In the business of making art!

Students have been working hard this week to get into the art making experience and are learning some fabulous things already! I hope to get some pictures up in a new slide show soon, so come back by and visit to see them! I have began to get into a groove of things so far but have started to slowly feel myself sinking into the world of soon to come midterm grades and I am not ready for it! I also see that there is no way to stay completely on top of the upcoming lessons that I start on Monday... rotation of materials has been difficult as it is now every 3 days, this is faster than one would think! I look forward to a relaxing weekend with some rest and some fun! Hope the same for you!

First week in a flash!

So, it does appear that the first week of school has been a success. I will admit it didn't go off without hiccups along the way, but that is bound to happen! I am glad to see Friday and the beloved weekend! Some time to unwind and rest before we take on another week! We jumped right in this week working on the first stages of Pinwheels for Peace! This is exciting because we are going to be involved in an international activity that revolves around peace! We also jumped in to sketching, drawing, marbleizing, printmaking, creating the first steps of making stained glass windows, and I have had some of the best participation from students that I have ever had about looking at works of art! I have been so excited about it that we have actually had too little time in class to really start getting work under our belt, best of all the kids aren't moaning about having to talk about the art!!! They really are sharing the things they see and feel about the work, in fact the fourth grade has done a fabulous job of dissecting Japanese prints layer by layer!  I am excited to be back although I am already tired, as I am sure the kids are too! Have a great first weekend everyone!

Honesty IS the BEST POLICY!

I am here with the double edged sword... I am so excited on one hand to say I have now successfully completed my Web 2.0 summer course, but I am also so sad to see it go.... I admit that I started off fabulously keeping up and even getting ahead at times, and when July came the needs of my time began to spread thin knowing the end of summer was just around the corner, and with two other weeks dedicated to trainings.... I got way behind. I am glad to have caught up and as usual not that I am a one of those who waits till last minute on everything, but when I do, I still come out like roses! I am finished before the 13th when I for sure thought it wouldn't work itself out with it being the first week and all! I think that the course was very beneficial and wish that more of our teachers here at the Rock would have taken advantage of it.

PLN: DO I Need one? Yeah!!!!

I love the idea that the Internet and all of these fabulous tools can be used to create a network of people who can not only be helpful to you but that you can learn from. One thing that meant teachers do as they get in their classrooms is stop learning... not literally of course, but it is easy to get wrapped up in the every day needs of the job and forget to have fun and learn new things that make that job more fun and exciting.  I am really enjoying the opportunities given to me so far. Every summer I pay from my pocket and sometimes travel a good distance to experience being a student again. It is not often that opportunities are offered throughout the school year, so I give up summer time to do it. I am not complaining I feel this is needed to be good and fresh for myself and my students. I also think that this allows for me to really jump in and get the latest and greatest, which is exactly what we need in today's society! As we all can probably agree the amount of information and the speed in which it is pushed in our faces is much faster than the pace we see in the classroom and the tools and cool things they use to do it are more interesting and fun than sitting on the carpet and listening to your teacher talk about something.

Storytelling on the computer?

What a fabulous idea!!!! Everyone can be a hollywood starlet with digital storytelling!

I think this is a great alternative to the typical report. Kids would love to recreate a story from literature through drama and theater, how about interviewing a historical figure with studetns taking on the reporter and historical character roles, doing an interview with a famous American, this ist goes on, kids could create videos to show science lab safety, how to do's of pretty much anything, how about writing and acting in teir own commericals to use those persuasive writing skills... I think this is awesome.  I also could see how a teacher could record the how to's of many classroom procedures, I for instance could always have videos on using the drying rack, how to wash your hands and clean up your space, I could even use this to guide students through an art activity in the event of my absence from school.  The ideas are amazing and they are endless. It is amazing how many things there out tere for educators to use to make learning more interesting and build the amount of computer skills even our elementary school kids are using and have upon entering into middle school.  I am excited about how it is I can find to use these things in my room and finding and making the time to do it!

One Fish, two fish, Docs and Readers...

I have been on this computer forever or so it feels, my fault for getting behind... I do not intend to miss the deadline and lose all those hours I have already spent, so here is yet another reponse today.

Bookmarking... left scars

I worked on the Social Bookmarking assignment... I had some difficulty because it took its time getting things going and then just as I would get ecited about it having finished the uploads... it wouldn't show my shortcuts in the toolbar or my bookmarks in the bookmark listing... Scars you ask, they are from my head banging against the computer!  It seemed to take too long to set up and get things saved... I don't know that I have the time or patience.. I can handle the inconvenience of packing up and carrying ly laptop home better than the sittinga nd waiting to only be disappointed over and over again. It is just so easy to click on add to favorites.

I definitely see where this could be fabulous for edcuators to share their resources and get the information quickly if all the set up and such is done and working. I just don't know that I want everyone who wants to... to know what I value as worth bookmarking... many times I bookmark because I found something great and want to further explore other times I only do it so I can quickly find the sight in the future.  I also have many webiste I like to keep due to them having new lessons on them regularly or are easily read and understood in the format for which they are typed. I got a few posted but had difficulty getting a bulk from my favorites saved, I didn't want to save the mone at a time. You can visit here to see the few that made it my bookmark list. http://delicious.com/passingthepaintbrush

Soon to be famous host, takes on the airwaves!!

So, Podcasting... a little frustrating that I essentially used two computers to complete the task, due to my computer from school not wanting to upload itunes... anyway, it wasn't horrible, easier to use than I anticipated, which is why it has taken me so long to do it...

I loved this, and the funny thing was my voice didn't sound so bad after all, I am country without a microphone but take country to a whole new level through speakers! Anyway, I read a favorite of mine "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont and David Catrow. I enjoyed it and hope I can get it posted to podbean, as I am having issues with this at the moment. I think that classroom teachers could have students do some fabulous book reports on the computer... this is a great resource for students who don't like to be in front of the class! They could post them on their websites and parents could hear them as well.  My only issue was that it only let me record for 60 seconds... I had to record the end of my book on another recording... perhaps this is just because I haven't figured out all of the ins and outs.  I am proud of myself for completing this step and hope to find many ways to use this in class, when I get in the room and find something great to do with it.

Podcasting a smile!

So, after much searching I found a few podcasts that seemed of particular interest and use to me, this made me smile!... I found a fabulous podcast from Art21 that I am excited about using or the potential of using. I also found several from great sources, sources I feel I can trust and not be worried about the content or the validity of it... One from The Met, from MoMA, and from the National Gallery of Art...