I will learn new ways only by doing them. However, because I have had so much presented with no opportunity to use much of it, I don't see that I am remembering more than a name except for this blog which I expect to find very useful.
I too must be very careful about the use of laptops around the art equipment. A lot of damage can be done to them with paint, glue, and water. We usually store our book bags on the floor. All these factors must be taken into consideration. Thank you, Paul, for your patience.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
1:1 tech Week 9 Google Earth
Here is the graffiti of local Belgrade artists.
I would like to take the students to the country and city of the artists we study. We could also follow the artists on their travels.
I have used Google Earth before. But this time as I located my home in Connecticut, I was surprised at the lack of accuracy in street locations.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
tech 1:1 week 8 Washington Basilica ceiling
A trip to the Catholic Basilica in Washington DC.
One section of the ceiling of the Basilica Picasa techniques used are saturation, sharpening, color temperature adjustment, highlights, and manual cropping.
One section of the ceiling of the Basilica Picasa techniques used are saturation, sharpening, color temperature adjustment, highlights, and manual cropping.
tech 1:1 WEEK 8 How 8th graders see themselves!
Picasa collage of selected photos from Picasa Library with sharpening, background, rotation of photos.
Version 1 is in Sepia and Version 2 in the original complementary colors.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
tech 1:1 week 7
Letter to the Editor
Students mass sharing? They are doing that already. ISB's role? At this moment ISB is doing the most important of preparatory steps -- it is training its staff to be proficient with MANY aspects of computer use in education. To put a teacher, headful of knowledge and methodology full of experience, before a class of laptops would be a recipe for failure unless the teacher is experienced enough with computer possibilities.
Another important step in preparing students is to refine their research skills in:
~evaluating the reliability of sources
~evaluating the validity of sources
~evaluating the completeness of sources
~citing sources when quoting material
~researching multiple sources
~proofreading source material since the level of language usage varies greatly
in accuracy
~eliminating plagiarism
~reading large amounts of background material so that this onslaught of mass knowledge can be put in perspective
These skills may have been presented in high schools in the past; they now need to be started in lower schools ... a formidable task is before us!
P.S. Mr Editor: I love this YouTube video. Please help Mr. Leadbeater with his grammar:
birds nest is possessive
everyone is a singular indefinite pronoun taking a singular antecedent.
Students mass sharing? They are doing that already. ISB's role? At this moment ISB is doing the most important of preparatory steps -- it is training its staff to be proficient with MANY aspects of computer use in education. To put a teacher, headful of knowledge and methodology full of experience, before a class of laptops would be a recipe for failure unless the teacher is experienced enough with computer possibilities.
Another important step in preparing students is to refine their research skills in:
~evaluating the reliability of sources
~evaluating the validity of sources
~evaluating the completeness of sources
~citing sources when quoting material
~researching multiple sources
~proofreading source material since the level of language usage varies greatly
in accuracy
~eliminating plagiarism
~reading large amounts of background material so that this onslaught of mass knowledge can be put in perspective
These skills may have been presented in high schools in the past; they now need to be started in lower schools ... a formidable task is before us!
P.S. Mr Editor: I love this YouTube video. Please help Mr. Leadbeater with his grammar:
birds nest is possessive
everyone is a singular indefinite pronoun taking a singular antecedent.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Alexander Calder biographical sketch
Alexander Calder, internationally famous by his mid-30s, is renowned for developing a new idiom in modern art-the mobile.
His works in this mode, from miniature to monumental, are called mobiles (suspended moving sculptures), standing mobiles (anchored moving sculptures) and stabiles (stationary constructions). Calder's abstract works are characteristically direct, spare, buoyant, colorful and finely crafted. He made ingenious, frequently witty, use of natural and man-made materials, including wire, sheetmetal, wood and bronze.
Calder was born in 1898 in Philadelphia, the son of Alexander Stirling Calder and grandson of Alexander Milne Calder, both well-known sculptors. After obtaining his mechanical engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Calder worked at various jobs before enrolling at the Art Students League in New York City in 1923. During his student years, he did line drawings for the National Police Gazette.
