Distance Learning: Student Contact Log

Happy Monday!

Our district has been doing distance learning for three weeks and I wanted to share this "Student Contact Log" I created and have been using.

For our students, we need to track a couple of things:

1. Tasks Assigned (Projects, questions, etc)
2. Contact we've had with students (Via email, Live class sessions, Personal comments in Google Classroom, and Other)
3. Grades (we use the online software Empower and a four point grading system)

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS FORM:

I can track all sorts of things, such as: what I've asked from students, what they've done and when I've heard from them and there's a comment area so I can write when I've had to reach out to guidance, or a parent, etc. It's all available at a glance. 

Click here to view the form.

But no matter what you are doing in your school, you may need a system for keeping track of it all. Check out this form and feel free to make a copy and make it your own.

My advice: Just keep it simple. If this is too much (or not enough), then create something even better. We are all under an enormous strain right now. We need to keep things as manageable (read: easy) as possible!

We've got this!

Getting Ready for MY First Day!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been enjoying life! I've been having a wonderful summer with my husband and four kids, reorganizing and renovating our home (yay! new bathroom!) camping, attending an online art conference and reading all sorts of non-scholarly books.

But, it's time to get serious. It's time to get ready for MY FIRST CLASSROOM! Yippee!! I'll be teaching 7th and 8th grade part-time at Amherst Middle School. I have a very large classroom and I am taking over for an art teacher that was VERY neat. The room was like a blank canvas and many of us know what it is like to sit staring a blank canvas: Blink. Blink. What am I going to DO?

Well. I just took a step and began. I decided the pressure was off to get my room 100% "DONE" (as if it ever would be!) for the first day of school. I feel as though the classroom is a very organic space where there are certain things that are constant (signs for where materials are located, the elements and principles bulletin board, the standards/competencies board), but I need to be able to have places to display student work and visuals and inspiration that pertain to what they are working on. So, I got a couple of the constants done and today I'm labeling my supply cabinets.

Here's are some of the highlights:

My Teacher Zone

Teacher Zone: I covered the old metal desk with contact paper. I think it needs a little something in the center or some inspirational art quotes on it...I'll work on that. My computer hasn't been set up, but will be soon. In the bookcase to the side, I have a couple of gallons of water (I try to drink a lot of water during the day) and a teacher toolbox for my supplies. I got the printables for the teacher toolbox on TeachersPayTeahcers--love the imagery!

Labels by Teach Create Motivate

The banner above the desk was done using the freebies I got at the Art of Ed Online Teacher Conference I attended this summer. This is NOT my idea, but rather a copy of an image I saw on Pinterest. I loved it and knew it would be perfect for the students at my school since we are using the Courage to Care Program and I believe that courage can come in many forms and I truly believe that it takes an amazing amount of courage to be yourself and take chances (i.e. be creative in middle school). 

Standards/Competencies Area: I am a BIG proponent of the standards/competencies in the classroom. I want EVERYONE to know what they are--parents, students, community members, etc. So, here's the place that I have them for everyone to see. I have the NH State Standards, the National Visual Arts Standards, and the strategic plan that our district is working on (this is an important document for our district and really relates to everything we do in our classrooms and as a district).

Those little art images are postcards I got a while back from IKEA. I plan to keep this up all year.

Standards/Competencies Board

Elements/Principles Bulletin Board: OK, as a graphic designer, I love the elements and principles and feel they need to be displayed and referred often. I saw this great bulletin board idea on the interweb and then saw these great posters on Teachers Pay Teachers by Mrs. Nguyen and knew they would work perfectly! The painting in the center is from Goodwill--I just really liked the colors and the op-art look of it. I just pinned these up and haven't committed to the arrangement yet. But I will need to soon! I plan to keep this up all year.

Elements/Principles Board

I'll post more pictures of the room soon, I'm going in today (with some of my kids!!), so we'll see what we get done. This is probably my last classroom-focused day and the rest of my prep I'll do at home on my computer...

