Art Ed Blog

http://www.theartofed.com/

This website is an art education blog. It has give aways, contests, lesson plan ideas, advice for art teachers and much more! I found this website to be really interesting. There are so many resources for new and experienced art teachers. I found power points on artists, organization tips, and ready made posters for the classroom. I'm definitely bookmarking this website!

Are You Interested in Teaching Out of State?

Click this link! http://education.uky.edu/AcadServ/content/50-states-certification-requirements

It has a link to every state and the certification that you would need to be able to teach! I don't know about you but I'm a little nervous about finding a job on Long Island so I started looking at other states to possibly teach in/move to.

New York Art Advocator

http://www.nysaae.org/advocresource.htm

I was goggling and trying to find New York art education advocators and I did! The New York State Alliance for Arts Education (NYSAAE) serves a broad constituency of arts advocates, including educators, artists, administrators of arts organizations, parents and interested citizens across the state.  NYSAAE disseminates information about model programs, funding and standards of excellence, develops training models for constituent organizations, and advocates for arts education at the local, state and national levels.Founded in 1973, NYSAAE is located in the Cultural Education Center in Albany, NY.  NYSAAE is supported by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Education Department, and its membership.  It has received grants recently to initiate innovative professional development programs from The Dana Foundation, and the New York Times Company Foundation School Arts Rescue Initiative (SARI), and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. NYSAAE is part of a network of state alliances affiliated with the Kennedy Center.) 

Also on the website is a bunch of links to other art education forums. This website is very helpful. Looking around it, i found a "toolkit for teachers" which explains questions that new and experienced teachers may have. There is also a page about evaluation and assessment and teaching pedagogy. They have a form that you can fill out a 'teaching template' that can help you gain an understanding of the type of teacher you want to be.

Art Ed 2.0

http://arted20.ning.com/

This website could be helpful to art educators connect with other art educators globally. You need to sign up and it's free (which is nice) and you can join groups and post photos and lesson plans and receive lesson plans and ideas. I encourage everyone to take a look at this!

Advocating the Arts

http://www.psarts.org/

P.S. ARTS is a non-profit organization that recruits, hires, underwrites and trains professional artists to develop curriculum and teach classes during the regular school day.  The organization also works to educate and empower classroom teachers through arts-related workshops that demonstrate how to integrate creative expression and the arts into core academic subjects. 

P.S. ARTS customizes the instructional model to meet the specific needs of individual schools and school districts.  Current methods include a conservatory model offering one-to-two traditional arts disciplines per school (Theater, Music, Dance, and/or Visual Arts).  Each discipline is taught by a salaried Teaching Artist (a professional artist with classroom experience) for the full school year - upwards of 30 weeks.  P.S. ARTS also provides an innovative Integrated Arts Model (I AM), which furnishes every classroom in a school with three Teaching Artists, each specializing in a different artistic discipline, who rotate during the course of the school year.  Finally, P.S. ARTS offers a professional development partner program between classroom teachers and Teaching Artists to support skills development and strategies for integrating the arts across school curriculum. 

All of P.S. ARTS’ instruction models are built upon the California Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Standards and draw heavily upon the organization’s 19 years’ experience.  The goals of P.S. ARTS’ programs are to engage young minds, develop creative skills, improve observational powers, increase receptivity and develop problem solving abilities – all skills that serve children in their academic and personal development. In addition, P.S. ARTS programs help students develop grade-level appropriate concepts and skills in the arts, and help them identify connections between the arts and core subjects like language arts, social studies, math and science.

Event hough this is a Californian origination, I find it very interesting and happy that this is going on. I was watching tv today and I saw and event about this so I decided to google it and check it out. In California P.S. ARTS held an event where a whole bunch of celebrities, teachers and artists went to advocate for the arts in school. On their website you can donate money or find ways to help out, such as volunteering. I wonder if they have an organization like this for New York or any other state??

New York Foundation for the Arts

http://www.nyfa.org/default_mac.asp

I heard about this website from the NAEA meeting last night. This is my last semester in New Paltz and being here I noticed that there are so many art opportunities and art teaching and volunteering opportunities. So I was questioning the girls last night if they knew about any art opportunities on Long Island. We had a hard time at first thinking of something but then one girl suggested this website. It is like craigslist for artists and art educators. There are all different opportunities here, job opportunities, open studio spaces, opportunities for artists to show work, event listings, and there is a place for an artist to post a job for there artists to answer. I find this website extremely useful for myself because it will definitely help me in finding a job and giving me working/artists/exhibition chances. I encourage everyone to take a look at this!

