Here is my teacher generated example for the fortune cookie billboard idea.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Day 43: 13th Day @ Westhill
Wednesday March 28, 2012 Blog Post
Here is my teacher generated example for the fortune cookie billboard idea.
Here is my teacher generated example for the fortune cookie billboard idea.
Day 42: 12th Day @ Westhill
Tuesday March 27, 2012 Blog Post
So the fortune cookies were a hit. Some students had ideas they were already working on and it gave other students a nudge to get the ball rolling. One student took pictures with the camera of a fortune cookie and was about to cut it out in photoshop. I told him the lighting and set up of the image was perfect so asked if he could do both as ideas. Another student took pictures of the sky and trees and himself for his "Think Big" design. Another student is doing a drawing with a penguin she is scanning in to work with, another student is doing a "This Billboard is Pointless" idea that has a hand pointing to the word less, another student's idea is about autism who's autistic, another student's idea is "Whatever Floats Your Boat," another student's idea is "Time is Money." Jamie helped him think of ways to make it original by changing the words. I also helped him jot down some ideas, Time is Honey, Time is Funny, Time is Bunny. Lime is Money, Dime is Money. Rhyme is Money. I liked Time is Funny. It's superficial and meaningful at the same time. Imagery that came to mind was a bunch of arrows.
Were going to work tomorrow, and vote either at the end of class or beginning of class Thursday. Were going to vote for the top three slogans then students will redesign those and pick the best of each one. Then we will vote on the final 3. I'm going to have them print up their first draft and have an exhibit of this overall project in the school somewhere showing what we all came up with for the billboard.
I emailed The Redhouse to see if they have any openings for a student show for the alien storyboard. It looks like they might based on their website's schedule, but who knows if that is accurate so I shot an email to see. I think most of the kids don't see the connection to their community or sharing work with their classmates as a shared experience or outside the class. I think if its available the bound books might be fun to display given they are interactive and fold out. I'm thinking of having them record voiceovers for their books, and putting together a big video with all their pieces for everyone to see that could be on display as part of an exhibit. If nothing else we will show it at the end of the project and watch it in class.
I'm going to begin filling out my service learning packet that I have to give to Kelly as well as my contextual framework for my unit plan. Kelly said I'll just give that to her since its so much to explain.
The latex is going smoothly. The students are continuing their works for the 6 x 6 show in Rochester. I finished mine and are helping them. I also did a new piece on latex inspired by Jeff's process but it needs more work. Jeff went to see if we could go to the shop to cut wood to frame wood we will work on in that class. The shop was free so he's going to show us how he does it for his pieces and we'll do that for everyone's in the class once we get to that. I think were going to do latex on canvas next. Some of the kids in the class are getting it and some aren't yet, so I think I might need to show them some more, or explain more.
One girl in the other class that is not doing either of my lessons yet is trying the latex out for a background she's working on. Today after school, she came in with three friends and had them help her peel them off. She's very talented and likes Florence and The Machine just like I do. We have all the same musical tastes. I'm going to bring her a CD of Little Dragon because its similar to all the other music she likes but she hasn't heard of them yet.
It was nice to see it work for her piece! A few other students in the other classes, Jamie's included have been working with me to learn it.
So the fortune cookies were a hit. Some students had ideas they were already working on and it gave other students a nudge to get the ball rolling. One student took pictures with the camera of a fortune cookie and was about to cut it out in photoshop. I told him the lighting and set up of the image was perfect so asked if he could do both as ideas. Another student took pictures of the sky and trees and himself for his "Think Big" design. Another student is doing a drawing with a penguin she is scanning in to work with, another student is doing a "This Billboard is Pointless" idea that has a hand pointing to the word less, another student's idea is about autism who's autistic, another student's idea is "Whatever Floats Your Boat," another student's idea is "Time is Money." Jamie helped him think of ways to make it original by changing the words. I also helped him jot down some ideas, Time is Honey, Time is Funny, Time is Bunny. Lime is Money, Dime is Money. Rhyme is Money. I liked Time is Funny. It's superficial and meaningful at the same time. Imagery that came to mind was a bunch of arrows.
