BCWMS VISUAL ART & DESIGN
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Week Seventeen

1/12/2018

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Finishing up the Semester

As we near the end of the semester, students were asked to go through their portfolios on Artsonia and select a piece they would like to revisit in ways that would help them show growth over the term. This is a variation on a project I ask students to engage in annually as a way to pause, reflect, and react to the learning that has happened during their time in the art classroom. 

It is very exciting for me to see students use this project to show what they have learned. It is also interesting to learn why students select the works they want to revisit. For some, it is because it was their favorite thing; for others, it was something they struggled with at the time and this is their chance to do something better. Regardless of the reason, I am thankful that students had a chance to do this and I really enjoyed reading their statements that went with the work. 
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Ashlynn: I did this flower because in fifth grade I did a water color flower, and for something old something new I decided to take the techniques from the fifth grade art work and make it better. So I colored my flower and used water color paint, just like I did in fifth grade.
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Kennedy: For this projects I decided to re-make a shoes drawing i did with pastels in 5th grade. I started out by looking at my shoe and drawing out the outsides and the lines, then i colored it in. I did the same thing with the other shoes, only using pencils instead of colored pencils. For my background I used water color to make a splash pattern by blowing on it.
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Serenity: I decided to recreate my watercolor flower painting from 5th grade. In the original I didn't make it look like a flower very well. The flower was too zoomed in. However, in this piece I zoomed out and made it look more like a flower. I made a new work that focused more on the content of the painting. The original also had colors that were not blended and causing the work to have poor craft. In this piece the colors that I used were blended together more, causing the work to have good craft. This art work helped me personally by helping me show the improvement I have made not only as a artist, but as a person. I wanted to revisit this project because I honestly thought it looked bad when I original created it in 5th grade. I wanted to take this opportunity to recreate it and make it look better.
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Finn: My new project shows improvement in creativity because before I just grabbed a bunch of images off of google and placed them inside my profile, and in this project I made the background inside my face, made the planet, and I made the stars. I also improved my craft. I did this by spending more time on the quality of the components in this project, and in the other project my background was just made out of a bunch of random colors and scribbles. I made this piece the way it is because I love the way galaxy or space things look and also how greens, purples, reds, and blues look together.
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Jackson: In the old water color abstract I had diferent clear sections which looking back on I didn't like so with this one its more non objective. Also in the old one I had random scribbles through out it making it worse. I feel like this one was a lot more crafty because in the old one it was just crappy and scribbly but with this one it actually took time. The composition on this one was a lot better too because it used a wider variety of color. I don't really have a personal connection to this artwork because it was "Non objective". I wanted to revisit this because in my last one it was awful and I didn't like it so I thought of this as a retry.
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Evie: I remade a piece I made in 5th grade, the year I came to Byron Center. It was a portrait of what I looked like back then and it was supposed to be realistic. Remaking it, I took everything I've learned and made it in a style I draw with more. I decided since this was a remake from an old drawing, instead of keeping the drawing of me in 5th grade, I'd make it how me and my friends draw me currently. I'ts like a persona in a way, it's something my friends have helped me with and I am very grateful for their help. I also made it digital instead of traditional. I took the circles in the background from the last drawing and made it a ball type thing with words my friends have called me and use to describe me. The art remake is very important to me, it shows how much I've grown with people and especially with art. I used far more shading and took aspects from the last drawing (circles and words) and made them into something new and even combined them! I'm far more content with this piece and I hope to learn more in art.
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Khiem: This art is the continue of the last art in 7th grade challenge 3 treasure or trash. Some of the thing that I change is the way I chose to color it. In the old art I use the different color but in this one I chose to use My old fashion way, pencil. Something new that I do is the point of view. The first one is up looking down but in this one I chose to look from a wall. The first C is creativity is that I use shading pencil instead of markers. Another C that's different is the content I chose to take a different point of view from the original. This my room that change a little by using my imagination like the fish tank.
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Mary: In the revision of the autobiography I did last year, I wanted to re-do my attempt at 'anime' and wanted to improve. I was honestly horrified at the older version, so I just had to redo it.I am also remaking this character; putting in more depth and such.I hope you enjoyed this piece, I cannot wait to make more like it!