My Fieldwork Experience

I had the most amazing time at my fieldwork. I was assigned to Cynthia McCusker, a seventh grade art teacher at Wappingers Junior High School. This fieldwork experience was unlike any other I've had before.  My mentor teacher was so unbelievable warm and welcoming when I first arrived (and throughout). She taught me so many different strategies and techniques to teaching. For example, keeping track of participation. She would have a seating chart with the students names and where they sit and keep track of who participates by putting a symbol next to them. This is also a good technique to learning the students names. Ms. McCusker was so generous in all of the advice she had to offer and all of the worksheets and packets she provided for me. It was definitely the best learning experience I could have had. I have pages upon pages of notes that I took during the time I spent there and I already know I will be looking back at those notes in the future. I actually already have done that when Danielle and I taught our theme based lesson to the class.
I also was able to experience a snow day, which is just like having a snow day as a student. One of the best learning experience I saw was watching substitutes. I was able to see two different subs at work. They were definitely two very different experiences. The first sub I was with was a very nice woman. She showed me everything a sub needs to do. From getting the teachers materials together to filling out reports after each period and even what her approach to classroom management was. She was definitely more in control of the classes. She was stern but friendly. The second sub was the complete opposite of the first. She didn't really explain anything to me at all. Even though I saw it once before, she did not know that and it would have been nice to see her approach. But, I was in shock how the class was acting. This sub didn't really have any control over the classes and didn't seem to have any approach to classroom management. I felt like my ears were going to explode. I was very grateful that that day was the   snow day and we only had a half day. This was a very good experience for me because I was able to see two different subbing situations and see what works and what doesn't and what I would like to do when I am in that situation.
Overall I couldn't have asked for a better mentor or experience. I will never forget all of the advice and wisdom that I was given. I am still in contact with Ms. McCusker and I am going to be helping her out for the festival of the arts that the junior high conducts! I think I have made not only an excellent resource in Ms. McCusker but also a great friend.

Assessment in Art Education

Assessment is key in education and the reformation of education. It helps educators dictate goals and create lessons. Being in a middle school classroom for my fieldwork I can definitely see why assessment is important. Not only because my mentor teacher has discussed it with me but also just observing the classroom and watching her grade projects. She has explained to me what she looks out for while assessing the students work. She even does a ‘do now’ at the beginning of class and at the end of class she tries to leave time for review.  And during these two times, she asks questions and gives students participation points for answering questions. This is a way that helps her assess students at the end of the quarter. I really like how she uses that technique and I would definitely consider that for when I have a classroom.

I never realized how a portfolio could be used for assessment. I also really love this technique for a classroom. A portfolio will hold all of the information a teacher, principal, parents and the student need to know about their artwork. And they can take it with them all throughout school. It would hold the students artwork, artist statement, table of contents of what is inside the portfolio, a cd with works on it, research materials, anything you can think of really.

Formative assessments are very useful in a classroom. It allows a less pressured, free flowing conversation to happen between students and teacher. It allows students to get feedback on their artwork without the pressure of it being graded yet and allows students to go back and fix things that maybe need changing.

I have also noticed that both formative assessment and summative assessment are used in the classroom for my fieldwork. Summative assessment is used at the end of the class and the beginning of each new day. My mentor teacher tries to ask students review questions to see if the students have retained any new information they have learned.

Overall I have noticed that in order to assess a students work or progress you have to explain what you are going to be looking at so the student has the opportunity to get a good mark. For example if you’re assessing a project and take points off for things the student hasn’t done but the teacher hasn’t explained what the requirements were fully. My mentor teacher also has grading rubrics for each project. She prints out a numbered list of the exact things she is going to be looking for when she grades the projects. Its clarification, clarification, clarification.

Arhtzee

Welcome to Arhtzee!

By Kim, Danielle, Gina, and Natalie

Arhtzhee is a game for teachers to aid in lesson planning. It is a fun, portable, easy game!

Players: 1-4

Octadie Key

Red - Big Ideas

Yellow - Post-Modern Principles

Green - Material Exploration

Blue - Assessment Strategies

Object of the Game

The object of Toss-A-Game is to toss the octadie to create a lesson plan incorporating the four resulting sub-categories that you roll.  The game can be played individually or in a group.

Rules

1.  To begin, place the four octadie in the box.

2.  Shake and roll octadie.

3.  After rolling, you may choose to use the four sub-categories displayed on top, or you can re-roll any or all of the octadie.

4.  You may only roll a total of three times.  The result of the third roll is final.

5.  You may use the four sub-categories rolled at any point; you do not have to use all three rolls.

Our teacher example from our results from playing Arhtzee!

And the great thing about this game is that you can alter the octadie in a way that fits your specific curriculum.  Here are the templates to make the dice!

