campbell (@campbellartsoup) May 1, 2018
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Week Thirteen

4/27/2018

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Last STEAM Collaboration

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Students presented their last STEAM collaboration for the year this week. For this challenge, students were asked to design and create structures that represented spaces we use like schools, businesses, homes, and other architectural works. 

It was fun to see students from both classes work together to create a variety of buildings using blueprints, digital renderings, and physical models. The pieces are currently on display in our Library until the end of the year. 
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DE is DONE

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Another semester of DE is in the books. It has been almost 8 years since the last time I taught 3D and I am so thankful I was able to come back to it with this group. These kids were amazing to work with, full of so many ideas, and willing to push themselves to try new ideas and techniques. 

I was really excited to see their final exam projects complete and how they took the opportunity of designing their own prompt with their choice of media. It gave students to try some things they were interested in doing or revisiting ideas left undone from the past. Here are a few of the results:
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For our final farewell of the group, we met at the Meijer Gardens to complete a scavenger hunt and sketchbook activity. A special thanks to The Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters for sponsoring our trip! 
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Building More Skills

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Students also spend this week building skills by learning about printmaking and observational drawing. Our newest themed project asks students to examine the objects we interact with on a daily basis and make art that focuses on that relationship. In addition to that, students are also being challenged to use a different media to work with for this piece. 

Next week we will spend time refining ideas and finalizing media for use to work towards project goals. Here are some works in progress so far: 

Arts a la Mode Prep

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We are getting excited for our annual Fine Arts Night on May 22nd and starting to put the finishing touches on our preparations for the event that includes Empty Bowls, Performances, Art Displays, and STEAM activities (two of which were funded with DonorsChoose.org requests earlier this year). 

​We are also in process of gathering volunteers for the night, asking students and parents to help out. If you are a student or parent at BCPS and would like to help, please contact me for more information. 

Finishing touches on bowl for May 22nd Arts a la Mode event at BCWMS. pic.twitter.com/ztubEqKIdC

— Janine Campbell (@campbellartsoup) April 26, 2018

ArtPrize10 Update

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We are continuing work on our part of the ArtPrize piece this year. I am so excited to see it coming together, but know we still have A LOT of work to do before it is complete. This week was spent cutting a lot of reflective paper and then figuring out how to place it on the work. 

Hopefully next week we will be able to get our profile up and running and start to secure a venue. If you would like to connect, please visit our ArtPrize page. 
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Week One

1/27/2018

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New Semester with New Students

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This installation was completed by over 200 students in our school. It encircles a tree that was planted years ago to honor our veterans and is also next to the entrance of our school and flagpole.
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Our Art classes run in semesters, which means I get to greet new students after 18 weeks and start over again with them. It is fun to see how this new set of students approach the content already covered by first semester and bring their own experiences to the table to complete various pieces of content and creation. 

One of my favorite things about this first week, was getting to finish our installation of painted rocks inspired by the story "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds. I have been using this story for at least the last five years with my students to inspire legacy projects in our school. We have made paintings, paper globes, and now these painted rocks as a way to make our own mark on WMS.

Each year I do this, I am usually doing something with my students for the first time and not 100% sure how and if it will turn out. I openly share this with my students and explain that taking creative risks is one of the duties of an artist and it is up to all of us to be courageous in this class with the work we make. I am very pleased with this year's outcome and look forward to seeing what legacy project we come up with for next year. 

​Here are some thoughts from the students on their work:
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Avery: For this project I created a rock that displays an abstract pattern of dots. I decided not to focus on a specific pattern in order to incorporate the Dot story. The Dot story talks about about how all artists work is unique and anyone can create art. My piece, and all the other rocks created in class, are different in order to represent diversity and beauty in art.
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Gage: This is like in the story the dot because we started with one dot and we began to do more. Also it represents that anyone can be creative. Finally, it was the first project of the year.
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Brady: I made this amazing piece of art because of the book, The Dot. I just made one dot and went on from there. This rock was made from a bunch of random dots and then I made more.
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Katie: In this artwork, I started with one big dot--the sun. It popped into my head as soon as we started. This connects to the book because starting with one dot made a bigger thing called art. It connects to real life because we are leaving this artwork behind just like we will have to leave other things behind as in our legacy.
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This is a more complete view of the work.