3Doodler Fun

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This was an exciting end of the week in our classroom as our latest funded project from DonorsChoose arrived! Thanks to generous donors and the matching funds from 3Doodler, we were able to get 6 3Doodler pens for our classroom!

Students spent today experimenting with the pens, even completing some of the projects from the booklet. I am so excited to be able to use these in the classroom and cannot wait to see what students make next with them. 

Week One of DE

For the past seven years I have been able to reconnect with my former middle school students as high schoolers in the Kendall College of Art and Design Dual Enrollment program. Each Spiring, I teach a course in either Color, Photo, or 3D. It has been an awesome experience and one that I look forward to each year. 

This week, we had our first class in 3D Design. It was fun to see students I once had years ago and meet new students, too. We started out this week with collaborative work, creating sculptures on the first day out of styrofoam cups and some drawing exercises on the second day to prep for some relief paper sculptures based on the work of Heather Hansen. 

From what I have seen so far in this short period of time, I know we are going to have some stellar work made by some stellar students over the remaining 14 weeks of class. 
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Next week, these drawings will be translated into paper relief sculptures (one symmetrical and one asymmetrical). It will be interesting to see how students use 2D images to inform the 3D work they make. This is my first time approaching this project in this way and it was amazing to see how engaged students were throughout the drawing process (one commented that they would like to do more of this kind of work on their own). 

Part of my job as an art teacher is to teach the fundamentals of seeing and making art; the other part is to instill the idea that there are multiple ways to make art and that anyone can do it. 

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Final Thoughts On 2017

12/29/2017

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A Look Back

To say that 2017 was a great year, would be an understatement. Every year since I started this blog (which was a New Year's resolution in 2011), I think that there is NO WAY the following year can top what we did in the last 12 month cycle. Then the new year comes and shows me that I am silly to put any kind of restriction on the potential of future and everything that is both known or unknown within it. 

This was quite a year for me and my students. Below is a highlight from each month to showcase some of my favorite moments from 2017:

January

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We started the year with the installation of a Lego Wall thanks to a funded DonorsChoose project and the genius of my students in the Michigan State University MAET program. I have been teaching for MSU since 2016 and one of the assignments asks for students to rethink their learning space. One of my students shared how they were redesigning the maker space in her school to include a Lego Wall and I knew instantly that we, too, needed that wall for our school. I am so thankful that this project was funded and installed so that students could use it to create images in such an interactive way!

February

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Demonstrations can take a lot of time and be somewhat difficult, especially when students are not doing them along with you. I have been trying something new this year with having "Speed-Dating Demos" where students have shorter amounts of time at a station with a card that explains what to do. Students experiment with the process and then rotate to the next station. I had done it before with drawing/painting media, but this year I tried it with other methods, too. The above image was our attempt with printmaking. I am still working on the best process for this type of learning activity, but I am excited to share that I have written an article about it that should be published sometime in 2018!

March

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This was probably my favorite STEAM collaboration of the year. We worked really hard to learn from our architecture unit from last year and make improvements to planning. I am hoping to write an article for this lesson to be published in 2018!

April

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Going to The Lab School of Washington, D.C. for the 2017 Power of Art Conference was a game-changer for me this year. If you have not applied for this opportunity, you should drop everything you are doing right now and apply. It was such a great time learning and seeing Arts Integration in action as well as touring our Nation's Capitol. I was particularly inspired by the school-wide Rauschenberg Day collaborations and came back energized and ready to figure out how to apply it with my students!

