Art Tech Task #5

The tool that I decided to do for this week is Instagram. I decided to go with this tool because this is a great way to share photos, videos, and other artifacts that students have created. I would like to create a separate Instagram account that is entirely private except for my students and their parents. I feel like this would be a great way for parents to have a specific place to view work that is going on in our classroom. I also like that you can use this entirely private. I can create the account so that the only people that see what I post are who I choose. This means that I can make my profile private and only accept parents and/or students if they choose to follow it. I can upload pictures, videos, and stories (short/live videos) as the day goes. Just as well, this social media site is accessible online and as an app. This means that if parents have a quick minute, throughout their day, they can check to see if anything has been added from that day. Moreover, if you tag someone they get a direct notification that they were tagged. Therefore, if a particular student made something or got an award I could upload it and tag the parents in the photo. That way they would see right away that I posted something and that their child was involved.

Because this is a social media site and there are a lot of different speculations about social media sites this would be something that I would need to discuss with the school first. From that point on, I would then send out a letter to parents. This would also include a release form stating that it was okay for their child to be featured on the page.

As a twenty-two year old I am constantly checking my social media page. However, regardless of my age I know that social media sites are constantly checked by all sorts of people. In our society people are constantly on their phones. I feel like this is a great way to incorporate this into our classroom. That way parents can add this task to something that they are doing anyway!

This is definitely something that I would like to pursue in my future classroom!
                      

Summary of Learning

I decided to make a presentation for my Summary Of Learning Presentation. I originally made my presentation in PowerPoint. However, I was having some issues embedding it into Blogger. Because of this I decided to insert it into a GoogleSheets and then just attach that link to the blog. The reason I decided to do a presentation was because I really like that I could say everything that I wanted to all in one place. Just as well, for EdTech and Transliteracy I made a Prezi for my Summary of Learning. As much as I love Prezis I decided that this time I didn't want to do that. Just as well, I have recently discovered how handy it is to use GoogleSheets, especially for group projects, when completing presentations. Just as well, I love that with GoogleSheets you can work on your projects anywhere. All that you have to do is sign in and then you have access to all of your different projects in one place. I have found, especially in college, that this is an immensely convenient tool.

As I touch on, in my presentation, the biggest thing that I will be taking away from this class is my new found love for art. I went years thinking that because of my bad experiences growing up, and my lack of talent in the subject, that I should not like art. I felt so strongly about this that, until this course, I hadn't taken a single art class since 8th grade. I was under these impressions because of the teachers that I had that left a bad taste in my mouth. However, after this course, I am now aware that my artistic worth is not just a product of my ability to draw. Being artistic and creative is made up of much more than just that. I not only have a new sense of confidence in myself as an artistic, but also my ability to teach it. I feel as if I am no longer "scared" of the subject. I think the biggest thing that I would like to take away from this class is offering my students the resources they need to figure out what their artistic outlet is! Whatever that outlet may be, I want them to be able to find it and have confidence in it. This is exactly how I plan on incorporating Integrated Expressive Arts into my classroom. I am going to show my students that they can be creative and artistic in any manner that suites them, There is no one answer to being an artist. I plan to have them equipped with as many tools as possible to allow them the ability to showcase their work and be proud of it. I want them to be able to create artifacts that they want to show off and then I want to give them the tools to do so. Just as well, I want to show my students how relevant art is in our every day lives and how we can look for it. 

Art Tech Task #4

The tool that I have chosen, for this weeks Art Tech Task, is YouTube. I decided to use this site because not only can you upload videos that you've made but you also have access to all of the great videos already on the site. YouTube has a series of different categories. These are listed on the left side of the website as "The Best of YouTube" These categories include: Music, Sports, Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, News, Live, Spotlight, and 360 Degrees Video. Just as well, there is a search bar at the top of the site. The feature allows you to search whichever top or video you would like. Once you've searched this the top pick is the most closely related to your search and as you scroll down it ventures farther and farther away from that exact search. I know that in order to upload videos you must subscribe to the site and have a login. It is free to do this.

