Originally, I created this blog as
a spot to share my elementary art lesson plans with other educators. My plans
are to upload photos, demonstrations, and lesson plans of current and past
lessons that have worked for me. My experiences with blogs has been very one
sided. I already subscribe (beg, borrow, and steal ideas and lessons) to so many
of my fellow art teachers’ blogs, it is time I start to contribute!
Why should I just limit my blog to
just educators? As my summer break gets shorter and shorter and I dive deeper
into my pursuit of a Master Degree of Science Education – Integrating
Technology in the Classroom, my mind is filled with possibilities for my
students to use a blog. David Thornburg
describes multiple ways in which the technology and information age as shrunk
space (2010b). Information can travel
across the globe in a matter of seconds.
I want my students so benefit from this sharing of information. In the fall, I plan on having my students
share photos of their artwork and participate in online critiques of their fellow
classmates’ art or maybe even artwork from another region. My little artists could receive feedback and
suggestions on their work as well as being influenced by other artists online. When students are asked to write or
communicate to an audience larger than just their teacher, more thought and
planning is put into their work. Students may also be able to set up an online
portfolio for their work because all educators know how responsible certain students can be.
Dr. Thornburg also states that “Creativity
will be needed to apply the benefits of new technologies in education” (2010a). One of the most important aspects of my job
is to encourage creativity and foster problem solving. My students strive to be individuals. With a larger audience my students will post
more original content as opposed to rephrasing what another classmate as
already said. This process does not have to be limited to just young
artist. Why not involve parents, students’
other teachers, and even administrators?
I have never used a blog in my
classroom other than for references. My
students have never participated. Any
fellow educators cruising the inter-webs have any suggestions for a
first-timer?
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (2010a). Technology
and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Enc. (2010b). The
third wave. Baltimore, MD:
Author.
Hello Miss R,
ReplyDeleteLet me begin by saying I think your students are lucky to have such a dedicated art teacher. I think your idea of having your students create an online portfolio is a great idea. I noticed that you teach younger students and was wondering how you will have them get their work online? Will you be scanning it for them or taking pictures of the art pieces and will you teach your students to do this once you have perfected the system? Using an iPad might be one solution as it would allow even the youngest students to take the picture themselves. I am not sure if you were going to have the younger ones comment or not, but if so they could use a video and speak comments into the iPad instead of trying to have them type comments. Just some thoughts......
Enjoy,
Renee
Renee,
DeleteI have attempted to scan art work in the past with little success. Often times the art doesn’t fit and the process is quite time consuming. Taking photos has proven to be much more effective. I love your suggestion of using audio attached to the photos with an iPad. Currently, I do not have access to an iPad for my students. At the end of last year I started building a professional portfolio of my students’ work. A procedure that worked best for documenting my younger artists’ work was to set up an art “photo booth.” I brought in my personal tablet and set up a small bright white box. The students would bring up their piece, place it in the box, type in their name and I would snap a quick picture. It was nothing short of adorable when my first graders had to arrange their clay pinch pot monsters in the photo booth. “Miss R, Make sure you get my monster’s good side, she can be sensitive!” I’m excited to using this in a way where my students can interact with their classmates’ art.
Miss R
Miss R,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see how blogs would be very beneficial in the art classroom. I love the idea of having your students share photos of their artwork online. This would serve as such a great method of providing inspiration and guidance to students as they work on projects. I agree that the larger audience will push students to put more effort into each assignment because they know more than just their teacher will be looking at their work. I was curious how you are planning on implementing blogs in your classroom based on time and resources? I previously worked in an elementary school, and our art teacher only saw each class about two or three times a week. Would you have the time and resources available to have your students complete their blogs during your class, or would they need to do this outside of class? I teach English language learners (ELL), and at the elementary level last year my time was very limited with each grade level that I worked with. I see that it could have been challenging to utilize blogs in my classroom regularly. It is difficult when you have so much to cover with students you are not able to spend a large amount of time with. If I were going to be at the elementary level during the upcoming school year, I would probably set up a specific day of the week every other week for my students to work on their blogs in class. They would also have the opportunity to do work outside of class if they were able to, but I wouldn’t want this to be required. My reasoning for not having assigned blogging outside of class is that many of my students did not have easy access to a computer other than in school. I ask how you are planning on implementing your blogs because I am in the stages of planning the utilization of blogs in my high school ELL classes next year as well. It is helpful to hear others’ ideas.
Thank you,
Amy King
Amy,
DeleteOh, how lucky that art teacher must have been to see her students two to three times a week! I see my students once a week for seventy minutes. Our time is very short. I have several ideas for allotting time for my students to blog. My resources are very limited. I only have three, very slow, laptops for student computers. I could ask my students to participate online from home or study hall but the participation rate would be quite low. I would probably only post work after the completion of a large project. This would be around once or twice a quarter. I was also contemplating choosing a few particular students to be art critics or journalist that would document the art work in progress by taking notes and photos. I haven’t quite figured out the logistics on that. As for your ELL students, maybe you could start by having their first blog be a reflection or review of something they have been working on. This way they will have had practice with the specific vocabulary. I would start simple. If you have recently finished a book, an easy blog discussion starter would be just have the students state their favorite character or scene from the book and why. Hope that helps!
Miss R