I've learned a lot this semester and it's been a worthwhile experience along the way! I appreciate the way this class was structured. I enjoyed the freedom to be creative, explore different paths, and make my own decisions along the way. I strongly believe in the value of research-based decision-making. As a graphic designer, I already love technology, being creative, and computer-based products. However, I was amazed at all the free and easy to use technology tools are available for educators. Lastly, I enjoyed the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to use 21st century technology in my classroom. I think it's important that we are not only comfortable teaching our content area but are comfortable with technology in our classrooms. I want to be able to grab my students attention and get them excited about art and the different material and techniques available. Technology will be my friend now and not my enemy!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Technology & Communication
How do you improve communication with parents and students outside the classroom?
I think we all can agree that parental and student communication between school and home is very important! There are many ways I would use a blog to help promote learning in the art classroom. I would create a blog to communicate class/school information with parents, post field trip information, field trip forms, parent helper calendars, general classroom guidelines, and include daily lessons listed for students who are sick or out of class for the day. Each day, I would try to designate a classroom "scribe" who is responsible for posting lessons/materials covered. For example: If my class was learning Japanese Batik I would have one or two students be in charge of taking excellent notes on key vocabulary, step-by-step instruction of the process, materials needed, and any key art history references I make that may appear on a unit test. Parents and students would have access to this information and be knowledgeable of what their child learned in my class that day, may strike a dinner conversation, and aide parents in preparation for studying for my tests or quizzes. Also, I would use a blog to showcase individual art projects throughout the year. Parents would be able to see their child's work even if it doesn't make it home in one piece! Finally, If I needed a guest speaker parents may be able to provide input or even help find that special someone to speak and/or demonstrate to the class.
Tired of being a predictable teacher with a boring powerpoint presentation? Animoto and Prezi are two of many presentation technology tools you can use to spice up your lesson. Animoto takes photographs and allows users to add sound and text, as well as control some editing of the video project, in order to share stories through a short video presentation. Students will find the ability to express themselves through new media tools an attractive aspect of Animoto, and teachers can utilize this tool as a way to bridge curriculum and student engagement or develop digital storytelling projects. I think for students and teachers tired of PowerPoint presentations, Animoto is just as easy to use and provides a wider multimedia experience. One important thing to remember, if you are assigning an Animoto assignment it is important that you need set aside time to explain the process to your students. This may be headache but necessary for students to understand and use the application correctly. Even if you're only using Animoto as a presentation tool, like Smartboard lessons, you need allow extra time to tweak, prepare, and check that the presentation is ideal for that lesson. Another great teacher tool is, Prezi is an easy-to-use presentation tool (as easy to use as PowerPoint) that provides a fresh, new, interactive way to present information to your students. Driven by flash animation, Prezi allows you to organize course content in logical ways, while at the same time establishing multiple connections between multiple fields of knowledge. You can use Prezi to give a presentation in a predetermined “Path,” or explore instead, in response to student interactions. You can even have your students navigate, contribute to, or create a Prezi on their own and easily integrates media. I think Prezi is very professional looking, allows you to emphasize key points by zooming in or focusing on certain parts of the slide. Some things that worry me and I don't like about Prezi is you cannot print out your presentation and its not quick to put together like a powerpoint presentation. For example, if I'm doing a lesson on Impressionism I would use Prezi to introduce specific artists (Van Gogh, Monet, etc) or maybe I would assign research projects and have students create a Prezi to discuss, teach, critique, and/or learn about art history or an art technique.
I've recently experimented with ToonDoo. ToonDoo is a cool, fun, online comic strip creator. Students and teachers can express their feelings, thoughts through a powerful medium, comics! You can even embed a ToonDoo so parents can read and comment on student's comic strip. Also, another great classroom tool is Voki. Voki allows you to create speaking avatars. This will aide in motivating students to participate, improve communication skills, and introduce content with a different approach. I have past experience using VoiceThread, Prezi, and Animoto for class assignments. My ultimate goal is to get my students to pay attention in my classroom and to understand the material. Technology tools like Prezi, VoiceThread, etc will help my achieve my goal. Applications like these allow room for creativity and diversity in my classroom.
I think we all can agree that parental and student communication between school and home is very important! There are many ways I would use a blog to help promote learning in the art classroom. I would create a blog to communicate class/school information with parents, post field trip information, field trip forms, parent helper calendars, general classroom guidelines, and include daily lessons listed for students who are sick or out of class for the day. Each day, I would try to designate a classroom "scribe" who is responsible for posting lessons/materials covered. For example: If my class was learning Japanese Batik I would have one or two students be in charge of taking excellent notes on key vocabulary, step-by-step instruction of the process, materials needed, and any key art history references I make that may appear on a unit test. Parents and students would have access to this information and be knowledgeable of what their child learned in my class that day, may strike a dinner conversation, and aide parents in preparation for studying for my tests or quizzes. Also, I would use a blog to showcase individual art projects throughout the year. Parents would be able to see their child's work even if it doesn't make it home in one piece! Finally, If I needed a guest speaker parents may be able to provide input or even help find that special someone to speak and/or demonstrate to the class.
