Bieber Fever

For our Inquiry Project, we chose to investigate the life and legacy of the one and only Justin Bieber…..and then we chose to educate our peers with a little skit! Very fun and we learned a lot……especially that glitter gets EVERYWHERE. 

We all know that Bieber is not an Angel in the limelight…..although he may be visiting brothels and causing rid-raf with fans, we believe that our students (especially the little girls) are his target audience and we have a responsibility to educate ourselves and be ready to discuss the good and bad of the swiped-bang-swaggy-boy that lives in our students' iPods. 

Is Justin a good influence for our kids? Probably not, or at least not anymore.  Can we use him and his influence to teach our kids the importance of critical thinking, role models and appropriate social behaviour? Absolutely! The fact remains that they still love him. (And I admit I like a few of his songs, and if I was ten I would of push-pinned his posters into my drywall!) Also before he ran off the rails a little (teachable moment about growing up in front of the world and pressures of fame and fortune), there was a lot of great things that he had going on….which we touched on in our skit. Justin isn't living his dream from sitting around singing songs quietly in the shower….he got where he is by hard work, determination, and social media. (yay YouTube). 

Anyways, as controversial as our inquiry topic was, I think we all took something away from it. Even if it was that grammar is certainly important and males cannot give birth ;)

Decking My Halls!

As Christmas is on the horizon, my dreams start to fill with evergreens and stuffing, cozy fires, classic Holiday tunes, fuzzy mittens, and of course all the memories from past Decembers. Every year I like to make special Christmas projects for my house or my belly, so I thought I'd share some that I am planning to do this year. I won't be able to show you how mine turn out because I cannot start them until Dec 3. Too much to do for School!! 

Gingerbread Hearts

I think these are so sweet. They are like the grown-up version of the ones you make in school as children. 

Snow Globe Terrariums 

As a child (and still now) my favourite Christmas decoration was my mom's little village and she always let me (or I just took over) set it all up any way I liked. I would engineer that little city like a professional planner making decisions about which building should go where. Does it make sense that the barber go on the edge of town? Will anyone visit? It's very far to walk there etc…and so on until I had the thing laid out on the mantel complete with the sparkling fake snow that depleted each year. Now that I have my own house, and no village, I have had to come up with creative (inexpensive) ways to create one. And so over the last couple of years I have collected little things from gift shops and  antique stores to create a tiny little make-shift version of my childhood fantasies. 

I made something like this (pictured above) last year, only mine didn't light up because I didn't have the white twinkle lights. This year my goal is to have a little lit city! 

Festive Mason Jar

Simple yet beautiful! Will go perfect on a side table. Just need to find some floating candles.

Pine Cone Garland

I have some large pine cones I bought somewhere one year and I have never known what to do with them……so now I have a vision. I am going to hang them on my fire place…which sadly has no mantle. So it needs some love. Some Pine Cone love! 

Gingerbread House

Every year I say I want to do gingerbread houses and every year I don't do it. Not since 2005! So seeing how i have a bit of time off, I think this is the year. I want to do a European one this year….so no colourful child-like candy or anything…just simple, white icing, powdered sugar, and an adorable little cinnamon log stack. 

Frozen Candle Holder

Making these is actually quite simple, just takes a bit of time to freeze! Fun for the porch or deck, especially for a Christmas Party! 

Happy Christmas Decorating Everyone! 

An Art Gallery Tour & A Reminiscence of Childhood Visualizing

Today our class had the opportunity to visit the Two Rivers Gallery. I really enjoy going there and haven't been since the beginning of the semester. Although I prefer to visit galleries on my own or in small groups I enjoyed the guided activity provided by Carolyn Holmes, the Public Programs Manager. 

The guided activity involved deep breathing, visualizing, and interacting with art in a unconventional way. Maybe I am a little yoga-geek, so I admit I thoroughly enjoyed this activity as I did last year when we did a similar thing. I actually made a few connections with the activity and my practicum; my students were learning to deep breath as laid out in the program Mind Up! and I was teaching them to visualize using Adrienne Gear strategies. So really it felt as though I was still in school. And yes I would totally do that activity with my students!! I was a very imaginative child and I really believe that modern technology hinders children's imaginations (you may disagree) to the point where we must teach them how to use them in school. 

