Art is From the Heart: 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

NYS SLO Template

NYS Art Teachers Association

http://www.nysata.org/

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Northern Light 1st g.

A young Artist explains the story of Northern Lights:

"My Dad learned about them in Cop School when he was up in Canada...The lights, fog and Wind blow all the Rainbows up to the top of the Earth..." That's why I Teach young Artists...too Cute!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Art Is Important

http://youtu.be/98_xT1bzMRk

http://youtu.be/PPiGHMrngVo

another Great Classroom Mgmt from Cheryl at:

http://www.teachkidsart.net/class-cards-for-class-management/

Using “Class Cards” as a management tool is an idea I picked up from class management guru, Rick Morris. (If you’re not already familiar with Rick’s many teaching tools and techniques, be sure to visit his website, www.newmanagement.com for a gold mine of ideas!) While this isn’t a tool specific to art educators, I’ve found it helpful in such a variety of ways that I use it every day, with every class I teach.
“Class Cards” is a simple and inexpensive idea you can easily add to your bag of tricks and see results right away.… nothing I’ve tried has worked better to promote total class participation and involvement. All you do is take a deck of playing cards and write each student’s first and last name on one of the cards with a Sharpie. I separate my cards by class, and hold them together with a rubber band, labeled with the teacher name and grade on a piece of colored card stock. Then I keep the cards for the class I’m teaching in my back pocket so I can quickly pull them out as I need them.
There are so many ways you can use “Class Cards” in the Art Room. Simply shuffle the deck and turn over some cards when you need to randomly select students to…

answer questions
participate in class discussions
pass out supplies
collect supplies
“volunteer” for an activity
be a “teacher’s helper”
form groups
go to their seats after carpet time (Kindergarten)
line up after class

Using “Class Cards” with 40+ new Kindergarteners each fall helps me learn these new names in record time as I can call on them and instantly put faces with names.
It’s also fun to see how just taking the cards out of my pocket and starting to shuffle them will get students’ attention, as they anticipate what I may be choosing someone to do!
One of the best things about “Class Cards” is that you only have to make a card for each student one time. Just save your cards from year to year, then as students move to a new grade level you simply re-group your last year’s cards into new classes. When students graduate or leave your school, they enjoy getting “their card” as a souvenir of their time with you!
If you ever have the chance to take a workshop with Rick Morris, do it! You’ll come away inspired and infused with practical ideas that will make a difference in your classroom, no matter what grade or subject you teach. But, if that isn’t in the picture for you, his books are a fantastic resource for many of the ideas he shares in his workshops .

Teach Kids Art...Cheryl
http://www.teachkidsart.net/mona-lisa-attention-signal/

Great Classroom Management Idea....

I’m excited to share the best classroom management technique I’ve tried in years.… the “Mona! Lisa!” attention signal. I used this new technique in all my K-8 classes this week, and it was even more successful than I had hoped for!

Kudos go to Tricia Fuglestad of Dryden Art Fugleblog for sharing this fantastic idea, which she learned from Scott Russell. It’s a simple call and response.… you say, “Mona!” and your students respond with “Lisa!”, and show you their best Mona Lisa pose: eyes on the teacher, mouths quiet, and hands still. (Yes, “mouths quiet”.… it really works — woo hoo!!!)

I announced to each of my classes that the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci, would be our class mascot this year. I have a small Mona Lisa print mounted on cardboard which I placed on the white board tray. After practicing our best Mona Lisa poses, we ran through the “Mona! Lisa!” call and response.

Then we practiced. Throughout our class time, whenever students got a little too loud, or I needed to get their attention to give more instructions, I used the “Mona! Lisa!” attention signal. Sometimes I had to repeat “Mona!” a few times until I had everyone’s attention, but it got better the more we practiced. In the past, I tried everything from flicking the lights, to counting down from five, to clapping rhythms, to using chimes. But none of those techniques even came close to “Mona! Lisa!” for quickly getting students’ attention. It was so easy — remarkable, really, in how well it worked.

Check out the Dryden Art Fugleblog for a downloadable “How to be Mona-ificient” poster as well as a great poster for “Art Room Voice Levels”. And be sure to follow this creative blog if you use an iPad or other technology in your Art Room.… tons of innovative ideas here!