Were going to work tomorrow, and vote either at the end of class or beginning of class Thursday. Were going to vote for the top three slogans then students will redesign those and pick the best of each one. Then we will vote on the final 3. I'm going to have them print up their first draft and have an exhibit of this overall project in the school somewhere showing what we all came up with for the billboard.
I emailed The Redhouse to see if they have any openings for a student show for the alien storyboard. It looks like they might based on their website's schedule, but who knows if that is accurate so I shot an email to see. I think most of the kids don't see the connection to their community or sharing work with their classmates as a shared experience or outside the class. I think if its available the bound books might be fun to display given they are interactive and fold out. I'm thinking of having them record voiceovers for their books, and putting together a big video with all their pieces for everyone to see that could be on display as part of an exhibit. If nothing else we will show it at the end of the project and watch it in class.
I'm going to begin filling out my service learning packet that I have to give to Kelly as well as my contextual framework for my unit plan. Kelly said I'll just give that to her since its so much to explain.
The latex is going smoothly. The students are continuing their works for the 6 x 6 show in Rochester. I finished mine and are helping them. I also did a new piece on latex inspired by Jeff's process but it needs more work. Jeff went to see if we could go to the shop to cut wood to frame wood we will work on in that class. The shop was free so he's going to show us how he does it for his pieces and we'll do that for everyone's in the class once we get to that. I think were going to do latex on canvas next. Some of the kids in the class are getting it and some aren't yet, so I think I might need to show them some more, or explain more.
One girl in the other class that is not doing either of my lessons yet is trying the latex out for a background she's working on. Today after school, she came in with three friends and had them help her peel them off. She's very talented and likes Florence and The Machine just like I do. We have all the same musical tastes. I'm going to bring her a CD of Little Dragon because its similar to all the other music she likes but she hasn't heard of them yet.
Some of the students are getting done with their piggy banks. One person is done, others are nearing the end. I'm going to have them make another one so they have two in case one doesn't work out, or so they can explore with glazing. The second one can be another animal if they'd like to do something different. Jeff is ordering corks for them to use. I went to Michaels and AC Moore and bought two to get the specs for what we'd need to fit a quarter so we could all make ours. My feet were too short after I put it in so I was glad I was able to have them there for students to use and then build feet around it to make sure they were tall enough. I like that this project is functional and that makes it engaging. It was a lot of work so I don't think they really want to make another one but I told them we can all begin the second one together and they can finish their other undone projects in the meantime. I want to learn how to make a donut like Sonya did so that can be my second lesson with the ceramics class.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Day 41: 11th Day @ Westhill
Monday March 26, 2012 Blog Post
After the graphic design today, Jamie and I discussed other ways to get the kids inspired to come up with their own slogan and somehow the idea of fortune cookies came up so I decided to look up examples to show them how a simple fortune as well as fortune cookie could be used as a design element. It's not something you'd expect to see on a billboard. Typically its something you share with yourself and whoever is around you, but provides a playful element of surprise. I think like astrology its something everyone enjoys. I decided to go to Wegmans and ask them if I could get twenty fortune cookies for a class project. I called ahead and asked how much it would be. They said it would be free! Tomorrow I will let everyone pick out a fortune cookie and show them the images below for inspiration.
After the graphic design today, Jamie and I discussed other ways to get the kids inspired to come up with their own slogan and somehow the idea of fortune cookies came up so I decided to look up examples to show them how a simple fortune as well as fortune cookie could be used as a design element. It's not something you'd expect to see on a billboard. Typically its something you share with yourself and whoever is around you, but provides a playful element of surprise. I think like astrology its something everyone enjoys. I decided to go to Wegmans and ask them if I could get twenty fortune cookies for a class project. I called ahead and asked how much it would be. They said it would be free! Tomorrow I will let everyone pick out a fortune cookie and show them the images below for inspiration.
Day 40: 10th Day @ Westhill
Friday March 23, 2012 Blog Post
So Jamie left early today and we covered his study hall. PJ who was giving me a hard time in the alien storyboard class was there. He was getting into what the kids were doing with the liquid latex. I asked him if he wanted me to show him how it worked and he said no. I showed him anyway and he got into it. One of the kids in the class were showing 4 other students on his own. They walked over to where we had the critique and he explained it to them. That was neat to see. I asked PJ if he thought this seemed like a better lesson and he said yes. Despite not liking it he worked the entire time in his study hall in his sketch book on the assignment he had for my class on his own which was nice. Being in this atmosphere inspires me to create new work and make engaging assignments. Jeff and Jamie have their work all over and are constantly exploring which is good. Makes you want to dive in and do the same.