This would be great for an early childhood setting because it allows you to show a multitude of different videos that pertain to a so many different topics, subjects, and differentiated levels of development. Just as well, this is a great way to assign tasks out of class or on their own time. Students can access these videos on their phones, tablets, iPads, and computers. Just as well, if they create a video of their own they can upload it where ever they would like. This makes for a major convenience factor when promoting this website. 

I would love to use this tool, in my classroom, as much as possible. I would like to use it for students to upload videos that they have made. This may be individually or within a group project. We could put them on a specific channel and they would play one after another. Just as well, I would like to use this website to enhance my instruction. I would like my students to have access to these different videos at anytime. I would search and find different videos that pertain to whatever we are working on at that particular time and then have these videos available to the children whenever they may need them. 

YouTube is very popular website, therefore, I find that many students already know how to use it. Just as well, as I am working through the site and looking for different videos, or features the site may contain, I find that it is very easy to navigate. However, depending on what grade I am teaching, operating this site may not be that easy to use. For example, if I were in a preschool setting this would not be an appropriate tool for them to use. However, I would say by the time students are in second grade or higher this site would be just fine for them to use. Even students in kindergarten and first grade may be able to use the site but not to its full extent. By this I mean that they would probably be able to watch videos and maybe even search them, however, uploading them on their own would not be something that I would strongly promote in that grade level.

Something I really like, that I have found on this site, is the multitude of different videos they have that pertain to story book readings. For example, here is a reading of the story The Polar Express. This is read by Liam Neeson and goes throughout the entire book. The pages change as the reader goes on. I really like these readings because there are so many different activities that we could do with books and now the children have access to a reading at any time. Just as well, I would love to have my students hear how different authors read a story out loud and then take the time to go through a story, that is well rehearsed to them, and record themselves reading it. You could even take this as far as to have them write their own story and then read it aloud. 

Studio 4

This week we posed as third graders and made portraits. We did this by choosing a number of different descriptions for a person and then transferring that into a portrait. The teacher named off a series of different features, that make up a person's face, and we had to write down which one we wanted to use for our portrait. These included such features as: young or old, age, gender, mood, hair color, hair length, hair texture, color of eyes, shape of face, shape of eyes, and facial expression. Once we wrote down each feature that we wanted for our portrait we were to draw it in pencil. The next step of our art project was to lay a piece of translucent paper over top of our portrait and color it with magic markers. We then received a thicker piece of white paper, almost like a piece of cardstock, and we had to dampen that with water. Finally, once the paper was entirely damp we had to transfer it from the translucent paper to the white dampened paper. We did this using what resembled a black rolling pin. Once we lifted the translucent paper we were able to see our finished product. The materials that we used, for this project, include a sketchbook or drawing paper, 2B graphite pencil, small free-standing mirrors, water-based marker sets and multicultural markers, 8.5X11" (heavy gauge), overhead transparency film, atomizer (alt: empty Windex bottle), blotter paper (alt: paper towels), newsprint, brayers, 8.5X11" white cardstock or set of oil pastels and while 9X12" drawing paper. I decided for my character that he was going to be a 27 year old male with short brown hair that was stringy. Just as well, he had blue rounded/oval eyes, a rounded face, and be smiling because he was happy. 

The National & State standards are as follows: 

LT: Uses words to describe character.

AC: Uses descriptive language (adjectives) to tell about age, physical attributes, and emotion in art and own characterization.

LT: Illustrates descriptive words.

AC: Uses shapes, lines, and detail in character sketch and final portrait to represent ideas.

LT: Uses sketch to inform portrait.

AC: Repeats and refines ideas from sketch in final portrait.

LT: Makes a color portrait.

AC: Transfers line and color from transparency film in mono-type or blends and layers pastel colors for invented character. 