Tired of being a predictable teacher with a boring powerpoint presentation? Animoto and Prezi are two of many presentation technology tools you can use to spice up your lesson. Animoto takes photographs and allows users to add sound and text, as well as control some editing of the video project, in order to share stories through a short video presentation. Students will find the ability to express themselves through new media tools an attractive aspect of Animoto, and teachers can utilize this tool as a way to bridge curriculum and student engagement or develop digital storytelling projects. I think for students and teachers tired of PowerPoint presentations, Animoto is just as easy to use and provides a wider multimedia experience. One important thing to remember, if you are assigning an Animoto assignment it is important that you need set aside time to explain the process to your students. This may be headache but necessary for students to understand and use the application correctly. Even if you're only using Animoto as a presentation tool, like Smartboard lessons, you need allow extra time to tweak, prepare, and check that the presentation is ideal for that lesson. Another great teacher tool is, Prezi is an easy-to-use presentation tool (as easy to use as PowerPoint) that provides a fresh, new, interactive way to present information to your students. Driven by flash animation, Prezi allows you to organize course content in logical ways, while at the same time establishing multiple connections between multiple fields of knowledge. You can use Prezi to give a presentation in a predetermined “Path,” or explore instead, in response to student interactions. You can even have your students navigate, contribute to, or create a Prezi on their own and easily integrates media. I think Prezi is very professional looking, allows you to emphasize key points by zooming in or focusing on certain parts of the slide. Some things that worry me and I don't like about Prezi is you cannot print out your presentation and its not quick to put together like a powerpoint presentation. For example, if I'm doing a lesson on Impressionism I would use Prezi to introduce specific artists (Van Gogh, Monet, etc) or maybe I would assign research projects and have students create a Prezi to discuss, teach, critique, and/or learn about art history or an art technique.
I've recently experimented with ToonDoo. ToonDoo is a cool, fun, online comic strip creator. Students and teachers can express their feelings, thoughts through a powerful medium, comics! You can even embed a ToonDoo so parents can read and comment on student's comic strip. Also, another great classroom tool is Voki. Voki allows you to create speaking avatars. This will aide in motivating students to participate, improve communication skills, and introduce content with a different approach. I have past experience using VoiceThread, Prezi, and Animoto for class assignments. My ultimate goal is to get my students to pay attention in my classroom and to understand the material. Technology tools like Prezi, VoiceThread, etc will help my achieve my goal. Applications like these allow room for creativity and diversity in my classroom.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Diversity in the Art classroom
I would set up a class blog that students could comment and post on. In today's classrooms diversity is unavoidable it is my job as a future teacher to educate and challenge my students so they are college and career ready. The art classroom blog will allow class participation for those who are more comfortable writing than speaking, and also provide a medium where thoughts are allowed to materialize before being shared. I believe once everyone becomes comfortable with the technology, it will certainly add value to my art classroom. Having a universal place for students of all cultures, race, religion, ethnicity, sex orientation, etc. come together and share their thoughts about a particular art technique or artist they may like. No matter what we are discussing in class this blog would be a way to create a new culture that involves my content area of teaching. Also, as the teacher I'd be able to post links to local art gallery exhibitions, or summer art camp opportunities that if checked at home may reach the parent versus writing it down in a notebook and forgetting about it by the time the student arrived home from school.
I was impressed by Storybird. It allows users to read, create and share books to view online using original art provided on the site to fuel their creativity or enhance their ideas. Artwork can be searched by artist, themes or random browsing. Once a work of art is chosen from the site’s image library, a page is created with a place for text. The user then types directly onto the page.
Three things that stood out to me after using Storybird:
1) Attention: Students would be engaged and think creatively while building skills in vocabulary, sentence structure, and creative and conceptual writing skills.
2) Depth: This empowers student engagement in all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, culminating in the creation of written works.
3) Efficiency: The site is user friendly, requiring skills that most students already have, such as simple word processing, clicking to choose and scrolling to browse.
Also, collaboration is also an option. Within a class, students can select a classmate from a drop-down menu of student names and send an invitation allowing another person to add to the story. Work can be kept private or be shared via email links. As a future art teacher this technology would be a great tool in my classroom.
Since my last post I've learned a new technology called "Glogster". Everyone who’s had to make a poster for a class project at one time or another, this piece of technology will excite you. Glogster is a tool to create online multimedia "posters" that can incorporate all types of elements into a visual space: links, images, text, videos, music, and more. My future students will have multiple ways to express themselves and to learn from each other, making it easy for me to differentiate and engage each student. As a future art teacher I would use this technology as a tool to introduce a lesson to my students. For example, I would create a "glog" about Andy Warhol, including images of his artwork, links to professional sites about him, and audio/video giving the students a chance to hear someone critique his pieces of art. Also, I could have students create a "glog" at the end of an unit as a way of assessing if they clearly learned the material, vocabulary, step-by-step processes, etc. The student then could present their "glog" to the class or I could grade them without having a class discussion about them. As a graphic designer, I was unaware of this technology but I think this would be a great tool to use with both elementary students as well as high school students. I think it's a great multimedia tool that allows literacy to be a focal point in the classroom.
