Art Show!

We had a great art show this weekend at one of our student's parents' winery.  We had wine tastings for the adults, snacks for the kids and lots of great artwork.  I selected about 40 artworks and the middle school art teacher also selected about 30 or so...   I put up pictures on my school website.  You can see them all here:
EAGLE Artists

Rebecca (middle school art teacher) and Marcia (me)

My 18 month old painting

Everybody loves to paint!  

This is Daria, my 18 month old baby girl.

Professional Development Plan

Well.. I don't have any pictures to show you right now.  We are finishing up a whole bunch of really cool projects...  K- finished Rainbow Fish pictures  1- color mixing exercise 2- finished a Dr. Suess unit/color collage  3- finished monochromatic paintings  3/4- painted landscapes  4/5-  finishing a mosaic/fresco unit  5/6-  most are finishing up a knight sculpture and then working on a concrete poem,  next week we are starting illuminated letters.  I just have to take pictures of the ones that are finished now.

I've been also working really hard on my PDP.  In Wisconsin, every 5 years to become recertified you need to make a professional development plan, outlining goals and your plans to meet those goals.   When I was trying to write mine, I wanted to look up examples from other art teachers and I really couldn't find any sample plans that were specifically for art teachers.  Maybe this will help someone else out when you are writing a professional growth plan.  Here is a brief outline of my plan.  I have left out some of the information that is extraneous.  The whole thing is several pages long.

Description of Goal to be Addressed: 

I will research and develop a sequential visual arts curriculum so that my students will acquire a solid foundation of core art skills.

Rationale for Goal:

Our school focuses on interconnecting disciplines.  For example, the 4/5 class studies Egypt in Social Studies and Egyptian art in my class.  The art curriculum is project-based and connects well with other subjects.  Currently, the written curriculum needs to have all the core skills that we teach (ie. Perspective, shading, sequential handbuilding skills in clay.) written in a sequential manner. I feel it is important for the students to receive a solid foundation in these basic skills.  With my professional goal, I will weave together a curriculum that combines both interdisciplinary concepts and fundamental art skills.  I will focus on Wisconsin Teacher Standard #1:  The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.  I will also address Standard #7:  The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, puils, the community, and curriculum goals.

Plan to Meet Goal/Objectives

Objective 1:    I will deepen my understanding of teaching strategies that build foundational art skills.
Activities:

• Read articles about the stages of drawing and clay development.
• Research curriculum outlines from other schools.
• Observe other teachers in their classroom to gain insights on management, teaching strategies and assessment.
• Attend conference workshops focusing on the teaching of core art skills.
• Study brain-based educational research.

OBJECTIVE 2:  I will develop a sequential K-6 art curriculum focusing on solid core skills as well as interdisciplinary connections.
 

Activities:

• Review existing curriculum.
• Inventory, review and obtain materials for each grade level.
• Develop grade level goals and objectives.
• Finalize the curriculum review for K-6 art.

OBJECTIVE 3:  I will implement and analyze the effectiveness of the sequential curriculum.
 

Activities:

• Document teaching on a personal blog.
• Assess student progress through pre and post skills tests, rubrics and self-assessment.
• I will be observed and evaluated by a peer teacher or administrator to receive feedback.

OBJECTIVE 4:  I will expand my personal skills and understanding of core art concepts, especially in drawing, watercolor and acrylic painting.

 
Activities:

• Read art skills books about drawing and watercolor
•  Keep a visual journal of art concepts and exercises. 
• Attend hands-on workshops to enhance my knowledge of drawing and painting.
• Participate in online art workshops to improve skills.
• Present a workshop at the Wisconsin Art Education Association Conference sharing my lesson plans.

There is more on this plan, including timetables, and extra info, but this is the general gist.  We have 5 years now to complete our plans and work on all these objectives.  If you would like to see the entire plan, I can send you a pdf of my plan in progress.  As I complete the activities, I will make notes about the activity and the date completed.  I need to gather "artifacts" about the activities to submit at the end.

Also, this is my rough draft and I am planning on having a friend read through it to check grammar and content. 

Week Update

Well, I haven't updated since this past Sunday, so I will briefly tell you what I've been up to..  parent-teacher conferences were on Tuesday.  We are in the middle of various projects... monochromatic rhythm paintings (which are awesome and I will share with you later)...  Rainbow Fish paintings, bird paintings, American landscape paintings.. wow, I guess we are doing a lot of paintings now.  The 4/5s are doing a mosaic/fresco project which I will show you when we are further along.  And the 5/6s have been working on these awesome Medieval paper mache knight sculptures.  We start with a newspaper armature, without the head.  The armature is built around a wood base with a dowel rod.  Then paper mache is applied over it.  Then, the full figure is painted a neutral-ish color.  Next, a head is made with model magic and later painted.  Clothes are added with felt, leather and fabric.  These are mostly tied and glued on.  Weapons are made from all sorts of materials.  Hair can be painted on or added with yarn or furry material, or even molded with model magic.  There is a lot of leeway for how the knight can be constructed.  Most of the kids are not finished yet, but here is one done by a student who has already given it away to her grandma for a present.  I will show you more when more are finished. 

Greek Vase Drawings- 4th/5th grade

Greek Vase Drawing & Model:  First, the 4/5s read a magazine about Greek vases. Then they made a small vase using modeling clay.  Next, they used chalk to develop a drawing of Greek vases using Greek imagery and symbols. Black sharpie markers were used to draw the designs.

Pacific Northwest Coast Masks-- 3rd grade

The 3/4s viewed a video about Pacific Northwest Coast art.  They made a spirit animal mask using similar characteristics.  These are made out of paper mache and are painted with a limited color palette. 

 

Paper Weavings

Paper Weavings by Kindergartners.
A twist on the typical paper weaving... use wrapping paper and scrapbook paper pieces. 

Dr. Suess Architecture

The 2nd graders studied Dr. Suess in their language arts class.  In art class we looked at the artwork of Dr. Suess.  They drew whimsical architecture with wobbly and wavy lines.

Art Show

It's been a couple weeks, but we had a regional Youth Art Month show at the mall here.  Here are my panels.

Japanese Scrolls

Third Grade Japanese Scrolls

We watched a powerpoint about Hokusai, the Japanese printmaker.  The students made styrofoam prints using imagery of nature.  We practiced using calligraphy brushes with India ink.  The students assembled their calligraphy and prints, along with origami paper into a hanging scroll.