May

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This is one of the largest installations I have ever done with a group of students. Ever. Inspired by the Professional Development at The Power of Art Conference (mentioned above), the STEM teacher and I decided to engage students in this collaborative work inspired by the aesthetic of Robert Rauschenberg and Caledonia Curry. This action-packed project took about a week's worth of time during State tests. What made it even more exciting was that we were going to be able to put into ArtPrize 9 and then find a permanent home for it in our library. It looks amazing on display and I am already thinking about what we will do for ArtPrize 10.

June

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Ending the year with this project is one of my favorite things. Students go onto our lower grade level Artsonia sites and select works to animate using Photoshop. Thanks to the sharing of teachers (Ian Sands for this one), I am able to improve my craft and draw inspiration from others throughout the year.

July

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I actually went to Alaska at the end of June, but I thought it fitting to place it here. I have been to Alaska three times; each time I go, I learn something new, I try something new, and I see something new. I am so thankful for opportunities like these to grow as a person.

August

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This year I decided to get more involved with writing DonorsChoose projects. I have been active on the site since 2011 and have had roughly one or two projects funded a year - that is until this year. This year we have had FIVE projects funded (many of which have pushed new technologies to my students). All of these projects have had matching Donors and I want to send a warm thanks to them for helping get them funded even faster. The Gates Foundation, 3M, The Carnegie Corporation, and 3Doodler have helped with their matching funds this year and I am so thankful to all of the parents and community members who helped us reach our goals with their donations, too! I am already thinking about what projects we can post in 2018!

September

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Always looking for new ways to engage my students starting on the first day of school, I decided to start a rock painting collaborative installation that corresponds with a reading of "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. We are not quite done with the installation because our 2nd semester students have to paint theirs when we change electives at the end of January. I am excited to finish this project in Spring!

October

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ArtPrize 9 was so exciting this year. ArtPrize is always a great time for my students and me. We enjoy the field trip downtown and voting for our favorites. It is a whole new experience when you also have work on display! Not only was our student work on view, it was on view at Monroe Community Church! This venue made it on the Juried Shortlist for Most Outstanding Venue and when that was announced, our work was featured on the news (multiple times). I am so thankful to Steve Fridsma and the rest of the Monroe Community Church family for connecting with us, displaying our work beautifully, and just being good people. It was a great experience and one I am hoping to have again in 2018 with another student-generated work!

November

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One of my favorite things over the years has been presenting at conferences like the Michigan Art Education Association. Believe it or not, I have presented at around 30 conferences in the past ten years! This year's MAEA conference was an amazing experience in Detroit and I really loved sharing it with one of my best friends (and fellow presenter). I am super excited for the conferences that await in 2018 - and to present in Seattle, WA for the National Art Education Conferences with TEAM Middle for the 4th year in a row!

December

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Playing video games is something I enjoy as much as my students. They actually have introduced me to a new one on PS4 called "Fortnite" that is sort of a hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft." It was great to turn that interest into a lesson where students learned how to work as teams, code using scratch, and develop art using a variety of digital tools. This STEAM unit was an awesome way to end 2017 and I am excited for ways we can improve it in the new year!

Thinking Ahead

When we return from break on the 4th, there is going to be a race to the finish for the first semester. There are so many awesome things to look forward to in 2018 and I cannot wait to get back and get working on making those things happen. Just so you can see I am not exaggerating, here is just a sampling of eight wonderful things I get to do in 2018:
  1. Scholastic Art Award Notifications are January 5th
  2. 3D Dual Enrollment Class starts through KCAD at the High School
  3. 3Doodler Pens from our latest DonorsChoose Project arrive in January
  4. MAEA Regional Show Adjudication February 3rd
  5. NAEA Conference in Seattle, WA in March
  6. STEAM class will start second semester (many of our DonorsChoose projects this year were to fund this new curriculum)
  7. ArtPrize 10 piece will be a district-wide work 
  8. Arts a la Mode in May (with awesome button making activity thanks to DonorsChoose Project)
As you can see, this is only some of the things for some of the year. 2018 is poised to be the best one yet. I hope everyone has their list of things they can look forward to, too! 
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The Keep, Heap, and Leap

7/28/2017

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

The Keep: Collaboration

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

The Heap: Robots

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

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

The Leap: ArtPrize

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

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

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

Get ready next school year, I am ready for you! 

