Creativity, a Blue Moon and a Pig

 Creativity, a Blue Moon, and a Pig

 

Attention. Class is beginning. You are in a high school art room. Your teacher asks all of you students to look at something on the whiteboard and say what it is.  The teacher takes a marker and makes a black circle, then fills it in. 5 seconds pass. "Oh, it's a dot...a black dot", you say. You look around, others nod in approval. 15 seconds pass, and then, one student  bursts out, "It's a bird's eye," and then 10 seconds later, another student says, "It's a raisin." The rest of the class looks at these students in disbelief. Where did those responses come from, you wonder.  Sadly, as we grow older, unless it is nourished, creativity soon becomes unimportant or lacking in our lives. The students that said, bird's eye and raisin, were obviously in tune with thinking creatively and more aptly, "outside the box". 

Art is a very important part of a student's education. As an art teacher, I spend a lot of time making sure my art lessons are appropriate for multiple intelligences. Self-expression,art criticism, math, science, music, social studies, etc. are common in my lessons.  Computer technology is also another feature I hope to use in my classes (when I start teaching again after my Master's degree). Why go to all this trouble to stimulate creativity?  1)  motivates students to succeed; 2) encourages students to think for themselves; 3) learning to be creative is a valuable life skill and 4) employers want people who are movers and shakers, and are proactive thinkers;  5) everyone has the potential to be creative.

So, let's talk about what creativity is.  Creativity is being original, using inductive thinking to produce multiple ideas and deductive thinking to reducing the ideas to a specific.  By now, you are thinking where is the blue moon part? What does creativity have to do with a blue moon? Well, a lot.  Tonight is the blue moon. "Once in a blue moon." It won't happen again until 2015. Why is it a blue moon? (It's actually not blue.) This month we were lucky enough to have two full moons:  one on Aug 2, and now again on August 31.  Way back when, someone thought it would be pretty cool to say blue moon. Hey, why not lemon yellow or the familiar, the moon is made of green cheese? How about green marshmallow moon? Well, you get the idea. Are you motivated yet to think creatively? 

From my after school program students (2011)

Okay, let's get to the pig part of this post. Creativity, is key in this. Please click on Pig and it will take you to the link. Please follow the directions. (If you are doing this with another person, don't look at their paper!!!) and DO NOT SKIP AHEAD!  I credit this activity to Dr. B J Rakow. Once you do this activity, I think you will understand that our personalities may help us find where we need to be creative or make some changes.  There are more personality links on her page. If you are interested, Dr Rakow is on LinkedIn and does have a degree in Psychology. She is a PhD. 

I wish you all a happy Blue Moon Night, numerous blessings of creativity and a life lesson learned from a pig.  

P.S.  You may be wondering--the outcome of my pig drawing and the results: Well, it pretty much sums up my personality.  It was a close call on the placement:  #2-3; right on with 6, 7, 9 and 12.

REP Respect, Educate, Protect

As a follow-up to a previous post about digital citizenship...

Here is a simple, but effective and fun way to teach about digital citizenship. REP posters using Microsoft Publisher.

  

Lesson copyright 2012 Lydia Gates

Title:                      Respect, Educate and Protect Posters

Author:                Lydia Gates

Grade Level:      4/5^th grade

Objectives:         At the end of this lesson, students will have:

                  ·         Identified and Discussed acronyms and REP

                  ·         Discussed terms associated with digital citizenship

                  ·         Drawn ideas, pair-shared and used their ideas to create a  

                                     poster on Microsoft  Publisher

                  ·         Colored their poster using colored pencils or markers

                  ·         Discovered using technology to create a visual message

                  ·         Demonstrated knowledge through performance 

                             assessment a personal understanding

                             of digital citizenship

Standards:        

Kansas Visual Arts Standards

#1 Understanding and Applying Media Techniques and Processes

Benchmark 1 Comparing and contrasting different types of materials, techniques and Processes.

Indicator 1: Selecting and using effective media, techniques and processes to enhance personal communication.

                #2 Using Knowledge of the Elements of Arts and the Principles of Design

                Benchmark 3 employing and defending the use of elements and principles in art works.

                Indicator 1 Using the elements and principles to produce art work with a message.

