Category: Maea

Week Two

2/4/2018

Portfolio Names

Every term, I use the design of the portfolio name as a visual way to learn my students names. It is a go-to project to get students started because it also helps me teach some basics about the design process, formulating ideas and planning in our sketchbook as well as practicing various colored pencil and marker techniques before applying them to our final works.

It was fun to see the student names develop over the week and then be published on our Artsonia gallery. Here are a few of the results:

I really like sports so I used a baseball and a basketball for the letter E's. Three of the letters were some type of plant because I like nature. The letter L turned out really good in my mind because it was the first time I attempted to draw a hand.

This project was really fun. I chose many things having to do with sports or professional sports teams because that is what I like to watch and do. I also did a pencil because I like to sketch and draw. I liked this project because I got to show the things that I like by writing my name

I put the Fishing pole with a fish because I fish a lot and really enjoy it, and I also put a paintbrush with paint , because I really like to paint. My favorite sport to play is ping pong and that's why I put a ping pong ball and paddle to include the types of sports that I like to play and what I like to do in my free time.

I choose these objects because I like the underwater sea life, drawing, ice cream, and nature.

Logo Designs

So, for the first time, I am actually seeing a group of students for a FULL year as a result of a new STEAM class I am teaching. As a result, I decided to change up the portfolio name to a logo design. This was fun to do because it got students thinking about branding and how logos are developed by designers. Because these students have had me last semester, it was also nice to see how quickly they jumped into the sketching and brainstorming piece of this challenge before setting to work on it.

Here are a few examples:

This logo is Charlie B. Golfing. The C is formed into a golf club and the B is formed into a golf ball on a tee ready to be swung. I picked golfing because I really like golfing and it is very chill and a fun hobby to do during the spring and summer.

In this I did a circle and inside the circle I did a C with a softball stitches in it, To finish the other half of the circle I did a pencil because I love art and lastly in the center I did a volleyball.

While designing my logo I thought about things that might represent me. My logo represents a crown as well as the first initial of my name. This is because I like to consider myself a queen or a princess. I chose to use colors like yellow and orange to represent the gold of a crown, and black to emphasize the letter M.

Starting Photoshop Challenge 1

Students also started their first Photoshop Challenge this week after they completed their portfolios. I have accumulated five choices over the years that students can select to complete as a part of this challenge. They range from beginner to advanced. All focus on the subject of portraits or people.

As we finish these next week, it will be interesting to see which levels students selected to challenge themselves to create and if they continue to elect to use Photoshop as a tool when we get working on our first major Project in the class.

Still Painting Those Panels

We are still working on the WMS panels... hopefully they will finish up this week and actually work out. Right now, we are debating on how to outline the shapes. Do we outline everything, are we selective, or do we just paint over everything and start over?

Adjective Forms

In the KCAD 3D class I teach as a part of our high school's Dual Enrollment program, students worked on their ceramic forms this week that were inspired by adjectives. We were inspired by a variety of contemporary ceramic artists like Zemer Peled before going through lists of adjectives that would help inform the direction of their work.

Students were encouraged to hand-build or combine wheel-thrown and hand-building techniques. It was interesting to see how students developed their sketches based on the words they selected and then translated those sketches into forms.

We will not see the completed pieces until these are fired, glazed, and fired again later this month.

MAEA Region 9 Results

BCPS has a great showing at this year's MAEA Region 9 Adjudication. K-12 students from our district had over 20 works accepted and all will move onto State competition. The work will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through this month before heading to the next competition.

Here are the winners from WMS:

Oliver Modderman

Tess Bainbridge

Lindsay Mlejnek

Serenity Metzger

I am excited to celebrate this accomplishment with students at the opening reception this Thursday as we also get to enjoy the rest of the exhibit at the GRAM.

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Week Nine

11/5/2017

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Exploring Spaces and Places

Students are working on their second major project this week. In doing so, we also looked at how using the principles of perspective drawing can help us create the illusion of space in our work. To help drive that point home, students were asked to select either a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level tutorial set to complete for their perspective drawing challenge. These challenges could have been completed in school or at home. They will be due on Monday.