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

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

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

See you on the Internets,

Mrs. C
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Fin

6/9/2017

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Finishing Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Reflections

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

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

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

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

STEAM Collaborations

​"I really loved building rooms with the Stem Class, and getting design and create the spaces using different materials that reflect off of an artists work. ​"
"I loved the group projects with the other class because it let us get together with other people."
"I liked the video making collaboration. It was fun to make the game and fun to learn to work with coding. I also liked that we had the freedom to use whatever material we wanted for our art."
"I really liked being able to collab with the stem students and I loved making the artprize piece. I also enjoyed having the same theme but everyone getting to do each project in their own, creative way."

Student Choice

"I really liked how we got to make stuff that we wanted to. It was nice to not make something that looks exactly like everyone else's work."
"Saying good things at the beginning of class and being able to choose materials."
"The freedom to choose what your art will be and what it will be about."
"I enjoyed the fact that we got to pick our own art work. ​"
"The freedom of what kind of materials you get to use for the projects."
"Getting to choose what we wanted to do for each project instead of the teacher telling us what we had to make."

Love of Learning

"Trying all the materials."

"I like this class because you learn a lot new stuff."

"Getting to learn something new every day."

"I enjoyed the trip to Fredrick Meijer Garden. That was really fun, I enjoyed that very much and learned more about my favorite artist Ai Wei Wei."

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

​Happy Summer! 
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The End of the Semester

1/20/2017

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Stump the Student

Students finished up their time in the Art Room with me this semester. To finish off the class, students worked on their Final Challenge and Exam this week. In order to get ready for the Exam, students were given a review guide and some went beyond just filling it out to create a guide to help them study. 
The day before exams stared, students were asked to come up with two questions based on their review. Then, after breaking into two teams, students played "Stump the Student." The first team action is for students to pick their team names. I required students to use "artful" names and some of my favorites from the day are "McWarhols," "Chick-fil-Art," The Chuck Closers," and "Chuck Far Away."

The rules for the review game are simple: students are placed on two teams to go head-to-head, asking their opponent a question based on the review. They may use images or other props to help visualize their question and they must know the answer to what they are asking. If the student being asked gets the question right, their team gets the point. If they are stumped, then the student who is asking the question gets it right if they know the answer. Then roles change before two new students are up.  

It can be an intense game, so ground rules of behavior are also set before we begin to ensure it is fair and all benefit from the question/answer to help them review for their exam. I started doing this a few years ago and enjoy it beyond any other review activity I have tried prior or since. 

Exams

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For the Exam, students were asked a series of questions that covered the bulk of concepts they learned from this year. From identifying basic color groupings in famous works, to ordering the stages of clay, and labeling the parts of an image structure, students were tasked with being accountable for the terms and concepts they were taught over the last 18 weeks. The best part of this is that Schoology grades it for me, so students and I receive immediate feedback on how they did and what could be improved upon.

In addition to that, they also had to create a GIF using a work from one of our elementary or intermediate art students. I have Ian Sands to thank for this idea. This is one of my favorite things to do to end the term because it gives kids one more tool set before they leave and they get to use that to create something using another BCPS student's work. 

Here are some highlights: 
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Lego Wall Update

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Thanks to DonorsChoose and the amazing support of those who gave, we now have the makings of a Lego Wall over by the STEM classroom! I am very excited to get kids involved with making art on this and have Tricia Fuglestad to thank for sharing various Lego Art Lessons on her blog. 

