Maps Project
I have a fascination with maps so when I saw that this was one of our projects I was ecstatic! My first attempt at this project was a failure. I tried creating an embellished map on a journal during one of my sessions at the AEI Fall Conference this last week and let's just say it looked like an explosion of gold dust… but not in a good way. This second try flowed much better for me. I started by having my parents dig around to see if they had any more old maps saved from my grandfather but all they had left were the huge pull down ones that you use to see in history classrooms (My grandfather was a History Professor at Ellsworth) So we ended up digging through their various cars and found a wild collection of local and state maps stashed away. I chose to use a 2013 Iowa map and then also a regional map displaying the towns of Hardin County. Then because I have been on an embellishing kick I tried to sew the river that connects my old town (Iowa Falls) to my current town of Eldora. I worked on sewing around my house and the High School as well to add extra emphasis to these places because I spent so much time at these two buildings. I plan on continuing on this project by sewing green into the surrounding area to mimic the look of farm fields.
Visual Culture Project
When reading the prompt for the Visual Culture Project I latched on to the idea of making a short film. I had recently seen a short video on a friend's facebook feed and decided to dig deeper into what app she used. Turns out there are multiple smartphone apps that will trim a one second video from each day you record! The one I finalize on is Leap Second. Below is a reflection of the day by day difficulties and joys of using the app.
Day one - I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of downloading and then not so pleased with the learning curve it took to run the app. I would like to note that my co-workers were very understanding of me trying to get just the right video of us in PD just to end up losing the recording in an editing mistake. I inevitably recorded a shot of our mural on the entry to the High School art room. Overall I was working on conveying my personal culture, who I am in images, yet what is influencing me day to day.
Day two - I started this project the week of homecoming which was pretty exciting as our school has been working on changing the class culture and the attitudes of our students. It was twin day and I was twinning it up with one of my favorite students! It took us a couple tries but we manage to synchronize our jump very well.
Day 3 - I wanted to show what I have been practicing to place myself in a state of flow. I have found watercoloring to be very meditative and helps me cool down after a rough day. The most exciting part is now I have documentation of the day I found out my favorite watercolor pallet was a double decker! (I have been using it for a whole year with just the top layer not realizing there was more underneath) Sometimes I worry about my observational skills.
Day 4 - Our weekly reading have become part of my culture. I almost am always sharing my new information with one class or another. Plus in the background of this leap second is an adult coloring book from one of my favorite book series and television shows.
Day 5 - Is a snippet of our Homecoming parade and recording the perfect moment during that was challenging. I had taken videos of three different sections of the parade and this was by far the best choice from those. I thought a snippet of the parade would be a great addition to my leap seconds because it is so rare that my High School life and Elementary life intersect. (In case you didn’t know I am shared between our town's High School and Elementary)
Day 6 - I was a chaperone for our Homecoming Dance! It was a HUGE success especially considering our School has not had a Homecoming Dance in 15 years. I feel that our school's goal of changing the class culture is going extremely well and I believe the students are feeling the positive benefits.
Day 7 - As any art teacher knows our students influence us greatly and I shared a second of me investigating which works I am going to stash away to take to the AEA this year to display in the Spring. I am extremely pleased with the quality of work the students have been turning in this year.
Day 8 - Clay Recycling! All our dried out stuff is being recycled and I love that I was able to share my joy of this process with one of my students. Over the last 4 years he has become so intrigued by clay and its properties. It is also nice to have a students who actually enjoys the labor of recycling clay! Hopefully we can get him an apprentice this year because he's graduating in the spring!
Day 9 - My Intro students have began their painting unit. This project is one I have been developing for many years and is a favorite of mine. I thought including materials or snippets of clean up would be realistic portrayal of my culture considering I am constantly in a state of making messes and cleaning up.
Day 10 - I couldn’t let my project be complete without showing my nerdy side. When I can find free time my daughter and I love to play video games. Currently we have been playing The Legend of Zelda: breath of the wild.
Day 11 - Visually I am extremely influenced by Pinterest. My house is like a crazy mixture of “Fixer Uppers” meets Pinterest experiments. Daniel (my other half) and I have a very eclectic, colorful, and vintage like style.
Day 12 - Lastly my tiny tots influence me everyday. In this leap second they are working on their ability to color inside lines and lately my oldest daughter has been experimenting with mixing crayon colors!
Overall I really had a fun time thinking and considering what snippet to show during my day. On a not so positive note it was much harder to accomplish my leap second recording when I was sick or feeling overwhelmed. This project is something I plan on continuing and am hoping to have a full month of seconds at the end of October.