The schedule for work time this week also included working on their main spaces and places project, too. Some students decided to focus most of their energies on this, while others did not and used their time on the perspective drawing. Allowing students the option to choose how they use their time, while holding them accountable for their work and choices along the way is something I am always balancing in my classroom. Sometimes I am more specific in which way I would like them to work, but I find it tends to be more successful when I give them the option to decide.

End of First Marking Period

As we finish the first quarter of school, it is important to reflect on what has happened so far:

BCWMS ArtPrize 9 entry - featured on WoodTV8 (venue on Jury Shortlist)
883 artworks published on Artsonia
10 works uploaded to compete in Scholastic Art Awards
Dozens of artists researched and shared through Scholastic Art Magazine

We will begin the second half of our time together before students change classes. I hope that in that time we are able to continue to push forward with ideas about what and how we define art, ways we use design in our lives, and applying knowledge to find purpose both in and outside of the classroom.

Passion and Purpose

I had an awesome end to the week learning and sharing at the Michigan Art Education Association Annual Fall Conference in Detroit. It was a great time to connect with other art teachers and be with those who support, understand, and elevate what is possible when we put both passion and purpose into a profession.

I spend the first day of the conference sharing with other teachers in two sessions. One was with an art teacher from Pentwater Public Schools, Carrie Jeruzal. She actually is the reason I present at conferences in the first place. In 2008, she urged me to join a presentation with her on Literacy in the Art classroom. I have been hooked ever since. This year we presented on how we use the Empty Bowls project in our classrooms and use Art as and opportunity for Service Learning.

I also presented on Gelli Arts mono printing and had an amazing time sharing methods and technique for using this versatile art material. We had a great crowd of teachers who were so excited to learn, play, and share their excitement. My favorite part of the workshop is seeing the diversity of outcome and experimentation that occurs. I love presenting this workshop and thank Gelli Arts for giving me the opportunity to do so for the last five years.

As much as I love to share, the best part of the conference are the sessions I get to attend and the things I learn along the way. We had awesome speakers at our conference and I am very thankful to the organizers of our professional learning for the weekend because I am able to go back to my school and share information that will help push my students to that next level as a result.

Some highlights of the conference include:

Scholastic Art Awards Plagiarism and Copyright workshop. This workshop lead by Amy Armand was an amazing tool for helping me better recognize when students are taking that next step to make transformational work rather than copying what already exists. It was eye-opening and useful as we get ready for submitting pieces to competition this year and in future years.

Keynote presentation by Jeff DeBoer and Ralph Gilles about creativity and the importance of art education for industrial design. This talk was incredibly impactful. Sometimes we get stuck in thinking about our classrooms and the curriculum we teach and forget the larger implications and how we can better connect to careers. This session flipped a switch for me to reconsider how I approach my subject matter and how I can make additional connections with my students. I was really blown away with the potential of the Michigan Design Prize Jeff shared through the Michigan Design Council as well as the stats Ralph, who works as a design manager for Fiat/Chrysler, shared in terms of the need for designers in the field of automotive design. For example, did you know that 4300 designers live in Detroit and earn $10,000 annually more than their counterparts who live in other areas? I also learned that one of the careers they are having a hard time filling with qualified staff is clay modelers. I know of some students who love cars and clay that will be quite interested when I share this with them as a potential career option.
Creative Problem Solving is a class in some schools. MAEA Teacher of the Year, Tricia Erickson, and her teaching partner, Tanya Lockwood shared their curriculum with us in a presentation that included both her principal and superintendent from Northview Public Schools as co-presenters. It was awesome to hear from a team of teachers and administrators about how creativity and employability go hand in hand and how they use this class to help build the soft skills needed by those in various industries.