One project I hope to adapt for our wall is this one on Rotational Symmetry. It is a great opportunity to showcase STEAM in action, especially since the work will be in a public space. I also think this work, using students as models for character traits is a great way to use Lego to connect concepts to the classroom. The STEM teacher and I are working on a few ideas in hopes we will have a solid plan by 4th marking period. 

If you are interested in building your own lego wall, here is where I drew inspiration before getting my project organized on DonorsChoose. It took me about a year of thinking about this before I went to action on it. I started by talking to our building leadership and the STEM teacher, who were on board from the beginning. Then I created the project on DonorsChoose, which ended up being funded by the end of first semester. Finally the boards were installed days after getting the shipment. 

It has been really exciting project to have funded and one that has gotten a lot of positive reactions from students. The fist pumps and excited smiles alone have made it a success. 

Saying Goodbye

To finish out the term, I also had students fill out an exit survey. I use this for a few things. I use it as a point of data to reflect on my effectiveness as a teacher and if we met the goals set; I also use it as a way to make improvements and adjustments for the future. It is a nice way to end the class, especially reading the responses I got to what was the best thing we did and anything else they think I needed to know. 

I use Google Forms for this because it will organize the data for you in a very easy-to-read way. Here are some of the responses from those sections: 
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I had a great first half of the school year and know that this next week with a new group will make way for a great way to finish it out! 
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Week Eighteen

1/13/2017

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Remixing

Students worked on remixing their past works into new works this week, using either new compositions, materials, or skills to demonstrate their art understandings. In addition to using materials from the past, students experimented with some new ideas and took time to get feedback on their works using a peer critique method. Because of a small disruption in the week of an ice day, not everyone's work was handed in as scheduled. I look forward to when the rest come in on Monday and getting this class wrapped up for the semester next week!
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Trever O.: This piece was a remix of my old work that was my fish piece from 5th grade called Water Color Fish Painting. I kept the outline of the plants and environment similar and copied it four times. I changed the color scheme for each frame from the original. I used Andy Warhol’s idea of copying each frame and coloring it different with a color scheme for each. I changed it by rather having what seemed to be a blue background with a different color I used complimentary colors. I chose this piece because I was really interested in doing a block print piece.
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Trever W.: I used the abstract of everyday objects. one similarity is the lies that divide the sections of color. I choose to remix this art piece because I thought it would be fun to use the colors in a way that I do not use a lot. One difference is the heart is in the middle of the new one and not the old one.
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Kristina B.: I chose to remix a project that I did from earlier this year for a photoshop challenge. Comparing these two, this project I did the whole screen instead of just my face to add more of an effect to your eyes. The same thing that I did with both projects is I used photoshop and did an image of my face facing the other way each time. I chose to remix this project because I felt that I could improve it and make it more appealing when people look at it. What I did to change this piece was to do the whole screen instead of just my face.

#iceday

On Thursday, we had an ice day. Instead of wasting away in front of the TV, I took the time to make these beauties for my new Schoology courses next semester. We are changing to the enterprise version of the website, so I am learning new things and needed more colored cans for each of my sections. Before I made these, I was feeling anxious about the change. I still feel anxious, but not nearly as much. Going to the Meijer Gardens later in the day to see some of the new Ai WeiWei exhibit also helped. 
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#snowday #aiweiwei @MeijerGardens pic.twitter.com/Z8Kl1qV7BE

— Janine Campbell (@campbellartsoup) January 12, 2017
Next week is the LAST week of the semester before we start over again with a new group. I am really proud of what has been accomplished so far and I am excited to see what is ahead of us as we finish out this semester and begin a new one. 

Intro to Photo

I did get a chance to start with a new group of students this week in my KCAD DE course. Our "get-to-know" you activity was a fun one where students were challenged to make images that created the letters to spell their names. Here are two example of the results: 
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Kathy
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Anna
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Week Seventeen

1/6/2017

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GAP that Portfolio

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Coming back from a break can be hard. I need just as much easing into it as my students. Instead of starting out with a new project right away, I decided that I would use that first day back as a way for students to reflect on all they have accomplished by GAP-ing their portfolios. I also wrote this activity for the MAEIA project and you can find the more detailed step-by-step instructions on their website. 

