I was so excited to see that teachers have gotten really creative using Google Slides and started making awesome 'virtual classrooms' as a result of the Covid related school closings and the transition to online learning platforms. I LOVED the google slides so much I knew I would have to make my own and start playing with them. It instantly became a HUGE project in my mind as I thought about creating a 'classroom' for each grade level for art and have pages and links to ALL the art lessons for the year! HAH H I have tried creating a year at a glance plans using microsoft programs and while they were great- I found that by December - my plans tapered off or started to diverge from the original framework. While I am sure these grade level 'virtual classes' that I have begun making will kind of be the same- I have had a blast compiling art resources and think that they will making teaching any elementary art class a breeze!
Unfortunately, with my crazy right brained ADHD brain, I just started hopping around and noticed that a lot of my lessons for each grade level revolved around a theme or artist for the month. So I started making an Artist of the Month virtual art museum that would contain all the lessons and links for the artist studies for the month. AND here it is:
I shared it to Facebook and can not take credit for coming up with the templates or the all the content. It is merely a compilation of lessons, videos and resources that I have picked up along the way while teaching elementary art for over ten years. One person on Facebook mentioned that I should wait to share it until it is finished but honestly- I don't think I could ever finish such a resource. It is meant to be an ever growing and improving year long library that will be altered, edited and added to.
Were you able to accomplish some awesome things during this quarantine? If anything good came from this lockdown pandemic it was that I was finally able to finish my third book, Robot Goes to China ! You can find the ebook and paperback here on Amazon!
I even made a youtube video to share the process I used to write, illustrate and SELF publish this book using Amazon Direct Publishing https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/.
The whole process took me two years to complete ( because I am a procrastinator and have had many life events conflict with my ability to devote the time it needed! ) but you could easily simplify the process and save time.
With that said - it is a BIG undertaking but if I can do it- I know you can too!
This book is actually the third book in my Artrageous Adventure series which involves a dog, Robot, who goes on art history adventures with his owner and friends. I wrote the books to help me teach art history lessons in the elementary art room so there is an easy to follow art lesson at the end of each book ( a cave painting, Egyptian portrait, and a chinese brush painting of a dragon)
Step 1: I start the process with brainstorming and thinking about my audience
Step 2- Then I either story board or just start typing the manuscript using a microsoft word book manuscript template.
Step 3- Draw the cover !
Step 4- Draw the illustrations
Step 5- Digitize your illustrations
Step 6- Convert text and pictures into a powerpoint file to format each page
Step 7- PUBLISH- Create your amazon account and fill out your information, book details, cost and upload your file- ( export/print the powerpoint into PDF file) You can even create your own About the Author page on Author central on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B088HFTFBV
This is more of a stay at home mom post than an art teacher post but I guess we are kind of ALL stay at home parents now thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine and stay at home order. It is May 6th, as I am writing this and it seems like the closures may be coming to an end soon as some things are reopening (at least it seems that way in Florida)
So this post is about a chore chart that I just made and plan on implementing with my 9 year old son. It is Minecraft themed because as an art teacher- I just can't use some plain old chore chart! LOL I started looking up some on google - which led me to pinterest which then led me to Microsoft word and then finally POWERPOINT ! Is it just me or evertime you find a FREE PRINTABLE chore chart- it just isnt cutomizebable!? I know every kid and parent have specific chores/tasks that they ask expect so it is just too broad of a range to have a one size fits all chore chart. There were some good ones on microsoft word but the formatting is SO specific and rigid that I just couldn't fit in the things I needed or wanted.
