Assessing student art

I love teaching!  I hate grading!  Sometimes its not about an A or B, its about the process!!!!  Art is very subjective, so I have to make my objectives very clear when I start a project.   There is always a "check list" on the board on how to get an A!  When I had smaller classes I would give lots of written feedback, tons.  Now, I give lots of verbal feedback, which won't ever stop. 

This semester I have a great bunch of Drawing I kids, a bit talkative, but a great bunch.   I really want to push them, so even though I give them verbal feedback all the time I am going to give them written feedback with every project.  Just a quick little assessment on how they are doing.  A wow and a work harder on sheet.  I found it on Jessica Balsley's website (she has a free ebook, its geared more for elem. art but it works for HS too).  So I created a little not on Photoshop and thought I would share it with you to use! 

 

PS- Yesterday art is scanned at home sitting on my desktop......will post later!!!!

Week 34!

Yes its week 34 of MCP Project 52- kind of crazy!  Not as crazy a the beginning of the school year!  I can't believe we have a week down, its unreal!!!!  My classes are FULL!  Which is great!!!  I truly do love my job as an art teacher and I think the kids realize that, they can smell fear and teachers who are just her because!  Lately you can smell lots of things in the halls......its is REALLY hot!!!  My digital camera class is jumped from 12 to 18 and that is with some drops too.  They are all doings....you can check them out here:  www.chsdigitalcamera.blogspot.com

Now to the post at hand..........picture it you are at your husband uncle's house to drop off corn that you froze for him............Monkey is excited because there will be horses, cats, dogs and CATTLE, and you don't bring your Canon 7D with.................the sky is perfect, there is an old red gate, 5 cows that go where ever Monkey goes and a giant old tree in the background................only your camera phone!!!!  What!!!!  Crap!!!!!  And I call myself a photographer!!!

Even though I only used my phone's camera I still got some great pics of Monkey and the cattle!!

But I think I will put the old Canon Digital Rebel in the caddy from now on!!!

Nelly Nero Whipped Cream Action applied

I need more of me!

When you walk into my house you will see a mess!  I have had my nieces the past 2 nights and again tonight!  There needs to be more of me!  The same goes with my classroom-all teachers feel this way at times, not just me!  Especially now with budget cuts and maxed out classrooms!  In the past we have tried to keep my numbers at a manageable size- I do alot of one on one teaching- but the powers that be want my room maxed so I can pick up more art classes!  I am so glad I have great numbers, but I am exhausted when I come home and my house suffers.......oh well, summer is almost here and spring cleaning- I guess summer cleaning- will begin! 

Its National Teacher Day!

Upon reading my colleagues blogs I thought I would post a little teaching post!  Some posted questions, some posted thank yous to their teachers they remember.  What am I going to post.......just some thoughts......I love teaching, I used to play it with my siblings and cousins when I was little.  I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was in high school.  My art teacher was FABULOUS!!!!  I still talk to her all the time and I still see my elementary art teacher who is an amazing artist also!!!  Both need a website so I can reference it!  What I love about teaching is the kids and getting through to them, showing them how to love art when they didn't think they would.  I love seeing them grow as artists, love, love, love it!
What I don't love is when you are passionate about something and you see that taken away.  We are going through a strange time, teachers are getting pink slipped, good teachers, great teachers, WONDERFUL teachers and I hate it!  I hate, hate, hate it!  I hate that I don't know if my neighbor will be back next year or if she will be my neighbor!  I hate the fact that I am all upset because I might not be able to teach my baby, the photoshop class I developed, and she doesn't know if she has a job!  AHHHHH!  I hate I might loose my mentor because her husband was cut.  Who will I go talk to when I need to bounce project ideas off of or when I want an opinion on the painting I am doing.  Teachers are getting spread out a former students blogs asked why teachers can't grade paper quickly- when you teach 7 different classes with 25+ students in them..........well teachers are being spread thin..........
But, I love the kids, the friends, the laughs we share at lunch.........I love to see that hater of art turn into a lover of art who I can't keep out of the art room!!!!

So now that I am done babbling........Happy National Teachers Day.......thank you to all the wonderful teachers that I had in school and that I talk to EVERYDAY!!!

