Whole Brain Teaching
October 1, 2009 by admin · 6 Comments
The following is a guest post written by Katie Jarvis. She has been teaching art for nine years and currently teaches at Cameron Elementary in Alexandria, Virginia.
At the beginning of every year, art teacher’s everywhere make up a “rules poster” to review with students on the first day of classes. Throughout the year I would find that the students would claim to forget or not know the rules. While researching art room rules last year I came across a teacher on Youtube, Chris Biffle, a college professor who taught what he called Whole Brain Teaching.
How does it work? At the beginning of every class the students and I recite the art room rules. The rules have hand motions and each week we change the style in which we say them- squeaky voice, deep voice, sad, happy, fast, cowboy, etc. The kids love it! In fact if I try to skip over doing the rules even my 6th graders complain.
I created a video to illustrate how I teach these rules on the first day of art. Trouble viewing video below? Click here.
There is also a scoreboard to help with classroom management. I mark “smiley faces” and ”sad faces” on the board as the class earns them (see monkeys in image on left). When the class earns a smile they get to cheer. When the class earns a sad face everyone groans. The points are tallied at the end of each class and a gold paintbrush is awarded for more smiles than frowns, a silver paintbrush for an equal number of smiles and frowns, or no brush for more frowns than smiles. Four paintbrushes earn the class a free art day. Each silver brush is worth 1/2 a gold brush (2 silvers = 1 gold)
The most effective tool I’ve learned from Whole Brain Teaching is getting the students attention. When I say “Class” they say “Yes!” I vary the way I say class to keep them on their toes. For example if I say “Classsity, Class” they respond “Yessity, yes!”
Whole Brain Teaching involves lots of hand gestures and verbal responses from students to keep them engaged and entertained. Using WBT creates a “peaceful classroom full of orderly fun”. Students have more fun following my rules, since I switched to Whole Brain Teaching, rather than ignoring them.
Filed under: Challenging Students, Classroom Management, Clean-up and Transition, Educators in Art, Off-task Behavior, Positive Reinforcement
Tagged: hand gestures, rules, verbal responses, Whole Brain Teaching
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Art Room Showcase 2009
September 18, 2009 by admin · 4 Comments
When we launched The Teaching Palette back on September 29, 2008 (almost one year ago), one of our goals was to create a place where other art educators could share their ideas and successes. With the start of the new school year, we came up with the “Show Us Your Art Room” feature.
Well, here it is… the creative spaces submitted by art educators around the globe and assembled into one Art Room Showcase (2009 edition). We hope art teachers will be inspired for their own spaces!
In addition to any comments you leave here, we’d like to encourage you to also leave comments in the flickr art room gallery. Below is a nifty Flickr widget highlighting some of the art room entries. Click any image for a close-up.
Thank you to the following art educators who shared images of their 2009 art spaces:
- Laura Carey (winner, as seen on our home page – the shopping cart)
- Myrna Ellison (winner, as seen on our home page – the castle)
- Matt Cauthron (winner, as seen on our home page – the digital studio)
- Lori Wilson
- Elizabeth Burns
- Frank Curkovic
- Brooke Nicholson
- Tara Conover
- Tricia Fuglestad
- Denise Pannell
- Jessica Houston
- Emily Valenza
- Tana Puppe
- Susan Bivona
- Katie Balla
- Keith Chapman
- Matt Cauthron
- Amy Kratochvil
- Kristen Grzemski
- Carol Frueh
- Katie Jarvis
- Myrna Ellison
- Christy Branham
- Katherine Malone-Smith
- Maria Smith
- Laura Carey
- Julie Vladika
- Theresa McGee
- Hillary Andrlik
- Brooke Nicholson
Do you have an art space to share? We can add it to our Flickr pool! Email photos to info@theteachingpalette.com
Filed under: Cool + Creative, Educators in Art, Organization and Preparation
Tagged: art room, organization, show us your art room Email This Post
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Art Education Community Interactive
February 17, 2009 by admin · 2 Comments
There has been an explosion of Web 2.0 tools for educators. Recently, National Art Education Association (NAEA) launched an online interactive tool for Elementary Art Specialists. The goal is to link teachers with a common bond: young children and art. Escape the isolation of your classroom and communicate with other elementary art teachers on topics that impact art education.
Another great interactive resource is Art Education 2.0 reaching all levels of art education. Art Education 2.0 has over 3,000 members and counting. Find information on anything from teaching animation to VoiceThread to innovative teaching ideas in technology. To learn more about the Art Education 2.0 social network, watch the video below.
Learn about art or any other topic that interests you on Twitter. Not sure how to begin? An earlier post on Twitter may help you get started. Also, click on the SchoolArts icon below for some great ideas on using Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools from the March issue.
(You need to be a SchoolArts subscriber to access School Arts Digital)
Filed under: Educators in Art
Tagged: Art Education 2.0, Elementary Art, NAEA, School Arts, SchoolArts, Twitter, Web 2.0 Email This Post
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From Tagging to Teaching
January 4, 2009 by Hillary Andrlik · 1 Comment
Former tagger (graffiti artist) John “Zender” Estrada shares his talent by teaching L.A. youth. His class is called Skillz ‘N Action and takes place every Sunday at the Santana House in East Los Angeles. John teaches a variety of basic art techniques to help his students’ raw talents grow in the “no rules” world of graffiti. He shows us that talent and inspiration for art and teaching can come from anywhere.
