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In the past I have given my students the assignment: Create art using outdated technology.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 :)

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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