Day one - I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of downloading and then not so pleased with the learning curve it took to run the app. I would like to note that my co-workers were very understanding of me trying to get just the right video of us in PD just to end up losing the recording in an editing mistake. I inevitably recorded a shot of our mural on the entry to the High School art room. Overall I was working on conveying my personal culture, who I am in images, yet what is influencing me day to day.
Day two - I started this project the week of homecoming which was pretty exciting as our school has been working on changing the class culture and the attitudes of our students. It was twin day and I was twinning it up with one of my favorite students! It took us a couple tries but we manage to synchronize our jump very well.
Day 3 - I wanted to show what I have been practicing to place myself in a state of flow. I have found watercoloring to be very meditative and helps me cool down after a rough day. The most exciting part is now I have documentation of the day I found out my favorite watercolor pallet was a double decker! (I have been using it for a whole year with just the top layer not realizing there was more underneath) Sometimes I worry about my observational skills.
Day 4 - Our weekly reading have become part of my culture. I almost am always sharing my new information with one class or another. Plus in the background of this leap second is an adult coloring book from one of my favorite book series and television shows.
Day 5 - Is a snippet of our Homecoming parade and recording the perfect moment during that was challenging. I had taken videos of three different sections of the parade and this was by far the best choice from those. I thought a snippet of the parade would be a great addition to my leap seconds because it is so rare that my High School life and Elementary life intersect. (In case you didn’t know I am shared between our town's High School and Elementary)
Day 6 - I was a chaperone for our Homecoming Dance! It was a HUGE success especially considering our School has not had a Homecoming Dance in 15 years. I feel that our school's goal of changing the class culture is going extremely well and I believe the students are feeling the positive benefits.
Day 7 - As any art teacher knows our students influence us greatly and I shared a second of me investigating which works I am going to stash away to take to the AEA this year to display in the Spring. I am extremely pleased with the quality of work the students have been turning in this year.
Day 8 - Clay Recycling! All our dried out stuff is being recycled and I love that I was able to share my joy of this process with one of my students. Over the last 4 years he has become so intrigued by clay and its properties. It is also nice to have a students who actually enjoys the labor of recycling clay! Hopefully we can get him an apprentice this year because he's graduating in the spring!
Day 9 - My Intro students have began their painting unit. This project is one I have been developing for many years and is a favorite of mine. I thought including materials or snippets of clean up would be realistic portrayal of my culture considering I am constantly in a state of making messes and cleaning up.
Day 10 - I couldn’t let my project be complete without showing my nerdy side. When I can find free time my daughter and I love to play video games. Currently we have been playing The Legend of Zelda: breath of the wild.
Day 11 - Visually I am extremely influenced by Pinterest. My house is like a crazy mixture of “Fixer Uppers” meets Pinterest experiments. Daniel (my other half) and I have a very eclectic, colorful, and vintage like style.
Day 12 - Lastly my tiny tots influence me everyday. In this leap second they are working on their ability to color inside lines and lately my oldest daughter has been experimenting with mixing crayon colors!
Overall I really had a fun time thinking and considering what snippet to show during my day. On a not so positive note it was much harder to accomplish my leap second recording when I was sick or feeling overwhelmed. This project is something I plan on continuing and am hoping to have a full month of seconds at the end of October.
Words as an Art Medium
"As artists, we work within constraints."
"They shape how we inquire through art."
"If you were to be struck blind today."
"What vision of the world would you leave?"
"Create your mark..."
The end product turned out very different than what I had envisioned when first starting. It's much more organized than what I had planned. I realized at the finish, during reflection, that the words influenced what I had created way more than I expected.
I chose words from the paragraph on page 90, chapter 9, Thinking Complexly in Art Classrooms by Castro. “As Artists, we work within constraints.” I found it intriguing that our choice of medium does control us in some ways and creates these invisible constraints. I choose this quote because I just found it so profound that one is so tied down by their materials and as I worked and began my outline I realized that I had subconsciously created my sketches in a very restrictive manner, that they had became structured after I had this vision of overlapping them and using various shading techniques. “They shape how we inquire through art”. In the beginning I had planned on only using pencil but as I continued to work I felt the need for color. Over the summer I had exclusively worked with woodburning, oil painting, and colored pencil. I had missed using other mediums and found it relaxing to work on recreating a look or a color to the sketched out art supplies. “If I were to be struck blind tomorrow.” is the original but I modified mine to say “If you were to be struck blind today.” I feel the switch from I to you makes it much more impactful to the viewer and that the change from tomorrow to today has more urgency in it. “What vision of the world would you leave?” I feel like this is an all important question! What have I left behind what kind of message will that leave for others? Will I just be forgettable or will I leave a mark that defines others for decades to come? At the end I wrote “Create your Mark…” I was trying to instill motivation into my work and plan on displaying it in the art room.