Empty Bowls

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For years, I have engaged students with clay on the first day. This semester, I switched around some activities and actually started with paint and waited until our third day together to work with clay. 

When I informed one class that we were going to work with clay, it was greeted with a "Woo Hoo!" I know that not all of my students will choose art as a career, but I do hope that they will continue to create and appreciate art as grow up and react with a "Woo Hoo!" during those experiences. 

It was fun to see students work with clay in this way and for 7th graders to create bowls for our annual Empty Bowls night. Even better will be once these are fired and we get to glaze them in a variety of colors. 
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Henna Hands

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Something new was tried with my 8th graders for our first clay experience. Instead of making bowls like they did when they were in 7th grade or the leaves like last semester did (because it is January in Michigan and there are no leaves), students created Henna-inspired patterned hands. 

Inspired by this post and henna-painted hands, I decided to try this out with student and see how they turned out. For the most part, there has been success so far (only a few repaired fingers along the way). In the future, I would probably have students keep their fingers closer together or use the slab roller in order to avoid some of those issues. 

I am excited to see how they finish out and what happens when we apply a glaze treatment to them. This was a great alternative to the leaves and students seemed to really enjoy the process of creating patterns.
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Collaboratives

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Collaboration is something I am passionate about in my classroom. I feel strongly that success in team format is much more powerful than individually. It takes much more skill and understanding to work with others and find common ground than it does to go it alone. 

For the first day of our STEAM class, we brainstormed ideas that show what we value at WMS: Academics, Arts, and Athletics. These symbols were then drawn by students on canvases with WMS on them and a grid. Every time a shape changes on the grid, so does the color (keeping cool colors for the backgrounds and warm for the letters/objects). 

We are more than half-way to our end goal with these works (once they are done they will be showcased in the office) and we hope to complete them next week. This is my first time teaching STEAM as a class, so it will be a learning experience for both my students and me this semester! 
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Can you see the WMS?

Drawing in Space

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For our second collaboration in 3D, students had the opportunity to explore the concept of drawing in space by using wire. In teams of two and three, students selected an object and then sketched out the object using contour lines. After, they turned that line drawing into a sculpture using wire. 

It was interesting to see that multiple groups selected cameras as their object. Below are some process and final images of particularly successful attempts. 
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#FirstMillion Funding

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On January 25th, our latestDonorsChoose.org project was funded thanks to the matching funds from #FirstMillion, celebrating the first million funded projects on the site. I am so thankful for the additional materials we will now have due to the generosity of others. 

If you are interested in helping fund a project, I recommend visiting their site and seeing a variety of opportunities to do just that! 

Woo Hoo! Thanks @DonorsChoose #FirstMillion pic.twitter.com/DK8mBl6Wbv

— Janine Campbell (@campbellartsoup) January 25, 2018
This week was really packed with a lot of amazing things. I am so thankful and excited that I get the opportunity to be a part of all of it. 
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Week Twelve and Thirteen

12/1/2017

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Thanksgiving Week

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Because Thanksgiving week was only a two day school week, I decided to take a break from the weekly post and push the last two weeks together. The two days we spend together before break were filled with glazing bowls for our spring Empty Bowls event as well as critiquing our own work and prepping pieces for show at both The Van Singel Fine Arts Center for the month of December and at Barnes and Noble for our school Book Fair next weekend. 
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When selecting which works they would like to have considered for show, I have students sort their portfolios through a GAP process (make a good pile, an average pile, and a poor pile). Once done, they pick the best of the good and the worst of the poor to compare and contrast with a Venn Diagram. 

Afterwards, students do a gallery walk to see what others considered to their their best and worst works and discuss whether or not it was easy to tell the difference. This is a great introduction to personal aesthetic and how we view pieces not only based on how they look, but the experience we have with them. 
I like to travel, but this year I stayed close to home for the holidays. I did, however, make sure to go to The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture park and view their awesome holiday displays. I cannot wait to share these little houses and architectural pieces from above with students in the spring when we create our own models for a STEAM collaboration. 

Finished Challenge 3

We have had a really productive round of projects for this past challenge. Students were forced to think beyond their comfort zones and discover new talents as they examined the concept of the things in our lives and the objects we interact with on a daily basis. 