So Jamie left early today and we covered his study hall. PJ who was giving me a hard time in the alien storyboard class was there. He was getting into what the kids were doing with the liquid latex. I asked him if he wanted me to show him how it worked and he said no. I showed him anyway and he got into it. One of the kids in the class were showing 4 other students on his own. They walked over to where we had the critique and he explained it to them. That was neat to see. I asked PJ if he thought this seemed like a better lesson and he said yes. Despite not liking it he worked the entire time in his study hall in his sketch book on the assignment he had for my class on his own which was nice. Being in this atmosphere inspires me to create new work and make engaging assignments. Jeff and Jamie have their work all over and are constantly exploring which is good. Makes you want to dive in and do the same.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Day 37: 7th Dat @ Westhill
Tuesday March 20, 2012 Blog Post
The Alien Storyboard project is going well. For the most part, students are creating their alien characters and getting into the storyboard. One girl saw one of the images as a box and wanted to take the baby out of an image to make the story be about a missing baby. It's neat to see where everyone takes an idea that all starts out in the same place. The latex lesson is going well. One girl said that she couldn't wait to peel it off and wanted to right away. I think the way I planned the lesson built up some anticipation.
The Alien Storyboard project is going well. For the most part, students are creating their alien characters and getting into the storyboard. One girl saw one of the images as a box and wanted to take the baby out of an image to make the story be about a missing baby. It's neat to see where everyone takes an idea that all starts out in the same place. The latex lesson is going well. One girl said that she couldn't wait to peel it off and wanted to right away. I think the way I planned the lesson built up some anticipation.
Day 38: 8th Day @ Westhill
Wednesday March 21, 2011 Blog Post
PJ in my 2nd period class refused to do the Alien Comic Storyboard lesson so I spoke with both Jamie and Jeff and Tracey the photo teacher and got their advice so will talk to him about it more tomorrow. It was upsetting because I thought he would enjoy the project since he works in ink and does alien like character drawings. I'm going to work with him to make it more relevant.
The latex reveal went well. It was fun peeling the layers off together at the same time. Some were at different levels at the beginning of the class depending on how quickly they were working, so I had some students complete their third layer of latex, others completed their forth, which was the experimental layer. I was impressed overall the past few days with how quickly the paint was drying on the illustration board. The latex took longer, but the paint was quick. Some people put the paint on too thick and it ended up peeling off some of the cardboard. I did tests before using it since Jeff and Jamie recommended trying it. I have only used canvas before this which is better because nothing peels off. After they get through the first series of tests, I am going to have them work on canvas.
Today was my first day with the billboard class. I showed them 10+ images I found of billboards, and brought them to the values.com website. I showed them how you can upload an image with a slogan and have it uploaded right away showing you how your image and slogan would look if it was on a billboard. We discussed the use of billboards, and ideas of ways to change the context of what they're used for. I am excited to be able to bring this opportunity to them, and curious to see what were going to come up with.
PJ in my 2nd period class refused to do the Alien Comic Storyboard lesson so I spoke with both Jamie and Jeff and Tracey the photo teacher and got their advice so will talk to him about it more tomorrow. It was upsetting because I thought he would enjoy the project since he works in ink and does alien like character drawings. I'm going to work with him to make it more relevant.
The latex reveal went well. It was fun peeling the layers off together at the same time. Some were at different levels at the beginning of the class depending on how quickly they were working, so I had some students complete their third layer of latex, others completed their forth, which was the experimental layer. I was impressed overall the past few days with how quickly the paint was drying on the illustration board. The latex took longer, but the paint was quick. Some people put the paint on too thick and it ended up peeling off some of the cardboard. I did tests before using it since Jeff and Jamie recommended trying it. I have only used canvas before this which is better because nothing peels off. After they get through the first series of tests, I am going to have them work on canvas.
