[Teaching Art] Ch'i-Head Calligraphy

Hmmm... not so bad, eh?

[Teaching Art] Describing Chi

Yesterday I tried to start an art study on Chinese Calligraphy. As the turkey-butts would say, it was an epic fail. Middle school turkey butts are so very very literal, that they just weren't getting the... the... zen of the whole thing (maybe because "zen" is Japanese in origin?).  I knew that if I set them to work on calligraphy today, they would struggle, and shoot for perfection, and come up with passable pieces. I got into my tiny little head though, that I wanted them understand the concept of calligraphy as art. I wanted them to feel the chi, tap into the tao, think like Confucius. 

I heard about water calligraphy, but did not have any handy water calligraphy sets or access to a place to do water calligraphy (as we are not allowed outside of the fence until the neighboring school has gone home--more on that when I'm not pissy about it).  I also wanted to add a sensory element to the experience.  Enter... my super power of coming up with strange ideas at the drop of a hat....

I created four stations.  Each station had a large tray with a different substance on it.  The turkey-butts went around to each station (while I played interesting music), and... well... played in it.  

Dish Soap

Shaving Cream

Rice

Sand

After they tried each station, I gave them trays of their favorite medium and asked them to create a piece of art.

Then, I put five minutes on the clock, gave them white board markers, and had them write about it.  The little chi-brains went right to it.

Tomorrow I'll see how it goes with some actual calligraphy. We shall see if this goofy idea translates into some learning.

*NOTE--Yes, I teach art.  No, I am not an "art teacher."  I send my sincerest apologies to the art teachers in the world for attempting to teach it.  BUT, my turtle-doves NEED art in their lives, and there isn't anyone else to do it. 

[Tech Tip] The Storybirds Are Flying

Earlier this week I told you about something I was going to try in my classroom--Storybirds.

Well my caped friends, the birds they are a-flyin'. As the lovies finish their stories I'll add them to the Student Story Bird page on this blog. In the meantime, here are two that made me smile or laugh out loud--both from the author's humor and with joy at their learning. The writing mechanics are a little dicey, but remember that this is one week into the school year, and these are EXTREMELY reluctant writers. I am tickled lime green and purple that my lovies showed voice, used ideas from our mentor texts, and played around with text forms. They took pride in editing (although they had trouble staying focused on the task for ALL of their pages), and were even more excited to share their work with the class. Their classmates (remember--kids kicked out of other schools) clapped and cheered and pointed out the text devices the authors used.

"Hey that's a hyphenated whatchamacallit like we saw yesterday!"
"Did you see that figurative language?"
"I like the word nemesis!"
"He used an ellipse!"

To put it simply, I am sparkling proud of my little dumpling heads for their work.

Presenting... The Animals of the Forest by T.

The animals of the forest on Storybird

Presenting...Hide and Seek by A. 

Hide and Seek on Storybird

Wanta try it?  Go here!

[Tech Tip] Storybird

I discovered this link today while on a teacher networking site called Edmodo (more on that later).  I'm still playing around with it, but will absolutely be using it this week.  I'm going to use it in art class though, and sneak the writing in.  Bwahahahaha.

From what I can tell so far, the site uses art collections by various artists.  I don't recognize the names, but there are short bios for each.  You use the collection of art to create a story--kind of a mix between a photo book and a postcard collection.

One issue  I see is that to print--either in a book or even as a PDF--there is a charge.  While I appreciate the site's need to sustain itself, $2 (a PDF is $1.99)  is a lot these days.  I'm hoping they send me some "free printing" deals.  I'm certain there are ways around the paid printing, but I'd like to respect the site and the legal issues of printing, ya know?  On the plus side, printing just wastes trees.  We can just have virtual books, right?

I'll share more as the stories get created! I started a story about a kid who flies. I think I can embed it below, but it looks like it might be slow to load.  Warning, I wrote this in five minutes. It's... how shall I say... lame-ish.



Fighting Dragons on Storybird

My Darling Clementine

All of my classrooms have a ghost.  Either I have a strong link to the Other Side, or I need a patsy for the odd things that happen in my room... you can guess which one.  In this classroom her name is Clementine.

Way back in the olden days of yore, my aforementioned amazing cousin-friend (here and here) created amazing characters with watercolor.  This week we used watercolor in our art project, and I got to play with some of the materials (mostly just the leftovers).  

What do these things have in common?  Today I created Portrait o' Clementine a' la Awesome Cousin.  This is what happens when you pour watercolor water on old paper and splash around in it.  The Netherworld speaks to you!

Hellooooo Clementine!

Important Note: Recently, this amazing cousin I speak of had some of her art copied and sold without permission.  I must say that while artists are often our inspiration for what we teach or create, it is vital that the artist, author, or originator of the work be recognized.  Inspiration is a gift, we must make sure to respect it. 

Artsy Fartsy 2--Electric Boogaloo

And THEN we played with color!!!!  What fun was that?  First, color wheels.  Spiced up the typical color wheel lessons by using magazine cut-out mosaics to create the colors (Thanks to the awesome classroom staff person with awesome ideas and awesome artistic talent.  Did I mention awesome?).  Then a review of ROY G. BIV, and some color schemes--monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triad, gray scale, and black-n-white.

Using some abstract blackline coloring pages I had, the students divided each into four sections, picked four color schemes and colored like crazy.  I'm quite tickled at the quality of their work.  They worked hard, they enjoyed themselves, they were proud, and they complimented the work of others.  I don't know how real art teachers feel, but I'm thinking this went pretty well!

Below is a collage.  Click here for a closer look.

Artsy Fartsy

This year I am teaching art.  For those of you that know me, I am not, technically, artistic.  Certainly, I am what you might call creative.  I am... crafty (homograph intended).  What I am not is an artist.  I know small bits of information, I know what I think is pretty, and I know how to research new ideas.  I fall heavily on this non-artistic skill base to get me through.  I think our students need art in their lives, I am saddened that I am their only option, but I am willing to try.  Luckily for me, one of our classroom aides is quite artistic and helps the kids with the actual... you know... art part.

I follow a simple lesson-planning model for the art class.  I pick an artist or artistic idea, teach some information about it, show examples, and then let them at it.  My plan, over the course of the 9-week quarter, is to expose them to some basic principals of art, some artists with whom they may identify, and some ways to express their little grinchy-heart-soul thoughts.

One of our first projects was centered around the concepts of line, shading, and portraiture.  Not small ideas (admittedly, I started too big).

First we reviewed the work of Chuck Close.  I focused in on the terms "portrait" and "photorealism" and showed how many of the pieces look differently close up versus far away.  Here is a short video of me teaching the concepts of "Near" and "Far."

Okay... not really.  Heh.  That is making me giggle more than it should.  No really.  I've watched it three times. Simple minds....


Anyhoo, the students picked magazine photos from my stash and drew a half-inch grid on them.  They then penciled in a one-inch grid on the drawing paper.  We showed them how to transfer the lines they saw (as opposed to what they thought the picture should be). Some students understood the concept immediately.  Some understood it part way through, a couple never quite grasped it, and one or two created some wildly abstract art pieces ("Well done kidlet, is that a... giraffe?").  Any piece that was completed was fawned over, exclaimed upon, complimented and displayed ("I just LOVE giraffes!").  Below is a collage of the pieces.  If you'd like a closer look click here.

or click here

*Note--it's almost 24 hours later and I am still giggling at Grover.