Glaze Firing!

I absolutely LOVE opening the kiln after a glaze fire!  At times, I feel more excited than the kids!  I recently opened up the kiln to reveal the glazing from my seventh grade students.  I am loving the way these mugs are turning out!  They really got creative with how they applied the glaze.  So many students were asking, "What will happen if I put this color on top of this color?" or "What will it look like if I splatter the glaze?".  I love taking the opportunity to tell students to "give it a try"!  I am so happy with out they turned out and even more impressed with the creative risks students were willing to take!

Op Art Paper-Cutting

Forme Evolutive, Victor Vasarely

Eighth grade students have been learning about the style of Op Art. Students looked at works created by the Father of Op Art, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley as well as multiple optical illusions to show how certain creations can trick the human eye to see movement, different colors and implied form.

Bridget Riley

Students were challenged to create optical designs combined with the art of paper-cutting.  Students were asked to create at least two separate designs (one on each paper) that when placed on top of one another create the optical design.  Students spent a good amount of time coming up with designs that would hold together during the paper-cutting process - trial and error was a method that students became very familiar with.

Once students have the two designs cut from their papers, they will place them together with a third paper in the background.  Many students have created three or four paper-cutting designs to enhance the optical illusion design of their work.

Here's a glance at the process so far...

Perspective Drawing

Seventh grade students have been busy learning about and practicing linear perspective drawing techniques, specifically two-point perspective drawing.  We spent a few class periods working on practice drawings - drawing the horizon line, using the right and left vanishing points to draw sidewalks, buildings, windows, etc.  Once students finish their pencil drawings they begin outlining with a black permanent marker.  Some students are moving on to adding color. The medium for this drawing project is colored pencil. An emphasis on value is the focus for this step. Students are identifying a light source and will add highlights, tints, shades and shadows according to the placement of the light source. This group is loving the linear perspective drawing process so far and I am truly enjoying the progress they are making!  Take a look below😀

                              

Southeast MN Art Show

Byron Middle School students are ecstatic to have been given the opportunity to showcase their work at the Southeast MN Art Show at the Rochester Art Center!  Five students in seventh and eighth grade will have their work displayed at the art center throughout the duration of this show.  The art show will run from Saturday, February 13th through Sunday, February 21st.  Information is included below if you would like to attend the show and view all of the fabulous works from Southeast MN school districts (grades 7-12).

Great job BMS student artists - I am so proud of you!

From left: John Kemp (8), Grace Haugen (8), Ava Leigh (7), Alyssa Bale (8), Chloe Hauber (8)

Projects: Op Art Paper-Cutting, Two-Point Perspective, Printmaking and Self-Portrait

Rochester Art Center

Rochester Art Center Hours: 

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday | 10 am – 5 pm

Thursday | 10 am – 9 pm

Sunday | 12 noon – 5 pm

Closed Monday and Tuesday (RAC is working to be open for this event)

Admission Rates:

Free to the public during run of the show 

(patrons please tell person at the front desk you are here for the Southeast Minnesota Art Show only) Donations are encouraged

Monsters!

My seventh grade BEARS Enrichment groups are hard at work this year with their Monster Machine project - and we are all loving it! Monster Mayhem Inc. (aka 7th grade students) request drawings from the kinder's in our district. What kind of drawings, you ask? Well, MoNsTeRs, of course!! Kindergarten students create a drawing of a monster, including all details possible (tails, spikes, wings, etc). We also ask for kindergarten students to write a couple of sentences to introduce their monsters (they are simply adorable!).  Monster Mayhem Inc. take the drawings and put them through one of our many handmade monster machines. Monsters are created with clay and colored with glaze. Our first two classes have been completed and we're onto another three! Check out the results below -

Fabulous work Monster Mayhem Inc.!

Art in the Sky!

I am so honored to have been given the opportunity to showcase Byron Middle School student work in The Art in the Sky display!  Various art displays from area schools can be seen in the skyway near the Rochester Public Library.

