Get Your Room in Order

Get those paper towels in the right place!  Motivation at its best from Katie Moris at Adventures of an Art Teacher.

Short on counter space?  Then maximize your wall space with these home-made magnetic containers.  This would be great for art teachers on a cart too! Image source: Laissezfaire blog.

De-clutter your desk and get your paperwork in order.  I love how this is labeled. Check out the makeover from the Venspired blog.

Every good art room needs a broom and dust pan – especially one that  is named “Dusty”!  This great idea comes from Theresa Gillespie at Splats, Scraps and Glue Blobs.

If you teach elementary, kids are always making pictures for you.  But what do you do with them all?  By adding them to a clipboard, you can display the most recent and still be able to look through pictures from the past. Idea from Clean & Scentsible blog.

Create a Classroom that Works

Just a subtle hint for your students (and their teachers) from Mrs. Hansen’s Art Room.

Bring peaceful thoughts to your classroom as students enter or leave.  Image source Jankwilson on Flickr.

“I need help” flip charts.  Easy to make yourself or you can buy them here.

This video explains how to get a handle on the noise level in your classroom using plastic cups.

Sometimes you just need to say it plain and simple – keep order in your class by hanging a Peacemakers and Peacebreaker chart.  This great idea came from Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten class (though this would certainly apply at all age levels)

Teach with Visuals

I love this word wall Art With Mr. E created for his classroom using index cards with magnets on the back.

Help your students understand what careful artwork looks like with this craftsmanship rubric from art teacher Kathleen O’Malley at her blog, Art Moments.

Make the Most of Your Minutes

From a blog that brings organization to a whole new level, Jessica Balsey at The Art of Education shares how she has art questions ready when there are a few extra minutes left in class.

Looking for more ideas and visuals? Check out our classroom management section.

Below is The Artist preview, but you can view all four full length short films at Sotheby’s website by clicking here.

(Trouble viewing this video? Click here.)

The interactive adventure begins in a 16th century French parlor with a cryptic note explaining details to escape the mansion. Clicking on different areas of the image reveal verbal clues at the bottom of the screen and open doorways to gain entry into the next room.  Your students will enjoy the challenge escaping the labyrinth of rooms using the clues found along the way.

Escape from Thorne Mansion could be easily integrated with a study of linear perspective, composition, or design.  Alternatively, create a literature connection at school or at home incorporating the book, The Sixty-eight Rooms reviewed in an earlier post.

Connecting with Music
Other than the light strum of a harp in the French Anteroom, the Escape from Thorne Mansion interactive missed an opportunity to couple era music with the room design. So, I’ve decided to pick up where the Art Institute of Chicago has left off and pair a few Thorne Room images with sounds from the time (click the widget to the right of the image to listen).

California Hallway, c. 1940

French Boudoir of the Louis XV Period, 1740-60

Japanese Traditional Interior, 1937

The Thorne Miniature Rooms create an amazing opportunity to connect history, literature, and music with art and design.  How else do the Thorne Miniature Rooms connect to your curriculum?

Congratulations to all the amazing art education blogs that made it to the Edublog finals!  Let’s show our support and put art education at the top!  It only takes 2 seconds to vote so be sure to do so in each category, EVERYDAY! Based on the extremely close vote tallies from last year . . . every vote counts!

• Best group blog – The Teaching Palette
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog 2011 - The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet
• Best teacher blog 2011 - Brunswick Acres Art Blog
• Best educational use of a wiki 2011- Fugleflicks
• Best use of audio/visual/podcast – Dryden Art
• Best class blog – Art of Apex High School
• Best new blog – Dryden Art by Tricia Fuglestad
• Best educational use of a social network 2011 - Art Education 2.0
• Best twitter hashtag 2011 - #artsed
• Best free web tool – Artsonia

We love pointing out some of the more unique blogs to honor for the Edublog awards. Our one regret is that only a few blogs can be nominated when there are so many great educational blogs out there sharing ideas, resources and inspiration. So, without further ado here are our 2011 nominations:

• Best individual blog =  The Carrot Revolution
• Best new blog = Adventures in Middleschooling
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog = Art + Tech + Education
• Most influential blog post = Art Teachers Hate Glitter “Dear Crayola” (Can a blog post really get Crayola to change a marker design?)
• Best twitter hashtag = #artsed  (just a little biased)
• Best teacher blog = Art of Apex High School
• Best free web tool = Pinterest
• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast = Dryden Art
• Best educational wiki = Fugleflicks
• Best educational use of a social network = ArtEd 2.0

Sunni is well known for her book GameStorming: A Playbook for Rule-breakers, Innovators and Changemakers she also spearheads The Doodle Revolution. To learn more about her visit sunnibrown.com.

Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.

1. QR Codes.  These black and white pixelated squares can be found on TV, in magazines, and now in classrooms.  Using a mobile device with a camera such as a smart phone, iTouch, iPad or free software downloaded on a computer, a QR code can be quickly created to link directly to text, images, or web addresses.  Try it yourself by scanning QR code below:

Don’t have a QR reader? Type getscanlife.com into your Internet browser on your mobile device to download a free QR reader.  Now imagine using this in your classroom by linking to online resources, creating a scavenger hunt, providing the answers to quiz questions, or extending art room learning by sending students home with QR code resources. Read my article on QR codes for additional resources and ideas on how to use them in your classroom.

2. Create a Photo Peach Quiz.  Photo Peach is a super easy way to create an interactive quiz game using images.  Learn how to create your own quiz here.

3. Animoto.  Want to look like a master movie-maker? Simply upload images or video clips, select music, and click to create an amazing movie.  Just by registering for an educator account you get access to full-length movies without paying a dime.  (If you’re looking for a good alternative, Flixtime has some very similar features with a good selection of music).

4. Blabberize. What isn’t funny about an artificial talking mouth?  Start with any portrait, define the mouth area, and talk.  The mouth will follow your voice. Use Blabberize to present information about an artist, convey classroom rules, or give studio instruction.  While this may not change your teaching world, incorporating Blabberize into your lessons can certainly enhance instruction and get the students to take notice.  Check out this brief example: (Can’t see this video? Click here).

Tip: Use a screen-cast tool such as Jing or Screencast-o-matic to record your Blabberize and save on your computer.

5. Twitter. If you want to take charge of your own learning, Twitter is the way to do it.  Every resource I reference in this post I have learned because of Twitter.  It is all about following the right people.  See my list of art educators on twitter to get you started and develop your own PLN (Personal Learning Network).

6. Wallwisher.  Want to have a class critique and involve all your students?  Wallwisher lets you quickly set up a virtual “wall” so that anyone with the URL address can add a comment and interact.  One of my favorite features is the ability to moderate comments, ensuring all posts are appropriate.  Learn more about Wallwisher in this article and see how to embed a image in a wallwisher wall here.

7. Delicious is an online bookmarking tool I have been using for several years and blogged about it here.  Since your bookmarks are accessible online, you can access them from any computer.  Using multiple “tags” makes finding your bookmarks easy.  Thankfully you can import your existing bookmarks into Delicious, so you won’t lose your previously bookmarked sites.  (A similar, just as awesome, bookmarking alternative to try is Diigo)

8. Pinterest might just be the ultimate bookmarking tool for art teachers.  Instead of bookmarking using text, images are used instead.  The best way to describe Pinterest is with this video walkthrough:

Read more about Pinterest in my Tech4Arted column and join the collaboration starting with the iPhone/iPad Apps for Art teachers board.

9. Livebinder  I first wrote about Livebinder as a way to organize digitally here. Livebinder is an electronic binder used to collect web resources or your own files in one organized spot.  Here are a few examples of binders I have created for students and for my own professional reference.

10. Google Maps. I am a huge fan of Google Maps to help students connect art to our world. My favorite trick is to embed images into the placemarks on the map.  Watch video on how to embed an image into Google Maps.  Here is my example on using Google Maps to teach about Georgia O’Keeffe:

View Georgia O’Keeffe Life Tour in a larger map

Do you have a web 2.0 tool you can’t live without? Share it be leaving a comment below.  Also, check out additional resources in my Web 2.0 Tools Livebinder:

Still in its early stages of development, the non-profit Wikipaintings already contains over 60,000 painting images.  Browse paintings by art movement, technique, genre, artist nationality, or keyword.  My favorite feature is the timeline scrollbar that places each painting created by the artist in chronological order.

I still love Google Art Project for the amazing depth and detail, but Wikipaintings is much better for understanding and visualizing the growth of an artist through his or her lifetime.  I look forward to seeing how Wikipaintings grows once it is open to contributors; maybe it will even expand beyond 2-D work into sculpture and installation art.

$10.00 Dick Blick Gift Cards

• Ellen Reynolds
• Angie Golden
• Tricia Fuglestad
• Lisa Ricciardelli

$100.00 DonnorsChoose.org Gift Card from Intel

• Janine Campbell

It is not too late to send in your lesson.  If you got a new idea from one of the lessons listed below, please consider sharing one of yours by emailing TPlessonplan@gmail.com and we will add it to our Lesson Plan page.

Click here to download Mac keyboard short cuts poster.

 

Share your tech tips for making technology in the classroom a little easier

to organize in the comments section below.