This art project definitely connects to the National and State standards because everything we did in this project is listed in the above state standards. We used descriptive words to describe a character, illustrated based on these descriptive words, used the descriptive words that we decided on to sketch out portrait, and transferred the portrait that we made in mono-type or blends to create our final project. I definitely think that connects well with third grade students because at the age of nine and ten they need a descriptive outlet. They are at a point where they can think in a more imaginary way which is exactly what this is. They have these descriptions but no real picture to go off of for their portrait. They will have to use their imagination and the descriptions that they have picked to create someone. The only issue I could see, in this art project, is for the children that this does not work out for. I feel if they forget a step or just mess up in some way that this will seriously upset some students. Obviously you cannot avoid a project so that if it doesn't work out it won't be an issue. However, I feel if you were to do this project, you would need to give your students ample opportunities to complete it. By this I mean you need to allow your students to make these mistake and redo the project until they've completed it how they should. All in all, I really enjoyed this project.

Studio 3

For this weeks Studio Project we were second graders. We talked a lot about sequencing and the depth that is in pictures. I decided to make my collage the part of Rosie's Walk where she is walking past the trees. I decided to make this scene because I knew that I would be able to at least semi-successfully recreate this picture. The materials we used for this project included: construction paper, fancy paper, glue, and a piece of paper for the back drop. We went through Rosie's Walk twice and then put a series of pictures in the order of the story. We looked at a multitude of different photos, from various different artists. and discussed the different sizes of the items in the photo. This is what determines where the objects are within the picture. In my picture I made the grass the biggest object because it was closest in the picture. Next, I made the fox, chicken, and trees a medium size to showcase that they were in the middle of the photo. Finally, I made the clouds the smallest because they are in the sky and the farthest away in the photo. My photo is from the middle of the story when Rosie walks past the trees.

Standards used:

LT: Identifies or creates the sequence of a story.

AC: Describes the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

LT: Represents a part of a story.

AC: Illustrates a specific event in the beginning, middle, or end of a story.

LT: Locates a key figure or objects in space.

AC: Places important character or setting elements close by sizing large, and far by sizing small.

LT: Uses collage techniques.

AC: Cuts smoothly and glues securely.  

I think that this assignment joins perfectly with all the standards chosen. This assignment requires the students comprehension of the story and their ability to produce that into a picture. I feel this is something that is quite important for second graders to accomplish. Just as well, this requires them to focus on their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills require the students to be able to cut their paper smoothly and affectively. This is a skill that requires practice and perfecting for the students.

I do not really see there being any issues with this project. However, I could see the concept of the items being near and far, to represent distance, to be a challenge. The only reason I say this is because I feel as if children in second grade are still working on gaging objects by size. Therefore, this could take them some extra practice to really understand and be able to produce.

Attached below is the picture of my collage from class:

Art Tech Task #3

The tool I decided on for this week is called Voice Record Pro and I downloaded it from the App Store on my iPhone. I recorded myself reading a childrens book, written by Jamie Lee Curtis, that is called Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day. This is an app that you can use to record yourself.

I found this tool to be particularly interesting because it is so easily accessed on your phone or iPad. Within the app you can add different notes to whatever you have recorded, export the recording in multiple different ways, and everything is set up easy to navigate through. Below I have embedded a couple pictures of the apps layout. The first picture is my "list" of recordings. I obviously just downloaded this app, therefore, I only have the one recording thus far. Next we have a picture of what the app looks like as you are recording. This shows you how long you've been recording for, where you can add notes to your recording, and your ability to complete your recording or simply pause it for a moment. The final picture is a picture of what the app looks like once you click on one of your already completed recordings. This is shows you a lot of the different exporting options.

Children are getting phones and tables earlier and earlier these days. Therefore, you could very easily leverage using this app to entice children's interest. They would be able to complete an assignment/assessment anywhere using this app. Just as well, if their email is hooked up to their phone then they are just as easily able to export it to your anywhere as well. I would most certainly use this app within my classroom. To be completely honest I probably will use this within my classroom and hope that it is as big of a hit as I think it is. I would love to use this app as a way to assess children's fluency or reading level. By this I mean that I would have then complete a reading and listen to it played back. This would be great because I could do this type of assessment listening to these recordings at home. I wouldn't have to waste time, within class, individually assessing each child. Rather I would have them complete it and then send it to me so I could listen to what they read and assess from there. Just as well, I would love to use this if the children were required to write some type of report. I would have them read their report out loud, to themselves, as a way to edit their papers. This is immensely helpful because one can catch a lot more errors in their writing by reading it out loud. Just off the top of my head there are a number of things I could see myself implementing this tool for. 