​In this challenge, students were asked to use a material they had yet to explore. The results were so diverse and exciting to see. Some students used tools for the first time to explore felting. Others explored clay, photography, making their own scratch art paper, and more tools to showcase their solutions to the challenge. It was impressive to see what they were able to create and a joy to see them develop new talents, as one student described in her artist statement below. 
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Cam: This is my art I did for project 3. I chose to use clay as a material because clay can sometimes be a challenge and I was willing to take on the challenge to create this hot dog in a bun with all of its ingredients. This connects with project theme 3 because it is an object. One artist that I used as a reference for this art was Janet Fish. I used Janet Fish as a reference because I was making food in my art and she also makes food.
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Lindsey: In this artwork, I decided to use the materials that I chose because I thought that making interesting cut outs on these birds would look good against a silver background. The materials that I used help me to communicate my ideas because I tried to use a lot of vibrant colors in the birds so that they would stand out against the background. This artwork relates to the theme because these birds are objects and something that I left in the past because when I was younger my grandpa and I would always fill up his bird feeders in his backyard, and we don't do it anymore. My artwork is similar to Wayne Thiebaud's work because he makes his artwork of different images of the same thing, which is similar to mine.
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Tara: I LOVED making this art piece and I would gladly do it again! It was amazing to figure out I had talent in felting. If I can do this again, I'm gonna make ALL of my animals.
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Emmie: I was inspired by Wayne Thiebaud and his image of the rows of cakes. The scratch art makes the desserts look inverted and like those neon signs on buildings at night.
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Anna: I used photography and things that are left behind in my life to portrait my ideas. I used these techniques and materials because a photo can say much more than a drawing because it is in real life. I used the things that are left behind idea because I was really inspired by Audrey Flack so I wanted to use that concept in my art project. Audrey Flack shows how things are left behind because she paints cluttered areas to show this.
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Zoe: For this project, a lot of people did physical objects that you leave behind, but I wanted to do something that you mentally leave behind. So, I chose memories. I took watercolor paper and splattered paint on it, creating the pattern. I used blue because blue represents sadness. Next, I tore up the paper, layered it into a face mold, and glued it all together. For the hair, I printed out my memories and then cut them out. I took tape and placed it over the cut outs. Then, I ran water over the tape, the paper rolled off but the text stayed. I layered the hair on top of the head. I used Do Ho Suh as an inspiration because he made a sculpture with deeper meaning in it, and that's what I did as well. Overall, I enjoyed this challenge even though it took me a while to make.

Feeling Thankful

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I am so thankful for so many things this year and these past two weeks are a great example of why. I want to thank everyone who helped us reach our goal for our latest DonorsChoose project! We were able to get it funded thanks to matching funds from the Carnegie Corporation as well as those who gave during Giving Tuesday! It was awesome to see that project receive support knowing it will be a super engaging activity at our upcoming Fine Arts Night. I am also so thankful and proud of my students who have worked hard this year to enter competitions, showcase their work in shows, and take risks with their work to discover new gifts and talents. 

​It is going to be a busy push to the end of the semester and I look forward to seeing where students go next with their work ahead! 

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Week One

9/10/2017

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Start with Clay

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As I have been doing for years now, students were introduced to my classroom by getting started with clay. I remember the first time we did this - I was terrified. I had visions of clay being thrown across the room with unruly students not following directions. I really could not have been more wrong in what actually happens when you engage students with meaningful materials to make an impact right from the start. 

Each year at our school we have an Empty Bowls event to benefit our local food bank. At the event, student-made ceramic bowls decorate our school cafeteria as the music students perform and ice cream is served. Patrons donate food and funds to our local food bank to get into the event and celebrate the students who are showcased. 

This year I purchased some additional resources like the doily below for 7th grade students to use to add texture to their clay before placing them into paper bowls as molds for the shape of the bowl. We were able to complete these pieces in only a couple of days and I am excited to see these fired and have them glazed and ready for our Empty Bowls event later this school year.
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8th grade students used leaves and terra-cotta clay this year for the first day activity. Instead of making bowls for Empty Bowls, they created leaves that will be for sale to benefit our program at Parent/Teacher Conferences in October and the Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters Annual Craft Fair at the High School in November.
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Robots Arrive

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I am very excited that our Ozobots have arrived! This new resource was funded thanks to generous donors through DonorsChoose over the summer. It was something I had been thinking about incorporating into the STEAM curriculum and was able to do so thanks to the support of others who gave to our project. I am excited to get working with these little guys in the coming months and I look forward to also sharing the results! 