Detroit is amazing. I have lived in Michigan my entire life and have been to Detroit over a dozen times without ever really being to Detroit. I know know it was not until I stayed with a true resident of Detroit that I feel like I can now say I have been there. I want to thank my friend, Deb, for sharing her home and amazing wealth of knowledge as she toured us around the city. I had a great time seeing new areas of the city and the growth and the history she shared with us as she gave us a tour of this great American city. One of my favorite new places is now Signal Return. It is a print shop near the Eastern Market and offers opportunities to learn about printmaking as well as a chance to buy original artwork made in their shop. I love printmaking and purchased some items for myself as well as some lucky students when I return to school on Monday (I have a contest every time I go to a conference and the winners get goodies I bring back from the places I travel to). One of my favorite parts of the shop was the tour we were offered as well as a suggestion I check out another shop located on my side of the state. Connecting with new places and spaces to experience art and ways to connect craft to careers for my students is what professional development is all about for me.

My experience in Detroit was awesome and full of art and I am already counting down to when I get to go back. Thank you to everyone who helped make it so memorable!

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Week Two

2/6/2017

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Learning Names

For our second week of class, it is important for me to start to learn about my students - and that often is starting with their names. I am a visual person and using their portfolio design, students crafted names that represent their interests. What is nice about this opening activity is how students are able to help me learn what interests them as well as actually learn the name. Because the names are large and on the front of their portfolios, I am able to easily see them and start to learn them.

Here are some of the results:

Sarah W.: For my portfolio name I based all of the letters off of my favorite sport, volleyball. For my “S” I made a Nike headband because I wear those a lot especially to volleyball. For my first “a” I combined a volleyball passing sleeve and an ankle brace to form the “a” shape. For my “r” decided to draw a volleyball shoe. To represent my second “a” I made a volleyball on a side line. Lastly, to make my “h” I used a Under Armour water bottle and the FarOut logo. Combined they made the shape of an “h”. All of these objects are important to me because I use them daily for volleyball and if I didn’t have volleyball I don’t think that I would be me.

Avery Z.: I created this art piece to express me and my personality. The basketball was used to form an 'a' because basketball is my favorite sport and I love to play. Another letter that expressed me was the 'r'. The 'r' is in the shape of a book because I love to read. I also tried to incorporate new techniques that we learned in class. Those techniques are shown in the 'a' and the 'v' as the colors are fading.

Braylon B.: I chose all of these letters for a certain reason. I chose them because these things represent me as a person. The only exception is the letter B, I chose this because it looked really cool and I really like the fancy letter. I did the dot method with the marker inside the letter. I chose an upside down hockey stick for the R because I love hockey even though I don't play it. For the letter A, I chose to do the at sign in an email. I chose this because I would be a totally different person if I couldn't text anybody. I chose earbuds for the Y because I love to listen to music. The L in my name is a pencil. It represents me because I go to school Monday through Friday and if this wasn't in my life, it would change me. The O represents me because I love donuts so much, they are my favorite type of breakfast food. I chose to do a regular letter N with an American flag inside of it because I live in America and if I didn't, everything about me would change. I chose every single letter because each one represents something about me.

MAEA Region 9 Highlight Show

To finish out the week, I had the opportunity to enter student work into the Michigan Art Education Association Region 9 Highlight show. This is an adjudicated show that is juried by local artists and art professionals. It was great fun to see all of the winners and share in the success with my friends and colleagues. It was also a wonderful time to take in extra PD time with my fellow Art teachers as we viewed work on display at the GRAM, KCAD, and discussed all aspects of Art education.

Thirty-three works were selected Saturday to represent Byron Center Public School students from 1st-12th grades. The work will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through February 23rd. All of the works selected will move onto the State adjudication next month.

MAEA Winners

Abby B.

Leila D.

Damien A.

Merrick S.

Mark Z.

Kennedy V.

Emma M.

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Week Eight

10/29/2016

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New Week, New Challenge

This week students started a new challenge entitled "Where are you going? Where have you been?" In doing so, we started brainstorming why places are important to us - both the places we have been and the ones we would like to visit before planning thumbnail sketches of possible solutions to the challenge.

This week also marked the Annual Michigan Art Education Association Conference and I knew I was going to be gone for Thursday and Friday. I did not want students to get started on their work for this challenge without me being there, so I decided to take a process that another teacher uses in her classroom and breakout a Perspective Drawing Bootcamp Challenge.