Have a wonderful start to YOUR school year!!

Modern Art Class Roll-a-Miros

A little while back I posted about a neat project I saw on Pinterest (but couldn't find the source). The idea was to use a die and a chart to help students create Miro-inspired creatures. I did this project with my Modern Art homeschool artists and they loved it! Some of them said it was the best project so far this year! 

Here is the original post and the how-to for the Roll-a-Miro on my blog.

And here are some of the finished pieces from the home school group:

Grade 6 Tasty Thiebaud Cakes

I have already explained that the school I was subbing for last year was celebrating its 40th birthday. If you haven't checked them out already, look at these great 3D cakes sculptures my fifth graders completed for the festivities.

I also wanted a little something for the background of the birthday display so I had this nice little Wayne Thiebaud-inspired drawing project for my sixth graders to work on as they completed their other work (I had actually left this as a sub plan one day when I was out, but that's another post for another day).

These were a fun break for them and they had a great time decorating the cakes. As you can see below, I put them in the background of the birthday display and they really looked cute. This is a nice project to talk about unity and repetition as well as color theory (and of course Modern and POP art).

I have done this project before with elementary school students and they have fun with it too. The directions for this project are here. The sixth graders used oil pastels to decorate their cakes, but construction paper crayons are a less-messy alternative.

Have fun creating your yummy cakes! ENJOY!

Catching up and 5th grade sculptures...

I've been offline for a bit because my life's been full and busy! I just began a long-term art substitute position at Amherst Middle School in Amherst, NH! The semester was changing over right when I was being trained so it has taken me a couple of days to focus and get used to it all. I'm teaching 5th-8th grade and I'm really excited about this semester and working with my students.

The intro class for 5th graders is a fun one and a long-standing tradition at AMS: plaster casts of the students' hands. The art teacher at AMS, Rachel Rouillard, walked me through the process. It's a bit messy, a bunch of fun, and it gets the 5th graders sitting really still for 10 minutes!

Students began by painting their hands with watercolors, if they wished. Once the plaster was mixed up, I scooped a yogurt cup size amount of gooey plaster into their cupped hands. Then, they waited about 10 minutes. While they waited I explained classroom procedures, etc. Once they unmolded their "sculptures" they could use the watercolors to add more color. On day two, we finished painting and then used the sculptures in a contour line drawing lesson.

They are pretty cool looking, and every one is unique--just like my students!

Integrating the Arts and Technology: A Few of OUR Favorite Things!

"Touch this image!"

That's the phrase Thinglink uses whenever someone shares a clickable image created using this amazing website! Try our Thinglink image above entitled "Integrating With Technology: A Few of OUR Favorite Things" and leave a comment at the bottom of this post with any ideas YOU come up with for integrating this piece of technology in your classroom!!

What's Going On Here?
Well, this image contains all of the resources and links for a conference session I am leading with my colleague, Tiffany Dube. We placed this image here so that participants could access it easily. You get to see it too! We structured our session to be an exploration of tech tools by having participants use a choice board. No matter how YOU learn (or what type of art you are trying to integrate), there's a tech tool for that!

About www.Thinglink.com:
Thinglink allows you to upload an image (from the web or from your desktop) and add clickable "tags" to it. These tags can be text, videos, or websites. The sky's the limit for this resource! Use it to flip your classroom, organize a presentation, have students create one for a project (either by themselves or as a group). You can sign up for a free thinglink account. Also, check out their website and click the "browse" tab to see how others are using this resource.

I do not receive any compensation from Thinglink for posts like this. I just use it myself and think others would like to as well! :-)

Out with the old! Art catalog magnets

So, are you feeling the urge to organize your classroom, your paperwork, your art space? No, me neither! Just kidding!