So finally after finding a picture of a minecraft one I really liked (on this site http://cassiescreativecrafts.blogspot.com/2014/09/free-minecraft-chore-chart-award-system.html ) I set out to re create it on Powerpoint so I could customize it. AND here is the result! I am going to try to laminate it - (to save on printer ink) but it is good to keep track of progress . My son had a weekly behavior check list when he was in ABA therapy and it was good to have all the data tracked and recorded. That is why I added the behavior element - it really should be recorded by the day/ time but honestly- I need this to be easy or I know I won't keep up with it. And that is the real test- if its not easy or manageable , then most people will not be able to maintain conistency with its use. So I am going to try this and see if it helps!! WISH ME LUCK ! LOL This is the jpeg but I will try to put the actual powerpoint file on my weebly so you can save it and customize it yourself! (apparently you can't add powerpoint files in blogger?) lol My weebly- Artrageous Art works
Even though I am a teacher of 14 years, I have never attempted to home school my own children because it has always been a struggle to get them to listen, learn, and work like my other students. For some reason, my role as mom just supersedes a teacher role and in their eyes, I am just an impostor who knows nothing about 'teaching'.
Now because of this Covid 19 pandemic and social distancing, most if not all parents are having to assume the role of teacher, even if the kids are getting some of their lessons virtually. My 9 year old son Rudy attends a private school for Autism and his teacher has given us a weekly lesson plan, schedule and access to Moby Max. While I am EXTREMELY grateful for that (because I tried planning and accumulating my own lessons, units ,etc based on the third grade standards using CPALMS and other free resources and I got QUICKLY overwhelmed!) I am still pretty much monitoring, assigning, enforcing and assessing his work. Honestly, Rudy is A WONDERFUL boy in EVERY SINGLE way and I don't say that just because he is my son. He really is a kind, smart, loving, not so little for long guy- but some days can be a REAL struggle!
His high functioning autism will sometimes manifest itself with fixations on things and an inability to transition to new activities (especially not preferred activities like work!). So if he wakes up fixated on a video game or a certain LEGO design, it is REALLY hard to get him to focus on writing (which is usually what we do for morning work) Before all this pandemic we were considering trying a medication for his ADHD to help with his focus but now we have decided to wait until he returns to the physical school setting since his learning can be more flexible for now. The BEST therapy and treatment for autism is ABA therapy, which stands for Applied Behavior Analysis. The premise is that behaviors can be taught and learned through a system of rewards and consequences. Rudy was in ABA therapy for over a year until last summer when we changed insurance and it became too expensive.
Through BCBS we had to meet a deductible and then the therapy was completely covered. When we switched to United, the deductible tripled and even after the deductible we still would have had a copay. It was insane- we calculated the cost to be almost $500 a month. I would like to eventually find a way to get him back into the therapy maybe with a different company or plan but for right now I feel fortunate that he at least got to benefit from the time he had in therapy. Part of the program is also training the parents so I got to know some of the basic techniques and structures. It is A LOT of data collecting and keeping track of behaviors and trying to correct/ reward or apply a consequence to the behavior the moment is happening.
I say all this just to explain that teaching for parents can be a struggle and one that I am intimately familiar with. Even if your child does not have autism, they would probably appreciate getting to have fun while the actually are learning content. Or even better- they might learn AND NOT EVEN REALIZE it was work! If you can turn a learning experience into a fun game, then you have created an authentic learning opportunity that your child will benefit even more from because they are motivated to do MORE of it and they are having fun while DOING it!
So how do we achieve this MIRACLE?! Well I think one way is by PLAYING MINECRAFT! I was never a huge fan of the game. As much as I tried, I was never really able to figure the game out and every time I tried to play it with my kids, I would get disoriented and not know what buttons to push, how to walk, move around or basically do anything!
Then a friend posted a news article that because of quarantine, Minecraft was releasing their Education Edition FOR free until summer! Rudy got the game back in February for our PS4 and had been having a lot of fun playing it and building cool worlds so I thought- WHY NOT give it a try.
The first time I tried finding it, Rudy was out with his Dad and it was a frustrating EPIC fail. It took me 30 minutes just to find where the Minecraft Store was- (it is embedded in the game) . As a mom I am such a gamer NEWB. Most people probably can easily find the Education Edition and download it but I thought- if there are any other moms out there like me, they might appreciate a little help. Especially since, I probably wouldn't have given up on Minecraft long ago if someone had showed me how to do it!