In 1925, Calder published his first book, Animal Sketches, illustrated in brush and ink. He produced oil paintings of city scenes, in a loose and easy style. Early in 1926, he began to carve primitivist figures in tropical woods, which remained an important medium in his work until 1930.
In June 1936, Calder moved to Paris. He took some classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and made his first wire sculptures. Calder created a miniature circus in his studio; the animals, clowns and tumblers were made of wire and animated by hand. Many leading artists of the period attended, and helped with, the performances.
Calder's first New York City exhibition was in 1928, and other exhibitions in Paris and Berlin gained him international recognition as a significant artist. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio proved pivotal. Calder began to work in an abstract style, finishing his first nonobjective construction in 1931.
In early 1932, he exhibited his first moving sculpture in an exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp, who coined the word "mobile." In May 1932, Calder's fame was consolidated by the first United States show of his mobiles. Some were motor-driven, His later wind-driven mobiles enabled the sculptural parts to move independently, as Calder said, "by nature and chance." Calder returned to the United States to live and work in Roxbury, Connecticut in June 1932.
From the 1940s on, Calder's works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in virtually every major city of the Western world. In the 1950s, he created two new series of mobiles: "Towers," which included wall-mounted wire constructions, and "Gongs," mobiles with sound.
Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. He produced drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, gouache and serigraphy. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theatre settings and architectural interiors. Calder died in 1976. (source: art@rogallery.com )
His works in this mode, from miniature to monumental, are called mobiles (suspended moving sculptures), standing mobiles (anchored moving sculptures) and stabiles (stationary constructions). Calder's abstract works are characteristically direct, spare, buoyant, colorful and finely crafted. He made ingenious, frequently witty, use of natural and man-made materials, including wire, sheetmetal, wood and bronze.
Calder was born in 1898 in Philadelphia, the son of Alexander Stirling Calder and grandson of Alexander Milne Calder, both well-known sculptors. After obtaining his mechanical engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Calder worked at various jobs before enrolling at the Art Students League in New York City in 1923. During his student years, he did line drawings for the National Police Gazette.
In 1925, Calder published his first book, Animal Sketches, illustrated in brush and ink. He produced oil paintings of city scenes, in a loose and easy style. Early in 1926, he began to carve primitivist figures in tropical woods, which remained an important medium in his work until 1930.
In June 1936, Calder moved to Paris. He took some classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and made his first wire sculptures. Calder created a miniature circus in his studio; the animals, clowns and tumblers were made of wire and animated by hand. Many leading artists of the period attended, and helped with, the performances.
Calder's first New York City exhibition was in 1928, and other exhibitions in Paris and Berlin gained him international recognition as a significant artist. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio proved pivotal. Calder began to work in an abstract style, finishing his first nonobjective construction in 1931.
In early 1932, he exhibited his first moving sculpture in an exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp, who coined the word "mobile." In May 1932, Calder's fame was consolidated by the first United States show of his mobiles. Some were motor-driven, His later wind-driven mobiles enabled the sculptural parts to move independently, as Calder said, "by nature and chance." Calder returned to the United States to live and work in Roxbury, Connecticut in June 1932.
From the 1940s on, Calder's works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in virtually every major city of the Western world. In the 1950s, he created two new series of mobiles: "Towers," which included wall-mounted wire constructions, and "Gongs," mobiles with sound.
Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. He produced drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, gouache and serigraphy. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theatre settings and architectural interiors. Calder died in 1976. (source: art@rogallery.com )
Thursday, April 22, 2010
tech 1:1 week 6
Well, this won't be a very long blog positing because I have used very few online resources. I have checked with some sites that Jennie sent and have put ones I liked with my "Favorites".
Or I get to them by typing key words into Google search and then sifting through site after site. I learned in the meeting on Monday that people had ways of assuring that their site comes up first on the list. I have also learned, through experience, to look always at the provider of the site and not just at the opening blurb that is provided.
I often am looking for biographical material on artists or the principles and elements of design or Google images.
Now I am using Google shortcuts particularly "Directory" and beginning to sort things out with Delicious social bookmarking....developing a system of tagging is most important to me. I imagine that I will stay primarily academic in this system. As I get more efficient at using this bookmarking, I will be more comfortable venturing out to see what other art teachers do.