But if you are throwing out some old magazines and art catalogs, here's a great project that you really should try (I know you've probably seen it everywhere)! Take a couple of those great art catalogs from last year (Crystal Publications catalogs are my favorite for this!) and grab a few inexpensive art supplies and get crafting! The reason I love the art catalogs is that they have tons of little images of art posters that are the perfect size for this project. It's sort of addicting once you get started--it's so fun to create your own gallery of art magnets!

You can also use magazine images and text (Family Fun magazine is another favorite of mine) if you like more random images and funky text for your magnets. You may be able to use your own images--just make sure they are laser color copies and not inkjet since the ink will bleed when you brush on the Mod Podge.

These make a nice little gift when you display them in a unique way. I had my art students attach them to a piece of card stock and slip them into a zip-top bag, but I've seen people put them in an old Altoids tin. The would be nice on a card that looked like a fancy frame (or maybe a whole bunch of little frames with one magnet in each frame)--really the sky's the limit on how you can present these. They are great gift for the artsy people in your life! (hint, hint!)

Art Catalog Magnets

Supplies Needed:

• Old art catalogs or magazines
• 1" clear glass "blobs" from the dollar store--these were bigger than the standard 1/2" blobs that I use for other projects
• 1" circle template (see below)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Mod Podge
• Foam brush
• Palette for Mod Podge
• Newspapers for work surface
• Circle magnets (I bought mine at Michael's for $7 for a pack of 50 magnets, I think)
• Super glue (I tried jewelry glue but, WHEW! it stunk--serious brain cell killing going on with that stuff!)

Directions:

1. Create your template/viewing window: I used a 1" circle punch to punch a hole in a scrap piece of white card stock. I then used this 1" hole to view my art catalog images and select the images for my magnets. Clear, bright images work best. I also suggested to my students that they take one of the glass blobs and place it over any images that were questionable to see if they would read easily--most are fine.

2. Once you find an image that would work well for you magnet, use the template and pencil to trace a circle onto the image. Cut out using scissors.

3. Use the foam brush to brush a bit of Mod Podge onto the flat side of the glass blob. Place your image face down onto the Mod Podge and brush another coat of Mod Podge onto the back of the image. Set aside to dry thoroughly.

4. When you are sure the image is completely dry on the glass blob (give it a couple hours), add a dot of Super glue to the back of the glass blob and place a magnet on top. Allow the glue to dry according to manufacturer's directions before using.

5. ENJOY!

More Robot Art: Harvey Moon's Drawing Machines

Well, you know I created a scribbling art bot the and posted about it the other day...well, I was looking around on youtube and saw this AMAZING video about Harvey Moon--an artist is Chicago who uses robots to draw for him. This would be an awesome video to show your students as part of a mark-making unit where they explore mark-making with a variety of traditional and nontraditional tools (flyswatters, anyone?!) and then build and use robots to make marks. Of course, what Moon is doing goes WAY beyond my humble art bot!


Enjoy!

Viewing and Writing About Art: A Language Arts Formative Assessment For All!

I'm so excited to share this neat writing/language arts activity I learned about at a recent conference! I really think it has TONS of great uses! 

I'd like to thank Robin Perringer, art teacher at Nashua High School, for sharing this with me. She uses this with her high school students as a formative assessment--she mentioned she uses this in her ceramics class, but says you can use this with any of your students at any age level or with work they've created themselves or work by someone else (famous or not).

NOTE: Do not tell your students they will be writing poetry! :-) My experience has been that a scant few will be excited, but many will either go pale with shock and start stressing right away or exclaim "no!" and refuse to create a "silly" (or whatever creative adjective they can think of) poem! ;-) Once they are done, the students are always so blown away by the awesome writing they've done.

Georgia O'Keefe, Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, 1931

Here's how it works:

1. Have your students look at a piece of artwork. This can be a piece they've finished (or think they've finished), someone else's work in the class, or a famous work of art.

2. Have your students create the following:

• Line 1: A creative name for the piece
• Line 2: An action phrase based on what you see
• Line 3: A simile or metaphor that describes the place/location/character or object
• Line 4: Another title, but simpler

And there you have it--an awesome "poem" and a sneaky way to check your student's understanding and get them thinking and talking about art!