"They shape how we inquire through art."
"If you were to be struck blind today."
"What vision of the world would you leave?"
"Create your mark..."
The end product turned out very different than what I had envisioned when first starting. It's much more organized than what I had planned. I realized at the finish, during reflection, that the words influenced what I had created way more than I expected.
I chose words from the paragraph on page 90, chapter 9, Thinking Complexly in Art Classrooms by Castro. “As Artists, we work within constraints.” I found it intriguing that our choice of medium does control us in some ways and creates these invisible constraints. I choose this quote because I just found it so profound that one is so tied down by their materials and as I worked and began my outline I realized that I had subconsciously created my sketches in a very restrictive manner, that they had became structured after I had this vision of overlapping them and using various shading techniques. “They shape how we inquire through art”. In the beginning I had planned on only using pencil but as I continued to work I felt the need for color. Over the summer I had exclusively worked with woodburning, oil painting, and colored pencil. I had missed using other mediums and found it relaxing to work on recreating a look or a color to the sketched out art supplies. “If I were to be struck blind tomorrow.” is the original but I modified mine to say “If you were to be struck blind today.” I feel the switch from I to you makes it much more impactful to the viewer and that the change from tomorrow to today has more urgency in it. “What vision of the world would you leave?” I feel like this is an all important question! What have I left behind what kind of message will that leave for others? Will I just be forgettable or will I leave a mark that defines others for decades to come? At the end I wrote “Create your Mark…” I was trying to instill motivation into my work and plan on displaying it in the art room.
Photographic Essay
I would classify myself as the teacher who is always bouncing around the room talking with excitement about the current project and motivating students to find their focus and dive in! As the teacher who is not afraid of the challenging situation and who wants her students to grow emotionally as well as skillfully. Others might wonder, why? Why does she circulate the room like a caffeinated shark? Why is she bothering to talk and persuade that unresponsive student. It's because students notice if you are genuinely invested in them. They notice if you are excited about what is being created in class and if they see this in you they just might be more willing to go that extra step on the project. They just might become as excited about the process as you are and find out that happiness is contagious.
I would describe my own work as experiments in techniques and as works that have relaxing processes to them. I feel like I lean towards these kinds of works because I am fascinated with learning more about different skills so that I can have a wider knowledge base to assist my students. I find that I lean towards the relaxing processes because I need to refocus myself when being pulled a 100 different ways and need a boost in my emotional state.
In the Portfolio tab you can find High School and Elementary student work and also a bit of my own personal work. Below is a bit more info on my life as an Art Teacher and what Classes I teach.
I would describe my own work as experiments in techniques and as works that have relaxing processes to them. I feel like I lean towards these kinds of works because I am fascinated with learning more about different skills so that I can have a wider knowledge base to assist my students. I find that I lean towards the relaxing processes because I need to refocus myself when being pulled a 100 different ways and need a boost in my emotional state.
In the Portfolio tab you can find High School and Elementary student work and also a bit of my own personal work. Below is a bit more info on my life as an Art Teacher and what Classes I teach.
Day of an Art Teacher
Morning impromptu Art Club & Speech Meeting! I am shared between the High School and the Elementary so I am only able to teach four main classes a day. Art Club is a great chance for the kids who are unable to take class with me during the school day. We like to focus our projects on working with the community and exploring careers in the Art World. Our next big project is helping the public library design a teen space! If you are ever in the area make sure to stop by and see us after school on Thursdays!
South Hardin High School
I begin my shared day at the High School! This semester I teach 3 sections of Intro to Art, a section of Photography and during these classes I also have Independent Studio classes that focuses on a separate curriculum. I feel extremely fortunate to have so many students with personal cameras this year, just check out that hoard of awesome equipment below!!!
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Eldora New-Providence Elementary School
At lunch time I rush over to the Elementary! Here I teach four classes a day back to back on a four day rotation.
One of my favorite 1st Grade teachers jumped in for a hallway selfie! Thanks Ms. Blythe! This year our schools gown another class, currently we have 3 sections of kindergarten, 3 sections of first, 2 of second, 3 of third, 2 of fourth, and 2 of fifth. I like to think I have the best job ever because I get to teach ever single one of these students! I would also like to make note that our schools dismissal procedure is working fabulously. I kept waiting for mass chaos in the hall so I could snap a selfie and the Teachers were just too organized.
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