This tool could most certainly be used for the children to create their own artifact. These could use this for a number of different audio artifacts. This is not just limited to reading. I honestly do not see this app being challenging for the children at all. The only thing I would suggest is using this app for older students. By this I mean, I wouldn't use this app if my students were in first grade or younger. 

Studio #2

The artwork that I created, for this assignment, is a picture of my family. We are at my lake house eating dinner. This is a birds eye view of my back deck and yard of the house. The materials that were used for this project were a piece of heavy white paper, oil pastels, a giant paint brush, and water colored paint. We drew our picture, with the oil pastels, first and then painted over them with the secondary color of our choice. I decided to combine blue and red to make purple as my secondary color. I have seven people in my family, including myself. I drew us all sitting around the table on our deck. Unfortunately I got a little ahead of myself and drew everyone as a blonde girl. However, in my family, this is not the case. I also realized after I started drawing that I needed to have done it in a different way. I needed to draw the picture looking at it in front of me instead of as a birds eye view. I should have done this so that I could have the different depths to the picture. If I were to have done it this way you would have seen my family up front where the table would have been. From then, you would have seen the house behind us, the roof of the deck above us, and the other items on the deck next to us.

This studio project is definitely age appropriate for first graders. I say this because it goes just beyond what they would have learned in kindergarten and expands on it. It allows them to take what they already know and develop their knowledge further. I particularly liked that the lesson include not only a multitude of different vocabulary words for the kids to learn, such as, above, below, beside, behind, in-between, etc.. But just as well, it required them to experiment to make their secondary colors. Finally, this activity is great for further talking about detail and how to expand on your descriptive skills. The children can observe what has happened to the oil pastels now that they have been painted over and what the picture now looks like. 

The standards state:

LT: Identifies and shows a main idea in a work of art.

AC: Describes and draws family members and setting for art.

LT: Identifies locations in a composition.

AC: Describes parts that are above, below, behind, and in-between in a work of art and own art.

LT: Creates an oil pastel resist with secondary color.

AC: Mixes orange, green or violet watercolor wash over oil pastel drawing.

I believe that every single one of these standards were clearly met in this particular lesson. Just as well, I believe that were not only met but expanded on and well presented.

I honestly do not really see many issues with this lesson. The only thing I can really think of is how irritating it was to continuously remake the color I wanted to use. It ran out really quickly so I kept needing more. this made things difficult because every time it was a different shade of purple and that was making me very angry. I could definitely see children being angry about this aspect of the lesson.

Art Tech Task #2

The website I decided to use this week is called Chogger. This is a website that allows you to create your own comics. These can be set up in a multitude of different ways. When you get to the website you just sign in or make an account. At this point, you can browse other comics that people have already made or create your own. There is a button that literally says "BUILD A COMIC NOW".

At this point the website gives you the options as to the layout of your comic. Once you pick a layout it will ask you to add images. This can be done by google search, upload, take your own, or draw. You can also write on your comic to add in text and name it. Once you have completed the entire thing you press finish!

I searched this website on the app store and it is not an app. 

This tool could be real great because you could do a lesson on comics and what they are or how they look. Just as well, have the children research comics and their origins or what different ones are like. Once you have done this you could have the children create a project on this website for a different subject area. For example, I tried to create one on the life cycle of a butterfly to use in a lesson. you could have the children pick a specific topic and let them create their own comic. I find that they would most likely enjoy this because it is something they just got done learning about and then they get to create their own. I would most likely use this tool not only in my own lessons but also to have the children create their own. This website is not an app, however, my students could definitely still use it to create their own artifacts. 

I found this website decently easy to navigate and use. However, the only issues I found were with uploading pictures into my comic. It kept telling me that I couldn't upload them or it would never load so that was quite frustrating. So this may be an issue for students in regards to making their own artifacts. This may require them to be patient and play around with the site a little bit. 

Because of the difficulties that I had with this site I'm not sure that I would actually use this site in my classroom. I enjoyed the site until I actually tried using it and then found these issues. 

I was unable to make my comic because the site would not load any of the images I saved or searched. However, I am still attaching the layout of the site, in picture form, to give you all a better visual of the layout!

