Top three reasons I blog (and voting link!)

Dolvin families and MKSA readers - I am proud to announce that this blog (featuring the amazing work of Dolvin student artists) has been nominated among many outstanding Art Ed blogs for 2013 Art Ed Blog of the Year! It is quite an honor to be listed among such a talented group of art professionals - please take a moment to click the link below and vote for us, Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists! You can vote for more than one, so choose any of your faves - shout out to another Fulton county art teacher nominee Laura Kim at "Art in the Big Green Room." Please vote by midnight on Friday, Feb. 7. Thank you, and keep reading below the link to find out why I think this blogging thing is so cool:

                           

http://www.theartofed.com/2014/02/03/finalists-announced-and-voting-open-2013-art-ed-blog-of-the-year/

Here are the top three reasons I continue to blog as an art teacher...

1. Keeping families in the art loop - I began my blog as a way to show off our art learning, because moms and dads have to wait all year to see their children's art from the year, as everything is compiled in portfolios until our Fine Arts Night show in May. Showing pictures of the processes, the inspiration, and the concepts behind the pieces really adds more meaning to the final works. In addition to blogging, we are building connections on Twitter and Instagram - see the links on the right sidebar.

2. Making authentic global connections - Not only did I connect with parents and students, I made art education connections across the country and even around the world! I have shared plans and stolen ideas from a huge variety of talented art educators, both seasoned pros with seamless style and fresh-faced, energetic newbies. Authentic learning and making connections to real world experiences is a big part of education these days, and we have had email communications with several current artists about their work and how we made pieces inspired by them. We have participated in art trades with other schools in multiple states and countries, and it is so exciting to feel like a part of something global when I spend so many of my days in my art room in Johns Creek, Ga! (I almost added it up, then I decided it was probably best not to - ha!)

3. Collaboration benefits all students - Bottom line, everybody benefits from shared knowledge - the teachers and the students. Sharing ideas in a huge pool of resources, like the art blogs listed in the link above, is an unparalleled benefit in this age. We all work hard planning, creating, rethinking, assessing, and I am so grateful to those of you who continue to share your knowledge for the benefit of all our students and I love it when I hear that our experiences have helped others.

Foil Figure Sculpture

 Let me begin by apologizing to any parents of fourth graders who realized they were suddenly out of aluminum foil... I encouraged practicing at home :)

This lesson is such a hit year after year, and it is a great sculpture lesson because it only takes one day - no storage issues! We begin with a few live gesture drawings, about 30 seconds each, to warm up and get posing ideas, then we create the sculptures using about a foot of aluminum foil. I also run through some famous figural sculptures by Giacometti, Degas, and Henry Moore on the whiteboard projector to get in the sculpting spirit!

Start the scrunching slowly, to keep from tearing the foil, and then once it's starting to take shape, you can refine te pose. If a limb gets torn off, it is easily repaired at the end with the hot glue gun. 

Next, we trace the figure on the mat board base and shade it in. I attach them myself with a spot of hot glue.

This would be a great tie-in to the upcoming Olympics - doesn't this look like a figure skater?  I have seen several Olympics inspired projects floating around out there recently that were cool.

Get your free handout right here on my Teachers Pay Teachers store to try it out: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Foil-Figure-Sculpture-art-lesson-2796822

Plarn!

No, it's not an expletive... It's a free and environmentally friendly weaving fiber - plastic yarn! This is the first I've heard of it, and pardon my ignorance if it's a common thing and I am behind the times, but I find this very exciting. Anyway, I know that the art teachers in my county will be doing weavings this semester, and many of you across the country (and world!) love weaving, so I thought I'd share this technique for making plarn found on Crochet Dynamite/Pinterest http://www.crochetdynamite.com/2013/01/how-to-make-plarn.html

If you are an experienced plarn-user, let me know what techniques work best for you - I need tips.

Students: make this! Lots and lots of it! Bring it to class and we will get started soon. I plan on trying this out tomorrow during my snow day. And let's be real, "plarn" is just plain fun to say. :)