Bringing Everyday Objects to Life

Yep, I've totally been MIA, but ya know--life, it happens. I have so much stuff I will be sharing here someday. I've taken on a new endeavor these last couple years as I've been teaching a Digital Art & Design class. AND DO I LOVE IT! Photoshop is pretty much my middle name. Recently, I came across this video and I knew my students had to try it! We simply recorded video footage using iPads, Airdropped those files to our computers and used Photoshop to edit the videos. We then took them into iMovie to add sound! I will share a few of my favorites:

Snapchat Self Portraits

Yeah, I've been pretty awful about updating this here blog, but in the mean time don't forget to check out my articles over at the Art of Ed!

Okay, so here's the deal I just taught my favorite lesson of ALL TIME. I'm not even kidding. It was seriously the best. Never have I seen students so excited to make self portraits. I think several of my students were about to have a heart attack when I told them to open up Snapchat in class!

Nonetheless, these aren't super fancy. Just your plain old grid drawings were used to make these. Some major color mixing happened as students only had white and the primaries to create their skin tones! These 8th graders seriously rocked my socks off! Enjoy!

Street Art: Do You Think it's Rad or Does it Make You Mad?

I know that the topic of "street art" being taught in the classroom really hits some of those hot buttons for art teachers. Me personally, I'm all for it. My students love looking at it, talking about it, and they are SO engaged by it! I live in such a community where students are exposed to street art all the time whether it be a commissioned mural, street performance, or tags defacing spaces under bridges. It’s part of their culture I'm not going to fight it, I'm instead going to talk about it. First, it’s important to properly define street art. When discussing with students I break it down into two categories: Public Art and Graffiti. Public Art = Permission, Graffiti = No Permission. Some of my favorite discussions I've had with my students is the "Is Street Art Legal vs. Illegal?" The entire class gets into it and it encourages students to take a stance and voice an opinion. Sometimes it gets heated and I LOVE IT! Sometimes talking about art is just as great as making it.

Really I just want my students to understand what it is and know that it goes beyond Banksy. But nonetheless it's always going to be one of those projects that students are into because it's personal and like it or not the finished product looks cool.

This is certainly not a groundbreaking project. It's been done time and time again, but here's my version. A little stamping action with one of those yellow and green sponges makes for some nice bricks!

If you're looking to find ways to rationalize street art in your classroom check out this article that breaks down "10 Things We Can Learn From Street Artists"

1. It's Important to Take Risks

2. Give without Expecting a Return

3. Challenge the Norm

4. Be Fearless

5. Question Everything

6. Persistence Pays Off

7. Collaboration Enhances Productivity

8. Creativity is a Universal Language

9. Context is Everything

10. Life is About the Journey Not About the Destination

Street Art what do you think Rad or Bad?

P.S. See you all at NAEA 2016!

Value Still Life with a BONUS

I don't know how your students are, but when we get started on a still life project it takes awhile for my students to remember and know what a still life is.  I find it so beneficial for my students to draw from observation, especially as young developing artists.

For this project 7th graders were required to draw from observation.  If they wanted to incorporate something in their drawing it needed to physically be sitting on the table in front of them--no reference photos.  Many students chose to bring in their own objects, but for those that didn't they got to choose from some of the awesome props I keep in my classroom.

As an added bonus, students were to invent an area of their drawing where the color wheel would be incorporated.  So they did get to do a little inventing!

Here are some of the awesome results:

In other news, I started writing for the Art of Ed! Make sure to check out all of the awesomeness they have going on over there, but don't worry I'll still be sharing my classroom happenings here!

The Alphabet Challenge

Yeah I know, my absence on here has been real--BUT good news everybody--I made it through my first semester of Middle School!

This 8th grade project was all about themes. The idea for this lesson came from a hashtag. That's right a good ole hashtag on Instagram: #kolboalphabetchallenge. This challenge was started by a high school teacher in Nebraska, but people were participating around the world.  I even dabbled in it a little bit.

S is for Sprinkles....duh!

My middle school students are OBSESSED with Instagram, so when I told them about this they were just excited that I was using Instagram as a learning resource.  I had everyone's attention.  We did our own challenge by drawing a letter of an alphabet from a bucket. Luckily my largest class size is 26 so no letters had to be repeated!

 Check them out--I love the variety, simplicity, and complexity of each!

O is for Office Supplies

N is for Nightmare

A is for Aerospace

Y is for Yarn

 T is for Teen Titans

M is for Moon Phases

V is for Volcano

E is for Earphones

W is for Waste

Q is for Queen

F is for Fish

W is for World

L is for Leopard 

 Z is for Zap