Art Ed Blog Finalist and 200 Followers!

The results are in and I am happy to be a finalist among some amazing art education bloggers for Art Ed Blog of the Year! Congratulations to all of the winners and finalists. You can see all of us by visiting  The Art of Education. 

Over the last few days my blog has also reached over 200 followers! All of these confirmations of what I do are so appreciated. Remember that most bloggers are not compensated in any way other than knowing that you are out there, reading, commenting and sharing with each other. Thank you all for your support!

Best Artists in the Ocean: Animated!

Lovely things happen when you are part of a great community of art educators. I recently received an email from Ian Sands. His blog Art of Apex High School is also up for the 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year at The Art of Education.  Ian asked if his students could use the squid paintings my students recently created after reading 'I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean!' by Kevin Sherry as inspiration for an animation project.
I was so excited that he contacted me and immediately agreed. What a great way for older and younger students to collaborate, utilize technology, and just have fun making art! Not to mention that we are in different parts of the country. Now it feels like we are sharing the same virtual classroom! Thanks Ian, to you and your students. It is just the coolest thing ever to have someone animate your art! My students are all smiles.

There's still time to vote for our blogs at The Art of Ed! 

Midnight tonight is the deadline. Good luck once again everyone! 

I'm off to find out about How to Milk a Dinocow!

Holiday Paintings

A few years back, my husband's grandmother requested a special gift for the holidays. She asked for each member of the family to create a holiday painting for her to display in her home. The older members of our family can be hard to buy for, and I was thankful for the request. So, this post isn't so much a lesson plan or tour of the art room, but a reminder that a handmade gift can mean more than something bought in a store. There's still time to create some art for family, friends, soldiers on a tour of duty, or the local assisted living home. Happy Holidays.

Please vote for Art Ed Blog of the Year 2012!

Woo hoo! I just found out from Jessica over at The Art of Education that my blog has been selected as one of the finalists to win "Art Ed Blog of the Year!" I am very excited, and hope you can take a minute this week to vote for My Adventures in Positive Space.

Voting is open this whole week from today through Friday the 14th. Follow this link http://www.theartofed.com/2012/12/09/2012-art-ed-blog-of-the-year-voting-open/.
All you have to do is click on the vote now button, check off my blog and any others that you adore, and then hit submit! My blog is truly in great company, and it would be an honor to make it into the Top 10 Art Ed Blogs of 2012!

 

Thanks so much to all that follow my adventures, and Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Woven Space Invaders

Upper elementary and middle school students recently discussed the art of weaving and its parallels to computer technology and video game design. We talked bout how comparing the look of classic arcade video games to today's games demonstrates the advancement in technology for many aspects of our lives. 

This is a great lesson for weaving, art and technology history, careers in art, or you could also touch upon Invader, the international graffiti artist. I found the idea for this lesson at Minieco Tutorials, where there are lots of modern paper design projects as well as lots of other cool stuff.

I had examples of Space Invaders for my students to chose as reference, and they created a weaving using their own color choices. Then I asked them to design their own creation. For these original designs, we worked on graph paper and paid attention to symmetry and color. Students also had to figure out ways to make more than one color appear on a single row, and how to come up with an effective design with limited amount of space and color choices.

Nominations for Art Ed Blog of the Year!

Nominations for Art Ed Blog of the Year are now open at The Art of Education! This site has a wealth of resources specifically for art teachers, including information on classroom organization, curriculum planning, professional development classes, and more. They've got some cute videos as well. If you haven't visited the site yet, take a look.

If you enjoy my art education blog or any others, you can nominate them all this week by Friday December 7th. Visit this page and leave a comment with a link to your nominations, and reasons why you enjoy them. I'm going to nominate my favorites, why don't you?

 

This is a great opportunity to support the art education blogs we enjoy and rely on for inspiration, communication, and advocacy in our field. I'd love to be included among them. Good luck everyone!