Or I get to them by typing key words into Google search and then sifting through site after site. I learned in the meeting on Monday that people had ways of assuring that their site comes up first on the list. I have also learned, through experience, to look always at the provider of the site and not just at the opening blurb that is provided.
I often am looking for biographical material on artists or the principles and elements of design or Google images.
Now I am using Google shortcuts particularly "Directory" and beginning to sort things out with Delicious social bookmarking....developing a system of tagging is most important to me. I imagine that I will stay primarily academic in this system. As I get more efficient at using this bookmarking, I will be more comfortable venturing out to see what other art teachers do.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Henry Moore reclining figure
Here is a Henry Moore figure with more elements of realism. Note
- realistic pose
- folds of fabric in dress
- facial features
- hands
Henry Moore2 figure drawing
Here is a Google image of a drawing by Moore.
Note
- shading
- organic forms
- presentation of arms and legs of figure
- shadows
Henry Moore sculpture Mother and child
Notice the abstract organic forms in this sculpture yet it is clear to the viewer that the subject of the sculpture is a mother and child.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
tech 1:1 week 5
My Computer as a Communicator in the Past
Our kids played PacMan on my Apple IIC as teenagers and typed their high school senior theses. The first year our son was in the university in the US, I had no email. Communication was by letter and phone calls every two weeks. Email took over then and has carried our family, friends, and legal business ever since. Last summer digital photography was added to my repertoire. My desktops have been my tools of professional communication through such courses as Advanced English Grammar with the University of Tennessee, Expository Writing with the University of Washington, and Writing Children's Literature with the Institute in Connecticut.
Up until now my computer has been my telephone, my mail service and my typewriter.
My Computer as a Tool for the Future
Ahhh, now..... Now, in 1:1 I am learning all its other capabilities. In 2010-2011 I will have a "teaching assistant" in my classroom. For me in art classes, the computer's ability to bring examples of artists' lives and their work and students' work on screen for the whole class to discuss or write commentaries will be wonderful . A blog seems at this point the most user- friendly means to accomplish this.
By 2013 I see hard copies of books becoming obsolete. I see the necessity of courses on internet research techniques taught vertically throughout schools. However, in art I hope that I don't see a lessening of hands-on activities. In fact, hands-on will become even more important since the fine motor skills of writing will be taken over by keyboarding and page layout will become automatic.
I know that access to information will be multiplied again and again. I fear the students' ability to synthesize and evaluate this flood of information. Their backgrounds of reading and life experiences will be narrowing in many ways as the virtual supplants the real in their lives. Let us remember to teach respect for what has gone before us, being cautious about hurriedly pushing away the past 555 years since Gutenberg's moveable type, in our attempts to grasp at the future.
Our kids played PacMan on my Apple IIC as teenagers and typed their high school senior theses. The first year our son was in the university in the US, I had no email. Communication was by letter and phone calls every two weeks. Email took over then and has carried our family, friends, and legal business ever since. Last summer digital photography was added to my repertoire. My desktops have been my tools of professional communication through such courses as Advanced English Grammar with the University of Tennessee, Expository Writing with the University of Washington, and Writing Children's Literature with the Institute in Connecticut.
Up until now my computer has been my telephone, my mail service and my typewriter.
My Computer as a Tool for the Future
Ahhh, now..... Now, in 1:1 I am learning all its other capabilities. In 2010-2011 I will have a "teaching assistant" in my classroom. For me in art classes, the computer's ability to bring examples of artists' lives and their work and students' work on screen for the whole class to discuss or write commentaries will be wonderful . A blog seems at this point the most user- friendly means to accomplish this.
By 2013 I see hard copies of books becoming obsolete. I see the necessity of courses on internet research techniques taught vertically throughout schools. However, in art I hope that I don't see a lessening of hands-on activities. In fact, hands-on will become even more important since the fine motor skills of writing will be taken over by keyboarding and page layout will become automatic.