Today was my first day with the billboard class. I showed them 10+ images I found of billboards, and brought them to the values.com website. I showed them how you can upload an image with a slogan and have it uploaded right away showing you how your image and slogan would look if it was on a billboard. We discussed the use of billboards, and ideas of ways to change the context of what they're used for. I am excited to be able to bring this opportunity to them, and curious to see what were going to come up with.
Day 39: 9th Day @ Westhill
Thursday March 22, 2012 Blog Post
After seminar last night I realized I didn't do a good enough pre-assessment for my Alien Storyboard Unit Plan, so I implemented one for both classes today.
Today went by quickly. I spoke to PJ in the beginning of first period. I asked him if I could speak to him in the hallway for a minute. He kind of smirked but looked slightly embarrassed. I asked him if he was going to do the project or not and he quickly said he would do it his own way. I asked him what he meant and he said he would do it in his style. I came at him nicely and just said that I was fine with him making it his own as long as he could do a series of his drawings. I asked if he could do 6 drawings and a title page or 7 total drawings he could put in the book everyone else is going to be making. He agreed to do that and drew out six boxes on one page in his sketchbook. I told him he could use images he already drew since he had already created characters. Seemed to go okay. He got right to work and worked the duration of the class.
The rest of the day flew by quickly. The graphic design class researched 5 billboard images and we put them onto the server and named them, Erin1, Erin2, Erin3, Erin4, Erin5. Jamie was impressed to see how they labeled them. I had each student pick out their favorite billboard from values.com and 4 others from different sites. I had them each show their selected images and discuss which one was their favorite. It was neat to see that a few of them selected similar images. I called my friend who works at Lamar and got the specs for the size billboard space we are getting and figured out the image requirements. Next class we will be setting up the document to be the correct size. I gave them a rubric today to explain how this project was being graded. Step 1 was research, so everyone got a 100% on that part for locating 5 billboard images.
The latex lesson, we continued our critique and continued with a second task. The students are going to create 6 x 6 pieces on the illustration board for an art show called "6 x 6" at a museum in Rochester. Jeff showed it to me and each piece that gets submitted gets accepted. It's a fundraiser for the museum. All the pieces go online and are for sale and you can tell when someone purchases it. It has a red sold dot on it. They all sell for $20. The deadline is right after I leave so I'm going to have both my classes participate. I think this would fall under service learning as well. I'm having this class do something they've already done with the latex process, to continue to learn about it before doing something completely original. One girl wanted to do one of her pieces to represent anger, I told her that sounded great.
After seminar last night I realized I didn't do a good enough pre-assessment for my Alien Storyboard Unit Plan, so I implemented one for both classes today.
Today went by quickly. I spoke to PJ in the beginning of first period. I asked him if I could speak to him in the hallway for a minute. He kind of smirked but looked slightly embarrassed. I asked him if he was going to do the project or not and he quickly said he would do it his own way. I asked him what he meant and he said he would do it in his style. I came at him nicely and just said that I was fine with him making it his own as long as he could do a series of his drawings. I asked if he could do 6 drawings and a title page or 7 total drawings he could put in the book everyone else is going to be making. He agreed to do that and drew out six boxes on one page in his sketchbook. I told him he could use images he already drew since he had already created characters. Seemed to go okay. He got right to work and worked the duration of the class.
The rest of the day flew by quickly. The graphic design class researched 5 billboard images and we put them onto the server and named them, Erin1, Erin2, Erin3, Erin4, Erin5. Jamie was impressed to see how they labeled them. I had each student pick out their favorite billboard from values.com and 4 others from different sites. I had them each show their selected images and discuss which one was their favorite. It was neat to see that a few of them selected similar images. I called my friend who works at Lamar and got the specs for the size billboard space we are getting and figured out the image requirements. Next class we will be setting up the document to be the correct size. I gave them a rubric today to explain how this project was being graded. Step 1 was research, so everyone got a 100% on that part for locating 5 billboard images.