Here's an example using an image by Georgia O'Keefe...

Smooth Porcelain Petals

Clutching, Hanging, Captured

Cold, like the dessert night.

Bone White.

I'm definitely putting this in my toolbox for future classes! ENJOY!

Using Thinglink to Think about Social Studies and Art...

Here's another image I made using Thinglink.com (I'm a little obsessed with it!). I thought I'd make an example to show how it could be used for a flipped classroom situation or as a hook to get students thinking and writing about Social Studies. 

You could create a clickable image and keep it private on Thinglink--that means that only people who have the link can see it. You could have your students log in, check out the image (watch videos, visit websites you link to the image, etc.) and then leave comments below the image. What a great way to get them interested in a subject and breathe life into a stuffy textbook.

ENJOY!

Look at this image. BEFORE you click on the links, think about what you see. What is going on here? What are these people doing? How do they feel?

Now, click on the image and explore the links to find more information...

After exploring, write a comment below this blogpost about what YOU think this image is about (at least two sentences). Be prepared to discuss...

Integrating the Arts and Technology Palette: Just the Beginning!

Yesterday, I gave a talk to the Integrated Arts students at Plymouth State University about using technology in their fabulous Integrated Arts lessons. What a great bunch of students--so creative and smart! It was so fun sharing with them.

I focused on mobile apps and websites they could use to search for lesson, plan lessons, but also have students use to learn, document and create. Below, is the image from my talk. It makes more sense when I'm explaining it (I think), but it has some wonderful resources I believe you will love to explore.

The image was made by me in Illustrator (you may recognize the creative brain from my "21st Century Skills" art poster seen elsewhere in my blog). Once the image and subjects were on the image, I imported it into Thinglink.com and added the clickable buttons. What I like about creating images like this is that all of the resources I needed for my talk are right here. I just opened up the image during the presentation and used it. I had also sent the link to all of the students prior to the talk and they had the images on their computers as well so they could follow along with me. This was great since it took seconds for them to get to websites and videos I wanted them to explore. And they can keep this image for future reference!

So check it out and see if there's something here that gets you thinking about a new way YOU could use technology in your lessons...let me know what you think up--I love to hear. Also, if you already use technology in your classroom (art classroom or not) let me know what you do and I can share it with the students.

ENJOY!

Easy Posters? Check this out!

We head back to school next week in these neck of the woods, so some of you may still need a bit of BLING for your classroom! I understand! If you haven't seen, scroll back a few posts and you'll see two posters I've made available for free for you to print out and use around your school and home...

"But, I want MORE!" You say? No problem!

Well, at least, no problem for ME--I'm not going to make more posters, but you can--and it takes really only a couple of minutes with this new (to me) site I stumbled upon called www.recitethis.com.

Super easy directions:

1. You go to the site www.recitethis.com

2. Type in a couple of words, phrases, a quote, etc. (the only part I don't like is that I want to credit the quoted person a bit smaller than the rest of the quote, but it doesn't let you futz with that--it's automatic).

3. Choose a layout you like from the preview selection in the scrollbar at the bottom of the page.

4. Click "create"

And....

BOOM! You are done! You can download the poster (to print), email it, share it on Facebook and more.

Here are a couple I made this afternoon...

ENJOY!

Fall Art Class Flyer now available!

Hello all!

I just finalized the flyer describing the Fall/Winter 2014 art classes I'll be holding in Amherst, NH this year.

So excited!

To download a copy of the flyer--so you can actually read it--click the link below to go to my GoogleDocs page...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byb1fmno7uIva05HNVVINDZyVUU/edit?usp=sharing

And NEW this year: Family Art Studio nights on the second Thursday of each month. This gives families the opportunity to relax and create art together! This is new for me, so I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

So, check out the course, and contact me if you have any questions. If you want to register, head on over to www.AmherstRec.org and do so there. I'll be updating the "Art Classes" page of my blog with this info as soon as I get a minute.