How Other's See Me......Mrs. Riehle

MRS.  RIEHLE- I hear that name more than I hear my first name!  MCP Project 52, Week 15,  How other's see me.......  it was an interesting theme.  I thought about it all weekend, Saturday on the way to the cities, Sunday while playing outside with Monkey, Monday during class and finally last night after Monkey went to bed I figured out I needed to do it in the classroom.  That is where I am truly myself......I love teaching........even when times are really messed up in education, I still love teaching!  I love being a mom and a wife, but I have been a teacher longer than both.  I always told my students that I didn't need kids because I had 120 of them each semester and 75 more during volleyball.  I am not a teacher hides the way I am, the kids now I'm crazy and silly and serious all at the same time!!!  They also know I am passoniate about my art, my marriage and my daughter!!!!  Now that I have a daughter that adds the the definition of my life.....mommy.......it makes me a better teacher....how would I want a teacher to treat my daughter?

I spend so much time being a teacher.  Not just from 8-4 everyday.  I can't wait until May when I can be a teacher for monkey 24/7 for 2.5 months.

So I hope others see me as a mom, a wife, a daugher, a sister, loving, fun, crazy, an artist, an art teacher, caring, funny and a friend.

Fusion

Fusion a lot of things come to mind when you say that word.  However when I read it last Saturday on MCP's blog the only thing I could think of was baking cookies!  I don't know why but it was, so much to the enjoyment of my husband and daughter I baked cookies, just so I could take a picture of them!  The picture I took was exactly what I had envisioned, but it turned out quite nicely.
I have said it before that MCP Project 52 has really helped me this year.  I gives me something to look forward to each week!  The first thing I do on Saturday morning is read the blog to see what I am going to take a photo of that week.
So I fused that with my teaching, and I have gotten some great photos the past two weeks! I had all A's, all of them!  It was wonderful!  Here is a link to my HUGE labor of love.....my art room website!  There are links to my digital camera's websites, which are their portfolios and to daily updates on the blog and examples of all of the projects we do in class.

http://www.howard-winn.k12.ia.us/hs_art/CHS_Art_Department/Welcome.html

My first Tutorial for My Blog

A "Wordle" Tutorial

Have you ever been to the Wordle website?  You can easily create your own word collage.  What if you wanted to put a picture in that collage?  Well you can actually add one of their collages to your photos, but this tutorial shows you how to do it on your own!

Open the document you want to add the words to.  Clean up your photo, run any actions you like.  I ran Moody Pop on my example.

Use your text tool to create words.  I hid my background layer so I could see the words more clear. 

Right now it doesn’t matter where you place the words, how big they are, or what font, just type.  Make sure you to put the words on separate layers.  (Click the move tool between typing the words) (See Below)

To make life easier have the auto select layers option checked on your move tool.  (See Below)

Now start free transforming, rotating, formatting and moving your text.  When choosing a font you want to pick larger, bolder fonts.  Thin fonts don't work as well.  Also, you will probably want to turn your background layer on so you can see where it overlaps your photo.

Once you have moved all of your text around and it is in the EXACT place you want it, go to your layers palette and select all of your text layers.  ( You can click on your bottom text layer, hold shift and click on your top text layer).  Go to your layer menu and Merge Layers. (See Below)

You will want to select your word layer. One of my favorite short cuts is the Cmd Click (Ctrl Click for PC) on your layer this will select your text within that layer.   

Now you will want to make a new layer via copy- so now select your background layer and Command J (creates a new layer via copy). 

Turn “off” the original word layer in your layers palette.

Now to make the words actually appear!  to do that all you have to add some blending options to your layer.  I like to do bevel and emboss and drop shadow or stroke.  You can play with the settings of these options, but the bevel and emboss is the most important option to add to the layer

You can either leave it as is or create a new layer and fill it with a color.  If you are going to do this option you would want more words than what I have below.

         

Drip Drip........DROP!

Every Thursday in digital camera we are doing a "shoot" this last Thursday was waterdrops.  I used the Clickin Mom's Tutorial as my example.  It worked great, he kids couldn't get enough and you should see the great results!!!!!  I LOVED them.  I was gone on Friday when the uploaded them to the computers and I had a student stop my at the grochery store to tell me about his awesome photos!!!!  What a great moment!!!
This is also my Sweet Shot for Tuesday!
The class is always learning to really use actions.  I had them download Coffeeshop 20/20 action and use it on these photos.  I also ran MCP's High Def Sharpen on mine!  Enjoy, I know I did!!!