The latex lesson, we continued our critique and continued with a second task. The students are going to create 6 x 6 pieces on the illustration board for an art show called "6 x 6" at a museum in Rochester. Jeff showed it to me and each piece that gets submitted gets accepted. It's a fundraiser for the museum. All the pieces go online and are for sale and you can tell when someone purchases it. It has a red sold dot on it. They all sell for $20. The deadline is right after I leave so I'm going to have both my classes participate. I think this would fall under service learning as well. I'm having this class do something they've already done with the latex process, to continue to learn about it before doing something completely original. One girl wanted to do one of her pieces to represent anger, I told her that sounded great.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Day 36: 6th Day @ Westhill
Monday March 19, 2012
So today was my first day leading any lessons. I felt really good about coming in with my complete book illustrated for the alien storyboard. It was nice to show Jamie what I came up with since he saw my first failed attempt. I felt like the book I did was a great example and very solid in the story, illustrations and binding. Without having it finished it wouldn't have been a lesson the kids could wrap their heads around I don't think. I took some time to explain the project to them in the beginning and used the method I did with Keith Haring to have them work in packets until they were ready to go to the final pieces. Were spending 3 weeks on this lesson. Week one is character development, week two is completing the storyboard finals, week 3 is creating and binding the book. I'm super excited to see what these kids come up with and see this project as advanced and challenging, yet rewarding.
I also introduced my latex lesson to the last period. Jeff had to go pick it up from Commercial Art Supply since the order didn't go through for some reason. It went quicker than I though and some of the kids didn't wait long enough before putting their next layer on but I think they are getting the concept. This one was more straight forward. I'm having them draw a tree of their present, future, and past by painting a color and masking it out in latex. Were doing 5 layers of paint and 4 of latex. This is just a test so they can learn the process. It's taken from a painting Sonya and I did called Past, Present, Future. I showed a video of us making it to show the process and also tested papers to see which one took to the shapes of latex and dried quickest to see which one to use for this. The illustration board worked the best so that's what were using. The kids will be doing a pre-existing work with this technique as well as an original piece as well.
The other class that I'm not starting until after graphic design, I took to the nurse's office today to show them the space. I'm going to have them create three paintings for the nurse's office. We talked to her a little about what she wants to see there.
The ceramics class was awesome! I showed Jeff my piggy bank and I think he was impressed. He said I could lead that lesson and was really open to it. He thought it turned out nicely. I know its just a piggy bank but it was really fun to see come together and I'm already proud of it. I explained coil and told them this was my first time doing it so I'm not an expert but was able to walk them through the steps I learned. I also had a student in the class who knew a lot about it so I was able to work with him to introduce the lesson. Everyone is going to be making a piggy bank. I wanted to take pictures while I made it but we were messy and I was just learning it so I may make another one and take pictures to help introduce the steps.
There is a gay straight alliance here and they meet on Monday. A couple of the girls from the group stopped down to ask for something from Jeff, so I asked them when there meeting was and they took me upstairs. I got to meet the health teacher who I had in high school I think, who runs the GSA. They call it Acceptance Coalition because they weren't allowed to call it a GSA because of the principal not approving it who is gay. She told me a lot about that and a few other things. They had a sticker campaign after a professional development and put up stickers for Safe Zone and had to take them down and had a whole controversy about them. This is what ACLU told me about so I was curious to know the follow up to it.
She told me one of the students just left but that I am his hero and he can't wait to meet me. She also told me that the vice principal wants me to lead an assembly for Day of Silence and asked if she talked to me yet. I told her I'd love to do it and that it wouldn't be adding any stress to what I'm already doing, that I could do it with my eyes closed at this point I've done it so much. I hope it works out. I think it would mean a lot to the students to hear about Fagbug, and to see someone from Westhill who's becoming successful. It's exciting.
I cancelled the computer lab and am not doing my one project in the lab at this point. I got Final Cut on the computer I have in the room, but one of the students who wants to learn for journalism class came after two teachers who are in the lab set it up with me, came and for some reason it's saying its out of memory. I'd love to have Final Cut Pro at home. They have a few copies here that no one's utilizing. I'm kind of jealous. I have Final Cut Express. Same thing just not as good.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to incorporate video into the latex project or not yet. I'm going to get through the test and then perhaps document their process and see about the editing if I can figure it out on my computer here or not. If so I'll do it. I have to see if someone can help see why the memory is saying that. The person in change wrote Jeff back and pretty much dismissed it and didn't seem like they wanted to help but I'm going to talk to her and explain it more and see if there is something they can do about reallocating the memory.
