Robert Davidson

I wanted to thank Rod for all of his help during the research for this project. He reminded me not to stress out too much and to look at the project from the perspective of what I would like my students to accomplish. I wish I had taken a picture of the totem pole we made as it was like Rod said "a stress release".

I enjoyed learning about an artist that I had never heard of before. We started with knowing that we wanted a relatively local artist that was still alive, and our search led us to Robert Davidson. One of things that I liked most about his art is how varied it is. He carves, makes jewelry, prints, drums, masks, etc. I also liked how Davidson states that the one thing that he wants is for his art to have meaning to all viewers, that it has a universal quality, which I believe it does.

I am posting a picture of one of his pieces of art "Sarah's birth Announcement" I loved this (not just because of the name) because of how he combines the man and nature to literally create something new.

I found all of the presentations to be informative and interesting. I think that it is important to leave the presentation aspect open for students to decide how they will present their learning, in a way that suits their needs and interest. Every presentation in our class was varied and unique.

Thanks to everyone for being so supportive and caring.... Have a great break and see you in January.

PS. This is my LAST POST....for now...

Assessment Model

I would like to share the model that I made for assessment. I had a lot of difficulty settling on an idea for the model and I actually created two models (the first was a puzzle child) but it just did not feel right. So I was staring at my fish tank and I figured that anything could be a model for assessment it just depended on how well we could defend it, and I was inspired by the fish. I made my model out of plasticine. I had five colours to start with, black, blue, red, white and yellow. I had fun blending colours to get the right hue and then actually molding the fish and other parts of the model. This assignment was actually fun...and kinda messy!

Dance...Dance...Dance - Highland

I wanted to share a little of my little sisters dance recital. She has been in Highland dance for two years now (she switched over from ballet) and she loves it. She just passed her first grade and got the highest score possible which is great for her because she is not considered a "good" student. She was terrified of getting tested as she thought that she would fail and it is my (and my mom's belief) that hopefully this little success will provide her with some additional self confidence that she needs at school in the traditional classroom as she often refers to herself as a failure, and this is very disappointing. Anyway, i just thought it was important to note how the arts, in their many forms, can provide students with an opportunity to succeed and believe in them selves. I have attached a few pictures take a look!

Art Gallery

Hi,
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed our class trip to the art gallery. I found our guide to be very helpful in showing us different ways to involve the students in the art, by creating the art, becoming the art, and thinking about the art. I liked how our guide involved movement and had us act out the Ted Heibert self portraits and move as the "creature" would move. My favorite part was the Nathalie Daoust exhibition. I liked how she used layers and transparencies to give her art a 3-D quality and depth. I found her images to be almost enticingly intimate yet they seemed almost as though the exposure was what the image was craving (if that makes sense to anyone out there).

I have included two photos of the art that we completed as a class, the first is the body paint from the dark room and the second is the self portrait on a transparency.

Remembrance Day

Hi,

I just wanted to share what my class has decided to do for remembrance day. During my practicum I taught a unit on "Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes" and two of the activities that I had the class do during the unit was; 1st to make origami paper cranes with the goal of completing one thousand (as a class), and 2nd to write peace poems. When I returned to visit my class last Friday, I found out that they had completed their goal of making one thousand cranes and that they had turned all of the cranes in to wreaths which they were going to use at the remembrance day ceremony at the school, and secondly some of the students were going to read their peace poems during the school assembly in the gym. I thought that this was an execlent idea as the story of Sadako is about peace, and the 2nd world war. It was nice to go back into the classroom and to realize that the students took a lot more away from the lessons, and the book than I thought.

An Evening to Remember

First and foremost this was an amazing experience. In the beginning I found it very inspiring how everyone in the cohort pulled together to get everything ready for the evening. When setting up as soon as one individual was done everyone moved on to help someone else, no one was idle but everyone was offering help in every way, shape and form. This did not surprise me though, because I know that we have a great group of people and we can all work together cooperatively, this made the whole experience stress-less and seamless.

My favourite part of the evening was the interactions that occurred between everyone at the event (students, parents, teachers, and student-teachers). When I was walking around I heard a lot of positive comments about the art show from parents talking amongst themselves. One of the comments I heard went something like this; “This is a great idea, I never knew that they did this up here, and I wish I had. My son has shown a much more positive outlook towards school because of this experience” and “this is a very validating experience for the students”, and “I never knew my son was this good at art”. All I could do the entire time was SMILE. Except during the speech, as I am deathly afraid of public speaking (in front of peers, I have no problems with students).

I was very happy that all of my students managed to make it up to the art fair, and even some students who did not have art work displayed came up to support their fellow classmates. I am attaching some photos of the students and their art work. I had a parent of one of my students tell me that her son is now showing more concentration and effort when doing his homework and he is even making cranes at home, showing his family how.