 

Studio #1 Reflection

The artwork I have created is a picture, drawn with oil pastels, of my living room. I drew my picture at a birds eye view to try and get the entire thing. It was a little tricky in the fact that we only used primary colors and most of my house is done in grays and blacks. 

The learning target states that the student: 

LT: Identifies and uses primary colors.

AC:Selects and draws with red, yellow, and blue.

LT: Draws a familiar place.

AC:Makes a picture showing a room at home.

The activity that we participated in was perfect for this set of standards. We were given a piece of paper and the oil pastels. We spent some time talking about the primary colors and then were told to get them out of our crayon box. Once we got them out and showed the teacher that we were able to do this we were instructed to draw a picture. The picture had to be of  room within our homes. This made it so that the picture was of a familiar place. 

The only thing that I can think, in regards to children having issues with this assignment, is drawing the picture only using these colors. By this I mean that kids sometimes have an issue coloring things in a different color than they actually are. So if they are told to color a picture of a familiar place they are likely to want to color it in the colors that they know make it up. Having them only color the picture using primary colors may cause some of the children to run into difficulties. 

Art Tech Task #1

The tool that I choose for this week is the website BeFunky. This tool is under the Photo Tools section of our options. I decided to pick this tool because I honestly wasn't sure what a lot of the different sites were. I liked the name of this particular one so decided to go with it. This website allows you to edit photos. It gives you multiple options of different ways to upload pictures on the site. This can be done through your computer, webcam, BeFunky, Facebook, Computer, GoogleDrive, and Dropbox. Once you have uploaded the picture you want to edit you can do a lot of different things to your photo. You can do such things as: Layer, Edit, Touch Up, Effect, Artsy, Frames, Graphics, Overlays, Text, and Texture. The coolest thing I found in all of these different features was the ability to change the texture of the picture. The different texture options can make the picture look really cool. Just as well, you can layer different things on top of your picture. You can add a letter over top of it, numbers, different graphic designs and other things. The website gives you the option to write text within your photo and change the photo to appear to be Artsy or cartoon like. 

I would say this website would be a cool tool to use for students who were a little bit older. By this I mean, if I were working with preschoolers I am not sure I would necessarily go with this option. However, for maybe third, fourth, and fifth grade this would be a great tool. I think this would be a great tool because kids could use this tool to add things to their photo before embedding them into different projects that they are working on. They could add text to explain for photo better. Just as well, they could turn their photo into a "cartoon" and then try to mock it by painting their own version of the photo.

Under the visual arts standards I picked out the standard below in regards to this specific website. This is a third grade standard under the producing/performing section of the standards.

"Find and solve problems of personal relevance and interest when developing artmaking ideas." 

I thought this standard worked for this website because whoever is using this site has a lot of different options for what they can do to their picture. This requires the artist to decide what they want to do to their photo and what would work best for it. They have to make the decision of what will look best and execute that decision. 

Something I thought would be an interesting project to do with my students would be to do a history project on different artists at different times throughout history. Once we have completed the unit I would have the kids pick an artist and type of to study. They could use this website to try and make a photo look as much like the art style they've picked as they can using this website and its different features. I'm not sure how well this project would work out, however, they would be learning about different artists, history, the different elements of that time that was reflected in the art, as well as deciding for themselves the best way to recreate that art. 

This website is also an App that you can download onto your phone. After I realized this I actually decided to downloaded for my phone. I liked that I could edit pictures with it and make collages so I wanted it on my phone for future use. I would say in general this website is very user friendly. Everything is easily laid out and labeled. I would say the only challenge on this website would be the age restriction. I feel like this is more suitable for older kids. Just as well, a downfall to this site is that half of their functions are free but in order to have access to all of the functions their are certain ones you have to purchase. Their are certain options on this website that are apart of the Plus package and these ones require you to pay.

I chose a picture that was recently uploaded on Facebook. To my picture I decided to add a boarder, two graphics, and I made my photo a different texture. 

I'm not sure if this website would be a popularly used one in my classroom, however, I definitely wouldn't rule it out as something I would use!