Hi everyone!
Check out everything I did this semester in Art Education 322!
Check out everything I did this semester in Art Education 322!
em_keim_art_ed_322_portfolio.pdf |
Hi everyone! Check out everything I did this semester in Art Education 322!
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Looking back on the semester, I find that I was able to experience many new technologies that could help me in my future career and classroom. Though it was frustrating at first, figuring out all of these programs and technologies really gave me a new appreciation for new media exploration in the classroom. Here is a list of just some of the technologies I experienced in this semester, and how I plan to utilize them in my future classroom.
1. Tinkercad modeling- This is a program that is available free online to anyone who signs up. It is an easy-to-use 3D modeling program with great tutorials and a basic layout. I plan to use this program to introduce my students to 3D modeling. I feel like it is useable all the way down to fifth or sixth grade and I think it would help them understand all forms of 3D art better by exploring in Tinkercad. 2. 3D Printing- 3D printing is something that I had heard of a lot in the past few years, but had no experience working with until now. 3D printing allows you to take a digital 3D model and turn it into a physical piece. By printing out layers of plastic, 3D printers can take a project developed in Tinkercad out into the real world. I think students of many different age levels would be really excited to work with this relatively new technology, and I think it’s an important step to get the 3D printers in the art rooms as well as in the technology education rooms. 3. I-Movie- This is a program that is specific only to Apple computers which allows users to easily create and compile movie clips and add sounds and effects and captions. Though I don’t have extensive experience with the program, it was easy to learn what I have learned thusfar, so I think it could be easily integrated into a classroom experience. I think that this would be a good way to introduce film as art. Maybe start by having the students draw a comic strip. Then expand it into a flip book, and then into a zoetrope or something, and then compile a stop-motion animation through photography using I-Movie. I feel like it’s something the students could get into 4. Flash- Flash is an animation program that comes with the Adobe suite. It is a simple-to-use program with many tutorials online. I definitely enjoyed the Flash experience, and though I’m sure there are many things you can do that I have not even thought of trying yet, the things you can do with a very basic knowledge of the program are still pretty impressive. I think that students could interact fairly easily with Flash and I think they would love to explore animation in a similar fashion to how they could explore I-movie. I think there could be an entire film unit that includes both Flash and I-movie as well as flip books and zoetropes. 5. Photoshop- This is a photo editing program that is also available through adobe. I think there are a lot of different uses for this program, beyond just the usual editing of photos. I think that this is something that could be adapted for younger students as well. The first non-photography idea that comes to my mind would be to take students’ drawings into Photoshop and allow them to explore coloring it and using different stamp tools, textures, and overlays. This knowledge could then be brought into a higher level class where they could begin to use the program as a photo editing program, and then as an art tool through photography. 6. Wordle- Wordle is an interesting online program that can take any chunk of text and weed out the most frequently used words in order to make a visual diagram of it. Though it was not my favorite program for doing its actual purpose, considering it would not differentiate between words that make meaning and words like “the” and “and”, I still could see myself open to using it somehow in my classroom. I think the way that I would use it would be maybe a brief project at the very beginning of the year where I have each student write down 10 words that they think are important to our classroom environment (kindness, respect, creativity, etc.) then I would run all of their words together through wordle to create the word cloud diagram and have it printed as a poster to hang in the classroom to remind students of what our classroom ideals are. 7. Eye-Toy- This is actually not a program but an accessory for the video game console Play Station 2. There are applications for the console that go along with the eyetoy, but the eyetoy itself is a camera that can take your mirrored image and project it onto the TV screen. You can turn on different effects that take in your movements on the screen and add effects like glitter or color or vibrations or sound. I think that there is a lot that can be done with this as an introductory tool. The first use that I would like to try would be to use it in a special needs art classroom. I think that the interactivity would be a great way to stimulate interest in the students, and it is something that many students of many ability levels could be involved in. It could be included in a lesson about color or light or even performance art. 8. Weebly Blog site- Weebly is an online program that lets you design a personal blog site through the use of templates. The lovely site that you are currently reading is my weebly creation. I think that blogging as a way of reflection and exploration is an excellent way to integrate writing and research into the art curriculum. I think that once students are old enough to have a firm grasp on writing, there could be many uses for having student blog sites. Though I think I would find a way to make them private within the school, maybe through Google Classroom (another technology I won’t be touching on). I think a blog is a good place for students to document their work, document their progress, and document their thoughts and reflections. 