Thanks! ENJOY!!

Free Posters! A Back-To-School Gift For You!

Hello there!

I have received a TON of feedback about the following posters I have created! It seems as though everyone wants a copy or two! So here's my gift to you: FREE POSTERS! 

How to get the files:

Visit my Google Docs page at:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byb1fmno7uIvSGRDSmtDZHJpYjg&usp=sharing

And you'll be able to download the pdf files of both of these posters. For you. For FREE!! Yippee! They are both 11" x 17" and print out nicely--the colors are lovely! 

The Fine Print:

Please feel free to print these posters out and share them, but no selling them and no changing the text. Also, please leave my name and copyright info on the posters. If you decide to publish the posters in a newsletter or such, please make sure you credit me (and you could email me at bpettus02@gmail.com--I'd love to see how you've shared them!).

So print, share, enjoy! 

And, happy "Back to School!"

Tommy McHugh - The Empty Chair - Revisited

While I was reading the newest book for my next grad course, "Your  Creative Brain, " by Shelley Carson, Ph. D., I learned about an English artist--Tommy McHugh. He came about being an artist a little later in life--after he suffered a couple of strokes. Before his strokes, he was a builder and it is said that he didn't have any artistic tendencies. After his strokes, however, he became a prolific writer, painter, and sculptor.

I enjoy more abstract pieces, so I really enjoy his work--it has a dreamlike quality that reminds me of the swirling thoughts that go on in our brains--or, at least in my brain. McHugh explained that this creative work helped him process the waves of thoughts and images that started to come into his brain as he was recovering.

McHugh was as passionate about encouraging people to be creative as he was about creating his art. He said, "We all have it--we just don't believe we can do it." He explained in this video that we can direct our paths both in life and in our minds. We can unlock the cells in our brains and do more. He encouraged people to break through whatever is keeping them from trying new paths: self-doubt, money, fear of judgement…and just do it. He explained that once you start accessing those cells in your brain and creating new pathways, more creativity will come.

Imagine if you were given a gift such as this…what would you do with it? You have been. Ready, set,  GO!

Andy Goldsworthy Nature Sculptures

My Spring Art class headed outside to create some beautiful Nature Sculptures inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Many of the children weren't familiar with his work, but really got inspired as we looked at a book I had brought called, "Hand to Earth." As we flipped through the pages, they were amazed at his work and itching to get started!

I had wanted a quick lesson where they could create outside and had intended that while they were creating their sculptures, I would work with small groups to make sun prints--a natural link, in my opinion. But alas, the weather didn't cooperate and the sun prints were a no-go due to the sun going away as soon as class started! At least it didn't rain! :-)

Unfortunately, the students can't take something him from a class like this--we even needed to destroy them before we left--that was hard for some. But, I brought the iPad and took some photos of each sculpture. Once I went home, I used PicCollage to bring all of the images from class together into a collage that could be printed as a poster--a very pretty one, I'd say! I emailed those out that afternoon to the families so the children could remember their sculptures forever.

This is a great lesson! The prep is pretty minimal, of course, but it really gets a good discussion going about the following themes:

• Looking closely at nature
• Being good stewards of the land
• Working together as a team/taking turns/helping
• Elements of art/principles of design
• What is sculpture?
• What is art?
• The job of artist (How does an artist get paid for work such as this? What inspires an artist? How long will pieces like this last in nature?)

So, here's the final poster--enjoy!

Justifying ART and Art Education

SIGH. Challenging day today. I can't be frank because I will offend. Let's just say I am feeling like I am having to "sell" arts education and that is frustrating. So, I'm not going to grumble, or complain, or yell...I am going to advocate.

Here's a poster I made that talks about the benefits that art has on a child...

And here are some close-up images of the poster so you can read the info. The images aren't the best, but if I make them too "nice" then blogger grumbles about the file sizes.

