Thing 7 - EduBlog substitute

I have been looking for a good edublog site related to Art instruction and have not found a great one that I could comment on. I did however find a posting on a blog that is worth noting. This is a blog that I enjoy and I have now listed it on bloglines. I thought this was neat and wanted to share Joan Steiner artwork. I know my students love I Spy and this artwork is really neat!

http://artslice.blogspot.com/2009/02/joan-steiner.html

** Go to the site & click on the pictures to see the detail - its Fabulous!

Thing 13 - Pictures

Thor Doberman
Originally uploaded by ymarteacha

This is my second time trying to post the pics. I did not synchronize my flickr to the blogger so it wouldn't work. I had to delete the first post and do it over!

museum showbiz
Originally uploaded by ymarteacha

Thing 13

I used Picnik to enhance the pink around Thor's eyes and nose (as if he needs more pink, the little piggy). I used Dumpr to put a picture of me visiting the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade Open House as a museum picture. I became a celebrity over night! This was alot of fun to play with the pictures. I thought it was very user friendly and it connected to flickr in a matter of seconds!

I could see the students making a self-portrait with Andy Warhol's influence to create a masterpiece. I could see the students using a picture of themselves in dumpr to make an Art Mystery story. Another student favorite project is the Artist Trading Card (these have become very popular with students and adults) there are many websites that feature ATC's and using altered pictures would be alot of fun to experiment with.

I use pictures alot in my classroom for documenting art projects and showing students examples from other students (not just the examples I make). I have created a slideshow and displayed them at the music concerts for parents to view while waiting for the music concerts to start. Pictures are alot of fun!

Thing 12

I am a new Flickr user. I had fun playing with flickr and uploading some of my favorites, like pictures of my dog and my dollhouse(mini's collection). I use the dollhouse pictures in an assignment in what I call the "Dream House". Students become builders and they must measure out a minimum of 4 rooms (could have up to 6 rooms) and then they draw furniture in perspective (3D). I show the students pictures of the dollhouse because it shows the more detail that is added, the more appealing it looks. Of course the girls love it and the boys dont mind either when they find out that there could be an indoor basketball room, or an arcade/game room. In the past, students tell me that it is one of their favorite art projects.

I really like the idea of checking out pictures from others (when doing research of where to take vacations). This ensures that nothing worthwhile is missed. I have been to some of Mexico's ruins, London England, and to Malta on vacations out of the country. I have shared pictures of Artwork and architecture from these vacations with my students. Some Art Museums allow pictures to be taken of their permanent collections (not special exhibits). I share these with the students when we study the culture or the artwork. I went to Chicago's Field Museum and show the 2nd graders "Sue, the dinosaur" when we study dinosaurs and make them out of ceramic clay with a diorama. I use pictures all the time in the classroom! It's like a virtual fieldtrip!

I have started the set up of an Art webpage on the districts website, but I have not uploaded any pictures to it. Flickr may be able to assist me in doing this. I think parents would enjoy seeing the students' artwork and the students working during Art class. I do think that there is a fine line in putting pictures of artwork with students names, grade levels, etc. I would not want to put anyone in danger with names, schools, grade levels, etc. being posted on the web publicly. I think this is one of the main reasons I have not finished the Art webpage on the district site.

I was able to put the Flickr badge on my blog. I had a little trouble at first, I could get the description but I did not know where to paste it for it to show up. I added some more pictures of myself, my younger brother and my fiance' to share with you.

Flickr

ymarteacha

Thing 11 - Part 2

I will be using this with the students, for sure! There are so many valuable resources. One could get lost for hours exploring all of these. The schools I work at have the computer hooked to a TV monitor, so I could easily share these with the students. Alot of the artist Slideshares are interactive and ask questions about the artwork. This has been my favorite thing so far! What a great way to explore countries and folk art as well! I hope access to the website is not blocked at the schools like You Tube!

Thing 11

Malta Extremely Beautiful

View more presentations from 8manu.

Thing 10

I do like the fact that the document on Google Docs can be accessed from any computer that has the Internet. I used to always email myself back and forth to work. When I got the thumb drive that changed it all. Now, I save everything to it. I did take Jim Dornberg's advice and created folders for the files to start organizing. Although, it is still not organized completely, it is better than it was. Google docs does not support .docx nor .xlsx files so many of the documents I could not transfer to Google Docs. I really like the fact that people can add and share the same document at the same time. This is a great way for 2 art teachers (that work in the same district but at different schools) to collaborate on lesson planning.

Thing 8

Oh yes - I like this much better, no more emailing the url back and forth to school emails. I love how simple and how much it makes sense to use this. I told the other Elementary art teacher that I want her to join so that we can share. We always talk on the phone discussing everything under the "web", this would be so much easier to collaborate on the sites that we use all the time.

My finance' and I are building a house - and we are always looking for new ideas and we would actually pass and trade laptops so that we could see what great idea was found. We will be taking all the favorites and putting them together on this social bookmark. It's Fabulous, I mean delicious!

USERNAME: ymarteacha

Now I just need something to organize all my documents and pictures! I have a "thumb drive" that I love & would be devastated if it was ever misplaced! But it is an unorganized mess. My traditional paper files are more organized than the electronic ones! Maybe a different "thing" will help me do that too! I can only hope!

Thing 5

I honestly didn't know what the true meaning of Web 2.0 was until reviewing this unit. My cell phone has become a major part of my life. I use it mainly for an alarm clock, recording events on the calendar, texting, accessing the Internet, finding the weather radar, and it takes pictures when I find an idea that I could use with my students for Art class. I always look forward to a cell phone upgrade to get all the latest and greatest features. My current phone does not have driving directions, but I learned that you can access maps through the Internet on the phone, which has come to be useful several times during the summer when there is so much construction. I found out that I don't really need to upgrade the phone, but I always want the one with the most features (of course)!

Web 2.0 allows parents, teachers, and students to communicate and take an active role in education. There are so many ways to share ideas, get opinions or advice and allow the students to take personal responsibility in their own learning. As did the teacher that uses blogging for the students to create their own study guides for tests. The teacher then monitors and rewards the students for being collaborative and motivated about the concepts being studied. I think the students have a greater interest in learning when technology is involved. Today, technology is vital in education to promote an independent, motivated, life long learner in every student (no matter what age they are).

Thing 4

I looked closely at the the deficiencies workers are lacking and noticed that the Arts teach the skills that these workers are lacking. There are National and State Standards to provide students the means to communicate, reflect and evaluate artwork. I try to incorporate these skills with my lessons when I teach students Art concepts. The Art teacher must juggle art production and reflection within a limited amount of student contact time.

I believe that teachers must model what it takes to become a life long learner. Achievable goals should be set, shared, and then celebrate the achievement of meeting the goals. I think the global student will need to be self-motivated, disciplined and be willing to explore new things.

Thing 3 of 23 Things

When I saw the 23 Thing checklist, I got excited about the class and wanted to start right away. I know nothing about any of the listed tasks. I laughed when I said "flickr". This is my first blog account. I do like to read postings after news articles, but I have never posted my opinion. I don't like to share my thoughts and opinions publicly, so this class could be a challenge for me to overcome. After reading the articles how teachers use blogging in the classroom, and the common sense guidelines that go along with posting something for all to read, I am ready to give this a try. My goal in completing the 23 Things class is to broaden my tech skills and I hope to come up with ways to put them to use in the Art classroom.

Hello!

Hello! This is my first entry to set up my account. As I started typing I have found a side of shyness that I didn't know I had. I keep deleting what I type, because I don't know what to say!

My dog, Thor is a white doberman and he is mad because he is not getting any attention!