This will especially help if you have a Playstation! But I am assuming it is a similar process for the computer version, and Xbox, phone etc.
We have the actually PS4 Minecraft disc- so I loaded that into the PS4. The education editions can be downloaded from the Minecraft store that you can find on the homepage after you start the game.
There are many AWESOME Education worlds available from the Human Eye, Space Station, Mount Olympus and more but I really wanted to try the Marine Biology edition first.
So I downloaded it and clicked "CREATE" to start exploring the world.
Well it was a LEARNING EXPERIENCE! It probably took me 10 minutes to figure out how to open a door! But I didnt give up. Once you enter the SeaFoam Marine Center, you meet Brooke- your boss. She gives you scanner and tells you to practice by scanning a tropical fish. Where the heck was the fish, I wondered! LOL Minecraft world looks different than the real world. I found the fish in a tank to the right of us, managed to scan it and then went back to Brooke. After you find and scan an animal, you get a data card which has to be taken to the GIANT blue screen computer to the left of the room. I entered the fish data and then I was ready to start a real MISSION! I was so excited and it was so fun!
After the practice scan, you go see Lee who gives you scuba gear to put on. I am actually scuba certified and LOVE diving so I was so excited to get to do it virtually .
I let Rudy take over at that point. We were able to find and scan the starfish and we also figured out /realized that even with the gear on, you have to swim to the surface to get air or you will 'die'. Dying only means that you have to respawn- or start over (but with all the data and progress you have made being saved)
I am so excited to play again and find all the other animals on the list. Rudy has already played the Space Station on his own and loved it. There is so much information embedded in the worlds that kids learn so much while having a blast doing it.
Check out our video and GOOD LUCK with you home learning adventures!
In the midst of all this CORONAVIRUS craziness and all the school closings, I am going to attempt a LIVE facebook art lesson on how to make a tiki mask on my Artrageousartstudio facebook page. I have made a TON of videos of art lessons but haven't ever tried a live facebook lesson so this is going to be INTERESTING! https://www.facebook.com/events/205364910784880/
I am sharing the TIKI mask handout here so that anyone who joins will have this as a resource while we are working! This is from STITCHLILY , who gets all the cred for these awesome drawings! THANK YOU STITCH LILLY! http://stitchlily.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-draw-tiki-head.html?m=1
I took all the parts of the TIKI face parts and put them into one page :
If you just finished reading a book and your teacher has assigned you to do a book report OR if you are a teacher looking for a more fun way for your students to complete their book reports- you are going to love this project!
I am going to show you how to make an awesome creative scrapbook book report that is sure to get you the highest grade in the class!!
You don’t have to be super artistic or an expert scrap booker in fact I have everything you need and I’m gonna show you how to put it all together !
My son recently finished reading the awesome book, Charlotte' Web by E.B. White so I used that book for my example. This project helped him with his comprehension and his understanding of the characters and plot of the book - so I am sure it will help you TOO!
Here is the PowerPoint I mean with the materials and printable’s that you can use to make your own’s Scrapbook book report ! This is such a creative and fun way to deep in comprehension for reading and allow students to really remember and understand characters and plots. Google Doc
This is a BUSY month and even week for me! We are not only celebrating Valentine's Day but we are also celebrating our anniversary AND MY BIRTHDAY in the SAME WEEKEND! So I wanted to share a really fun art project that I did for these fun celebrations. I actually have made a whole paper mache cake for a friend and put all their presents in it. It was so much fun. But these sculptures can be just beautiful works of art even if you decide not to give them to someone as a gift. This is the first time I used ONLY toilet paper with the mache and I LOVE THE realistic cake texture that it creates. I have seen other art teachers have students make all kinds of toilet paper mache foods with the same beautiful results.
Here is a google slide that i put together with the steps and lesson and the video tutorial that I posted to my channel. It is really such a FUN and awesome project that could be done with any age level.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ULxBV3f1oMADxty4MKA6NbuTMWCYO8mBK2ZjTdfa_b0/edit?usp=sharing
Google
