Distance Learning Videos to Share!

Here's a sneak peek of my "In the Art Room" videos created for distance learning! 

Please use them to share ideas, adopt a lesson to make it your own, or to show to your own students. You can see all of the videos created so far right here:

My Adventures in Positive Space on YouTube

You have all been so helpful to me, and I want to return the favor.

Teachers are amazing. Especially art teachers! As things are unfolding in the world, we are adjusting to creating ways to connect with our students as we are thrust into the world of distance learning. Social media is now in the forefront as we reach out to each other and share ideas for lessons, advocacy, and communication with each other and our students. Thank you for all of your inspiration!

A few weeks ago here in New Jersey, my colleagues and I were given notice to write lessons to post for online learning, and were given very little time. My first lessons were written instructions, and focused on utilizing the home environment. I needed to make sure that lessons were manageable and that all students would be able to accomplish their projects with a variety of circumstances and art supplies at home.

As time away from my students began to expand, and homeroom teachers branched out to things like Zoom and Flipgrid for meeting with and conducting their classes, I thought about how I could connect with my students. I needed to be able to explain things visually and wanted my students to see and connect with me. I was also warned that every teacher could not schedule classes to meet virtually, so as not to overwhelm the learning from home schedule. So I set to work setting up my studio area to create video lessons.

And, kudos to all of the art teacher rock stars out there who already create videos! It is hard work. I fumbled over my words, smacked my lips, said "ummmm" I don't know how many times. Lighting is hard! Editing is hard! Needless to say I had quite a learning curve, and things aren't perfect, but I am virtually available to my students, and have given them ways to create art with choices for recycled materials or whatever art supplies they have at home. I hope these lessons are helpful to you all. 

Be well and safe!

Marc Chagall Self Portraits

I've been thinking more and more about choice in the art room. I definitely try to strike a balance in my teaching philosophy and practice. After all elementary students need structure. They are still learning to use materials properly, the rules and procedures in the art room, and I have curriculum standards to fulfill.

And yet, student choice in the art room reveals a path to a wonderful variety of expression, lends itself to differentiation and increased student engagement. I am finding that when we talk about art, and artistic choices of famous artists, that students are inspired to make their own decisions in how and what they are making. This simple project turned into something magical for me and my 3rd graders as we learned about the art of Marc Chagall.

Our first look at some of Chagall's paintings observations like:
Some people are green, upside down, different sizes.
Some things are floating, or upside down.
Sometimes people or animals are shown as just a face, or their whole body.

We talk about how Chagall made choices as an artist to create his paintings in this way, and students were asked to think about the following: What can we do in our artwork to demonstrate that it is inspired by the work of Marc Chagall?
Show us three things that tell us about you
Create a self or family portrait or memory
Include people, buildings and nature (plants/animals)
Have images vary in size
Use non-realistic and bright colors
Add an unexpected image
Change the direction of objects
Floating or flying people/objects
Create a feeling of happiness
Include a favorite animal or pet

The three things that that tell me something about my students is required, and all of the other criteria work more like prompts. I don't expect every item to be addressed. Those three things are a great opportunity for me to learn a little more about each as we work and discuss our projects. The one thing I do dissuade my students from doing is writing words on their project. Some students are inclined to label things, or just write words instead of draw, so we talk about that as well.

We sketch ideas on a 4x6 piece of paper before moving on to 12x18. And then the process is pencil drawing, tracing lines carefully in sharpie, smaller areas in oil pastels, and painting larger areas in watercolor or pan tempera.

In having choices throughout this project, students care about what they creating. And when everyone's artwork is different, no one's choices are wrong. Here are some of my favorites!

Kinetic Drawings

I just finished a unit with my 5th graders based on the art of Heather Hansen. She is an interdisciplinary artist, who combines her work in dance, choreography and drawing to create large-scale kinetic drawings. 

 We talked about Heather Hansen's work, and I showed them a brief Youtube video to give them a bit more information as well as a glimpse into how she works. We made connections to creating snow angels, and talked about the meaning of the term kinetic. We then saw the work of other artists who utilize movement in their work, like Alexander Calder, and Bridget Riley.

Then we began work on our individual drawings. The kids worked with chalk pastels, which I divided into trays, with two pastels of two different colors. They worked with the same pastel color in each hand, concentrating on creating a drawing that was symmetrical, showed various lines and movement, and used at least four colors. As a final touch to their work, students could create "smudge lines" using their fingers. I had them repeat after me, "fingers, not hands" and showed them the difference between creating lines with our fingers, and making mud with our hands. Some chose also to include thicker and thinner lines by utilizing different sides of the pastels.

Space is always an issue since I push into several rooms, so we prepped two 18"x24" sheets of drawing paper with a masking tape seam along the back. Each day as we finished our work, our paper was carefully folded in half to store it for the next class. 

For our collaborative drawings, I assigned partners, they prepped paper, and wrote their names, each on one panel on the back. This way I could grade the finished piece, as well as their individual contributions to it. Also, we could just separate the two halves of the artwork at the end of the unit, so each student could keep his or her own work.

My students were so engaged, and discovered that creating a nonrepresentational work of art can be even more challenging and rewarding than one with a concrete or representational objective. They also reflected on the differences in working on a individual drawing as opposed to working with a partner. I couldn't have been happier with their efforts. Their drawings demonstrated a great variety of line, movement, color, and symmetry. Individual drawings conveyed their choices and personalities. And their collaborative work showed their attention, communication skills, and expression of the lesson objectives as a team. Here are some of our final pieces:

 Individual Drawings in Pastel

Partner Drawings in Oil Pastel

Great Art Sites for Kids—Artopia on PBS

On the website for my local PBS station, I recently found Artopia. Here you can watch the pilot episode of the children's cartoon featuring the young artist Nina, and her two best friends/creations named Little and Streak. In this episode, a stained glass king has his crown stolen by a monster, and the trio venture into Artopia to track down the monster and retrieve the crown.

Along the way they meet creations of art from different parts of the world, and from different time periods depicting various monsters and creatures. There is also a game where you can create your own monster using different body parts, colors and patterns, as featured in the show. Here's a monster I created using the head of the demon Arghan, from India, and the body of Skylla, a beast from Greek mythology.

Unfortunately this series didn't take off, so I think that's why the "Share What You Think" section is now defunct. But it's fun to watch the episode and design some monsters. It was great timing for me to find this site, as I am currently working on a lesson with my 5th graders about gargoyles, grotesques, and chimeras! And there's a special place in my heart for red-headed artists! Have a look and create a monster or two.

My New Favorite TV Commercial

There's a new TV commercial airing sponsored by HGTV, Sherwin-Williams, and Lowe's featuring some very familiar faces. Have you seen it? Take a minute to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XznR_UIpyB4