9. Wix Website Maker- Wix is an online program similar to Weebly that allows you to create a personalized website through the use of combined templates. I will definitely use this website maker again because the layout is easy to understand but also very customizable. I think I will create more short webquests to keep on hand in case of my absence. I would like to just leave my substitute with a URL and some behavioral guidelines and be confident that my students are still learning and exploring during my absence instead of wasting art time as free time. (Which sounds harsh but many of these students may only have 40 minutes a day two days a week for art, and I would like them to get the most out of that time they have). 10. Lino- Lino was actually my favorite of the new technologies I learned this semester. It is an online program free to anyone who makes an account, and it is essentially a virtual bulletin board. You can post pictures or text in the form of sticky notes, and you can set the accounts to private, public, or you can share it with specific people. I think that I will definitely use Lino in my future classrooms. I think it is a great place to organize your thoughts and inspirations without taking up any classroom space or budget. I think I would have my students brainstorm on Lino and post in-progress pictures and updates on Lino and comment on others’ work through Lino. As an avid organizer and list maker, I think that there are so many uses for this program and I can’t wait to see how it can be integrated into my classes. Though ideally I would like to try all of these programs in my classrooms, there are definitely some setbacks and challenges that need to be taken into account. First of all, I don’t know where I will be teaching or what kinds of resources they may have there. I know there are still schools that don’t have computers for their students which would definitely put a damper on almost all of my plans. I think that budget is also a concern. If there are computers, what kind are they? Are they Macs that can use I-Movie? Are they connected to the Adobe Cloud? Are there enough of them to successfully integrate them into a class of students? Then there are also problems of privacy. There are permissions that must be granted by parents to allow their students to have an online presence, and strict privacy rules that must be followed in regards to what information about the students and their work may be shared online. At least I can keep all these technologies in mind to do what I can with the resources given to me in my future career. Hey everyone!
Check out my Voice Thread Exhibit on Body and Difference! https://voicethread.com/share/7283446/ This collection of works recognizes different interpretations of body and differences in body. Through remixed pieces of visual and audial culture, the video was created, taking on a mature topic like body image, but in a way that is accessible to a younger audience. These particular pieces work together to tell a story specifically about some of the issues of Male engenderment and issues of body image for young boys and men. Each of the Exquisite corpses created by the Penn State Art Education 322 have some sort of disconnection from stereotypes of male, female (and human) gendering. Find Card: Find a piece that changed the way you think of something you recognized. What part was it that you recognized? What did you think about it before? How do you think about it now? Kaylie and I decided during our in-class discussion that our two topics, visual literacy and fan art in the classroom, could work together very well for a webquest exploration.
The topic we decided to use is super heroes and super villains and the visual clues to both identifying, creating, and outfitting one or the other. Some of the ideas we had would be to focus on the history of the comic book and the use of color to depict meaning, an exercise in creating their own comic storyline, character design elements and visually telling some of the character's back story, as well as allowing the students to make up their own super and design a signet for that hero. We have not decided what the students will print yet but we narrowed it down to three ideas centered around their signet design- either a signet ring, a shield with a crest, or a hood ornament for their character's vehicle. I think that this will be a topic that all of the students will know something about and that many students will be interested in participating in. Five things that I think would be really important for my future students to learn would be, first, my three key concepts; Confidence, Creativity, and Kindness. I think that these are basic accessible fundamentals for any classroom, especially a special education art classroom. I understand that my students will most likely be benefitting most from their artmaking experiences rather than any kind of philosophical pedagogy I try to enforce on them. I think that the self-exploration and acceptance of self and others are the most important indicators of success in my classroom.
