Week One

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! 

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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!