Our current display showcases artworks created by our Byron Middle School 6th Grade students.  Students have been hard at work in the BMS Art Room.  Students began this unit by learning about value in art and how it can be used to create contrast, form, texture and variation.  Students practiced creating various values first by making multiple value scales using pencil and applying value to complete multiple textural designs. 

After practicing various value studies, students began working on their animal portraits. Sixth graders used the grid drawing method to enlarge small photos of animals onto larger drawing paper; animals were drawn four or five times larger than their original pictures. The grid drawing process helped students to maintain correct proportion in their animal portraits. Value was then used to create contrast, form, texture and variation in their drawings. Students also had the option to add a splash of color to their works, creating a strong focal point in their animal portrait drawing.

The pictures below show the artwork in the skyway; individual photos of each work will be added soon.

Thank you for viewing!

Personal Mandalas

I love getting to know my students!  I really love when an art project helps me to know my students better, both in and out of the school walls! The Personal Mandala Class Project that I have my sixth grade students work on does just that.

At the beginning of each new quarter, I teach the Personal Mandala project to my sixth grade students. This helps me to get to know them better (which is great, when I can see up to 84 sixth graders a quarter!).  I love that I can use this project to allow my students to get to know me better as well - we can all learn so much about one another with the personal symbols we share in a work of art.

Communication is the main idea behind this project. I ask my students to think about what symbols they would use to communicate to their audience about who they are as individuals.  Symbols that represent our past, present and future are used to design the personal mandalas.  Students are tasked with thinking of and creating symbols for their favorites - hobbies, subjects, books, music, movies, food, color, etc. I also ask them to think about what they are thankful for and incorporate that into their designs as well. Some students look to their future and add symbols for where they want to go to college or what career they want as an adult. The possibilities are endless and the results are so personal, individual and unique!

Recently, I have tried to make this a more collaborative project by only giving students a quarter of a circle to design their mandala piece (rather than creating the whole mandala on their own). The mandalas are displayed together in groups of four and are stunning! Examples from multiple classes can be seen below. Enjoy!

Good Minion, Bad Minion

My seventh grade BEARS group did a fabulous job creating our pumpkin for the BMS student council 'pumpkin patch contest'!! So proud of all the hard work they have done!

Eighth Grade Prints!

And the show is up!! Please check out the BMS eighth grade prints in the Rochester skyway display near the public library! Thank you!

State Printmaking

Eighth grade students have been working extremely hard on a printmaking project in the BMS Art Room!  Each student chose a state and conducted research to find interesting facts about their chosen state.  They designed a drawing to represent their state and went through multiple steps to create a linoleum block print.

Once the linoleum printing blocks were carved using various sizes of carving tools, students were ready to print!  Brayers were used to apply printing ink to the surface of the linoleum block.  Students completed their prints by pressing them onto white paper.  Each student made a limited edition of their prints by signing and numbering them and matted them onto a construction paper background.  Artist statements were written to complete the project.

And We're Off!

The 2015-16 school year has gotten off to a great start...and as I find myself nine days away from the end of quarter one, I am realizing how fast the days and weeks are flying by!  This year I am again teaching students in grades 5-8 and we have been busy in the BMS Art Room!

Fifth grade students are learning about using personal symbols in art, applying value in compositions, perspective drawing techniques, ceramic building techniques, color theory, and watercolor painting techniques.

Sixth grade students are learning about personal symbols in art, Aboriginal art, totem animals, ceramic building techniques, grid drawing techniques, and value.

Seventh grade students are learning about 3D construction, personal symbols in art, perspective drawing techniques, ceramic building techniques, photography, artist statement writing and various artistic styles.

Eighth grade students are learning about portrait drawing techniques, micrography, ceramic building techniques, pop art, printmaking, artist statement writing ad paper cutting techniques.

This year I also have the pleasure of working with 7th grade students for my BEARS group - a community group I see a few days a week.  For our enrichment project this year we are bringing back the "Monster Machine" project in conjunction with the kindergarten students in our district.  We are having a blast with this project so far, and we are just at the beginning!

