Category: The Dot

Week One

1/27/2018

New Semester with New Students

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is a more complete view of the work.

Empty Bowls

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.

Henna Hands

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.

Collaboratives

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!

Can you see the WMS?

Drawing in Space

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.

#FirstMillion Funding

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 One

9/10/2017

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Start with Clay

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.

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.

Robots Arrive

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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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Week One

1/29/2017

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Start by Making

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

Kathy

Elise

Krista

Anna

Kennedy

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

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!

Making Marks

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."

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 ;)

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.

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.

Looking Ahead

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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Week One

New Semester with New Students

Empty Bowls

Henna Hands

Collaboratives

Drawing in Space

#FirstMillion Funding

Week One

Start with Clay

Robots Arrive

The Dot and ArtPrize

What a Week!

Week One

Start by Making

Setting the Tone

The Dot

Dual Enrollment Assignment One Done

First Week Review

Start with Art

Making Marks

Looking Ahead

Archives

Janine Campbell

Categories

Week One

New Semester with New Students

Empty Bowls

Henna Hands

Collaboratives

Drawing in Space

#FirstMillion Funding

Week One

Start with Clay

Robots Arrive

The Dot and ArtPrize

What a Week!

Week One

Start by Making

Setting the Tone

The Dot

Dual Enrollment ​Assignment One Done

First Week Review

Start with Art

Making Marks

Looking Ahead

Archives

Janine Campbell

Categories

Dual Enrollment Assignment One Done