Kindness

This week we have reading about the power of kindness.  Kindness, respectfulness and selflessness are all characteristics that I feel are very important for our students to understand and be able to demonstrate.  Lately, I have not been seeing these characteristics lately, so it was a great time to review this information.

Today I presented my 8th Grade BEARS group with a Kindness Challenge.  I began our time together by sharing with my students a couple of videos.  The first one was Kid President: "How to Change the World (A Work in Progress)".  Kid President always has such an inspirational message and the students really enjoyed this one (some of them were introduced to Kid President for the first time while others had seen videos by him before).  The second video I shared with students was: "Thai Life Insurance" commercial that shows how the power of selfless kindness can affect so many people.  I was touched by this commercial and knew right away that I would share it with my 8th grade students!

During my class today I had a student share a video with me that he had seen about the power of kindness.  This video is called "Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang".  I was so happy that this video was shared with the class - and from one of their peers!  All of these were very powerful videos and was a great entrance point to my challenge for them.  I challenged each student to complete a random act of kindness by the end of the day tomorrow.  I will be sending them a survey tomorrow afternoon asking them if they completed a random act of kindness, give a brief description of what it was, how many people it affected, how it made them feel, if they will continue to participate in random acts of kindness and if they enjoyed this challenge.  My hope for this challenge is that students will take it seriously and will think about what they can do in school and our community to make it a better place for everyone!  I am excited to see what responses I receive from students!  I will report back soon!

Red Ribbon Week

This week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with some dress-up days!  Monday was "Catch the Wave", Tuesday "I Mustache You Not to Do Drugs", Wednesday "Orange You Glad You're Drug Free?", Thursday "Hooked on Books, Not Drugs", and Friday will be "Say BOO to Drugs".

I don't have pictures of each dress-up day, but we certainly had fun with it this week!  What a great way to get the important message out about maintaining a healthy and drug-free lifestyle!

Byron Community Showcase ART SHOW!

We were busy today setting up our Art Show (grades 1-12) for the Byron Community Showcase taking place tomorrow from 9am to 1pm.  It is always a great opportunity when we can share the work created by the students in our schools!! And of course, we always have a great time setting up the shows right Lindsey and Amanda?  Thanks to Gretchen for helping us out too!!! 

Enjoy the Byron Community Showcase at the Byron Middle School on Saturday, October 25th from 9am to 1pm!!! 

Red Ribbon Doors!

During the month of October, our BEARS groups have been learning about the dangerous effects of drugs and have been spreading awareness in our school about the importance of saying NO to drugs.  Next week we will be participating in Red Ribbon Week at our school; taking the pledge to stay safe, healthy and drug free.  One way we are spreading awareness at BMS is with door decorations.  Below is my 8th grade BEARS door design for Red Ribbon Week!  Stay tuned for some fun dress-up day pictures to further promote a safe, healthy and drug free lifestyle!!

ArtBooks!

This quarter I had my fifth through eighth grade students create ArtBooks for class.  I use these like a sketchbook although students do not have sketch assignments on a daily or weekly basis and they do not take them out of the classroom (except when necessary).  I have been using these ArtBooks for lesson and unit notes and brainstorming ideas for final projects.  I have really liked utilizing the ArtBooks in class, because I can gain useful information (formative assessments!) just by asking students to show me what they are working on in their books.  We have been able to adapt this as a routine in class - students know that when they have a question I am going to ask to look in their ArtBooks to access their notes or sketches.  I also like that the ArtBooks help to get students involved with the lesson during the instructional process - rather than going through a lesson and then having them work on something.  This is a great way to encourage accountability in class and I think the students are doing really well with these!

Below are examples of the Art Math my fifth grade students are currently working on in their ArtBooks.  Fifth graders are learning about color theory: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary/Intermediate Colors as well as Complementary and Analogous Colors.

Promoting Student Ownership

I recently found an article from the November 2008 issue of Education Leadership titled "Formative Assessment that Empowers".  My action research has been on promoting student responsibility and ownership in my middle school art room and I continued to search for suggestions on how to do this with my students.  One example outlined in this article was about a seventh grade teacher who had their students create a checklist and rubric to plan, monitor and refine their drawings of the water cycle.  As the teacher walked around the room each day, he was able to refer the students to their checklist and rubric to offer connections or lack thereof.  It was noted that students soon became focused on the checklist and rubric and it aided in the quality and accuracy of their drawings.

My eighth grade students are currently working on a micrography drawing lesson - drawing only with text.  Before students began working with ink, I guided them through the process of creating a checklist for their work.  We then used the checklist to create the rubric that will be used to assess the final drawings.  The drawing checklist consists of the following criteria: Shading is completed using only text; Full range of values present (gradation); Final product is clean and undamaged (craftsmanship); Drawing is complete (design fills the paper); Creative design (unique, detailed, interesting).
Students will also be assigned to complete a written self-evaluation; this checklist consists of the following criteria: Complete sentences; Legible (easy to read and understand); Lesson vocabulary used correctly.

This is the first time I have created a checklist with the students - in the past this is something that I had always created for them prior to the beginning of the unit or lesson.  For the most part I thought this process went over very well - because it was the first time going through this with students, I noticed that they did not offer very much for the checklist, so I had to really push for students to participate.  I think that this would improve the more students are exposed to this process.  Overall, this helped to give students a say in the work that was being assessed while also providing them with a very clear outline of expectations for their drawings.

Click on the link below for this Educational Leadership article -
Formative Assessment that Empowers

Example of Micrography