There will be so much more to come in the next days and weeks!  Thank you for viewing :-)

Brooke

Continual Growth Plan

When you arrive at the end of your teaching career how do you want to be remembered? I want my students to remember me as someone who listened to them and allowed them to truly be themselves.  I love to laugh and have fun with my students, so I’d like to think that students will remember me for that.
What will your "opus"/legacy be? I honestly do not know what my legacy will be; I hope to inspire students to create.  I value creativity, compassion, laughter and patience and I hope that students that come through my classroom take those values with them.
What are the steps you will take to get there?  I hope to never forget who I am and what my goals are as a teacher.  I am hopeful that I will be able to stay out of the “rut” of teaching; where I show up to work, do what I need to do, go home, repeat the following day.  I hope to continue to enjoy the students that I work with and stay away from the robotic teacher ‘rut’.  I hope to always believe in the power of education, no matter what the government wants us to do.  I think it will be important to believe in myself and the students I teach.


Five years from now I hope to have an even stronger visual arts program at the middle school.  I really look forward to starting an art club and opening up opportunities for students to get involved with the visual arts outside of the school day.  I also hope to involve students in community projects as well. I have done this in the past, and it has been amazing! I would like to incorporate more community work within my curriculum as well as with the art club.

Metaphors For A Teacher

This week we have been asked to read "Metaphors We Teach By" by Mary Ann Bowman.  We were then asked to think about our own transformation and growth since starting the M.Ed. Program, and find an object that is a metaphor for who we are now and that represents our transformation. The object I chose for my metaphor is tinder and flint.  As a big fan of camping, hiking and backpacking, I know the importance of a hot fire at the end of a long day, for many reasons.  Matches and lighters are not always the most reliable when we are out in the elements, so we learned early on that it is important to have an additional fire starter.  I found the following teacher metaphor at TeachHub.com.  This post is titled "Back to School Prep Guide: 8 Metaphors For a Teacher" by Jordan Catapano.

"Tinder and Flint: Apart, tinder and flint don’t do much. But strike them together and you’ve got sparks. Put those sparks next to a flammable material and fire roars to life. Teachers and students are like tinder and flint – what’s one without the other? Strike them together and, under the right conditions, you’ll have the flames of knowledge start small and begin to spread. A teacher (and their students) is tinder and flint."

I relate to this teaching metaphor because I truly love to learn with and from my students.  Throughout my action research this year, I have provided students with more choice in my art classroom and I have really enjoyed seeing and hearing their great ideas.  Working collaboratively with my students is what I look forward to each day.  When we are working together, I know we can make great things happen!

Be Your Best FOR the World

My mom has influenced me to be my own person and to do what I truly love. She has always encouraged me to do my best and to be proud of who I am and what I do. To this day, my mom is my biggest supporter with everything I do and I am so thankful for her encouragement and support. She has seen me through many ups and downs in my life and always seems to know exactly what to say at exactly the right time. I am thankful for her influence on my life and I am so happy to have the opportunity to pass these gifts along to my students.

My mom has taught me how to respect, and to truly know the importance of being respectful of all of the people around me, no matter what the situation.  Most importantly, I think, is that she has taught me patience.  My patience has helped me more than I ever thought it would as a [middle school] teacher and I am so thankful for this guidance.  My mom has also taught me the importance of humor in our lives.  This is a quality that I use consistently in my life, both in and out of the classroom.  Laughing is so good for the soul and it has been a great lesson learn as I continue to grow and learn as a teacher.

Three qualities that I can use to be the best for the world:

Quality: Patience

How I can use it: When I think about the quality of patience, I often think about my classroom and my students.  I use patience with my students on a daily basis.  This is not the only area of my life that I can use this quality.  Within the school walls I need to have patience with students, co-workers and myself.  I can really tell a difference in my own attitude when I have patience with those around me.