It may be just me (and I have no research to back me up) but I do not remember learning how to visualize in the 90's. I remember my teacher telling me to pay attention and quit day dreaming…I didn't need any help making pictures of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in my head….I could see it all very clearly. I could taste the edible tea cups and smell the liquid chocolate vividly. So it is very interesting to me that we need to teach this concept….I see the importance for sure….but I think it's a symptom of our modern culture. I also understand many of the new things in school and all the good advances since I was a kid….but every now and then I think back to my own little grade 3 classroom and reflect on the past….and I think they didn't have it all wrong. ;)

Also I loved Will Gills exhibit! Here he is….

source

2013 UNBC ART SHOW

The Art Show this year was a neat opportunity for our cohort to share the stories, the art, the successes and hardships of teaching Fine Arts in the classroom. I thought everyone did an excellent job displaying the art and you could tell that the families appreciated it as did the students. 

Out of my five students, I had three visit the show and they seemed proud of their art and excited to see the art from the other schools. I think events like these are important when we talk about celebrating our learning. That was a topic from last year that I think is important, but can easily be overlooked due to time pressures within the curriculum. 

I was thinking the other day what a neat idea this would be at the school level. Have each classroom create some type of visual art and either use all of the student's art, or select the best pieces and set them up in the gym. Invite the families to be a part of this. Take the afternoon and have classes come (two by two or something) to the gym and walk around admiring the art. What a neat way to show that art is important and should be valued by the community! 

Here are a few pictures from the show of the monochromatic silhouettes that my students created:
(Kathleen's pumpkin art is also in the final picture)

A Reflection of My Gong-Show Art Lesson....

Although I think my students enjoyed painting during fine arts, it was a management and organization challenge. Challenge may be an understatement. And of course I was being formally observed. Of course I would choose the most difficult task to try when I am being watched and my every move is being recorded. But I really wanted to do art that included skill....so here we are. 

We survived through it; not too much paint ended up on the floor. The clean up was wild but it happened. Through all of this I learned a lot. Don't EVER paint with Grade 7 students. That's what I was thinking at first. But now I realize that I just need to refine my instructions, my modelling, and my organizational skills. (Also my EA's were completely AMAZING)! First of all I needed to take out the paint and show my students exactly what to do! Like have a pallet of paint and begin painting. Do a few lines. Then bring out a finished version of the art. Just like on the Food Network when Martha says, "now I'm going to put this in the oven. I am taking out one I've already made before. And that's a good thing!" 

Also getting kids to move their desks from lines into groups, then move to other groups to find their paint colour, then nominating a person to collect the group's materials....then.....starting to paint. 

It looked more like this.....Mrs. Radloff gives instructions. Everyone gets up and desks and chairs start flying. Once the desks are stationed students think they need to stay in 'their desks'. When I clarify it, kids finally get into their colour groups. Then all the kids sit and wait, forgetting to nominate anyone to collect materials. Then Mrs. Radloff thinks, 'you know what? maybe its less chaos if she and the EAs just hand everything out. This entire process is wild, very few children finish, and it took me four more days to get everyone done. Four DAYS.

So as I was reflecting I realized one big thing....CHUNKING. Chunk directions. I could have said, move desks and sit down. Then I could have said okay choose one student and go retrieve materials. Then sit down again. Then I could have modelled the strategy. Then the student could have started. Lots of 'could haves'. I guess that's what practicum is all about. 

Halloween Time

In the spirit of Halloween, I am just sharing some cute ideas for classroom. Happy Halloween everyone!

source

source

source

source

source

a point in the on-going art show debate

I had a conversation with my CT yesterday that made me re-think my opinion regarding the art show. I thought that it would be difficult to tell the students that the best 5 pieces of art would get to be showcased at UNBC and the rest would not. I sympathize (and still do) with the argument made that some students are just always good at art and others may never be recognized. There may be one student that tries really hard and puts a lot into a piece that still is not considered in the top five. However, my CT reminded me that not every student will be good at art. There will be five students that are really good and everyone in the class will know it. But a good teacher finds everyone's strengths in different areas....in the real world we will not all be recognized for art or our math skills, etc...so it is okay to recognize only five students for their art work. She did caution me though, to not tell the class about the show, if the students who are asked to be in it want to share that with others, that is okay but I don't need to announce it and make it into a competition. Anyways I am taking this advice because I agree that recognizing everyone for everything they do is not necessarily real world nor helpful to the child. 