What is GAP? It stands for Good, Average Poor. Students simply empty the contents of their portfolios (which is also great because I get things returned to me that have been hiding away in there) and sort their work into piles based on their assessment of the work.

Before we GAP, students write down the 4 C's (Creativity, Craftsmanship, Content, and Composition) in their sketchbooks and how we use the 4 C's to evaluate work. Here is a great video, too. 

Once we discuss how we determine what is "good" art, with an understanding that everyone has a different idea of "good" and that is okay, students start to sort. After about five minutes of sorting, they determine which work was the most successful and which was the least and then put all works, other than those two, away. 

Afterwards, students wrote down characteristics of their works using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast and then we did a gallery walk before putting them away. This was also the time where I selected several works for upcoming shows and displays.

This activity is one that I have done with students since I learned it from my mentor teacher, Jean TerMeer, at Corunna Middle School back in 2004. It is great for getting students to think critically about what they have made in the hopes they will use that thinking again as they continue to make future work. 

Everything is a Remix

For our last challenge of the semester and of the class, students are being asked to use the idea of remixing and apply it to their work. Students watched the video above and viewed work by Kehinde Whiley before planning out remixes from their own portfolios, using Artsonia Classroom mode to look back years and years ago. Student work will be finished just in time to start reviewing for exams next week! View some progress below.

2017 Regional Scholastic Winners

Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University announced the 2017 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art winners this week. Once again, BCPS Visual Arts students were able to shine and earn the recognition in the various categories offered in the competition. 

I am excited that WMS had 30 winners across 12 different categories this year. It was also exciting that two of the works that won were printed on the 3D printer!  The high school had 47 works that earned recognition, with one placing as an American Vision Nominee! 

Here are the winning works from WMS students below (good luck to the Gold Key winners, whose works will now go onto the national competition):

Gold Key

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Lindsey Peters, Fashion
Clayton Brown and Magnus Smith, Film and Animation

Silver Key

Abby Boyle, Ella Perry, Samatha Kitchen, and Shelby Lubbers,
​Film and Animation
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Carmen Davidson, Mixed Media
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Lindsey Peters, Photography
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Colton Sommers, Comic Art
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Ella Pettit, Sculpture
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Corrinne Wayman, Drawing and Illustration
Brandt Bobeldyke, Film and Animation
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Corrinne Wayman, Mixed Media

Honorable Mention

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My Tran, Jewelry
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Damien Afienko, Painting
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Matthew Garbarino, Digital Art
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Merrick Susan, Printmaking
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Sophie Millhouse, Architecture and Industrial Design
Maddie Lange, Jenny Phung, and Kenzi Feuerstein, Film and Animation
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Avery Herron, Jewelry
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My Tran, Photography
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Colton Sommers, Mixed Media
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Hannah Barney, Fashion
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Matthew Garbarino, Digital Art
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Justin Walter, Architecture and Industrial Design
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Hannah Barney, Painting
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Alayna Arms, Jewelry
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Winter Break

12/29/2016

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As I have done for the past 5 years, I am finishing the year out with some closing images that highlight 2016. 

It was a year filled with many opportunities for my students and me to shine. My students kicked off the year with our most successful showing at the Scholastic Art and Writing awards, and finished it off with another round of submissions that I am sure will find great success to kick off 2017. I got a chance to start the year with a keynote at ECET2 in San Diego, CA and finished it out with preparing both writing and presentations for various Art Education publications. 

I started blogging because I wanted a space to document what my students and I were doing in the classroom and use that to help propel us both forward. What has been a byproduct from this is the amazing connections I have made with other teachers and classrooms who happen to stumble across this space and use the materials I have shared and make it their own. 