Quality: Respect  

How I can use it: Respect is a quality that I admire in people.  Everyone knows what it feels like to be disrespected and, simply put, it doesn’t feel good.  One of my main expectations in my classroom is respect for others (and their artwork).  In the art classroom, I know it not easy for every single student to create works, whether it is a drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.  so I make it very clear to my students that we must respect one another and the work we create.  This is a difficult lesson to teach, but I feel is an extremely important one.

Quality: Humor  

How I can use it: Humor gets me through the day!  I love to laugh with my students, co-workers, friends, family, anyone!  I feel like it eases the mood of my classroom and helps my students and I relax.  I feel that this is an important quality for the art room; if students are tense and stressed, they will not be able to create their best work.    

Spring Conference Implementation

Today I used brain break activities with my fifth and sixth grade students.  Both classes are beginning new units in class, and I wanted to try to break up all of my talking with an activity that would get students up out of their seats and moving around a little bit!

I tried the Palm Tapping Energizing Brain Break with my fifth grade students.  When I got to the "brain break" portion of my PowerPoint, I had asked students if they had heard of or tried brain break activities, they had not, so I explained quickly what they are.  Students seemed eager to get up out of their seats, so I thought that was a good sign, as far as timing in the presentation.  I had them follow along with the video and they did very well watching the students and repeating what they were doing.  I thought it was kind of funny because this activity did take some thinking (remember the steps) and it had a few students wondering, "How is this a brain break?  We're still thinking!".

Before I started the video, I told students that when the video ended, we would be done with the activity, and that worked really well.  Once the video came to an end, students were back in their seats and ready to listen for next steps in the unit plan.  I really enjoyed using the brain breaks with my students; I can see how this would be extremely beneficial for longer class periods as well.  Having activities that are fairly short, really makes these possible in any classroom setting.  I will be implementing brain breaks into my introductory unit plans specifically because these class periods require students to sit and listen for longer periods of time.

The other brain break I tried was the Nose and Ear Switch.  The class loved trying to switch back and forth from their ear to their nose.  I had a blast watching them and trying it myself!  As soon as the video was done, students went right back to their seats and were ready to hear their assignments.  I think implementing brain breaks into my classroom will be a really beneficial activity for students and myself :-)

2015 Spring Conference

We recently presented our Action Research at the SMU 2015 Spring Conference.  We could not resist a quick picture before lunch as we each presented in the morning!  Such a wonderful learning experience!

This week we have been asked to implement something that we learned at the conference.  I learned some very valuable information from the sessions I attended, and I will be incorporating many of these ideas into my classroom.  I am looking forward to working in many of these things over the summer months!

One of the sessions that I attended was focused on Brain-Based Learning, specifically how the use of brain breaks can be beneficial for our students.  The session presenter provided a lot of useful information about brain breaks, including multiple resources where we can find brain break ideas.  One of the main resources she shared with us is from a math teacher in Illinois.  David Sladkey has graciously shared many of his brain break ideas on his website and blog.  Hes has created a book as well that contains his brain break ideas as well as links to videos that he has created of his students showing what each brain break activity looks like.  Our session presenter also gave us some good team building ideas to use to get students to know one another better.  Some of the brain breaks are done individually, some with a partner and some with groups.  It is really important that students feel comfortable with each other to complete the tasks during the brain breaks.

My plan is to implement more brain breaks into my classroom.  This week I will be introducing new lessons in my fifth and sixth grade classes, and this usually involves more listening on the students behalf.  I plan to use some of Sladkey's videos to introduce a brain break activity with each of these four classes.  My initial concern with brain breaks, prior to attending this session at the conference, was that they would take too long.  Our session presenter had us practicing some brain breaks by following some of the videos that Sladkey has made.  Many were two minutes or less, and we followed right along with the video.  It was a great way to introduce the activity and get everyone moving, and when the video was over, we were ready to move on.  I know middle school students may not be ready to move on as quickly, so setting very clear expectations with my classes will be key.  I am excited to see how my students respond to these brain break activities, as well as have some fun with them trying to complete the activities myself!