                #3 Creating artworks through choice of subjects, symbols and ideas

                Benchmark 1 Identifying and discussing ways in which symbols and styles communicate

meaning in art.

                Indicator 2 Interpreting artworks based on common themes and/or functions.

#6 Making Connections Between the Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

                Benchmark 3 Investigating Associations between visual art and non-art disciplines.

                Indicator 3 Applying concepts from non-art disciplines to create art.

KSDE/Kansas Model Curricular Standards for

                                Library Media and Technology

 Information Power Benchmarks:

               
                Technology Standards

                Standard #11 Social, ethical and human issues

                Benchmark 2 Practicing responsible use of technology systems, information

                     and software.

                Standard #12 Technology productivity tools

Benchmark 1 Using productivity tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, 

      and promote student creativity.

Standard #15 Technology problem solving and decision making

Benchmark 4 Student employ technology in the development of strategies for

    solving problems in the real world.

Materials Needed: Whiteboard, Computer Lab, screen, and computers with access to Microsoft Publisher, Projector, and printer, List of poster requirements, colored pencils and markers, REP Poster exemplar.

Procedures:

In the Computer Lab:

Teacher will ask students to think of different acronyms they know. We will list on the board. Next, I will show my completed poster and explain R stands for respecting others, E means we should educate ourselves/others about using technology safely and P means we should not give our personal and private information out to strangers or others we do not know.   Students will be asked to think of how they could make their own REP poster or to promote digital citizenship.

Then the teacher will use Microsoft Publisher to demonstrate how to make a simple poster. Students will be asked to refer to List of poster requirements: black and white only color schemes. Word Art in hollow letters, and may add images from clip art.  Students will use an 81/2 x 11 portrait format.

Students will then discover and explore Microsoft Publisher on their own, with the teacher assisting as necessary.

Students will save and then print out their posters.

In the Art Room:

Students will use colored pencils or markers, or both to color their posters.

Students will share their posters with the class. Posters will be displayed in hallways.

Copyright 2012 Lydia Gates  

Communicating with Art Students

What types of communication do art teachers have with students?  Verbal, non-verbal (eye contact, students observe teacher's actions, technology?)  How effective is this the preferred communication?  The adage: Tell I will forget, Show me I will remember has been on my mind lately.  Why? Because I feel that I want my students to understand my directions and the project, and to have clear communication with them. I want projects to be fun, but real learning experiences.

As I am working on my Master's in Teaching, more and more I contemplate what I will say and how I will show the students during demonstration time for a project. But, also I try to think of how I can get the students to effectively communicate among themselves: collaboratively and through discussion.

How important is it that teachers have effective communication with their students?  I recently read an article entitled, Using Social Media to Reach Your Community  from December 2010  in Effective Educator.  The author, William M. Ferriter, points out that TV isn't so popular anymore, but social media is.  He gives some statistics on how many users of social media there are (I am sure the numbers have escalated since the article's writing)  about 61 % of adults and 73% of teens are using social networking sites to communicate with others.  Over 500 billion minutes per month are spent on FaceBook. How do you categorize this type of communication?

Knowing that students use FaceBook, Twitter,  and surf the Internet, why do schools block these social networking sites?   A very interesting and informative article in Teaching Tolerance, Spring 2011, called  Social Media in the Schoolhouse by Darlene Koenig, points out very plainly this statement, "{She} believes in good teaching, sensible filtering, good supervision, and trusting kids to do the right thing. I don't think anything should ever be blocked. Both web-based applications and social-networking tools give students the connections they're quite used to and the opportunity for collaboration."   I could not agree more!

As an art teacher, I am learning new technology to integrate into my classes. However, traditional styles of instruction will be given as well. I think an integration of technology will enhance my teaching. Some projects may or may not use technology, and that's okay. Drawing, painting don't require technology, but helping students connect with an artist's history or artwork, will.  Connection through a form of communication is the key. 

At the elementary level, I'm not sure that schools are permitting use of cell phones in their curriculum; or even at the middle school level. I have heard that high schools are to a degree. What are your thoughts on using social networking or cell phones to communicate with students?  How many art teachers do this? I would like to know.