NAEA Convention 2012 NYC

The NAEA convention last weekend was so much fun. I met a bunch of people and got tons of stuff. Everything from lesson plans to supplies and samples. The people were all so nice there and very informative and helpful. I attended a couple of the discussions, Chuck Close for example. I had a really hard time hearing him but the little I did hear I believe he was talking about his career and how he stumbled upon art and has done it ever since. I also attended a summer art workshop in which the speaker, Sara Cress, told us about a summer art activities program she put together for younger students (pk-5th grade i think) and her high school students who were thinking about becoming art teachers, were able to volunteer and put this on their resume and see if they actually enjoyed teaching children. This is her website http://sarahcress.com/ and you just have to click on 'presentations' on the top blue/teal area and you can scroll down and see the summer art activities and everything she did to make it come to life.

Aesthetics and Criticism

I believe that talking about art is a really great thing to do in the classroom. When I was in high school or even middle school I don’t remember ever talking about an artist.  We just got instructions about what the project we were going to be doing and were sent on our way.  There was no discussions at all or debates about what is and isn’t art.  And when I got to New Paltz I was I guess shocked that people were actually talking about this, I was never really introduced to the large gray area of art. I know when I become an art teacher I definitely want to introduce my students into thinking outside the box and questioning things and art and give them a perspective I never had. 

I really enjoyed the article Talking With Kids About Art by Tom Anderson.  What I like most about it is that there are examples or the ‘crit cards’ to show examples of questions that the teacher would ask their students.  I also really like that Anderson explains what each subject (reaction, description, interpretation, and evaluation) mean and how a teacher can intergrade that in their classroom.  Anderson says, “professional critics go through the processes of description, interpretation, and evaluation to determine the meaning and significance of art.” Compared to art education purposes in which value is important in being able to distinguish the process of critiquing and structuring the crit in stages.  Aesthetics as Critical Inquiry also by Tom Anderson, addresses aesthetics framed as critical inquiry as a teaching and learning strategy and becomes more in depth in having students question art and things that are considered art.  He also says that students must have an idea on what they think is art before they can critique it.  I believe this can be a great opening of a discussion about aesthetics and critiquing and talking about art in general. In the article, Eyes Wide Shut by K. Tavin, says the challenge to art education is to help students and teachers view, interpret, and respond to the world though aesthetics and post modernism language to open students eyes on art.  In my opinion I find that the Anderson articles would be more effective for me if I was conducting the discussions in all the articles because I like the steps and the building up of the questions in the Talking With Kids About Art article.  I just feel that the students would get a better understanding of an artwork.  But now thinking, I do like the ideas in the Tavin article, having students bring in objects they think are and aren’t art. That would be a very rich discussion too.

My first day of Middle School

Today I had my first observation at Wappinger falls junior high. It was so much fun. My teacher was absent for the first half of the day so I was able to see what a sub does. It was really interesting. She had a folder with all of the information about fire drills and other safety procedures and what to do situations. I really learnt a lot from her in the short time we were together. When my mentor teacher came in I was nervous but really excited. She is the nicest woman. She was extremely welcoming and made me feel so comfortable in her classroom. I cannot wait to see what is ahead in my time at the junior high. I really want to teach Middle school so I am willing to take any advice I can get and soaking in an information that is thrown my way. I can't wait to see what I'll be doing next week!

Interpreting Art

I never really thought of formally interpreting a piece of artwork. I have interpreted art through critiques in my studio classes and I suppose in art history classes as well. I know sometimes people see things and meaning in my work that I had absolutely no intentions of. So I think interpretations are nice but sometimes not necessary. Sometimes I paint something just because I like it, not because it has some big elaborate meaning. After reading chapter 1 I am interested in the questions that were proposed on page 1 and 2 and 35-38. I want to learn more about why people do interoperate art and why it is important if it even really is and so on.

Grow-a-game

I think it is very interesting when the articles talks about how video games and television influence people. i think that they do have some kind of influence but not 100% of it. A lot about a person has to do with where they live and what kind of background they have grown up in. I have seen first hand what impression violent video games have on a first grader. This child always talked about playing all of these "killing" games with his older brothers and a lot of his art projects and writings have either been about bombs or exploding/killing people. I think that the grow-a-card games are a really good alternative to the violent games. They actually can get people thinking and interacting with one another, instead of just sitting alone playing a video game. It will definitely be healthier in my opinion. The grow-a-game i think would be a nice alternative to learning about a subject. Like instead of having to sit at your desk and take notes for 40 minutes i know i would rather be playing a fun game. I feel like students would remember the information better, unless that student remembers from note taking.

Surrealist Games

So over the weekend I tried out some of the surrealist games with my boyfriend. We had a lot of laughs doing these! We tried the Conditionals game, Syllogisms game, the Exquisite Corpse writing and drawing games, Automatic Writing game, and the Definition or Question and Answer game. The results to our games were so bizarre. They are really good party games. Actually one of the games I have played at a party. And here's two of the games we played!