I used to teach perspective at the front of my classroom, step-by-step. Instead of doing it that way this year, I used a handful of videos from Circle Line Art School and posted them in various difficulty levels for students to complete on Schoology and submit when completed to Artsonia.

On Wednesday students were given the resources, along with a basic overview of how to give the illusion of space on a 2D surface using a variety of tricks (included color, which was also covered this week through a mixing demonstration/activity). Students were then encouraged to practice in their sketchbooks before applying it to their final paper.

It was great because there were a lot of choices students could select and be self-directed on (I also included some hand outs for students in case the internet was quirky). I love going to conferences because I get a chance to share with other teachers and learn new techniques for making and teaching art. I also love it because it gives me a chance to see what my students can do when I am not in the room.

Here are some finished examples of the various levels students completed:

Avery H.: I would compare this art to my dot. I have improved from my skills and used more materials. My lines are straighter and there is more detail in my art. Even though the colors in my dot are more elaborate and different but there is more value in my name.

Zach L.: I chose to make my perspective drawing of a birds eye view of New York, because I have always wanted to visit there. I love the tall sky scrapers and people everywhere, so I decided to copy that image down that I had in my head, onto paper. Also, I filled in the white spaces with black, so it would make an illusion of the buildings becoming higher, and popping out from the page.

Damien A.: I used the principles of perspective in my art with the road and the house. My vanishing point is at the end of the road, and I made the porch, roof, windows, and door by connecting the lines to my vanishing point. This connects with some of my other art because in other art I use a lot of shading, and it was no different with this art. you can see the most of it on the back of the pine trees and the house.

MAEA

I will not be able to explain EVERYTHING I learned at the conference, so I will just list some highlights:

Traverse City

The annual conference for Michigan Art Teachers was held in beautiful Traverse City this year. It was also peak color this weekend, which made our stay that much more scenic!

Trying New Techniques and Materials

I learned a bunch of new techniques and used some new products, too. My favorites were learning how to draw with copper point (as demonstrated by Carrie Jeruzal, this year's MI Middle Level TOY) and positive/negative ceramic prints.

Sharing Ideas

I had a great time sharing resources. I presented about STEAM with the STEM teacher at my school, Jamie Dennett. I also presented on my own about mono printing with Gelli Arts.

Learning from Experts

The conference was filled with great speakers, including our keynotes. I enjoyed hearing about the future of Visual Arts education from Dennis Inhulsen, Wordless news from Maria Fabrizio, and TAB from Katherine Douglas.

Celebrating the Visual Arts

It was also fun to see so many of my colleagues and students from across the state be celebrated. I also enjoyed my time at the Dennos Museum, viewing and learning about various artists.

It was a great week, filled with a lot of learning for both students and me. Next week is the end of the marking period, which means we are a quarter of the way through!

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DAFT and MAEA in Detroit

4/23/2016

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Michigan Student Film Festival

This is our second year participating in the Michigan Student Film Festival that is organized by DAFT. It is a great opportunity for students to receive feedback on their work from an outside audience as they compete with students from across the state.

This year, we had two student groups receive Best of Show and one receive an award of Excellence. The Best of Show videos were celebrated at The Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts and it gave students, teachers, and parents the chance to see the work on a bigger screen.

Here are some highlights below:

MAEA Top 15

It was with much glee that I learned two of my students would be celebrated at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit on the same day as the state film festival. It was a great day to view and celebrate art and I have to thank all of the teachers that organize this event for our students.

Both students' works will now go on a tour, including a stop at the Fall MAEA Conference in Traverse City!

It was a beautiful day to explore art and Detroit, and I am thankful my husband was able to get this picture of me with "The Thinker" before we left for home!

I know my students and I are excited to get started on videos and other works for both competitions again next year.

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MAEA Region 9 Show

2/11/2016

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Tonight was the MAEA Region 9 Highlight Show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. This is one of my favorite times of the year because it is show season and student work is popping up all over downtown venues.