Click here to read the full LA Times article about his amazing work with local kids. There is also a short clip of Estrada in action with his students below.
(Trouble viewing this movie? Try this link.)
Filed under: Cool + Creative, Educators in Art, Techniques
Tagged: grafitti, inner city art, John Estrada, Santana House, tagging Email This Post
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Art Teacher’s Best of 2008
December 25, 2008 by Hillary Andrlik · 1 Comment
It’s that time of year when the “who’s who” of the blogosphere name their top picks for everything from TV shows to bikini-clad super models. So what does that mean for the art education world?
Well, we have our own “Best of 2008” list according to The Art Teacher’s Guide To The Internet authored by Craig Roland.
Craig’s Best of 2008 list for art educators includes: Ed.Voicethread as Best New Web Tool for Education; Jason Polan as Best New Drawing Blog; Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson as Best New Art Resource; The Teaching Palette as Best New Art Teachers Blog; and many others. Check out Craig’s full Best of 2008 list.
We are extremely honored to be part of Craig’s Best of 2008 list. Coming from a veteran art educator, author and tech guru, that means a lot to us. Thanks, Craig!
Filed under: Cool + Creative, Educators in Art, In The News, Tech Stuff
Tagged: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet, awards, Best of 2008, Craig Roland, education tools, honors, Jason Polan, Voicethread Email This Post
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Interview with Tricia Fuglestad: Movie-making to Teach Art
October 21, 2008 by admin · 2 Comments
Tricia Fuglestad, an art teacher at Dryden Elementary School in Arlington Heights, IL, uses technology to enhance learning in her art room. We love the movies she uses to teach art concepts, and wondered how she created them! Read the Q and A below to gain some tips and insight into the process of movie-making in art.
Our interview with Tricia Fuglestad:
Q: How long have you been creating movies to teach your students? My earliest movie dates back to 2002 with the Godzilla Educational Movie. I took some video clips from the movie Godzilla and used voice over and text to point out the art concepts I wanted students to use in their “Dinosaur in the City” project.
Q: What motivates you to create these movies? These movies become an entertaining learning tool that quickly illustrates/teaches/defines art concepts. Students seem to pay attention to the videos (and even request them). Funny, they don’t beg for me to lecture, but they do beg for me to show them these movies.
Q: How do you begin? What is your plan? I write a storyboard. This helps me put images and text together for each scene and shot of the movie. I always try to think short and to the point. I throw in as much “meat” as I can get away with and sugar it with as much humor as I can invent.
Q.) What software do you use to achieve your outcome? I make movies in a variety of different ways. I have drawn and animated movies in flash (ie. Repeat) I have shot and edited movies in iMovie (see Interview with a Pencil at end of page) sometimes using Stupendous Software for split screen and picture-in-picture special effects. I’ve also tried using chroma key effects in Final Cut Express to replace the green screen with anything we wanted (see Swept Away.) Finally, my latest movies have been in Keynote where I animate images set to music (see Digital Portfolio)
Q.) What advice would you give a teacher who is considering using digital media to create similar leaning experiences? I’m still learning the answers to these questions. I find that AFI’s ScreenNation resources online have been really helpful for me in learning how to organize my movies and organize my students who want to make movies with me. Also, Jason Ohler’s website and Digital Storytelling in the Classroom book is a great resource. I also enrolled in an online graduate class through Wilkes University called Digital Storytelling where I was introduced to these resources and expected to apply their concepts in my classroom.
Q: What kind of permission process do you go through with the students before releasing a movie on the internet? I use permission slips to gather my movie-maker volunteers. Whoever turns in their signed permission slip by a certain date is included in the movie experience. This permission is redundant in my district since parents sign a media release form that gives blanket permission for internet, cable, and other media. However, I find that the permission slip is a great little advertisement for the art program and keeps the parents informed on the unique experiences available to their student. I have learned to ask for parent email addresses on the slips. This gives me a way to send the movie link to them directly when it is uploaded to my site.
Q: Do you use any specific hardware to help with filming or to capture sound? We just have a mini DV camcorder, tripod, USB external microphone, green screen, wireless mic, and lights. I’m always writing grants for more things when I see how it can improve our movie-making. Our newest addition is a 25 foot AV cord that plugs into the video camera and to the classroom TV monitor so all the students can help frame the shots. We used this technique when making What a Cheap Trick. Students on camera could see for themselves how they looked in the camera.
Q: I’m sure all of your students want to be in your movies. So how do you choose who participates in each film? That’s a good question. I intend to give each group of 5th graders one movie-making opportunity. But, time is a limiting factor. Movie-making is very exciting, energizing, and an extraordinarily creative process and I would encourage all art teachers to give it a try…your students will love it!
One of Tricia’s latest movie adventures conducts an “interview with a pencil”. Tricia asks, “Do your students press too hard with their pencils when they draw making erasing mistakes impossible?” According to Tricia, instead of lecturing on this topic let Mr. Pencil give some advice to your young artists.
(Trouble viewing video? Try this link.)
Interview with Mr. Pencil from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo
Images courtesy of Craig Roland: Flickr.com
Filed under: Cool + Creative, Educators in Art, Neat Video, Tech Stuff, Techniques
Tagged: Art Concepts, artist, drawing, Education, eraser, Fugleflicks, Interview, line, mistake, pencil, press hard, sketch, Tricia Fuglestad Email This Post
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