Monday, July 28, 2014

AOE Conference, MI Vacation, Adobe T4T Update, and BOOKS!

Hey there!
     So the AOE Conference was last week, and it was AMAZING! It was such a breath of fresh air to be able to attend a conference from home. I was actually on vacation with my family in Michigan, and thanks to WiFi I was able to participate in the Art of Education online conference from our beautiful vacation home in the Upper Peninsula! Here a few pics from the trip:








                         

        

Eagle's nest!!
 




 

 


                  

 
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Now for the conference recap!
There were so many great presentations!! In the first half of the conference I learned about new ways to use songs and (silence!) in the art room, teaching art online, teaching 21st Century Color (what IS magenta?! :), the importance of pulling from popular culture to drive student choices, making clay, giving simple and authentic feedback (great ideas for formative assessments and using QR codes & video for feedback), and tips for managing temporary and shared spaces. After a short break, the second half of the conference started off with a bang: a hands-on project!! Selfies! :) Blick Art Materials  http://www.dickblick.com/ put on a hands-on workshop titled: Selfies-Student Self-Portraits. Here's mine: 
I was so fun to MAKE some art, and it gave me great ideas for new projects in my classroom!
After the selfie project, I watched presentations on choosing a tech-free art room (Cassie Stephens is super fun http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/), using an iPad app called Sketchbook Express (very cool!), Evernote, an inspiring presentation by Malcom McCrae, a great guide to the first day of school, teaching peace and keeping peace, infusing contemporary art into the K-12 curriculum, collaborating with sister schools, success before the mess, and a printmaking curriculum for 1-5 that built upon each grade level. 
OH, and I had posted a pic of my swag box to the AOE FB page and it was featured at the conference!! 

Overall, it was a wonderful conference and I can't wait to attend again next year!! http://www.theartofed.com/
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I've been taking an Adobe Education course called Train the Trainer, and I have been learning so much! I am really finding the discussions on creativity in education very informative and interesting. So far we have learned about several Adobe products: Apps for Education,  Acrobat, and Photoshop. This week we will be introduced to Illustrator. If you haven't yet, check out the Adobe Education Exchange for FREE and USEFUL Professional Development. https://edex.adobe.com/
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Finally, I wanted to share the AMAZING amount of books I got at the local library book sale!
Every summer the Algonquin Public Library has a Friends of the Library book sale. http://www.aapld.org/ Well, if you go on Sunday it's half off their already great prices... I got these 30, that's right 30, books for $3.50!!! How incredible is that?!! I was super excited to find some Peter H. Reynolds books, art and artist books, and a book by one of my favorite illustrators, David Catrow. I cannot wait for the school year to start so I can share these books with my students!!

Thanks and have a colorful day!
~Miss Flood




Saturday, July 5, 2014

Artsy Summer!

Hi Everyone!
     Things have been busy and artsy around here! I finally finished my Adam the Doodle Man video!! You can view it below: 
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AND my swag box from AOE came today! 
I am so excited for the conference next week! They really put a great box together: AOE Koozie, Hands-on Project kit from Blick Art Materials including Sargent Art Oil Pastels, stainless steel travel mug & color mixing palette from Art to Remember, Sketchbook from Sketch for Schools, soft grip paintbrush from Royal Langnickel, SpeedyCarve printing block & ink from Speedball, sample pack of papers from Pacon, Perspective display card from Crystal Productions, and a Scholastic Art Mag sample.
I'm already using my awesome koozie :)
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An update on the Train the Trainer course through Adobe Education Exchange: I just completed Week 1 and I am enjoying it so far! It was cool to participate in the live group meeting on Tuesday night, and I have also really liked the content of the course, which is focusing on creativity in our classrooms. 
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Finally, I have been teaching private art lessons to five students this summer. They are all doing such a great job and I am having so much fun! Here is what one of my students completed this week:

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July and enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)
Have a colorful day!
~Miss Flood