Take Yourself to the Edge

It seems so fitting that we would be asked to blog about taking ourselves to the edge this week.  My husband and I made an impromptu trip to Chicago, IL. last week during my Spring Break.  The picture above shows us as the Sky Deck of the Willis Tower, the worlds tallest structure!  We have definitely taken ourselves to the edge physically, from stepping into a glass box over 1,300 feet above ground, or hiking to the top of Cloud Peak at 13,167 feet!

Now, what does that look like for our jobs as teachers?  This week, we have been asked to "take ourselves to the edge" and explain what that is like in our professions.  We have been asked to answer the following questions:

We usually think of "going to the edge" in terms of athletic endeavors. How might this concept apply to your job?  Personally, I think of taking my students work outside of the school.  I want to provide them with audiences that will make them really think about the work they are creating.  I would really like to push it even further and provide an opportunity for this outside audience to reflect of the student work that they are seeing - ask questions, provide feedback… I think this experience would be very beneficial for my students.

What I gain even if my efforts fall short: I think that even when I fall short, I learn valuable lessons about myself and my students.  When this happens, and it does and it will, I think it is important to push through it.  Reflect on what went wrong and how I can change it the next time I tackle something similar.  I also share these shortcomings with my students - any time I make a mistake, I make sure my students know it.  I then have the opportunity to show my students how I can work through it to turn my mistake into something great (or start over with something new if that what it takes)!  This is a valuable real-world lesson that students will need to learn sooner or later (if they haven’t already) and schools have to be a place where they feel comfortable to try and experiment.

Do you think that you always need to take yourself to your edge?  I do not think we always need to push ourselves to the edge.  I feel like there are times when doing the “safe” thing works and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.  I think when we get into a rut of doing the same “safe” things over and over and over again, is where we can come into some trouble, for both ourselves and our students.

Are there times when "good enough" really is good enough? I have certainly been there; I have thought “this is as good as it’s going to get...I’m done.” however I do try to push myself and my students to go beyond that “good enough” point.  There are many aspects working against us at times for this to happen perfectly every time, however.  We do not have time on our side.  We have a certain amount of material to cover in an already too short amount of time, and it can be very difficult to manage that.  Even saying that now, I know I have allowed more time for some projects and had to cut others short because I wanted students (and myself) push it a little bit more!  Money and materials is another thing that can definitely hinder moving beyond “good enough”.  I have had to tell students on multiple occasions that they cannot do something because we didn't have the materials or the means to purchase them.  It is definitely a tough situation to work through, however I feel that it is a great lesson for students to understand as well.  They are then challenged to find something within the art room, the school, their homes or the community that they could use to make their ideas work - it is an awesome challenge for them and can be very rewarding when they succeed!

Reflection

AR - RoL - Backward Design

Reflect back on your Review of Literature, Action Research write-up, and your Curriculum Units you have been working on for your final learning requirements. 

I have learned so much through the action research and review of literature processes.  I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to conduct this research and implement new activities and processes with my middle school visual arts classes, specifically my eighth grade classes.  My data collection has shown me that my students are benefiting from the changes I have made, and I could not be happier with the knowledge I have gained.  

This process has helped me to identify the most important concepts for my students to know and understand.  I will be able to use this process as a guide to help me create more meaningful lessons for my classes.  I found it very interesting that this process is applicable to any subject and grade level; specifically that the Enduring Understandings can be used for multiple age levels.  I really like that the end result created more detailed concepts leading to the use of most state standards.  Any time I can create a strong connection to  what I am doing in my classroom with the state and/or national standards is great!

I feel that by utilizing this process, I will be able to better prepare myself for teaching each unit of study, but also that I will help to better prepare my students for what they are expected to know, understand and be able to do.  By focusing on 3-5 abstract concepts for each unit, I am able to choose what is the most important for my students to learn.  The backward design process has enhanced my instruction by making me reflect on my learner outcomes and enduring understandings which in turn will help students to better connect with the material I am teaching.  Any time my focus can be more connected to student learning is great, and I feel that this process will help me to do that with every unit I teach.