I am very excited about what is to come in 2017. I keep working and growing to be the teacher I envision for my students and my students keep showing up, working hard, and producing results that are meaningful. 

Here is a quick look at 2016:

January

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Each year since I moved towards choice-based instruction I work to make my classroom more user friendly. I started out 2016 with this effort to organize my classroom and used students to help me do it. It has worked pretty well so far and we continue to make adjustments as students use the tools to create their art.

February

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We had 4 student works in the show and two that ended up making it into the top 15 for the state! I love this show and opportunity for my students and look forward to participating again this year.

March

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The 2016 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards at Kendall College of Art and Design was one of the most successful showings for BCPS Visual Arts Students in the history of our participation in the program. In addition to having the most recognition in Kent County, two of our students were selected as being a part of the Five American Vision Nominee works and three students works ended up receiving recognition at the National level. We are so proud of our student Artists and look forward to seeing the great things they continue to make as they develop their skills and creative voices.

April 

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BCWMS students enjoyed another great showing at this year's State Film Festival. It was a great way to spend a Saturday in Detroit and celebrate student work at the Detroit Film Theater. Best of show winners were inspired to create more films, one of which will compete in the 2017 competition.

May

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This year was one of the most successful years I have ever had with grant writing. In the course of one month, my classroom received $7000 in funding and shattered all records for the amounts of funding we have received annually in the past. The biggest funding source came from Tanger Outlets and was used to purchase a 3D printer for the Art and STEM classroom.

June

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NYC in June has become a tradition for me and a deserving National Scholastic winner. Cam Scheulke won a National Gold Medal in Jewelry for his origami necklace and we were able to celebrate the accomplishment in NYC. Cam's visit marked our third year in a row for a national winner and 6th National medalist in BCWMS history.

July

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I had the opportunity to visit Montreal at the start of July. It is a great city for art and food and culture. I am already planning future visits in years ahead.

August

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This was our first major print using the 3D printer. I am so thankful for the grant funds awarded by Tanger Outlets to purchase this piece of equipment and look forward to many more prints in 2017!

September

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One of my professional goals for this year was to connect students with opportunities that existed beyond WMS. It was awesome to have BCTV come to our school and talk with kids about getting involved in broadcasting and something I know really connected with many kids.

October

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The STEM teacher and I got to present for the second year in a row at the MAEA conference. It was fun to share how we collaborate and connect our curriculum together through STEAM projects.

November

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This year the high school art teachers and I had a series of after school Scholastic critique sessions for students to share and work on pieces for competition. It was the first time we tried this and it was very well attended and received by students. We will continue to work to find more opportunities for our students to connect and share their work as they grow in their skills and ideas! Good luck to all of the students who put work in the competition this year!

​December

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We ended the year with a new STEAM collaboration: video games. In addition to having students create the art and write the code, they had a chance to share and play each others' games. With the addition of guest speaker, Ben Lambert, and the two high school teachers, many of the students claimed this project to be the best one yet!
I am very excited for 2017 and all of the things that are going to happen in the new year. I hope everyone enjoyed their break and I look forward to sharing more with you next week!
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Everything Old is New Again

5/28/2016

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For our final project theme, students were asked to visit their Artsonia portfolios and select a past work they would like to revisit. In doing so, they had to demonstrate an improvement of skill, understanding, or (ideally) both in the process. 

This is probably my most favorite of themes because it is interesting to see what students choose and read why they did. I also appreciate the use of skills to demonstrate their new-found understandings, abilities, and decisions for how they want to make art. 