This is a glog I've made for my education literacy class: Carrie's Reading Autobiography
I was impressed by Storybird. It allows users to read, create and share books to view online using original art provided on the site to fuel their creativity or enhance their ideas. Artwork can be searched by artist, themes or random browsing. Once a work of art is chosen from the site’s image library, a page is created with a place for text. The user then types directly onto the page.
Three things that stood out to me after using Storybird:
1) Attention: Students would be engaged and think creatively while building skills in vocabulary, sentence structure, and creative and conceptual writing skills.
2) Depth: This empowers student engagement in all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, culminating in the creation of written works.
3) Efficiency: The site is user friendly, requiring skills that most students already have, such as simple word processing, clicking to choose and scrolling to browse.
Also, collaboration is also an option. Within a class, students can select a classmate from a drop-down menu of student names and send an invitation allowing another person to add to the story. Work can be kept private or be shared via email links. As a future art teacher this technology would be a great tool in my classroom.
Since my last post I've learned a new technology called "Glogster". Everyone who’s had to make a poster for a class project at one time or another, this piece of technology will excite you. Glogster is a tool to create online multimedia "posters" that can incorporate all types of elements into a visual space: links, images, text, videos, music, and more. My future students will have multiple ways to express themselves and to learn from each other, making it easy for me to differentiate and engage each student. As a future art teacher I would use this technology as a tool to introduce a lesson to my students. For example, I would create a "glog" about Andy Warhol, including images of his artwork, links to professional sites about him, and audio/video giving the students a chance to hear someone critique his pieces of art. Also, I could have students create a "glog" at the end of an unit as a way of assessing if they clearly learned the material, vocabulary, step-by-step processes, etc. The student then could present their "glog" to the class or I could grade them without having a class discussion about them. As a graphic designer, I was unaware of this technology but I think this would be a great tool to use with both elementary students as well as high school students. I think it's a great multimedia tool that allows literacy to be a focal point in the classroom.
This is a glog I've made for my education literacy class: Carrie's Reading Autobiography
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Does blogging help educators in their content area?
Five way to establish Credibility as a blogger!
1) State your credentials: you must inform your audience of your qualifications or lack of.
2) Write what you know: when you write about content area that you have in-depth knowledge about, your feedback is richer and more meaningful than when writing about a topic requiring extensive research.
3) Use credible outside sources: I believe "you are judged by the company you keep" also applies to writing. Make sure your sources are worth defending and not just convenient.
4) Write with authority and accuracy: It's important to show confidence in your writing and how you write is just as important too. Information with spelling and typographical errors will be thought of as not credible by readers.
5) Respond to comments: Interactivity is a key element of all online communication. Make sure you show willingness to engage in further conversation with your readers.
After reading I've learned how valuable this blog is for art educators. This blog provides insight into the minds of other mature students preparing to become teachers. This blog is both educational and provides credible outside sources to encourage learning in the classroom. Many of the blog posts speak about teaching philosophies, lesson plans, and the importance of advocacy for the arts. This blog provides a link to a monthly magazine (SchoolArts). This literacy tool would be a great asset in my future classroom! Lastly, on blog post that stood out from the rest was titled, "Beginning with Bloom's". "Bloom's revised Taxonomy put into words what art teachers have known for years: It is much more difficult to create something new rather that to apply to evaluation." The idea of creating a poster with each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and having this in my classroom would serve as a fantastic reference tool.
I would use Wordle in my classroom as a tool to help my students remember key vocabulary, artists, and techniques and tools used in the art-room. An example would be my students will take a well-know work, such as Starry Night by Van Gogh and use Wordle to create a word cloud to describe what they see?, how it makes them feel?, what was the artists intentions?, where might this scene be located? This tool would work well with Object Based Teaching. Furthermore, I would begin a lesson and allow my students time to absorb and think intuitively about the artist and his/her piece.
Prior to this assignment I had used Wordle in several different classroom discussions. I think when used properly Wordle can excite students and give them exposure to a different type of literacy tool. When searching different blogs I noticed the different ways to incorporate short video clips into an art lesson. The video could be taken with a simple Flip Video camera and then uploaded onto a computer and shown with Quicktime or any video compatible software. A great example of this tool is have your students help during a demonstration on "How to make clay". The next day during an introduction replay the short video clip of them preparing the clay and follow directions. This will get everyone attention and at the same time allow them remember what you taught in the previous class. I think this would be a great technology tool for the classroom!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)