The Dot and ArtPrize

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This is Sue Ferrell's work from ArtPrize this year. Her work will be shown at our venue and we used her as inspiration for our Dot collaboration project.
We have been celebrating Peter H. Reynolds' story "The Dot" annually for years in my classroom. Each year, we start the school year with some kind of collaborative permanent or semi-permanent work that will engage students with hands-on creating while overcoming the fear that can accompany creativity. 

This year, I discovered an artist from ArtPrize that will share our venue at Monroe Community Church to be our inspiration. Sue Ferrell is a local artist who has been participating in ArtPrize for years. This year she is using her skills as a painter and rocks as a canvas to create a large piece from over 100 smaller parts. 

I first showed students the video below of the story of "The Dot" and we talked about why I would take the time out to show them this. We had a good discussion about fear and creativity and believing in yourself. Several students used the story to discuss ideas about practice and thinking about art in new and different ways. So many middle school students get caught up in realistic drawing as being the premiere way of knowing whether or not they have talent. This story showed them that art is what you make it and can be whatever you want it to be. 
Once we looked at Sue's work, students selected their colors and how they wanted to approach the rock they were painting. These will be used in landscaping outside of our school (an exact location is yet to be determined). I am excited to share with Sue when ArtPrize starts so she can see what an impact her work had on my students. As usual, I will also make sure to share with Peter H. Reynolds who has always been very kind to me and my students when we showcase how we use his work in our classroom.
What is so great about getting students started with hands-on creating the first week of school is that we already get some work on our Artsonia page! Using Schoology, students are able to access their Artsonia uploads through classroom mode and use the standards-based rubrics to complete their work (including their artist statements). 
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Mary: The artists who painted the rocks inspired me because she did this cool floral pattern and i wanted to try something like it. I also wanted to try making the small dots into a bigger picture. I made it very colorful and creative.
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Marie: The story of "The Dot" is about a girl who doesn't believe in her abilities to create good artwork. But by just creating a mark, a simple dot, her teacher considers it as very good art. She realizes that anyone can be good at making art, or anything in general, you just have to try. "The Dot" story relates to these painted rocks because the stones are painted with small marks like dashes and dots. When combined together create good art.
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Tess: The story of The Dot is about a little girl who believed she couldn't draw. Her art teacher told her to make her mark, so she did, putting a small dot on her paper with a marker. The next day when Vashti walked into class, her dot was hanging above her teachers desk in a beautiful frame. This inspired her to make more dots, each one more beautiful than the next, and even inspire a young boy to do the same. My painted rock connects to this story because I made a ¨dot¨ on my rock.
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Paige: This artwork was created from “The Dot” project. It is about a young girl who doesn't think she has any talent but shows us that any art can be made without needing to be a great artist. This connects with my work because I took a rock and used lots of different dots which is simple but by using different designs and colors it turned out to be a very cool, unique piece.

What a Week!

This week was a great one. I am always amazed at how ready students are to learn and engage with media in new ways. It is so fun to see their reactions when I ask them to get involved with these materials and to brace themselves for what is planned.

I hope everyone else had as great of a first week as we did and I look forward to sharing more next week! 
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Two Left

5/26/2017

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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).

Arts a la Mode 2017

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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. 

Meijer Gardens Field Trip

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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. 

