Category: Videos

Week Three

9/19/2016

2nd Annual STEAM Film Festival

Students spent this week working on and then presenting their videos that included topics about making healthy choices, celebrating diversity, promoting character, and choosing appropriate online behavior.

It was fun to see students work in groups as they took their scripts and storyboard from last week and transformed them into videos this week. At the end of the week, we had students present their videos in small groups as they rotated to different groups. This was a technique we learned from last year that worked well for us in a different challenge. It also helped keep us off the hook if there were internet issues accessing the videos since students streamed them directly from their computers.

Here are a few that were shared and will make their way into various competitions:

One new feature of our STEAM collaboration was having our community television crew visit the kids on our final day! In addition to talking about their work on Byron Center Community Television, students were offered an opportunity to check out and work their equipment and sign up to get more information on volunteering.

There are definitely things we will work on to make this project even better next year. We made sure to ask our students to help us with that by having them fill out a Google Form as a self-reflection. In it, many students said their favorite part of the PSA Challenge was filming and working in groups that included students from both Art and STEM.

Some things they would like us to do in the future is open up even more categories for topics they can create films about in this project.

We will definitely be looking into that...

3D test prints

When students finished their videos early, they were directed to Tinkercad to play with the 3D print designer. We are still learning the potential of our 3D printer, but one student was able to walk away with a pretty nice chicken they printed...

1st Annual STEAM Film Fest 2015

9/27/2015

Friday was a great day. Not only did it still feel like summer outside, it was also a day to finally view and celebrate the work students have been doing over the past two weeks. Earlier this summer, the STEM teacher and I took a day of planning to map out quarterly collaborations. Because we see the same students (but at different times of the year), we wanted to really utilize the potential to show them the overlap in our content and glean the most out of the learning experiences.

Although it was a bit scary at first because we had never combined grade levels, classes, or thrown such rigorous challenges at our students so early in the school year, it turned out great! It offered an opportunity for older students to coach younger ones, a way for us to show design thinking in action using common language, as well as a chance for students to push themselves to tell stories in interesting ways using technology and learning the science behind how animation works.

Here are some of the favorites from the event that will make their way to local and state (maybe even national) competitions:

Collaborating Through Storytelling

9/15/2015

It has been very exciting to see students dive into their videos as they work with each other to narrow down ideas, write scripts, and begin storyboards. Today was a day spent on working on scripts and starting the storyboarding process.

One of my favorite resources to use with students to showcase the purpose of storyboarding is the AFI video below:

Tomorrow we plan to spend some time finalizing ideas and doing a peer critique before setting production schedules and filming.

A STEAM Collaboration

9/14/2015

Week two in the BCWMS Art room actually started in the STEM room today. Our classrooms are teaming up for a two week video project where students will use the Design Thinking Process to plan, execute, and share their finished products. After introducing students to the DICE model (Discover, Ideate, Create, Evaluate), they broke into smaller groups and started planning out their collaborative public service announcements that highlight making good choices.

Tomorrow, students will be writing scripts, drawing out storyboards, and planning their production schedules. I am excited to see what these kids do, especially since we are mixing grade levels in the process.

I also had the chance to get the larger collaborative dots on display in the smART space outside of my classroom. I am excited for the outcome and look forward to celebrating International Dot Day tomorrow!

Finishing Strong

6/5/2014

Students finished out the year strong as they reflected on what they have learned and had a chance to create a work that demonstrated that. The two videos are a result of asking students to reflect on their learning and share it with others.

In addition to taking their final exam on Moodle, students also created a work of art using methods and materials to demonstrate what they learned over the course of the term. You can see all of the creations on our online Artsonia gallery.

Final Projects and Chances to Play

5/28/2014

One of the best parts of my job is the amount of time I get to play around with materials, experimenting with solutions before coming up with which solution works best and acting on it. It is even better when I give my students the chance to do the same thing. For their final projects, students are given a variety of choices in demonstrating the concepts and skills they have learned over the course of the term.

For 7th grade, students can select to create a video, video game (using Gamestar Mechanic), or comic that covers art concepts and skills learned over the course of the term. Mid-way through their projects, students used a peer critique sheet to check on a partner's work and get feedback on their own. They then used the feedback to make their projects better.

8th grade students are creating a reflection video where they select two works that demonstrate the most growth over the course of their experiences in Art. It is awesome that they can use their Artsonia gallery and go back years to compare projects and skills over time. They are also explaining the process in which they used to create their work and artists who use similar materials or concepts.

In my After School Art class, we have been taking advantage of the sun by creating the Cyanotypes you see below. We are using NaturePrint Paper and any objects we can find to create the images below. Students are also experimenting with Gelli Arts printing plates to create a variety of images before we finish out the school year.

Below is an example of the print made with Puffy Paint, bubble wrap, and some number cutouts from a Cricut machine. You have the print and the ghost, which shows how you can get more than one image from this mono print method.

Lots of Choices

11/26/2013

For the past two weeks, students in both 7th and 8th grade classes had a lot of decisions to make as they worked through their projects. 7th grade students focused on story-telling as they worked on creating videos, video games, or comics. 8th grade students worked with form as they decided what to create with paper. You can see all of the results on our online gallery, but here is a peek into the process below:

7th grade students used the website www.gamestarmechanic.com to create their video games. They focused on telling a good story and weaving in other class content in their games.

Some students chose to tell their story through a comic.

Other students created their videos for the Meijer Great Choices Video Competition to focus on Healthy Choices, Character, or Diversity.

Here are a few of the finished sculptures created by 8th grade students. You can see more on our Artsonia gallery.

Meijer Great Choices Film Festival

6/8/2013

Today, students were able to see their winning videos on the big screen at Celebration Cinemas. It was really great to see the Junior winners before the event started and over $20,000 in prizes were awarded to High School students from across the state of Michigan for their films. The opening keynote from Actor and son of President Ford, Steven Ford was an inspiring way to kick off the e feature of student-produced films that highlighted Healthy Choices, Character, and Diversity. This marked the 5th year of the event and I am excited to have my students participate again next year. You can see all of the winners here.

Thank you again to all who voted and helped my students win in this competition!

Thank you!

5/21/2013

I am happy to report that our students won two first place and one second place award from the Meijer Great Choices Film Competition! This not only awarded our classroom grant funds to be used to fund awesome Arts experiences, but it also means that the first place videos will be shown at Celebration Cinemas for a special awards ceremony. It is going to be a blast to see the student work come alive on the big screen.

This would not have been possible without the help and support of all of the family, friends, and students who voted daily. Thank you for your help and I look forward to seeing how we fare next year as we enter this competition again!

Getting Ready

2/11/2013

Both 7th and 8th grade students spent today catching up for time lost due to snow days. Tomorrow we will finally be done with our beginning projects and ready to move onto the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival 30 second PSAs about Healthy Choices, Diversity, and Character. Last year we had a great time competing in this event and we are excited to do it again. Check out some of our entries so far: