If I win a Golden Apple it will be because of the great kids at the core of Dryden's Art Program!
Let's celebrate my Dryden Artists!
Below is a video that highlights my students' enthusiasm for learning, beautiful art-making, overwhelming creativity, and amazing accomplishments. 

The latest Northwest suburban teachers to make the cut as Golden Apple finalists are an art teacher (that's me) who uses filmmaking to engage her students, a dual language teacher who promotes bilingualism, and a second-grade teacher who makes connections for his students and their families. Read the Daily Herald Story and see the rest of the images here.
The story mentions my students' movies (Fugleflicks). Here are the links if you're interested:
Push up Your Sleeves
Elementary Musical
Rotoscoping Animation



Dryden Parents and Teachers:
Are you willing to be interviewed on my behalf by the Golden Apple Team during their site visit?
Please use this form 
You will be contacted when the date and times are known.
Thank you so much for your support!

Now that we have our new super cool Fugleflick Elementary Musical which introduces the elements of art, I designed an exploration lesson that accompanies this video to help students really understand the concepts. I took pictures to show you below...

1) This exploration of the elements class began with our Fugleflick Elementary Musical to introduce the elements of art. View it here: vimeo.com/38449478
2) Students looked at El Greco's painting, View of Toledo using the Google Art Project 
googleartproject.com/museums/met/view-of-toldeo-271001
They used the digital ink on the interactive board to draw over the image to show line, shape, form. They also zoomed in to spot texture, zoomed out to study value, space, and color.
3) Then students headed out to the courtyard with cameras in groups to take pictures of the elements all around them.

Extensions: Look at this photo taken of Toledo. Spain or this photo from similar vantage points. Compare to the painting. What is different, and why? What is similar.
Now explore Toledo using Google Maps street view. Start at this link.

(Thanks Theresa McGee for the extension idea. View her other ideas for using the Google Art Project on her blog post here.)

Over the weekend I received a packet from the Golden Apple Foundation. I think that moment will be burned into my memory forever with my husband standing over me saying, "Open it open it! I'm sure it's good news". My heart was betting so fast I couldn't focus.  All I could see was the word Congratulations followed (followed by tears and screams of excitement).
I felt like a winner for just being nominated back in December by Carol Broos, a recently retired music teacher and Golden Apple Award winner 2008, who found my website and was impressed by the things I was doing with my students. 
I'm completely stunned to find that I'm a finalist. This is really an honor when you consider their were over 500 nominations from across the state this year. They narrowed the nominations down to 32 finalists (press release listing all 32 finalists).
Next step is a site visit with interviews of students, parents, teachers, and myself. They only award the GOLDEN APPLE to 10 teachers each year based on these visits.

If you would like to share your thoughts about Dryden's Art Program please post a sticky on my Wallwisher page HERE.

I really could use a little feedback on my art program from my online community! 
I'm going to be interviewed soon about the impact my program has had on student learning. 
It would be wonderful to hear about how something I've shared on my blog, a Fugleflick, a tutorial, a project idea on Artsonia, an idea from an aRTs Ed Roundtable Podcast, a presentation, or a personal email impacted your students.

Please add your thoughts to my Wallwisher Wall. 
Click here and add a sticky note. 
You can upload a picture or link with your thoughts as well. 
Thank you SO much for helping me out!

About a month ago I tweeted this image showing my use of the iPevo USB document camera in conjunction with my interactive whiteboard to help demonstrate painting techniques to my fourth graders. (By the way take a look at how their apples on their surrealist art in the style of Rene Magritte turned out here)

iPevo contacted me and asked if I would like to share all the ways I've used the iPevo in my art room. The blog post just went up. Take a look here or click on the image below.

Our Fugleflicks range from Classroom management topics to the elements of art.
Coincidentally, I ran across this Blog Post about Fugleflicks from Paul Hamilton (thx) where he shares his feelings about our videos and their potential impact in the classroom. 
Let's celebrate these posts by sharing a few of our favorite Fugleflicks:

Swept Away: (classroom management) The tragic story of what happens when art supplies are left on the floor at the end of the school day told by the pencil, paper, and eraser left behind.
This video was created by a class of 4th graders in 2008. It screened in the Shortie Awards, Washington D.C. as a finalist for live-action video.

Deep Space: (art concepts-overlapping, foreground, middleground, background, relative size and placement on a page to create the illusion of deep space)
That's a lot to cover, but these three little third graders sing their hearts out to deliver the message clearly  in this short video.

White Spot Inspector: (craftsmanship) Teaching students to go back over their mistakes and turn their "rough draft" into a finished piece of art is a lot easier when I can just show them this entertaining little video..

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for Declan17  to win Artist of the Week through Artsonia. I heard that 5th graders showed tons of support for Declan and shared their support via Edmodo. Here is a screenshot from Miss Feck. They randomly choose artwork uploaded to their site each week and ask art appreciators to cast their votes for the winning art. Declan had more votes than anyone in his age category! Yeah! So he will be receiving a plaque, a $50gift card from Blick Art, and his artwork posted on the winners page on Artsonia. The art room will also received a $1oo gift certificate for art supplies as well. His art was one of 335 images that helped create an all 5th grade rotoscope animation made on iPads. Take a look at the final animation below. This will be submitted to Rotoball12, the international collaborative animation projected hosted by David Gran in Shanghai, China. Learn more here.

Congratulations to Dryden Artists. Your made us proud!

If you didn't get a chance to come to the Cultural Arts Fair on Wednesday, I have the display including the finalist for the program cover design in the hallway across from our art history tile wall. Please stop by during conferences and take a peek:)

We have a student in the Artsonia Artist of the Week contest for the first time this year!
No login, No Registrations, just find Declan17 and click vote!
You can vote every day until Saturday to help Declan (5th grader) win this prize.

A simple click of kindness on VOTE  for Declan17:
http://www.artsonia.com/museum/aotw/vote.asp?group=1

The artwork is part of our collaborative rotoscope animation. If you're curious, you can view the video and learn more about it on my blog post here.