Challenge 5: Everything is a Remix

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 
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Evan: One similarity that I used in this artwork is that it is the same shoe used in the last nike shoe artwork. One difference is the medium I used is photoshop instead of mixed media. The reason i selected this piece was because I didn't think it looked visually pleasing to look at and I thought I could make it better. One think I did to change it was I mad it more like a piece that Jenny Van Sommers did on a shoe.
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Tess: One similarity between this piece and my original Pop Art Piece is that they both use many colors, and they both use a combination of both stripes and dots. One difference between this piece and my original piece is that in this piece there is two people, and in the original piece, there was only me. I chose to remix my Pop Art Portrait piece because I love that it uses a lot of color and that it overall is just a fun piece to make. To change this piece from my original Pop Art Portrait, I chose a picture of two people, me and my friend, to use for the graphite transfer rather than just one person, and I did the entire face, including the eyes, while on my original piece there was glasses over the eyes so I did not have to do them.
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Ava: For this challenge I decided to recreate the project I did for the Biography/Autobiography challenge. I mad a face with water color in the background but this one was simpler. I made the background with different colors also and I actually showed the entire face of this girl compared to the other girl in which I did not. I chose that piece to remix because I thought I could best portray and show how I improved on making a face, last time I was too afraid to make the face but this time I did shadowing and made it look way better than my last piece.
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Sam: In this piece I showed how I grew from my previous piece of coffee cups. I grew because I showed my understanding of new materials and how I can use then effectively in my art piece. I also grew from my last piece because I chose a more effective topic. Instead of simple coffee cups I told a story with pain buckets that make the audience think about the story. One similarity between the two pieces is that I drew objects are can hold a lot of different things such as coffee, paint or anything in your imagination. Overall that is how I have grown as an artist in this work compared to my coffee cups piece. I selected the coffee cup piece to remix because I did not tell a very good story and with my paint buckets it shows that I can use materials better and that I can show a story through my work instead of just drawing a piece. Overall that is my growth throughout the challenge "Everything's a remix".
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Marie: This artwork is based off an observational drawing I did in 6th grade. Growth over the years can be shown by recognizing my increase in observational skill. I chose to remix this piece of art because I thought that the previously made artwork didn't portray my own interest and style. But in this specific piece of work I used a material that I have grown to enjoy using, that being collage. Compared to the work made in 6th grade, this work is different because it provides elements of color, different shades and shape, while the 6th grade work was just simple lines.
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Cam: This is a drawing of a whitetail deer by a fence. This is a piece of art I based off the elk I did earlier in the year. I really liked how the elk turned out so I wanted to try and do a whitetail deer. I used the same material as the elk and everything, its just not an elk this time. I used many different pictures off the internet to draw this deer.
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Lukas: I created this artwork off of a picture of me kicking a soccer ball into a goal. I used many different colors than they actually were, because the colors of everything didn't pop put as much so i changed the colors so they were brighter and more radiant than the original. I used Tempera paint instead of water color because sit was more easier to use and not as messy.
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Week One

1/29/2017

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Start by Making

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As I have done for years now, I started the first day of the new semester with new students and with clay. It was great to share past Empty Bowls experiences with students and get their hands busy with making right away. I look forward to our event to raise food and funds for our local food bank later this Spring. I will post more details on that as we get closer to the date. 

Setting the Tone

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One new thing I tried with my students this week was a scavenger hunt. I was inspired by other art teachers out there who shared their ideas about getting students familiar with the room and materials through something like this and found this resource as a great help to doing it for my students. I of course adapted it to fit our needs and space, but it did not need much adjusting to work wonderfully in my classroom.

I feel this activity really has allowed students to see themselves as a resource and to rely on their ability to work together in order to get things done. 

The Dot

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One of my favorite ways to start out the first week is to use Peter H. Reynolds' "The Dot" as a springboard for my students to get working with materials. And since we did the scavenger hunt, they knew exactly where all of the materials are kept! 

I have a three year plan for these spheres before I consider the project complete. Last year we made medium sized ones and this year we made smaller ones that were tiered on each other. Next year, I plan to make LARGE ones that will hang in the middle of the installation. Then I will need to move onto something else, I suppose. 
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In order to make the sphere you need 20 circles that you fold into triangles. You then glue two sets of five as shown above and then a row of ten that makes up the middle. It is very quick and easy to put together and students are always impressed with how quickly the flat shapes morph into a a 3D form.

Here are some finished pieces before they were folded and made into spheres. 
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Oliver M.: The meaning of "The Dot" is about how she din't think she was good at art but truly deep down she had a determination/inspiration for art and how she thinks of it. I did my dot because I really like to make make landscapes. I hope to inspire other people to try out to make different types of art.
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Ella P.: The dot story means and shows that anyone can make anything and turn it into art, it connects to my dot that I made because I have been fascinated with Mandalas since I saw them. They have so many cool designs and shapes that make up this flower.
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Avery Z,: The dot story represents the will to try and not to worry about the outcome. This deeply affected what I put on my dot for this project. Spelled throughout the dot is the word 'try' to remind people to do their best and try.
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Marie B.: "The Dot" is a story about how you can use art and any type of talent to inspire others. This piece of artwork relates to "The Dot" story because it inspires people to live their life colorfully. As you might see the art piece represents a piano. Usually piano's black and white. Generally pretty boring. But by adding colors of the rainbow to the piece it shows that we can inspire people to add color to anything boring or bad in their life. Living a colorful life means to add happiness and interest to your own life.

