Friday Fun: Art Show & Augmented Reality!

This year being at a school that is technology driven I thought to myself that I'd love to have a technology aspect in this years art show. That being said I used the app Aurasma to get the viewers interacting with the art! Aurasma uses augmented reality and is a great tool to connect videos with images!  I had some students film a video as they spoke about their art. I even asked our theater arts teacher for some help in filming a few excerpts from the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

The great thing about technology is...that sometimes it doesn't always go as planned and sometimes you need some expert help! Our very special Tech Lady Mrs. Sims really helped me out with the Aurasma app, in fact I had to go to the show early to double check that everything was in working order and come to find it WASN'T! So at the last minute I had to figure out what was wrong and fix it, all in time for the first of my students to arrive! Whew! What a relief that I listened to her expert advice!

Whoops! Step 1.5 Follow the channel Art Show 2015!

Having been there early a new station asked to interview myself and one of my students! You can find that video here: IRVING ISD MIDDLE SCHOOL ART SHOW.

The middle school set up is a little different than the elementary, everything must be matted with a border and so I had to cut a lot of paper. Until the day before the show I was calling in kids after school to finish their work! All in all I had a great time setting up and a great time seeing all the students with their families!

The beginning of my set up for our work!

The mess of trying to organize the wall!

Almost finished!

Close ups of the wall from left to right!

Book covers!

Paper Cranes!

Trying out the Aurasma app!

Fellow teachers supporting the arts!

So proud of my artists!

My goal for next year is to have a process video for as many artworks as I possible! I can dream right? A few of my fellow teachers came to celebrate including our Principal and one of our Vice Principals! We had over 300 people come to the middle school art show, which is the largest turnout ever! Can't wait to see how next year will turn out!

Do you have a district wide art show? If you do share your tips to staying organized! If you don't, how do you share your students creativity?

Monday Mayhem: Open House in Middle School!

First year as a middle school art teacher means first year at a middle school open house! Here are some pictures from the art studio set up!

These older siblings are drawing for us!

Student and her Mom answering the question!

So proud of her painting!

Great family fun!!!

I love getting to meet the parents of my students at Open House! And while I didn't have a huge turn out, I know that next year will be bigger and better!  

What do you do for your families during open house? Share some pictures or link your blog!

Thursday Think Tank: Yarn, Foil, Failure...

You know that moment when you THINK something will be awesome, but then when you start getting into the middle of the project...it turns out HORRIBLY? That happened to me, first time trying to doing a foil low relief sculpture and it just didn't turn out the way I had hoped it would. Ah well, we live, we learn and we move forward. 

I think it's perfectly okay to try something new even if it doesn't succeed and it's a good lesson for the kids to hear that even teachers don't know everything and learn from their mistakes as well.

Ever have a project that was a complete failure in your classroom? How did you handle it in front of your students?

Monday Mayhem: Make your own Monster Game!

On a day when we're finishing up multiple projects and needing a little bit of break we made these! I found this example on pinterest for a quick draw, which was a nice break from our regular stuff and then had the idea to make our own!

Two teams battling it out!

Students didn't have to make a monster, but anything really!

What art games do you play in your art studio?

Friday Fun: I've been nominated!

Can I say that this year has been a little tough! However its small moments of recognition and comments that really give me hope and drive to keep going! Mrs. Koepke over at her blog THE WHOLE WORLD'S AN EASEL was nominated for the Liebster Award and then passed along the honor to me!  I am SPEECHLESS and so honored. I can't believe it! Just WOW.

I've never done this before or really heard about it until now so I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions she responded to in her blog!

1. Why did you start your blog?
I was inspired by my lovely friend Andrea Keller and her awesome tech connections and also as I started to read other art educator blogs (like Art with Mr. E) it inspired me to start sharing my own experiences.

2. What excites you about being an art teacher?
The thing that excites me the most is when students have genuinely original ideas on their own without a lot of prompting. I get so happy and it's the best feeling in the world to help foster creativity!

3. What do you talk about on your blog?

On Come to the Art side I talk about anything and everything that happens in our art studio, school and anything related to teaching art like conferences or awards and anything else I can think of.

4. Why do you think connecting with other bloggers is important?
I think it's important because sometimes it can be lonely in the art studio when you're the only one on campus. I love being able to talk and share experiences with others that can understand what it is to be a visual art educator.

5. Have you met any other bloggers in person?

I met Mr. E a few years ago at the National Art Conference when it was here in Texas! I was so excited, it was also his session on blogging that helped me get momentum on my blog here!

6. Where do you think your blog will be in two years?
Honestly, I think I'll continue to blog just the way I always have, but hopefully more people will get use out of it. Maybe then I'll purchase a url of my very own!

7. What do you do best?

I think what I do best is listen. My room is a place where students can voice what they need to say and can be heard. I even have students that don't take my class come and talk or sit in my room, it's like one giant art therapy session and I love it.

8. How much time do you devote to your blog?
I try to post twice a week, but I typically blog everything in advance unless something comes up on the spur of the moment and I need to add an extra bonus blog in. So on a day where inspiration strikes I spend anywhere from a solid 4-5 hours writing about 10-15 blogs. I love how I can save it and schedule when each blog uploads. I think thats how I was able to update all last summer while I was out of the country for 6 weeks.

9. How do you create your posts?
Typically an idea comes into my head, so I'll open up my phone app and save a draft with the title name and a few notes in the body, then I'll go back when I have more time and add photos and flesh out my thoughts.

10. What wishes do you have for your readers?
I just hope that my readers really enjoy the work that my kids do and are inspired to create!

Now I nominate these blogs that have really inspired me along the way!

Plastica, arte en la escuela.

This blog is all in spanish, but I love seeing the images and being inspired by how she uses ANYTHING to create art! I can definitely relate to using whatever is around and creating from that.

Portrait of an Art Room

Mr. Briggs is this really awesome art teacher that uses the flipped classroom model! It's an idea that I really want to try someday! I've gotten a lot of great ideas from his blog including my art room jobs!

Ardith's Art Journal

This blog is just FULL of creativity! I'm very much considering purchasing her 52 Week Creativity Awareness Curriculum for my classroom, it looks so amazing!

Thursday Think Tank: Winners!

Here are the winners receiving their recognition and rewards for the Gang Prevention Poster contest!

The Mayor of Irving giving them their awards!

With the Gang Unit of the Police Department!

These kids make my heart happy!

So proud of these students, even with the bad weather they came out! So happy that they were recognized for their handwork and artistic abilities!

Monday Mayhem: Multi-Media Collage

For this assignment we were focusing on Unity and bring different materials together to create a complete composition. Students had to divide the space in interesting ways and then create patterns and designs to fill in those empty spaces. 

Teacher example.

POW!

Love the placement of this magazine cut out.

I love these horizontal patterns.

Love the repeated pattern from the dress to the paper! Great way to tie the image together.

So pretty!

THE DETAIL IS AWESOME!

This student had so much fun with color, so playful and whimsical!

I did this mixed media collage with my elementary kids last year and loved it so much that I just had to try it again this year! BIGGER and MORE COLOR than last year these designs have just blown me away!

Are there any projects you recycle, ramp up and improve for the next year? How do the changes help you grow as a teacher?