Monochromatic Colour Theory

I am sure some of you are like me and are very excited for our upcoming practicum, yet also a little nervous. I thought the nerves would decrease this semester, as we have already had a practicum. I was wrong. There are different and new concerns now: a new CT, a new class, a new PS, a new grade, older kids, an EA, a new school, different curriculum, rows of desks, different attitudes, a new principal, new subjects to teach (French, Fine Arts).....the list goes on. 

But despite my nerves I am really looking forward to leaving university behind for a little while and focusing on the practical applications of our learning. It helps that I have an amazing CT, staff to work with, and a great group of kids! All this to say that I am looking forward to teaching my Art lessons. I really struggled writing them. I was trying to include everything, while keeping art interesting, yet educational and thinking about assessment and behavioural management. Somehow I feel like in this practicum I need to take a more serious approach regarding assessment and diversity...which can be difficult. 

Anyways I was just going to share the idea that I found for my linked lessons in case anyone wants to use it. Mine was on colour theory and I used a neat website 'Kerpoof' for the worksheet and the digital colour wheel. The colour wheel is pretty neat. You can mix paint colours online!!! In other words you can make secondary and tertiary colours! It's a neat and mess free way that kids can explore how colours are created before you put a bunch of paint in front of them. After we worked through the website, I had the students create their very own monochromatic colour scheme background which involves a hue, and different tints (mixing white with the hue) and shades (mixing black with your hue). The final lesson involves creating a silhouette on top of their monochromatic background. So the lesson takes the students through a brief history of the colour wheel, some basic colour theory and vocab, and then teaches them how to apply their knowledge. 

Needless to say, I learned a lot about colour theory that I never knew (or perhaps forgot a long time ago). So hopefully my lessons will be successful and I will have 28 beautiful monochromatic art pieces to share with everyone in the UNBC art show! 
Good luck teaching your fine arts lessons everyone! 

source

Just Dance

I was wondering recently how energizers would look in a grade 6/7 class and was given some neat ideas. Then today Chyanne gave me such a fun idea. When she was in her classroom observing, her CT told all the kids that they were going to do a quiz..and as this wasn't on the schedule they all were annoyed and made the 'aawwweee really' whine. Then she went over turned the lights out and the SMARTboard on to reveal a Just Dance game.....they are on YouTube. (I think she is in Grade 5/or 5/) anyways they loved it!! Even a girl with crutches was dancing! So just thought I would share this neat idea....that covers DPA, an energy booster and a bit of fine arts (dancing and coordination). Check it out!!!
Awesome Dance Video

Autumn is here.....

Fall is officially here and I am always amazed how much I love looking around at the natural beauty our Northern community has to offer.....a work of art really. I was down by the river near my house and snapped a few shots of the gorgeous views of the Nechako. Enjoy.

Colour TIme

Source 

I have been exploring colour charts and wheels for my linked lessons as I will be teaching primary/secondary colours, and cool/warm colours. My CT gave me a neat idea for warm and cool colours; choose one or the other and think of a place or environment. If you choose an environment that is normally considered warm then use cool colours and draw a scene. So for example draw a desert scape using blues, greens, and purples. Draw a winter scape using reds, yellows, and oranges. Sounds like a new idea! For secondary colours (After i introduce primary colours) I might use paint to create them so that its a hands-on activity. Any thoughts or advice or other neat ideas?

Meet the Artist: Jane Isakson

This afternoon I had the pleasure of standing amongst some beautiful pieces of the Canadian artist and former biathlete, Jane Isakson. All the pieces in From  the Outer Edges exhibition were acrylic on canvas and they were inspired by three different National parks in Canada; Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Ivvavik National Park in the Yukon, and Gwaii Haanas National Park in Haida Gwaii. Many of her pieces feature geometric shapes that make up her beautiful landscapes. It is evident in her work that she has a love for colour....which portrays light, contrast, realism, and of course emotion. Some of her art also features some beautiful Aboriginal aspects and even colour patterns. The paintings give you that feeling that you are there experiencing the landscape and really make you consider the perspective....which I think the artist had intended. 

