My Posse

What's So Good About a PLN?

PLN is all the buzz in school speak. The basic concept is simple. Teachers working together to write common lesson plans. My PLN goes beyond my school and the basic concept. My PLN helps create incredible ideas for art projects.




Today, I went to my classroom to start planning ideas for next fall. I opened up my email box and looked at all the ideas I emailed myself based on ideas I stole... I mean received as tweets from my PLN. Here are just a few...

Side note: I'll try to give credit where credit is due but hope you can forgive me because there are so many great ideas, I forget where they all come from.




This is a lesson created by @Tiedemania an elementary art teacher from Jersey of all places.

I always do a unit on animation with my Art One students. What's I'd like to do is have them capture the movement of many drawings in chalk and then create a stopmotion animation of those drawings. How cool would that be?




I don't remember who posted this but I love the idea of using this as a line project.

In the past I have given my students the assignment: Create art using outdated technology. Somewhere between that idea and this one is a project I'll do next fall. The tweet was Amazing Cassette Tape Artworks by Erika Simmons.




@kellyrva started folling me on Twitter so I decided to stalk her blog. I love this assignment. It's one of those, "Why didn't I think of that!" ideas.

We always do a unit on perspective and we draw buildings... always buildings.

Games! What a refreshing idea. Will certainly be stealing.. I mean borrowing this project.




Again, not sure who originally posted it but balloon art... are you kidding me?

Here at Apex HS Art we are no stranger to balloons. We made a 40' by 46' mosaic of the Mona Lisa out of balloons.

In the past, I've given balloon sculpture as a project but it was usually a one day event. Just for fun. This fall I think i'll design a full lesson plan around the concept of balloon art... something big!

So there you have it. A glimpse into the first day of planning for next fall and the ideas generated by my PLN.. if they wanted to or not :)

For more about my Posse click here!

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That Kid Never Follows the Rubrics!

I read a post this morning on having students create personal success plans.. and it got me pondering how I could incorporate something like this into my art class.

Creating a Personal Success Plan - A Sensible Alternative to Standardized Tests

There is a struggle that occurs in art classes when there is a student who wants to do a project her own way. The art teacher has created a lesson plan with a strict grading rubric and along comes the flighty art student who doesn't want to follow the rules but wants to express herself.

The teacher is bent because the student isn't following the plan. The student is bent because, after all, this is art class and you should be allowed to do whatever you want in art class. So what does the art teacher do?

This is where I think a personal success plan could come in handy. The student could create a plan on day one. This would start a dialog and hopefully uncover the student's interests and possible directions. The plans could be revisited serval time during the year to help continue the discussion.

Then, at the beginning of a new project, the plan could be used to discuss the direction the student wants to take while still keeping her work inside (or at least near) the framework of the rubrics.

ian
@iansands
http://www.zonkeystret.com

The Best of Apex Art 2011

August:

This year Oakridge Secondary in London, Ontario and Apex High School became sister art schools! We worked on the same sketchbook assignments and even collaborating on projects.



September:



Working in teams, we created the first Apex HS masking tape murals throughout the school.

October:



Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is.

November:

Monalloon from iansands on Vimeo.

What would you do with 190 Art One Students and 1,840 balloons? Make a giant mosaic of the Mona Lisa... of course!

December:



Computer Art class took this box for a walkcycle.

January:

First ever Art History Toss and Remix from iansands on Vimeo.

February:



Shake that can of spay paint and create some art.

March:



Not only did School Arts Magazine publish our post-it note art story... we made the front cover!

April:



Another first, Apex Art tries Gyotaku (Japanese 魚拓, from gyo "fish" + taku "rubbing") is a traditional form of Japanese fish printing

May:



Turning Bricks into Pixels

June July:

Have a great summer! See you next Year!

Ian Sands
Twitter: @iansands

Shelby and the Whale

Meet Shelby from iansands on Vimeo.

Final Exam Blog Section

“Recognizing that this may be the last art class my students will ever take, what do they need to know in order to begin a lifelong engagement with art?” ~Olivia Gude

Taking this quote into consideration, write a blog post that answers the following:

1. Which project do you feel you learned, grew or developed the most from? Explain why and post images of that project.

2. Which project do you feel will be the most relevant in your life? Explain why and post photos of that project.

3. Which project had the least value? Explain why and post photos of that project.

Painting
http://www.mediafire.com/?c4nb44m7xcv65

Pastel Murals
http://www.mediafire.com/?c8l7cz1fje4dc

Tetris in Cups

Cup Tetris from Daniel Ghan on Vimeo.

Guess What Happens Next?? Part 1

So I took Ms. Bate's Art One class to the computer lab today and gave the a quick overview of PhotoShop. After learning a few techniques, they were given the following assingment.. Guess What Happens Next? Here are their responses...

Kite Day

Today was Art History Kite Flying Day!

To be honest, they might have flown well if only there had been some wind. 5 miles an hour winds out of the NW didn't really cut it. However, the kites look really good-->

Art On The Move Bus

The new Art On the Move bus is out and rolling down the streets of Raleigh. The streets of Raleigh are the perfect place for it too cause that's what we wrote about for the background.



The bus contains sentences written by students that include the names of streets. They looked at a map of Raleigh, found a street and wrote a sentence that incorporated the name of the street.




Some examples of their sentences include:

I want world Peace Street.
When I get nervous I Pace Street.
Baby you can drive my Carr Street.