I feel much more confident having a pig, and storyboard under my belt! I had a lot of anxiety this weekend about it and when these things are not done and take hours it's just hard not to be stressed when it's all unknown and not resolved. Once it is it's a huge weight lifted!!!
So today was my first day leading any lessons. I felt really good about coming in with my complete book illustrated for the alien storyboard. It was nice to show Jamie what I came up with since he saw my first failed attempt. I felt like the book I did was a great example and very solid in the story, illustrations and binding. Without having it finished it wouldn't have been a lesson the kids could wrap their heads around I don't think. I took some time to explain the project to them in the beginning and used the method I did with Keith Haring to have them work in packets until they were ready to go to the final pieces. Were spending 3 weeks on this lesson. Week one is character development, week two is completing the storyboard finals, week 3 is creating and binding the book. I'm super excited to see what these kids come up with and see this project as advanced and challenging, yet rewarding.
I also introduced my latex lesson to the last period. Jeff had to go pick it up from Commercial Art Supply since the order didn't go through for some reason. It went quicker than I though and some of the kids didn't wait long enough before putting their next layer on but I think they are getting the concept. This one was more straight forward. I'm having them draw a tree of their present, future, and past by painting a color and masking it out in latex. Were doing 5 layers of paint and 4 of latex. This is just a test so they can learn the process. It's taken from a painting Sonya and I did called Past, Present, Future. I showed a video of us making it to show the process and also tested papers to see which one took to the shapes of latex and dried quickest to see which one to use for this. The illustration board worked the best so that's what were using. The kids will be doing a pre-existing work with this technique as well as an original piece as well.
The other class that I'm not starting until after graphic design, I took to the nurse's office today to show them the space. I'm going to have them create three paintings for the nurse's office. We talked to her a little about what she wants to see there.
The ceramics class was awesome! I showed Jeff my piggy bank and I think he was impressed. He said I could lead that lesson and was really open to it. He thought it turned out nicely. I know its just a piggy bank but it was really fun to see come together and I'm already proud of it. I explained coil and told them this was my first time doing it so I'm not an expert but was able to walk them through the steps I learned. I also had a student in the class who knew a lot about it so I was able to work with him to introduce the lesson. Everyone is going to be making a piggy bank. I wanted to take pictures while I made it but we were messy and I was just learning it so I may make another one and take pictures to help introduce the steps.
There is a gay straight alliance here and they meet on Monday. A couple of the girls from the group stopped down to ask for something from Jeff, so I asked them when there meeting was and they took me upstairs. I got to meet the health teacher who I had in high school I think, who runs the GSA. They call it Acceptance Coalition because they weren't allowed to call it a GSA because of the principal not approving it who is gay. She told me a lot about that and a few other things. They had a sticker campaign after a professional development and put up stickers for Safe Zone and had to take them down and had a whole controversy about them. This is what ACLU told me about so I was curious to know the follow up to it.
She told me one of the students just left but that I am his hero and he can't wait to meet me. She also told me that the vice principal wants me to lead an assembly for Day of Silence and asked if she talked to me yet. I told her I'd love to do it and that it wouldn't be adding any stress to what I'm already doing, that I could do it with my eyes closed at this point I've done it so much. I hope it works out. I think it would mean a lot to the students to hear about Fagbug, and to see someone from Westhill who's becoming successful. It's exciting.
I cancelled the computer lab and am not doing my one project in the lab at this point. I got Final Cut on the computer I have in the room, but one of the students who wants to learn for journalism class came after two teachers who are in the lab set it up with me, came and for some reason it's saying its out of memory. I'd love to have Final Cut Pro at home. They have a few copies here that no one's utilizing. I'm kind of jealous. I have Final Cut Express. Same thing just not as good.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to incorporate video into the latex project or not yet. I'm going to get through the test and then perhaps document their process and see about the editing if I can figure it out on my computer here or not. If so I'll do it. I have to see if someone can help see why the memory is saying that. The person in change wrote Jeff back and pretty much dismissed it and didn't seem like they wanted to help but I'm going to talk to her and explain it more and see if there is something they can do about reallocating the memory.
I feel much more confident having a pig, and storyboard under my belt! I had a lot of anxiety this weekend about it and when these things are not done and take hours it's just hard not to be stressed when it's all unknown and not resolved. Once it is it's a huge weight lifted!!!
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