I would highly recommend going to the Two Rivers Gallery and taking a look. September 29th is the last day the exhibition is on. I had wonderful company with me...which is a neat experience because you can share your feelings and ideas about each piece with your friend. But if you are to go alone I would recommend bringing some really awesome music and slowly walking through (maybe some Sigur Ros?) thinking about each piece. Putting music to gallery art is always nice. 

Sky House of SGang Gwaay 

source 

Beautiful Faces

Today I am posting some photography of beautiful faces. I think that the human face has so much to offer and has of course inspired artists for centuries. Another aspect of a few of these photos is the unfocused background. For the couple photos in which the backgrounds are in focus, there was a reason. For instance in the photo directly below of the young vendor...I wanted to include the fruits and vegetables in the market. But I love the effect when the camera is only focused on the face making your attention hone in on only them and their features. A couple pictures were edited on photoshop and the rest are raw.

Woman, Three Hills, AB

Young girl, Prince George, BC

Vonette, Three Hills, AB

Young Vendor, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Giulia, Bologna, Italy

Young boy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Toddler, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Family, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

John, Prince George, BC

Richard, Prince George, BC

We are Nowhere, and It's Now

Seeing how this is an art blog and how I love photography I thought i'd share some. These photos are appropriate for the coming season that brings a feeling of creepiness or neglect. I am referring to halloween not October. Anyways this will be the first of a few sets of photos with different feelings or themes. These photos may not be elementary appropriate (so obviously no PLOs :) but they can still inspire.

These photos remind me of something that was once vibrant and had life....these stairs were walked on,  those chairs were sat upon during many a family dinner. It is interesting to think about that life and how those people lived; were they happy? Was there laughter in these rooms....or pain? Another thing I love about them is the contrast of colour. And the strength of colours...the bit of yellow in the outhouse....the dashes of vibrant blues and reds on the stairs, the teal pain chipped on the walls. I am constantly inspired by colours in art ...like when a painting with three simple colours can be so beautiful even though they may be in the form of shape or line...no real picture or story...but still beautiful as a collection. 

I grew up just two doors down from this small dilapidated house. My brothers and I used to call it the haunted house. As far as 'staging' goes I only moved the chairs to line up...the formation somehow seemed eery to me. But that little paper that says "the life of Christ visualized" was just laying there, as were the worn clothes and shoe. 

Now I realize this art is not beautiful ....it's difficult to find beauty in an outhouse. But hopefully it makes someone feel something.....even if it is uncomfortable. 

- Mayfare

Grade 7 Art Projects

This weekend I was thinking about some art lessons I would like to do for my grade 6/7s. I was looking online to get some inspiration or ideas and checking out the PLOs. I would looove to do these masks....they looks like a lot of work and a lot of fun....so we will see.....also a bit messy! (Which almost always means fun!) There were also some other neat ideas I will share with you on here:

1.

Here are the masks! Wicked right!! 

Mc D's Mask

Mario Mask

B3 analyse and apply a variety of materials, technologies, and processes to create artworks

A5 create 2-D and 3-D images

• −  that convey personal or social
  beliefs and values
• −  for specific purposes
• −  that incorporate the styles of
  selected artists from a variety of social, historical, and cultural contexts 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  2. 
  
  
  This was a neat idea....Make a Facebook profile page for a famous Artist. 
  
  
  C2 assess the relationship between selected artists and their social, historical, and cultural contexts 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  3.
  
  
  B2 analyse and apply unity as created by combining visual elements in a coherent way
  A5 create 2-D and 3-D images

  • −  that convey personal or social
    beliefs and values
  • −  for specific purposes
  • −  that incorporate the styles of
    selected artists from a variety of social, historical, and cultural contexts 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  4. 
  
  

This one was using zentangle patterns to create landscapes. Pretty cool looking.

A4 create images using a variety of materials, technologies, and processes

I wish I had time to try all of these lessons because they look so interesting.  
Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Links to blogs that posted above pics:
http://www.artatmassac.blogspot.ca/search/label/7th%20Grade
http://beckermiddleart.blogspot.ca/2012/04/zentangle-landscapes.html

- Mayfare