This is it, the last post!

Here is my face.

This is my shoe.

This is my milk jug mask.

Here is my Batik assignment, this was a lot of work.

This was tough.

My little creatures name is Miatt. He is a grobble, and he lives on the planet Grob. He likes to eat brussle sprouts and feta cheese.

This was kind of hard to do because of the gloves, but I guess that was the point right? Still not terribly happy with how it turned out, Rick and I had to work out a way to form everything.

Here is my scratch board ABC's. This was a lot of fun!

This was my water color resist.

Here is my emotion water color.

This is my color wheel.

Here are the designs that were used on my pinch pot.

Reflection #5.

What makes a quality art lesson?

I think that the most important quality that any art lesson can teach is giving the student self confidence with what they have created. Since art is so objective it can be very hard to critique. This is where the importance of giving the student some kind of self confidence comes into play. By telling the child that they have created something very special it will allow them to become a better artist. This can only happen by doing a couple of things. One of them is talked about in the text, it says that the teacher must make sure that the instructions that are given in any art project must be clear. By giving the students a very clear picture of what is expected of them helps them to visualize what they can create, it also helps them to understand when they are given feedback on how they are going to be critiqued. This is also talked about in; “How to develop a lesson plan” (http://www.eduref.org/virtual/lessons/guide.shtml) They talk about making the goals clear so the students know what is expected of them.

The other thing that I think is important for the students is having time to practice and time to think about what they are going to create. This is talked about in; “Planning art lessons and units” (http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/artlsn.html) By giving the students time to really think about what they want to create and then giving them proper time to execute their vision is crucial. I truly believe that if students are given these two simple tools they can be successful and gain self confidence in themselves that can only benefit them in their futures.

I thought that the pinch pot was much more difficult than the coil pot. Hard to keep the thickness even and it just wanted to keep getting wider towards the top.

The coil pot was a blast! Hard to do at first, but a blast.

Here are my Chinese block name thumbnails.

Here are my aboriginal creations.

This turned out kind of wierd, but here is the Andy Worhol print.

Here is my Chinese block name.

Here is my water color with new and improved background color!

Here is my shoe through the view finder.

Here are my two favorite water colors!

Another try at the bamboo ink.

This was fun!

This is for Jane, who believes that I can do it!

Effective assessment strategies.

What are some effective assessment strategies that can be used in the art room?

There are many ways that a teacher can assess their students work. The one that I found to be very interesting was the use of a journal or diary. I think that this is a fantastic way for the students and the teachers to become a more confident and better artist, while allowing the teacher insights on what the students are thinking and feeling about their own work. In chapter 5 of Emphasis Art, they talk about this; “Engaging students in verbal and written expression concerning the meaning they ascribe to their work.”

I think that this could work both ways. A teacher could also keep a journal about the students that they are teaching and reflect back on the progress that each of them has made as well as using this journal as a tool to keep track of that progress. At OFSTED.GOV.UK there was an article that stated: “As a regular part of her practice, the teacher found opportunities for pupils to share and think critically about their work. Half way through one Year 8 lesson, for example, she selected three pupils to hold up their paintings and to say briefly how they were developing. None seemed put out by this. Each spoke confidently about what they were trying to do, and how successful they were in realizing their intentions. The three paintings offered quite distinct but equally bold solutions to the expressive problem the teacher had set and thus gave other pupils the green light to take a more adventurous approach.” Now imagine that both student and teacher had gone and written about this experience in a journal, both would benefit from the entry and experience.

Finally, I found this in Assessment in Art, Chpt. 2 by Dr. Donna Kay Beattie: “Journals, diaries, and logs are written and visual records of students' ideas, reflections, experiences, explorations, notes, studies, replies to teacher's questions, and statements on goals and objectives. Student journals are useful in all four visual arts disciplines as both teaching and assessing tools. A sketchbook used as the journal encourages exploration and the practice of media and techniques in art production. The art journal also serves as a tool for clarifying thinking processes, guiding research and other work processes in the reflective disciplines, and evaluating these processes and the final products.” I can not think of a better way for a student to find confidence in themselves then to write what and how they feel about their own work.

These were a blast! I didn't want to stop!