Great references. Thank you to them for their info. This poster is not for money-making purposes, it was intended as an arts advocacy project for my grad school. Thanks!

Another Artsy Conference Coming Up...Even for the non-artsy!

If you are looking for a scenic drive up to Plymouth, NH this Friday as well as some professional time, try this Conference...

The Integrated Arts Conference is going to be held this Friday in Plymouth, NH at the Plymouth State University campus. The sessions look intriguing and I can't wait to check them out! 

Here's the schedule for the conference:

https://www.plymouth.edu/outreach/etc/integrated-arts-conference/2014-workshop-schedule/

And while you are there, check out Oliver! at the Silver Center (the conference is centered around this classic play).

And as for places to eat...Thai Smile on Main Street is a great choice! YUM!

See you there!

My Bear Mask With Plaster Gauze

I'm going to Grad School at Plymouth State University in NH to become certified to teach art. I'm having a great time and learning so much!

This is meant to have the face be vertical,
but my background wasn't big enough! Sorry!

The class I'm taking this semester is Art Methods and Materials For Elementary Education and it is SO FUN! We get to make art! Oh yeah, and write lesson plans and research papers...BUT, MAKE ART!

As a mom of four and doing all sorts of other things over the years, I don't make time for my own art--I'm not sure what my own art even is after all this time. But, I've been enjoying making art for this class. The last project we did was create a mask using plaster gauze. I had done this about a million years ago when I was in high school, so I was excited to think about possibilities for my grown-up mask.

We were challenged to create a mask that represents us in some way and it needed to have some sort of extension of some kind (we could use Cellu-clay, plaster gauze, cardboard, etc. to make the extensions).

Ahhh...the possibilities! I started to think about what I would be known for at the end of my life and I thought, "Well, people would say I was a mom." Of course, this is among other things, but I take my mom job very seriously :-)

I thought about creating a totem pole on my mask of all of the totem animals of my children, husband, and I, but as I designed it, I didn't really like how it was going. Then I focused on me. My totem animal, right now, is the bear. So here I am wearing a bear mask over a human mask, because there's always a part of me that I keep private.

I love constellations, so I have Ursa Major and Minor in the night sky. I love silhouettes too, so on the left, under Ursa Minor, you'll see my four little cubs. My daughter's the last cub scurrying to catch up to her brothers. My oldest son is turning back and watching over his siblings (just like in real life). And, on the right, there's mom, under the constellation of Ursa Major.

I'm happy with the way the mask came out--I had wanted to incorporate twigs and beads and such, but I stopped here to rest for a bit and think. I really enjoyed making this project and I could see making a series of masks: a marriage mask, a Mrs. P-only mask, an artist mask...I think it would be interesting to see all of the masks I wear.

So what are you making lately? Are you inspired by the projects you teach your students?

Technology in the Art Room: Digital Books

The other day I posted about Books In The Art Room. I've since heard of a couple additional sites that you may want to check out. Trust me, they are worth it!

Here are a few sites that have digital picture books to use in your classroom:

• www.storylineonline.net (SAG Actors read children's books)
• www.speakaboos.com (a colorful, interactive site for traditional read-along stories)
• www.readtomelv.org (Las Vegas celebrities read children's books)
• www.schooltube.com (like youtube but without the commercials. There are read alouds and picture books as little movies. Search other topics such as "Kandinsky," etc.)
• www.pbskids.org (I like: www.pbskids.org/lions/stories) hunt around for additional online stories
• www.nhptv.org/kn (you could get lost in this resource--there's so much!)
• www.wegivebooks.org (you'll need to register to use this site, but it is pretty neat and there are lots of free popular books you can read online. Their selections do change, though, so make sure the book you want is still available before you present your lesson!)

(Thank you to Program Associate & Technology Guru, Tiffany Dube at Plymouth State University and Selina Smith at Classroom Magic for their help with this list).