The Maple Syrup Crew: Teaching the syrup out of Visual Art & Design Technology

Idea for a lesson.

2009-12-17T09:46:00.003-05:00

I have just begun a (what I hope to be great) sculpture lesson with my Art 1 students. It is called Henry Moore Inspired Sculptures, and it looks at a brief history of sculpture and focuses on contemporary works made since roughly 1908. I think that through focusing on Moore's early work my students won't feel too overwhelmed with creating a figurative sculpture to the exact scale and proportion.
I start by having the students drape cloth over wooden figure models and tighten the cloth with rubber bands. The result is a harmonious figure with beautiful flowing lines. The students sketch this out from multiple angles, then begin making an armature out of wire. When the armature is compete, they add on crumpled up newspaper with masking tape to add more mass to the form.
Now comes the fun part. Using cheesecloth dipped in liquid starch, the students drape the fabric over the armature folding and pressing the cheesecloth onto the different parts of the body. Many layers can be added on and a sense of motion can be attained if the cheesecloth is pulled away from the body and acts as the wind is blowing a sheet away from the back. When the cheesecloth is fully applied I like to brush on a elmer's glue and water mixture to strengthen the sculpture.
Other fabrics such as Muslin can be used as well for deeper tones and different textures. Go for it and let me know how it goes. I will get the lesson on here soon so you can check it out if you like.

Electronic Design Class Blog

2009-09-12T12:11:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone.

Wanted to share an ongoing blog that I will be using throughout this semester with my Electronic Design 1 students. This is the blog that I will be updating weekly, sharing student designs and other pieces of information (ie links to articles, images, and other thoughts for my students).
Each student has created there own blog and part of my class requirements is that they go on to their blog at least once a week and upload images while critically analyzing their work. We will spend the first 20 minutes of class every friday working on their blogs.

You can go to the blog HERE if interested. See ya!

Oh The Possibilities

2009-08-19T10:48:00.002-04:00

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to share an article that was written on a project that I completed with my Art 1 students last spring. It was a life-size packing tape lesson where my students worked in groups of four and came up with some great results. K-Mac inspired me with the project from her time running the lesson while student teaching.
Check out the link Here

SWEET: Gettin' Creative with Color Wheels

2009-08-15T12:09:00.004-04:00

I taught the color wheel and color theory this past year to undergrad students. It's never the most exciting thing but my students actually enjoyed it. It was something that pretty much everyone could do. And if they couldn't quite get the colors they meant to, a little help got them there.

But it can get boring teaching it the same way each year. This blog by middle school art teacher Ms. Cynthia Gaub (which has some excellent art ed & technology ideas you MUST check out) shared some alternative and mixed media ways to introduce color to your students. Have them make it out of found objects or collage!Any other ideas for color wheels?

SWEET: Vi.Sualize.Us

2009-08-12T13:14:00.006-04:00

Hello again...it's been ahem, a "while". But, I've been busy, as I am sure all of you have been too. I spent my first year teaching art and design in the Computer Graphics Department at a university in Jordan. Got married, did some traveling, adjusted to the Middle East. Now I'm in the tropical paradise called Barbados...where I'll be developing and teaching Technology at a small private international school. I know. It's a tough life but someone has to do it.

I don't know about you, but as a new teacher, I was thirsty for information (and for those of you who know me, it was a LOT). Last year I spent what seemed like most of my existence on my computer and the internet in and out of my classes. I scoured the internet for hours to gather and bookmark hundreds of images, and informational sites to present and share with my students in presentations as well as use for my own inspiration.

Here is my first share of cool Technology:

In my most recent research, I came across a great site, actually a blog, for art teachers, "The Teaching Palette: Perfecting the Art of Education" which happens to have a great Tech Stuff page. A recent post about organizing images found online excited me.

If you are anything like me, you have folders and folders of bookmarks and images that you have stored on your computer and in your browser. But...how often do you go back to them? Are they really organized in a way you understand? Do you have time to go back and organize them? In my case...the answer to all those questions is NO.

Introducing, Vi.Sualize.Us, a brilliant sister-spawn of Delicious (the online bookmarking site - pros of it discussed here).

Vi.Sualize.Us is great!! I plan to start using it immediately. Instead of repeating everything the blogger wrote about it, here is an excerpt:

"Vi.sualize.us is a free social bookmarking site that allows you to surf the web as normal, and bookmark any images you find along the way. Images can be tagged so that you can search through your bookmarks to find what you want for your next art lesson. It’s very easy to use, just add a bookmark button on your browser or install a Firefox plugin and start surfing the web. When you see an inspiring image you want to remember just right click (control + click for mac users) or use the button in your browser. There is even a free app called Cooliris for your iPhone or iPod Touch that will let you utilize your images on the go.

Below are some of the features Vi.sualize.us offers:

Bookmark images you want to remember on the Internet
Safe ON/Safe OFF filter for work environments
Bulk edit
Comment on images
Add tags to pictures so you can easily search for them again
Wordpress plugin to display your images on blog or website
A watchlist to keep track of images posted by others you want to follow
Can search with the “And”, “Or” and the negation (”!”) operators. For example, you could search for still life apples or oranges."

Read the rest here.

So, give it a try for yourself and see how you like it. We can even share and follow eachother to see what we are bookmarking! You can start with mine...

SWEET: WikiSpaces

2008-03-21T14:14:00.004-04:00

whas up yo?
well as ms. soyak was talking about i have been working with my advanced art class at Waltham High on Urban Landscapes. Part of what we are doing is using a website i created from the free source wikispaces.com. it provides mutiple pages and a variety of layouts to choose from. I have placed the lesson plan for the unit, an online gallery of different artists works, goals and obectives page, vocab page, etc. My favorite part though is that i gave each student thier own page. On these pages i am posting their work as it is in progress. The students then can comment on their students work using the online discussion. So far it has been very successful and the students have begun posting their own images and pictures that they want on their page. It also is a secure site only accessible to people who are invited. This way i am able to post pictures of the students working. I still chose to only use the students first name though, as you never know. anyway you should check out the site and see about the possibilities of using it your own classes. i plan on using the site for other projects of theirs as well and continue using it in the future.

Why the blog? Why Maple Syrup? What the...#@$!?

2008-03-21T12:29:00.002-04:00

Hey all -
So Jared, Nicole and I had a brainstorm last night at the bah. We decided to start a blog for us to keep in touch after we graduate (sniff sniff) and also a venue for us to share lesson plans and bounce brilliant ideas off one another (or if they are crappy ideas...we'll have an honest forum to tell eachother so). Also, as we start teaching, wherever that may be, it will give us a chance to share our experiences, problems, issues, and success stories (and oh there will be so many).

But why the hell are we called the Maple Syrup Crew you ask? I have no idea. Don't ask me. I was just put in charge of creating the blog. But who doesn't like maple syrup? We're in New England after all...

If you don't want to participate, fine. But we'll mutter tsk tsk under our breaths. (I'm not really sure who "we" is...but I know "we" will.)

So....without further ado, let's start bloggin away. I'd like to invite Jared to start it off by sharing his brilliant "wiki-space" link and posting a little info about that so we can all grow with new-age-technology-knowledge and enlighten our future students and impress the syrup out of our future colleagues and administrators.

Cheers!
Filiz