Dual Enrollment ​Assignment One Done

Students in my Dual Enrollment class finished their first Photography Assignment and presented their work to the class Thursday. The first assignment's focus was on changing perspective and seeing things in ways that is not your typical view. It was fun to see what subjects students decided to focus on for this assignment and to put their new understandings of the manual camera settings to work. Here are some of the results: 
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Kathy
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Elise
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Krista
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Anna
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Kennedy
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Emma
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First Week Review

9/8/2016

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Since starting this blog 5 years ago, I have been looking for new and different ways to share all of the things that go on in our Art room. I used to post daily and more recently have moved to less and less posting. 

For this school year, I am hoping to post weekly about what we are working on and how we progress through learning, making, and exploring along the way. 

Start with Art

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For the past five or so years, I have opened up the first day with clay. We use this opportunity to make our bowls for our annual Empty Bowls event. I am so thankful to work in a community that supports the Arts and that we can in turn support the community through our Art in action. Our Arts a la Mode Night will happen on May 23rd this year and I know it will be even better than last! 
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Making Marks

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In addition to getting students immersed in making art with clay on the first day, I leverage this act of making on day two as I introduced "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. I have been doing this one for a few years, too, in different forms. I am really in love with students making their own mark after being inspired by the story and then bringing it all together to make something larger than their single part. I hope that can see the symbolism in that as we tackle many challenges together throughout the semester and will need each other to get through many of them. 

Here are a few of the finished ones and the classes put together to make larger "dots."
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Corinne W.: I consider the story The Dot inspirational because Vashti makes beautiful pieces of art, yet so simple, she feels like an artist. I consider myself not the best drawer but in this piece, I let my pencil just take me away and it ended up better than I expected. I ended up finding things I hadn't noticed before while drawing this, like how the shape to the left looked like a dinosaur, and how in the middle shape looked like a distortment of a palm tree, so I colored it in that way. This relates to the story because it was simple to draw and still turned out good ;)
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Aiden: The Dot story tells us that no matter how bad you think you are at art, there are a million different ways to make your art work unique. It connects with my art because I didn't know what to make so i just started making different lines and circles and it turn out pretty good.
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Abby B.: A story, known as, “The Dot”, has a theme, that can be interpreted that anyone can be an artist. The story starts as a young girl has trouble on thinking about what she should make for her art class. Her teacher tells her to make a dot, which she does, still frustrated with herself. But when the teacher puts it in a frame the next day, the girl keeps working on more dots, surprising herself with her own creativity. I found this book to be funny and inspiring, and a good message to think about when you work on art. This story helps connect with the current piece I’m working on, known as, the dot. I believe that this project was given to us to show that we can be artist too, know matter what our skill levels are.
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Looking Ahead

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There are a lot of things we can feel good about that got accomplished this week. And with that in mind, I know there will be so many things to look forward to overcoming this year. This week we got to see the 3D printer in action, relive the accomplishments of the past as a challenge to the future, and get excited about our first STEAM collaborative starting on Monday! 

I had an awesome summer of unwinding and unplugging because I know this year will be a big one. We have a lot to live up to from the past and instead of being daunted by it or feeling overwhelmed, it is a challenge to push harder and reach higher! I hope everyone else who started their school year feels that same determination in their gut and leverages it to their best year yet! 
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Arts a la Mode

5/30/2016

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On May 24th, we had our annual Empty Bowls Event and Fine Arts Night. It was the first year we had combined the two on one night and it was a great time celebrating the work of our Fine Arts students as we also helped raise food and funds for our local food bank. 

With a donation of food or funds, community members came to WMS and enjoyed Music and Art from our students and ice cream provided by Hudsonville Ice Cream thanks to our Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters. 

We raised over $600 in food and funds to be donated to Buist Community Assistance Center to help families in our community! 

It was a great night filled with Art and Music and I am so thankful to Steve Harryman who donated his time and talents to create the video of the event below: 

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