The MAEA show is made of up student work from kindergarten through 12th grade and was selected by jurors. As a teacher, I am allowed 5 pieces to put into consideration per grade grouping. This year, I selected 5 works from Middle School and 3 from High School. Out of the Middle School grouping, three were selected and two will move onto State show and competition. Out of the High School work, one was selected and will move onto the State show and competition.

As it is with any competition, it is hard to know what will be selected. I try to select works that are unique in style, material use, or meaning made by the student.

Regardless of outcome, I am proud of all of the pieces entered this year!

What makes this event so special is seeing the faces of parents and students as they view their work and the work of so many other accomplished student artists.

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State Winners

4/13/2015

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47th Annual Michigan Student Film Festival

This is the first year we have entered student work in the State Film Festival. For years, our High School program has participated in the event with great success, leading the way for my students to get involved and be successful, too. I am proud to announce that we had 10 videos receive recognition, with 29 students involved in the creation of those films. We want to extend a special thanks to the Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters who sponsored our competition entries. The BCWMS winners are featured below:

Junior Best of Show

Junior Excellence

Junior Honor

MAEA State Winners

Saturday we celebrated the Elementary and Middle Level winners for the Michigan Art Education Association State show. It was fun to celebrate with students and see so many parents and families travel across the state to join in the success of their artists at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. This competition is a process that starts in each region with teachers selecting 5 works to compete from their school, work is then juried in that region with some moving onto state adjudication, afterwards the work is then narrowed to the Top 15 for grade groups. This is the second year we have had two students in the Top 15 and the third year we have had any Top 15 finalists for Middle school work.

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Your Votes Can Help Us Win

3/12/2015

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Dalton's work was named Top 15 among Middle School work in the State.

Ava's work was named Top 15 among Middle School work in the State.

There are a lot of exciting things happening with student work this month. In addition to finding out that two of our MAEA State qualifiers made it into the top 15 for the State, it is also time to vote for the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival.

Last year, we won first place in all of the categories. With your help and votes, we can do it again! Please take a moment and vote for our videos and help our classroom win!

In addition to these great opportunities, Nate is up for Artsonia's Artist of the Week this week. You can vote for his abstract drawing daily until Saturday!

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MAEA Region 9 Show

2/12/2015

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Tonight was the Michigan Art Education Association Region 9 Highlight Show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Parents, teachers, family, and friends flocked to the GRAM to view the best K-12 student work from Ottawa, Allegan, Ionia, and Montcalm, and Kent Counties on display throughout the museum. This was the first year all six Byron Center Public School buildings were represented with student work on display.

Four students from WMS were recognized at the show and three will have their work move onto State adjudication. I am so proud of the work my students did and it was incredibly fun to share their success with their families this evening. I also want to extend a special thank you to all of the BCPS administrators who attended the reception, especially Superintendent Dan Takens, Assistant Superintendent Kevin Macina, and Curriculum Director Kari Anama. Our students and I are thankful for the support we have from our school leaders and look forward to continuing the tradition of excellence as work moves onto the next level of competition.

Gabe's Photoshop Landscape moves onto the next level of the competition. He created this work after viewing the possibilities with the burn and dodge tool in the program.

Ava's work is made from wire and depicts her family and friends with contour lines. This piece will move onto State adjudication in March.

Ellise's mixed media collage features a Gelli Arts mono print background that explores texture and ideas surrounding imagination.

Dalton's photograph will also move onto State adjudication in March. He created this piece by looking through his portfolio and being inspired by a previous work he had made.

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Snow Day! and other cool things happening in Art

11/18/2014

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Snow Day!

Today is the first Snow Day of the year! I am excited about having the day to catch up on things and relax. I also decided to share a challenge with my students to create art and post it to Artsonia. They did not disappoint! Here are some of the works posted from today:

Eli: Today as I woke up this morning I checked the internet to find that it was a snow day! I then looked at schoology and I saw Mrs. Campbell's Snow day Art badge. I decided to sit at my sunroom window that revealed the mighty oak tree that still was holding some of its leaves. Then, I started drawing. I got a pencil and I started making branches and the main part of the giant oak out the sunroom window. After that, I used a rust colored pencil to display the leaves that still hang on the tree. I also used brown Tissue-Paper to make the drawing have some dimension to it. After that, I used white paint to represent the snow on the branches. I love the "Snow Day Art!" idea, and I thought It was a fun thing that I could make in my spare time on this snow day!

