Black History Month

For our schools Black History Month celebration my art classes made collaged African Masks using symmetry. I was really proud of the students creativity and inovation. Check out all of them on our Artsonia!

Getting Geared Up!

I know the conference is 2 months away, but I'm already excited. This will be the third NAEA conference that I will attend, and the first that I will present at! I just read through the schedule and it looks really great. Last year most of the Special Needs (SNAE) Issues Group sessions were overlapping one another, and this year there is about one per hour which is great! I'm also super psyched to see so many of my friends are presenting as well. Certainly ones NOT TO MISS---

Debi West

Donalyn Heise

Mary Silvestri

Pete Curran

Tina Atkinson

Sue Loesl

Debbie Sickler-Voigt

Peter Geiser

Even more exciting... This year will be the first that the SNAE group is putting on a SUPER SESSION! Friday afternoon from 4-5:50 the great Beverly Levett Gerber will be co-presenting with Susan Loesl, Julia Kellman, and Judith Burton.

“Artism”: Understanding Autism through Art Education
4:00-5:50 PM
“Artism” is a term used to describe the “relationship between art and autism.” Explore this relationship as presenters share information on students with autism and the implications for art education.

I can't wait!


Oh and I present on Friday April 16th at 1:00. Please be there! :)

Finally! The students at KDS receive back their Ceramic Pendants! Thanks Cassie!!!

Check out more on the KDS artsonia website!

Valentines Day more than candy and cards.

Today my aid read the book "Saint Valentine" to my students. I find that one of the best ways of teaching students about interdisciplinary topics is to read them a story. Now my students know that Valentine's Day isn't just about candy- but that it started with a saint that cared deeply for others- and in his name we show our appreciation to those we love on the day of his execution.

And by the way- the illustrations also are a great lead into a lesson about mosaics!

Art Class Celebrates the Chinese New Year!

As an art teacher, I have the freedom to create curriculum for the class as we go along- as long as I meet my NVA standards of course! This allows me to gather inspiration from just about anywhere for my lessons which is great. This past New Year's Eve I spent here in Tennessee and my boyfriend was still visiting his family back in Boston. When we realized we weren't going to spend the New Year's together his immediate response was, "Well we will celebrate the Chinese New Year instead this year." Aside from the suggestion being incredible sweet I thought it would also be a culturally rich and fun topic for a unit plan in my art room. So far so good!

First we read the book "Sam and the Lucky Money" and the students learned about the traditional red envelops that children receive from their elders with lucky leisee inside. We then created our own and decorated them with tiger images as 2010 is the year of the tiger. I am currently in the process of making "Mona Bucks" which the students will have to earn to put in their leisee envelops in order to earn their way to the Frist Center in March.


Then the students created beautiful paper fans! We used color diffusing sheets so when they were painted the images bleed thru to both sides of the paper. The following day when our paintings were dry we learned the according fold. These turned out wonderfully and really brighten up the classroom!



Now we are decorating the hallway with dragon masks that the students' made. We used a coloring sheet for the face, I made a tracer for the students to use to cut out the construction paper beards to go around the face, and the students got to use that accordion fold that they learned this week to make wild and crazy hairs! All fun stuff!



Finally next week we will begin to make paper lanterns. I can't wait!

Check out all these projects on the The King's Daughters' Artsonia account! While you're there vote for Kourtney (thru Saturday 1/30/10)!!!

Vote for Kourtney!

My student Kourtney has been selected as a finalist for "Artist of the Week" on Artsonia.com!!!! Please go vote for her Haiti House on the main page of the site!!!

CD Cover Design Contest

The students of KDS have entered a CD cover design contest that is being offered by a singer song writer in the Nashville area. Tammy Vice is a Christian singer/ song writer who has a daughter with Autism so she has restricted the cover contest to those with students with Special Needs. This gave my students and I the opportunity to understand the process in which professional graphic designers and other artists explore when they are given an assignment by a client. We listened to the song that Tammy recorded and talked about what types of images came into their heads while the students listend to it, what type of feeling it gave them, and we spoke about symbolism in the words of the song. Many classes thought that a door was a great image to work with that Tammy sang about because they felt it was very symbolic.

Tammy has since called to inform me that she will be using a collage of the artwork done by the students here at KDS for the cover! We are all very excited. Below are some of the images that my students created.

Go to http://www.tammyvice.com/ to see the contest details and some of the entries submitted. Click on photos to see some of the students artworks.