Artsonia has become better than any student art show I could host; it reaches more family and friends, regardless of geographic distance or busy schedule, communicates art concepts in project descriptions, reinforces student technology use, and generates funds for your program. It does all that . . . without all the staples and tape.

The benefits breakdown:

Ok, sounds good but. . .
. . . well here are some of the nuts and bolts to help you get you started.

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Permission slips. Depending on your school policy, you may be required to get permission slips for participating artists.  Make your own or download and customize one of these templates: Casual or Formal (Microsoft Word format). Be sure to include a space for parent email addresses on your permission slip. Increasing participation from family and friends is the key to success in Artsonia.  It is worth the extra time to enter emails – parents get an email each time artwork is published or comments are posted, continually keeping them in touch with the learning going on in your classroom.

Volunteers. I started using volunteers to help me last year (I don’t know why I waited so long).  I keep a bin to hold artwork ready to photograph along with a binder holding class lists, and a camera (with extra batteries).  When artwork is ready, I send out an email to my volunteer list.  The first volunteer to “Reply All” agrees to photograph and digitally crop the artwork.  The only step left is uploading – something I still prefer to do myself, but certainly doable for a volunteer.  In the fall I do a training session and provide this Photography Tip Sheet and Guidelines for volunteers to reference.

Start slow and set a goal. My first year participating in Artsonia I promised to put up one piece of art for each student.  I ended up adding more, but I felt like I didn’t raise any expectations too high for the students or myself.

Do you use Artsonia?  Please add your school page and any tips in the comments area below.

LiveBinders is a free service that helps you gather and organize your web links, documents, and videos into one tidy place. A LiveBinder is particularly useful when you want your students to access specific web-links for research or you’re teaching about a particular media, technique or artist and need to gather all your resources together. I created the following two LiveBinder links to use as extensions for early finishers and at home engagement:

The video below explains how easy it is to create your own LiveBinder :
(can’t view video? click here)

Create your own LiveBinder and share it with us in the comments area below!

The chart below describes my reasons for finally making the switch to Delicious:

So what about your organized websites neatly tucked into a bookmark folder? When uploading to Delicious, the folders and sub-folders that you created on your computer will turn into tags – no need to redo anything! See how easy it is to use Delicious in the Tutorial below:

Can’t view video above? Click here.

So here’s where the “social” part of Delicious comes in:  If you think a website is useful to others who also read The Teaching Palette, add the tag “teachingpalette” (one word).  See the hundreds of art education resources we’ve already tagged here.

Useful Tips:

• When using compound words such as “art history” do not leave spaces in between each word as they will separate into two different tags. Instead write “arthistory” or “art_history”. (I learned this one the hard way)
• Use “tag options” to change or rename a tag.
• Bulk edit is useful for adding additional tags to large groups of bookmarks or making selected tags on bookmarks private.
• Keep in mind that although your bookmarked website will show up instantly in your Delicious account, sometimes it takes longer for the tags to register.
• Use Delicious as your search engine – type in a tag on the Delicious homepage to see what websites others have bookmarked.
• It never hurts to create a backup of your Delicious bookmarks from time to time. (Backup directions can be accessed when logged in)

If you’re looking for the image editing power of Photoshop or Illustrator without the hefty price tag you may want to consider trying the Aviary Suite.  It’s a free web 2.0 technology with a pro version available for $24.99 a year. Aviary is not only an image editing tool but it’s also a visual social network.

Users maintain a profile, contacts, favorites, access to chat boards, tutorials and more. Images created in the Aviary Suite can be shared with the community or kept private in a user account, and then saved in a variety of formats or downloaded to your computer.

Plus, users can import images from a URL, Aviary Library, Flickr, Picasa or Facebook directly into any of Aviary’s five programs – Phoenix, Falcon, Peacock, Toucan and Raven.

Phoenix does image editing and has tools like layers, masks, effects, undo history, and more. Peacock is what Aviary calls their “visual laboratory”. It features tools like generators, effects and controllers. Toucan is their color swatches and palettes. It features many of the usual color palette tools but what really was interesting to me was their color deficiency preview tool. It allows you to choose from a list of color vision deficiencies and see how someone who is color blind would distinguish your color palette. It would be a great way to teach students how other people see the world. Toucan is a simple tool, but in conjunction with the other programs in the Aviary Suite you can create some amazing images. Raven is their vector editor program and the first of its kind on the web.  It allows you not only to create complex vector art but to carefully scale and create logos, clip-art, large print ready graphics, and t-shirt and clothing designs.