I think that a lot of my art ideals and pedagogy comes from my experiences in both general and art education classrooms. All of my teachers were influential to me in showing me both what to do and what not to do. In the end I came away with five major ideal learning landmarks for my students 1. Confidence- I want my students to learn to be confident with themselves, because I think a positive attitude can go so far for any child, but especially for a student with special needs. I had an experience with a ceramics professor who did not value this concept of confidence, and the critiques sometimes felt more brutal than helpful. I do not want that kind of atmosphere for my students. 2. Creativity- This is something that seems obvious but isn’t always found, even in the art classroom. I always loved it when there was some sort of open-ended aspect to an in school art project while I was in grade school. I want my students to use their creativity in order to put their own spins on projects. I don’t want the type of set up where I make an example and the students just copy that example step for step. 3. Kindness- Kindness is incredibly important to me. From my experience working in a special education school over the summer, I know that even in special education schools there is bullying that happens. I want to have discussions of sensitivity with my students so they understand that their words and actions can affect the other students, and they should make an effort to make sure that effect is a positive one. 4. Exploration- I think that its important for students to discover new things. I think that exploration is what hooked me in as an artist. I loved looking things up and trying new techniques and really digging in to find what I love to do and what I am good at doing. I think that the experience of finding something you’re good at is one that I would love to provide for my students. 5. Acceptance- I want my students to know all different forms of acceptance. When I was in elementary school I noticed that the few times that we talked about acceptance, we only talked about our acceptance of others. I want to communicate this, but I would like to extend it to the acceptance of ourselves. I want my students to accept who they are, accept what they can do, and accept that sometimes things will not work out in their favor. Most of my concepts are pretty simple, but, that being said, I would like to incorporate some basis of both digital and analog art making skills and techniques. I want the students to feel that they can express themselves in any way they can. I think that technology will be very helpful in that aspect because it gives students another outlet for creativity and empowerment in their communication. I don’t think there are any programs around now that would be what I would be looking for in the future, but I think that in time there will be more accessible and easy to use digital art programs to utilize with my students of all ability levels. Being twenty is really kind of a weird thing. I mean, ten years ago I was only ten years old, and in ten years from now...In 2025, I am just about to turn 31, entering into my eighth school year as an art teacher. I work at a small public special education school somewhere between Pennsylvania and Virginia. My hair is cut into a shaggy light brown bob with a little peek of a bright color showing through in a streak. I wear large plastic framed glasses with a faux-pearl necklace peeper-keeper chain. I usually come to work wearing a tea-length skirt or dress with some fun patterned stockings, usually with a sweater when the weather allows. My patterns never match but I still manage to avoid that “got dressed in the dark” look. My students have come to know me by my colorful array of craft aprons which I change regularly. I will often change my apron colors by season or by event, and the students love that I get just as into school spirit week, wacky hairdo day, and pajama day as they do.
My classroom is small, but not too small; there is still room for all my supplies and tables, as well as enough room to maneuver a wheelchair comfortably. My room is air conditioned (thank goodness) with a thermostat that I can change as needed. The tables in my room are specially designed to easily morph to accommodate each artist’s needs. It can move up and down to work while sitting, while in a wheelchair, or while standing. The tabletop can light up to serve as a tracing light box, swivel to an angle to become a drafting table, and, finally, small parts of the tabletop can be folded up and linked together to create an artists’ easel. My main priority is versatility in being able to anticipate and provide for the needs of my students. There are four walls in my rectangular classroom. One of the large walls is completely covered in easily accessible shelves to hold relevant art supplies, and less accessible cabinets to hold the supplies which are not in use. The room has a fairly low ceiling to keep echoes to a minimum and to keep easily-overwhelmed students feeling cozy. The far large wall is entirely windows to allow for natural light to come into the tiny studio. Some of my students will love the windows, and some will hate them, so there are also drapes and overhead lighting that can be used accordingly. A third wall, situated in front of a small carpeted area, consists of an interactive touch screen. This touch screen is large and advanced enough to allow multiple students to use it at once to draw, play, or browse. I would use the screen to show demonstrations, allow the children to play around with some digital art making tools, and even to act as a speech-to-text medium for my students with hearing impairments. The last far wall has some more storage and a door that leads to a clay room. I would have six throwing wheels arranged in a tight circle to ensure I have eyes on all of my students at once while they are throwing. There is a long table along the side of this room which is covered with canvas wedging fabric. Each class I will set out the appropriate tools as needed so as not to endanger any of the students who may