Yes, I know it has been a while. ...and I never promised I would be a good and faithful blogger.
It has definitely been a whirlwind since my last post. Shortly after my last post, I received the most breath-taking e-mail. I had been named as the National Art Education Association's Western Region Art Educator of the Year. Whoa. Me? I was actually in Fort Worth, Texas the last five days at the national convention to receive the award and am still in a bit of disbelief, even though I have the most beautiful piece of glass art vase with my name etched into it to make it all real.
Along with the award came the invitation to be NAEA's Monthly Mentor guest blogger for the month of March. So, I have been blogging, just not thinking to link those posts to my own personal blog also. Maybe I will go back and do that for the posts I have written so far this month.
Anyway, I'm still here...
I've had some requests for the template I use for making a pinhole viewer from my youtube video...
I finally have a place to upload the template to share. Enjoy!
What do most educators do over Winter Break? Relax some, I hope, but those of you who know me...know that I am dreaming and scheming what is going to go on in my classroom when break is over. My mind has a really hard time shutting off. Sometimes that is a blessing, sometimes it is a curse.
Well, I found a pretty nifty FREE site where you can create a variety of puzzles (like crossword, word search, word scrambles, etc.) After I created this crossword, I discovered that it changes every time you access it...a cool feature. However, I didn't like that it didn't always use all of the clues that I input...downfall. Either way, kids can solve it online...less paper and great for those of us that are a 1:1 computer (or iPad) school. I haven't gotten the "Submit score and view certificate" feature to work but I'm planning to have kids take a screen shot of the "page" and send that image to me for credit.
What do you think? Is this little treasure find a "go" or "no?"
Here is a Middle School lesson I have used that coordinates with the work of Paul Klee.
We’ll start by making a stick figure from a single pipe cleaner.
Trace your stick figure with pencil in different poses (symmetrical & asymmetrical) onto 12x18” white paper leaving a little white space around the figure as you trace.
Go over your pencil lines with black marker.
Leaving a little bit of space around the black lines, color the negative space with different colors using oil pastels.
Don’t forget to sign your work in the lower right corner.
source of Klee's birthday: http://arthistory.about.com/od/artistsbdays/l/bl_dec.htm
Incorporating art history into the classroom has always been an important component of my teaching. (You have to remember that I "grew up" as a beginning teacher in the era when Discipline Based Art Education [DBAE] was all the buzz.)
Another thing I have found fascinating is how art images are being infused into mass media / visual culture in the last decade. In fact, I made this the focus of my MA thesis in 2009..."Art and the Evolution of Mass Media."
In honor of Edvard Munch's birthday today (1863), I thought I'd share the unit that I developed for my Digital Art History class. (See file below.)
*Helen Frankenthaler was born in 1928. I'm sure there are many great ideas out there to celebrate the work of Frankenthaler. Please share!
source of Munch's birthday: http://arthistory.about.com/od/artistsbdays/l/bl_dec.htm
image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Scream.jpg
| edvard_munch_the_scream_unit.pdf |
| File Size: | 567 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
Download File
For the last week or so I've been working to build this website dedicated to all things Simply Ronda. I won't promise how often I will be posting to the blog portion of the website, but I can promise that if I find something exciting to share you'll see it here.
So hop on and join me for the ride.
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