Sydney: This piece is made from pictures in a magazine and paper with green and a hint of yellow paint. I made them into snowflakes by cutting out squares from the magazine and cutting out shapes to make all the snowflakes different. As you can see I painted over them too to make them look more collage looking.

Since its snowing today and im into the cold right now I made snow flakes out of hot glue. Happy snow day!

More work

8th grade students are continuing to work on their theme, with some final entries making their way to our online gallery. I am so pleased with the intelligent risks students are making with their work and how they are going beyond the materials they have used in the past. It is going to be fun to see all of the finished works roll in before next week's Thanksgiving Break. Here is a peek at a few:

Olivia L.: To execute this piece I used the printmaking technique. This supports my theme because prints can be repeated as many times as wanted, and that replicates my feeling for soccer. Every time I play a soccer game that outcome can be repeated if I put forth my effort. The same is for print making. An artist that I connect to with my art is Audrey Flack. I can do this because I was inspired by her bright colors in her work. That is why I chose these bright colors for my piece.

Logan S.: The material I choose was cardboard and I choose it mainly because I didn't want to have to mess with clay but, it turned out very aesthetically pleasing in the end so that is a plus. It also conveys that all objects eventually get destroyed because cardboard is a not very sturdy or tough material. The shoes in question are actually modeled after shoes I own and wear they have wing because shoes can take you anywhere. I think my art most resembles Wayne Thiebaud's art because it conveys a positive message and is fairly realistic.

Jayson G.: My piece uses groups of certain kinds of clothes to communicate my ideas. The piece represents how people can express themselves in many ways, even though we think about it; we are all very similar to each other. Although each picture may just be hats or shirts or shoes, the different colors and styles of clothes represent different ways people express themselves. This concept is evident in my personal life as well as those in my community. Everyone uses things like clothes to express him or herself, and people often recognize others by these characteristics. Art is a good way for people to communicate ideas and themes to others. Artists like Mitchell Feinberg have used art for this exact reason. Feinberg made a piece consisting of cigarettes and a watch. Although it is not directly said, the piece makes people think about how cigarettes impact lifespan and the consequences of using them. By using art, people are able to make people see and think about different ideas and themes.

Here are some pieces in progress:

Where Mrs. Campbell Was...

I have the awesome pleasure of being able to speak to other teachers from time to time on the great work my students do in my classroom. This past weekend, I had the honor of participating the MAEA conference in Lansing, MI. It was an amazing time filled with learning from educators across the state of MI and beyond. I had a great time sharing what we do in our classroom, too. You can read more about it on my blog.

It was also quite an honor to be selected as MAEA Middle Level Educator of the Year. I was nominated by previous winners and Visual Arts teachers, Kim Cairy and September Buys.

It was also fun to see the top 15 Middle Level show, that features two of my students from last year, Sara Thompson and Morgan Baker. I had a great time at the conference and am so proud of sharing what I get to do with my students in my classroom.

Work by Morgan Baker

Work by Sara Thompson

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<<Previous

Portfolio Names

Logo Designs

Starting Photoshop Challenge 1

Still Painting Those Panels

Adjective Forms

MAEA Region 9 Results

Exploring Spaces and Places

End of First Marking Period

Passion and Purpose

Learning Names

MAEA Region 9 Highlight Show

MAEA Winners

New Week, New Challenge

MAEA

Traverse City

Trying New Techniques and Materials

Sharing Ideas

Learning from Experts

Celebrating the Visual Arts

Michigan Student Film Festival

MAEA Top 15

47th Annual Michigan Student Film Festival

Junior Best of Show

Junior Excellence

Junior Honor

MAEA State Winners

Snow Day!

More work

Where Mrs. Campbell Was...

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