not be ready to use that particular tool. At the back of this room next to the sinks is a closet with a ceramics kiln inside of it, accessible only to myself or my peers. The floors of my classroom are sturdy, well-worn linoleum, with some stains and ghosts of art projects past. The colors are soft, not that gross, stereotypical, vomitous brownish-orange "doctors say kids need neutral tones in order to learn" color. I have to assume that students with all sorts of needs will be passing through my studio, and I need to be sensitive even to the needs of the students I haven’t had yet. Non-stressful colors are needed for the students with anxiety problems, but colors with interest are needed for the students who easily become restless and bored. My compromise is a nice, light, lavender-y grey color with a darker but very simple trim (not unlike the layout of this blog... I guess I have a style I gravitate towards). My classes consist of students ranging from ages 3 to 21. Mostly the students are separated into classes of 5 but sometimes there can be 6 to a class. The classes are not separated by age but more by maturity and ability, as well as by disability. My students are diverse, not only in their race and gender, but also in their abilities and needs. My students have a range of disabilities, and each child must be treated as an individual. I understand where my students’ needs are, and I adhere to the student’s individualized learning goals in as many ways as possible during the course of the class. As I see my students improve and grow older and become adults, I can only hope that I taught them something. I hope they learned to be confident, creative, and kind while in my classroom. The goal of my education pedagogy is student based, not book based or test based. I want the students to learn how it feels to make something and be proud of it. I want to give them the art making skills to expand on their communication both to others and to themselves. In researching the concept of the acceptability of fan art in art education, I came to realize that fan art, in its own small way, affects and shifts a certain form of societal power. The oppressive power of our social surroundings is breached by the emergence of new subcultures brought together through the love of something. These subcultures, now commonly referred to online as "fandoms," allow those who may otherwise be outcasts to find validation through others who, though perhaps may not be in their direct social circle, support each other through joint love and passion for a certain aspect of popular culture.
There is, in my opinion, definitely a place for the expression of all interests in art education, even those which are centered around a pre-existing visualization. Fan art in the art education classroom can allow for students to engage in the pre-planned curricular activity, while still exploring a concept of their choosing. The idea that fan art is simply the child re-drawing the memorized lines of their favorite character is entirely incorrect. Fan art can be expanded upon to fulfill all necessary parts of artistic exploration required in an art class. With our help as teachers, students can explore different ways to express the same idea with a new style or media. Students can sculpt the character instead of draw it. Students can reimagine the character as the opposite gender, or as an animal, or as themselves embodying the character. Students can explore fashion, sewing, and construction techniques by trying out costuming and cosplay. There could even be layers of multi-literacy involved if students are asked to create their own storyline and comic strip in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. There are so many opportunities for exploration and discovery through the use of fan art. Students who are disengaged in the curriculum can come to life with enthusiasm by simply being heard by the teacher. Interest-driven learning is lifelong learning. By accepting and building upon the interests and experiences of the student, we as art educators can make that student feel their opinions and experiences are valid, and that they as people are valued in the art classroom. The complex interplay of power in visual culture really stems from one distinction: being empowered or being powerless. Power play in visual culture can be divided into three subcategories: Domination, Consensual, and Transformative.
The first type of power, domination power, stems from one person or group of people, or even thing, holding power OVER another person, group of people, or thing. This type of power implies that there is a distinction that must be made between the powerful and the powerless, one being superior to the other. For example, types of domination power that affect me are things like the hierarchy of hiring systems, the coercive power of governments and schools and even family threatening negative actions if I refuse to follow rules or laws, and a sense of obligation for having my schooling paid for. The second type of power, consensual power, is an agreed upon division of power based on traditional societal beliefs. This type of power is evident in my life in my agreement to pay money to Penn State for a "legitimate" and recognized degree, my division of tasks and role responsibility in my relationship, and my trust in the elected officials to represent my needs in all levels of governmental processes. Transformative power is power that ignites a societal change through the teamwork of individuals working together with a common goal. Though I can't currently think of how this directly affects my life right now, I know that it's all about getting inspired and inspiring others. This kind of power is shared among the group and takes a lot of creative thinking and problem solving to bring change to fruition. Hi everyone! Click below to see my Art Education 322 Lino Board!
http://linoit.com/users/ekk5079/canvases/Art%20Education%20322 |
Ms. M KeimI am a twenty (almost twenty-one) year old Art Education student at Penn State University. Archives
December 2015
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