ART CANOE

My 8th graders are working on haiku videos. This involves students writing a haiku and then creating a video with 5/7/5 video clip that symbolically represent the haiku. They must also include music and the text of the haiku.

I have been pondering the skill set that is required for the maker movement. Students learn point and two point perspective drawing skills in my 5th grade art program. This skill set prepares them for their future STEAM classes in middle school, when they will design, build, laser cut, and 3D print their projects. 

DSLR Basics - How to photograph waterfalls - Shutter Priority Mode - Long exposure Tutorial - YouTube

Twitter / sciencemuseum: It's open! Over 600 objects ...

2014 International Student Art Contest | Space Foundation

Print the Future at the London Science Museum Check out the photos in the Print the Future's Twitter feed below. STEAM is all around us.

Using Haiku (an online classroom management system), I providing more ways for students to collaborate and reflect their knowledge. I embedded a Padlet into my 7th grade Haiku by copying pasting the HTML code. Questions related to our Van Gogh unit were posted. Students then respond on the Padlet. This allows our discussions to happen in and outside the classroom.

I am very excited about the new school year. I will be using Haiku, an online  assignment/course system, to create one place for student course content.  All middle school students will be able to watch videos, read handouts, turn in digital assignments via one location. Last year, students used email, my blog, and Google drive/docs for these same purposes. This new site will create a more fluid learning environment. Delivering content this way is often referred to as flipping your classroom. I'm excited to be flipping. I will share more about this change in the weeks to come!

As my school joins the maker and stem movement, more and more of collegial conversations focus on student projects as problem solving. The need for students to understand and to manipulate materials is imperative. One such project incorporates all of these ideas. It is the origami paper brain model by Martin Pyka. Examples below are from my 6th gr. class. http://www.martinpyka.de/paperbrain/

Cloud City by 4th gr.

Cloud City by 4th gr.

Students are having a blast with the crazy hair day assignment. This end of the year assignment fuses realistic facial proportions with a fantasy/symbolic self portrait.

8th gr. monument design printed by the Maker bot. The student created his model using Google Sketchup.

Some of my 8th graders are creating monuments using the 3-d rendering program, Google Sketchup. My students have paid closer attention to scale and detail when exporting the final file for 3-d printing. The first of these projects are being printed on the Maker Bot 3-D printer. Quest Academy will be installing an Innovation Lab in the fall. Laser cutters, new PCs, and the Maker bot will a part of this creative space for all grades. During art, we will be also be exploring Autodesk (the creator of CAD) 123 Chrome and iPad apps for 3-d rendering. The lab will be an extension of the art students' creative production-the perfect synthesis of art, design and engineering.