My Digital Camera Class

So, my student teacher is giving me back my classes.......love it/hate it......I am getting a little bored not teaching, but it has been great to get things done in my office, computer, etc.  So I took back over my digital camera class today.  Its a bunch of seniors who are ready to be done, there are a few of them in there that are WONDERFUL photographers.  If you like you can check out our high school website...its my baby, I made it on IWeb, but everything is very custom it took me FOREVER to set up!  Check it Out HERE. 
Since I love doing challenges I have decided that they will be doing them as well, they are doing one similar to Good to Wow.  Friday's they get a theme, 5 photos are due on Monday, a tutorial shown to them on Tuesday and all the photos are due on Friday.  Thursday will be a shoot in class day where they learn something new about the camera or we set up a shoot.

This week Shadows/Reflections

I really hope it works!!!!!  Wish me luck!!!

A green tradition and an Art Moment all Rolled into One!

Two posts in one day!!!  I was going to do one, but they didn't go together.

Happy St. Patty's Day!  I love St. Patty's day.........for many reasons!  It always reminds me of home....my mom's grandfather was Irish/Indian, quite a mix.  However Irish blood is pretty strong, strong enough to eat Corned Beef and Cabbage every March 17th.  Its a tradition, my mom would cook it all day and as much as I love to eat it, I hate to smell it cooking, I mean HATE.  I don't know what it is about the smell, it just doesn't sit well with me.  If the 17th was on a weekend I would find any way to get out of the house!  Once mom invited me and my soon to be husband over on a Friday night for it....during lent! H eat it!  But it was always something we would do as a family, a tradition.  I want that with my Monkey.
So, tonight I am going to make my little monkey and I a traditional Irish meal....  Colcannon (basically creamed cabbage with corned beef).  All Recipes is my source for the recipe so we will see.  I like everything in it so hopefully it will be good.  I will let you know tomorrow maybe I will even take pictures.

ART TEACHER MOMENT #1 (of this blog)

 

New Sheldon Wet/Dry Triple Decker by Jeff Koons

Photo from Des Moines Art Center

My student teacher is doing Star books in class.  Each student has to research an artist from a list that we give them.  I love this unit you get to talk about artist and why they create crazy stuff.  Every once in a while you get that kids who is really smart and can carry on a good conversation with you and 2nd hour was no exception.  He hated Jackson Pollock, his art shouldn't be art!  A monkey could do it.  My come back is a but a monkey didn't!   So we talked about different pieces that some people do for the meaning behind them.  For example the 3 shop vacs in clear boxes stacked on top of each other at the Des Moines art center.   I went there 4 times in high school and it wasn't until the last time that the docent actually made sense of these 3 vac sitting on top of one another.  Now, I don't know if it was the docent or the soon-to-be art teacher in me that made sense of it, but it was a moment I will never forget!  I still talk about our need as a country or society to have bigger and better things and how we run out and get that new shop vac when it comes out, art to make a statement, .  Maybe its a different size or color, but we need it!   Do you know how much more it is to get a colored washer and dryer????   

So ask yourself.......how many vacuums do you have in your home?????  Me........5!

5 Things to Remember When Creating an Art Journal!

1- Permanent Markers bleed through on your journal paper- So be careful when writing on the back of a page!
2- You will get messy-your hands may turn black when using India Ink and foamy soap does NOT clean them!
3- You are not always going to like the page backgrounds you do-the trick is to fix them!
4- When working in the classroom and you start tearing up large sheets of paper with your hand covered in India ink your students will look at you funny!
5- Jack Johnson on Pandora Radio does not drowned out hard rock!

A HS Art Teacher's Journal

Today is Friday!  Its started off a bit chaotic, but has now settled down!  Thanks heavens to Betsey for that.  So today I decided to spend minimal time on the computer and spend my day making art with my students.  Every once in a while I do that with them, they really do love it.  Last semester I did a drawing of Hadley on her dad's snowmobile.  And now that I have a student teacher I can do art ALL day!

Julie and I did an online workshop fro Art Trader Magazine on Art Journals.  Well, last semester was a bit crazy and I never really got around to doing it.  So today I printed off all the pages, put it in a binder and I have officially covered my journal!  A HS Art Teachers Journal of art n things!

Since our school is focusing on literacy I really want to incorporate what I am doing into my classes. Deb Day and I would love to team teach a class the incorporated art and writing, it would be AWESOME!  Stay tuned for examples of the journal, I am hoping to go CRAZY with it!!!!