The newest program is an image markup tool called Falcon. It allows you to capture images from your desktop or a web page and edit them in your browser. It is similar to Skitch or Jing but with additional capabilities since it can be used in conjunction with Aviary’s other programs. Just install Talon, a Firefox extension for Aviary, and you can quickly annotate, mark, crop and resize your captured images. Or you can transfer the images to any of the other Aviary programs for more in-depth editing. Falcon would be a great tool to have students critique an image of their own, a classmates or from a pool of stock photos.

If you teach a computer graphics program at a middle or high school and are looking for an exceptional resource or additional tools to extend beyond the classroom lab, Aviary might be a solution for your program.  Students don’t have to stop creating once they leave the lab since they can log on and design anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Below are two videos featuring Aviary’s Raven and Falcon programs.

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

We were excited to view The Art Institute of Chicago’s new Modern Wing at the educator open house. The new edition designed by Renzo Piano makes the Art Institute of Chicago the second largest art museum in the United States. The layout and design of the new galleries that now house the museums 20th and 21st century art collections are impressive but, as educators we were truly amazed by the new Ryan Education Center.

The new eduction space boasts five classrooms, three huge studios, the new Crown Family Education Center and the new David and Marilyn Fatt Vitale Family Orientation Room. Not only are these educational spaces truly state of the art but, have one of the most sought after views in the city as they look onto Millennium Park. The image above was taken on my phone in one of the new studios.

Along with the fantastic educational space , The Art Institute previewed new interactive software and resources featuring pieces from their collections.  This July they lunched that material online in an interactive website for kids called the Curious Corner. The site is geared more towards the elementary age child but, also has resources for educators and parents. Visitors can choose form three different categories of interactive games such as Story Time, Match Up and Play with Art. The Match up section is one of our favorites it lets you match texture, shape or sound. Below is a short clip of some of the interactive games children can explore on the site.

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

Below is a couple of ideas for utilizing the Curious Corner in the classroom.

• Use the “Story Time” games as an introduction to teaching children about the messages, stories and meaning behind many pieces of art.
• Use the “Match Up” sound game as an individual activity for analyzing the parts of a work of art. As a student matches each sound to different area of a piece of art they will notice new details and better understand what is happening in the image.
• Use the Cornell Box section of the “Play with Art” game to have students create a still life that is meaningful to themselves. Print the completed computer still life images and have students use the grid drawing processes to enlarge the image. Choose a media such as colored pencil or chalk for students to add detail to their personal still life drawings.
• Use the “Match Up” game as an introduction or extension activity for concepts like texture and shape.

Share how you could utilize this site in your classroom in the comments section below?

Like an artist that visits a museum for inspiration, we visit blogs to challenge our teaching and thought process.  Put simply, a blog is like a living website; it continually digests and shares information.  Considering our forum, we thought it might be appropriate to add to the SchoolArts list of blog resources:

There are some amazing art classroom blogs certainly worth exploring out there, so please list yours or any you follow in the comments area below!

Art Education Resource blogs:

• The Carrot Revolution Also mentioned in the SchoolArts article and a source of art inspiration.
• The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet On the cutting edge of art education academia.
• NAEA Monthly Mentor A guest art educator each month, be sure to look through the archives.
• ArtTechTivity Art and Technology:  Joined at the hip.
• LearningIT Great source to integrate technology into creativity and design.
• The Virtual Classroom Inspiring resource for K-12 art education.
• Denver Artsygal Lots of You Tube art method “how to’s”.

Art Inspiring Blogs:

• Esty – that place where artists sell their stuff has a “Handmade Blog” too.  Great inspiration for art projects.
• Vi.sualize.us Inspiration in Imagery.
• Hongkiat Great for digital media and Photoshop users.
• Museum 2.0 The name says it all.
• WebUrbanist Great alternative art and architecture.

General Education blogs:  (because we are all in this education thing together)

• Teaching Challenges General tips on teaching easily integrated into the art room.
• Free Resources from the Net for Special Education Really, this blog applies to everyone!
• Angela Maiers Geared toward literacy and learning, great blog that keeps focus on the child as a learner.
• Langwitches Technology integration, global education, and digital storytelling – the perfect link to art education!
• Backroom Educational Technology Blog Great tech and web 2.0 tools.
• Teachers Love SMART Boards Have an Interactive Whiteboard?  Here’s your one-stop resource.
• Edutopia What Works in Public Education; a resource for all things education.
• Brave New World Resources for education.
• Teaching with Technology Great resource for Web2.0
• Free Technology for Teachers This blog really deserves it’s own category -an amazing resource!

Blogs are most useful when you are notified that new information has posted; either through RSS feed or via email.  Keep up with new postings on The Teaching Palette by clicking here.

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.

(You need to be a SchoolArts subscriber to access School Arts Digital)