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 I originally made my presentation in PowerPoint.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.