Here are a few of the reworked ideas from the past:
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Alayna: I remade the free-day artwork that I made a few years ago at Nickels. I chose to revisit this artwork because I knew that I could put more work into this project than I did the first time, and I also knew that I should put more patterns into the circle-like-hills that I had drawn for this project than just the regular colors I had done the first time. One of the things I did different this time was I painted patterns into the circles instead of just a solid color. Another thing I did differently this time was that I drew out the circles and painted them in, and afterwards I cut out the circles and glued them onto a headband. I really wanted to be different in the media I used, and I am very glad that I chose to revisit this design and improved.
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Matt: This artwork shows a lot of improvement from the artwork I chose to make better for many reasons. First of all, it shows improvement because my first artwork is random and does not use any artist techniques, it is just random. Now this video is better because I used a Julian Opie technique to create a cool looking portrait that looks like the people are cartoon characters. I chose to redo my prior art because I knew I could do better on it and I enjoy doing artwork that deals with people and portraits.
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Lindsey: My artwork is an improved version of a 5th grade piece that we traced in class. But this I made a new background and I made it 3d with is a skill I have learned this year. I also freehanded this drawing and I used a splatter background which is a amazing technique I learned his year.
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Matthew:I decided to re-do project theme 2. During that project, I envisioned the change of seasons and how it affected what we as humans do for fun (snowboarding, hiking, etc). So when I decided to re-do this project, I thought about the the Photoshop skills I had learned. I made a GIF or an animated image of the Earth changing seasons. I DID NOT use any images from Google. This piece is all from scratch. I feel the reason I wanted to revisit project theme 2 is that during that time, I was having fun snowboarding. Now, I am wake boarding. It made me think about the change of seasons. I think that this piece is really cool!
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Josh: i choose a panda because pandas are my favorite animal. i recreated this but the first time i made something like this was in 5th grade. plus i picked these colors because they really stand out.
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Nolan: For the last project theme of the year I made a rainbow salmon jumping out of water to improve my 5th grade king salmon. In this piece of of art I used a ultra thin black sharpie to outline some shapes. I also used many different colored pencils. With the colored pencils I made shades of different color. This is a new and improved piece of art because instead of just having the king salmon just stay in one spot, the rainbow salmon is jumping out of the water making the water ripple and fly every where. This relates to me because my whole family loves to fish. We have a cottage and a cabin that we go to many times a year. I made a rainbow salmon because I love to catch rainbow trout and I have always wanted to go king salmon fishing. I wanted to revise my 5th grade water color fish painting because I thought it would be cool to make a unreal fish jump out of the water. I also wanted to make a revision because I thought that it would be the easiest to make it look 10 times better.
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Ella: The work that I created is a cup of hot chocolate made of felt. In 5th grade we had to paint a picture of a person holding a cup of hot chocolate, so what I did to improve my work and I created a larger and 3D like version of the cup that my girl was holding. The reason why I did this piece was because In 5th grade when I did the painting I felt like I didn't try hard enough to make it good so I wanted to make it better and be more creative.
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Almost Complete

1/11/2016

1 Comment

 
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Sarah is working on the elaboration of one of her first pieces from this semester (the dot day project). It is so fun to see how students use their sketchbooks as resources throughout their creative process.
This is always a hard time of year for me.

I struggle during the weeks coming back from break, trying to regain the routine of the school year. I also find myself feeling a bit sad and overwhelmed because I am saying goodbye to students I have had for the last two years and may never see again. 

During this transition, though, I am very grateful for our time together and the amazing accomplishments shared. This is all a result of hard work, dedication, and a fearless approach to creativity that I hope to keep opening up further as I venture more into how to best foster a complete Visual Arts Education for my students. 

With all of that said, we are nearing completion of the last and one of my most favorite themes of the semester: Something Old, Something New. It has been super fun to see students reflect on their own progression as an artist over the years and make selections on which works they would like to revisit and how they want to do so. It is at this point that I think the whole adaptation of Design Thinking in my classroom has resonated with students as they are taking to their sketchbooks to reference ideas, test solutions, and make note of discoveries. 

Projects should be finishing up in the next two days. Here are some more images of students in progress as they manipulate materials and ideas to reflect how they have grown as an artist: 
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    Janine Campbell

    Teaching Visual Arts since 2004 and making images since picking up a crayon.

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