Lastly, thank you Casey, I loved the art table. I thought that this was a important element of the art show as it reinforced the importance of art and enabled younger siblings to participate in meaningful ways. A few of my students spent some time there making cranes and sharing their knowledge with others. I joined in and taught a few new participants how to make the cranes as well, this was a good teaching moment.

I also wanted to thank Rob, and all the other people who provided directions to individuals trying to find their way to the T & L building, I heard many comments about how helpful you were. And all of the cake ladies, I heard it was good, but I did not get to taste any, I was too busy having fun.

Thank You Willow, for encouraging our class to follow through with the Art show, it was a fulfilling and enriching experience for myself as a teacher and for all the participants and spectators as well.

Origami Cranes

During my practicum placement, I focused on Japanese art. A few of the lessons that I taught in Art focused on Japanese art, specifically Origami, Haiku's, and Japanese watercolour paintings. The origami was by far my favorite lesson, and the classes as well. I was very surprised at how well the class received the lesson over all. However, this was not initially the case. In the beginning the act of folding the origami was a struggle for many of the students, and one in particular had decided that it was too tough and had given up. Yet, by the end of the activity (which culminated in the making of a mobile) this particular student had become the expert and has even exceeded my skill as a teacher in folding the cranes, making miniature ones smaller than a penny. I am attaching some photos of the various art work which you will see at the art fair as well. Enjoy!

Hi Everyone

I am writing about the books that I shared in class today. The first books is "Live of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and what the Neighbours Thought)" This book is great if you want to explore the artists behind the art. I bought it from Books and Co. for $7.00, but amazon.ca has it for $16.00, so I would suggest that you run and get it from books and Co. before they are all gone from the clearance bins!

The second book that I shared was titled "A Pacific Alphabet" illustrated by Dianna Bonder http://www.diannabonder.com/index.php. This is a beautiful book that I got for free, a few years ago, from http://www.achievebc.ca/ who as Linda mentioned gives away a free book each year. I could not find the link on the page so I would suggest just sending an email if you are interested. This book is also available on amazon.ca for $10.00.
Thanks

Hi everyone, I just wanted to put a quick little post up here about another neat website that I found, it has a lot of ideas in many different areas/aspect of Fine Arts that would be beneficial in an elementary school classroom, including lesson plans and links to online resources (ex for creating animation). Enjoy!
http://accessarts.org/ArtKids/

The Recorder and other musical endeavors

As I admitted before, I have very little musical talent or ability, although I have always wanted to be able to claim that I could play a musical instrument. I am finding that I am thoroughly enjoying the sessions that we have had in class learning to play the recorder. I am not sure how much I am improving, but I went home and I was able to actually hear myself and I sounded okay (nothing great, but okay). I was speaking to my mom about this and she suggested that I take my sisters keyboard and start taking lessons, which I might actually do, because I don't think that the recorder is one of those instruments that I would continue to play in the long term.
On a side note, this summer I inherited two fiddles from my fiance's grandfather (he played them and had a massive collection of fiddles). I have been fooling around with them a little, it is more like playing and discovering than actually making music, but it is fun and I like to imagine that I can actually play. I will post some photo's of my new (new to me) fiddles, as I think that they are beautiful especially the backs of them the wood grain is very nice. From what I understand they are actually quite valuable, so I probably should not be playing with them, but what is the point of having a musical instrument if you cannot enjoy it?

Web sites

Hi all, I just thought that I would share some of the web sites that I thought would be good learning and teaching resources:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
http://www.sunnyday.org/art_lesson_plans/index.htm
http://www.canadianart.ca/
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/Teacher/explore.html
http://www.artincanada.com/
The last link has a lot of info about the artists backgrounds and style while including examples of their art.
I hope that some of you find this useful!

Everyday Normal Guy

I found this video to be funny and very creative, however some people may find some of jonlajole's work somewhat offensive. I believe that art and art appreciation is very subjective, but that all should be able to appreciate art even if they do not approve of it. Please keep in mind that this is not something that I would show in an elementary school classroom. If you care to watch the post it is in the video bar. Thanks.

Hello

Hi,

I love art, and I am amazed and awed by most art, even if it is not something that I am praticularly fond of I can admire the effort and thought that it takes to create and develop artistic works. I do not consider myself to be a very artistic person. When I used to have free time I used to do some drawings (in pencil, charcoal, and pastel) and I love 3-D art such as working with plaster and clay, although I do not have much time to do either anymore. I dream of learning to play the piano one day, I have managed to teach myself a little, but I would like to learn more. I like to make things with my hands and I knit, crochet, and make jewelery. I am looking forward to this class as a means of expanding my experience with the Arts and thus being able to pass this experience and knowledge on to those I will be teaching.