I know that access to information will be multiplied again and again. I fear the students' ability to synthesize and evaluate this flood of information. Their backgrounds of reading and life experiences will be narrowing in many ways as the virtual supplants the real in their lives. Let us remember to teach respect for what has gone before us, being cautious about hurriedly pushing away the past 555 years since Gutenberg's moveable type, in our attempts to grasp at the future.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
learning to post pictures of mine
photo from my Cannon downloaded on my home computer and then emailed to ISB and uploaded onto this blog.Wednesday, March 31, 2010
tech 1:1 week 4
First I'd like to speak to this week's videoes. Brave New World in its delightfully unusual presentation made a statement that I will tape on top of my computer, "See opportunties rather than obstacles" to help me if the frustration level rises when I can't make some tech skill work the way I want it to. Then the video went on to show the place of technology in the 21st century. I was afraid that the author would place technology in the center of the educational wheel. But it placed it as one of the spokes in the wheel. This too made a positive impression on me.
Now, in my head, I just need to try to understand what in education is no longer important -- handwriting, reading hardcopy books, grammar -- because I am seeing them all fade in importance.
Second: public domain vs privacy and the role of the teachers. I would ask first and foremost that parents be added to that topic. Schools must take on parent education in technology before anything that we do in schools has any lasting effect.
What would/should be published in newspapers/magazines or shown on TV might be good beginning guidelines to help students understand public domain.
We need students to know that:
Now, in my head, I just need to try to understand what in education is no longer important -- handwriting, reading hardcopy books, grammar -- because I am seeing them all fade in importance.
Second: public domain vs privacy and the role of the teachers. I would ask first and foremost that parents be added to that topic. Schools must take on parent education in technology before anything that we do in schools has any lasting effect.
What would/should be published in newspapers/magazines or shown on TV might be good beginning guidelines to help students understand public domain.
We need students to know that:
- what they put into cyberspace never disappears and that it could come back and interfer with their lives at a later date.
- what they can't say to a person face to face has no place being sent out via technology
- what personal data/images that are posted can be accessed by people who will use it for dangerous purposes....financial, moral, physical
- what we take from cyber space needs to be credited just as one acknowledges sources from books
- what is in cyberspace is often not edited for authenticity, accuracy
- they will be drown with information from wonderfully exciting sources
- that it is easy to feel swamped
- that it will be tempting to just grab some information and stick it in a report without being critical consumers
The first step is that we as teachers see these trouble spots and now we must step back and teach more HOW and even less WHAT
tech 1:1 week 3
What I crave is a vehicle to get biographies of pertinent artists and examples of their work on the laptops of all the students in a grade. Since I have so little time with the classes, I would like to have kids have home access where they have time to read, observe, reflect and write. Thus Google Docs is fine for written observations. Am I right in thinking that this Blog is the most efficient forum for the display of pictures?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
tech 1:1 week 2 The continued saga of uploading images
Well, at least I got it on the post albeit sideways! ;-)
Tech 1:1 week 2
welcome to MS art is smart!
[1] The main differences between gmail and eunet fall into 2 categories. First positive , gmail has universalityof access which eunet webmail does not have. Gmail has numerous added features and large storage capacity.
Second negative , I personally find gmail extremely clumsy for the novice. I feel its heaviness to move around. The toolbar is spread all over the inbox. When I want to "reply", it's hard to delete just part of the correspondence. But I will learn it.
When I tried to import contacts, it picked up my whole isb webmail account and moved it over into my gmail account, and it keeps doing this periodically.
[2 and 3] I can envision using blogs as a learning tool in art. Blogs would be a way of giving information on artists AND examples of their work for the students to study and write about as a home assignment.
[1] The main differences between gmail and eunet fall into 2 categories. First positive , gmail has universalityof access which eunet webmail does not have. Gmail has numerous added features and large storage capacity.
Second negative , I personally find gmail extremely clumsy for the novice. I feel its heaviness to move around. The toolbar is spread all over the inbox. When I want to "reply", it's hard to delete just part of the correspondence. But I will learn it.
When I tried to import contacts, it picked up my whole isb webmail account and moved it over into my gmail account, and it keeps doing this periodically.
[2 and 3] I can envision using blogs as a learning tool in art. Blogs would be a way of giving information on artists AND examples of their work for the students to study and write about as a home assignment.
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