I wanted to take a moment to post some of the great things I've learned as I network and share at the Illinois Computer Educators Conference in St. Charles, IL. One of my favorite things about going to conferences is seeing the people I've been learning from online through my PLN on twitter Face to Face!

Today I had the honor of conducting my first workshop at an ICE conference. I had a group of 15 teachers & technology integrationists learning how to Create on iPads. We used my website to guide us through a few lessons designed to help attendees become familiar with techniques, project ideas, and apps. We had fun mirroring our projects up on the screen using airplay and the Airserver app.
Thanks to the folks at Percolator app and Doink app for donating app codes to my workshop attendees. They were a BIG hit!

On Friday, I presented a session called, Creative Digital Art Projects that put STEAM into STEM where I shared a whole bunch of ideas, student projects, videos, etc. from my art program. I had a nice size audience, a borrowed speaker system from Carol Broos (thank you) because the room was too large for my little speaker, and a VIP attendee named Wesley Fryer. He blogged his notes from my presentation on his Speed of Creativity site here. He put out the tweet below about my presentation.

We just learned that the animation app company DOINK will use images from Dryden's Art room and my Creating on iPad workshops to inspire others to get creative in their presentation at the LearnLaunch EdTech conference in Boston next week. Below is the video they prepared (or click here).  

If you want to learn more about how we have used the DOINK app in art class you can read the article in the Jan-Feb edition of iPhone Life Magazine, or read my blog post with video of students working, a tutorial of how to create, and their finished projects, or you can join me at the MINICON conference this Saturday (only $5) where we will draw together on the iPads. I will have DOINK app codes to raffle at the end of the session!

You won't see me at the MacWorld conference, but you will see our art program mentioned by iPad artist Sumit Vishwakarma. He asked if he could include images and a video from what we do in Dryden's art room on iPad's in his presentation. Below is a piece of his interview by Nomad (who makes a great ipad brush/stylus). 
Click here or the image below to read the whole article.
I shared the video and slides I gave to Sumit for his presentation on this previous post.

Take a quick peek at how we use iPads in Dryden's art room (so far) below.

While I was at my art education conference in Lisle, IL, I received a tweet from a friend who was attending the Set Connections/SPUN Conference in Park Ridge, IL indicating that our students' video was used as an example in the Keynote presentation from the St. Louis HS Video teacher/presenter, Don Goble. After a few tweets back and forth (see below) I was given a link to this video compilation.

Dryden Fugleflick Filmmakers should be very honored that their video was lifted up as an example of students creating not just consuming. That's what the ARTS are all about and I'm very proud of my Dryden Artists who inspire others with their creations!
Watch Push Up Your Sleeves as our Video Logo here.

Update:  I had a chance to chat with Carol Broos via Skype during our Arts Education Podcast called the aRTs Roundtable via Edreach. We chatted about our PLN, conferences, and how staying connected online through twitter has helped us grow and make positive changes for our classrooms. View her blog post about this here.

I am fortunate to be in a district that believes in providing professional development to their art teachers. I will be attending and presenting at the Illinois Art Education Association conference today and tomorrow. 
Today I will present on Creative Digital Art Projects (view the companion site).

Dr. Craig Roland was the keynote speaker on Friday. He talked about building a Personal Learning Network to energize your teaching and open the doors of opportunity for students. He used this slide in his presentation showing  me with three others in my PLN, Theresa McGee (IL), Samantha Melvin (TX) and Suzanne Tiedemann (NJ). We presented a sessions  called Dynamic Collaborations and iPads in Art at last year's NAEA conference.

Our 4th grader, Kenzie will be honored on Saturday for having a piece chosen for the IAEA Student Art Show. Her piece (created when she was in 3rd grade) was one of only 40 selected to travel the state in this year long exhibit. 
Update: See the video from the a celebration below:
See a previous post announcing this.

Interested in learning about this project? View my post about Our Wish for the World

This year I submitted a proposal to present at the K12onlineconference.org I'm not the only one from my PLN participating so make sure you mark your calendars:
(My presentation teaser is below or at this link)

View the list of Presenters here.
Week of Oct 22 – 25: Getting Started and Visioning New Curriculum
Week of Oct 29 – Nov. 2: Kicking It Up a Notch and Student Voices
Here is a list of my PLN members presenting

GETTING STARTED:
Karyn Keenan on Twitter @Karenteaches
Chicago, Illinois, USA
A Digital Journey with Primary Students and No Budget!

VISIONING NEW CURRICULUM:
Jon Bergmann on Twitter @jonbergmann
Lake Forest, Illinois, USA
Implementing the Flipped Classroom

Ian Sands on Twitter @iansands
Apex, North Carolina, USA
How Technology Helped Me Paint With Mud

KICKING IT UP A NOTCH:
Janine Campbell on Twitter @campbellartsoup
Dorr, Michigan, USA
Remixing What Teaching Looks Like Thorugh Blended Learning

Tricia Fuglestad on Twitter @fuglefun
Arlington Heights, Illinois, USA
Teaching Art in a Technology Rich and Connected Classroom

STUDENT VOICES:
Ben Rimes on Twitter @techsavvyed
St. Joseph, Michigan, USA
Video Story Problems

Brad Wilson on Twitter @deambition
Redford, Michigan, USA
Student News Teams: Telling the Story

I went to a one-day conference in Chicago called Arts Alive sponsored by the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. This conference was for all arts educators by arts educators.  One of the sessions I was most looking forward to was on using theater games in the classroom. The presenter, Aimee-Lynn Newlan, had us actively learning the games for the entire hour. It was so much fun that I (literally) laughed until I cried! 
If I'm having this much fun with all my grown up inhibitions, then my fun-loving freely expressive little students will have the time of their life as we learn about art with these games. To make sure I didn't lose my ideas and to better communicate them to my students, I put this little video together with the ideas we developed during the session.

Hey You and You Two

One student takes the lead and points to one person in the circle and calls out an artist composition. That person and the two on either side of him/her have to use their bodies to become this composition.
Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Landscape, still life, abstract, cityscape, seascape, etc.

Compliments and Complementaries

For this game students are thinking about saying nice words (compliments) and opposite colors  (complementaries). This forces all students to listen and be ready with an answer and a kind word.

Sculpture Game

One student is the "clay" and two students work as "sculptors" to create whatever the leader calls out. You can have students sculpt action poses (run, slouch, ponder), emotions (fear, hurt, sad), or pieces of art (The Thinker, The Scream, The Mona Lisa).

The No Talking What-so-ever Quiet Game
My students have trouble doing anything quietly. So this game is a great way for them to use their bodies to make collaborative art without words. The leader calls out something like "Become a winter scene". Students join in as they catch on to each other's non-verbal cues.

Pass on the Name
This game is derived from "The Name Game". Instead of using our real names we would take on an artist name to begin with and pass it on to each classmate we meet and greet while taking on their name for our own. It requires good memory and concentration.
Sit out if you forget or meet "yourself" again.
Print out these artist greeting cards to start.

One Voice

This was the game that made me laugh until I cried. A group was formed and told we are one person and must speak as one. Then we were asked a question like "What is your favorite color?" We had to look at each other and start to speak, follow, blend our syllables until we were really saying the same thing.

Mr. Know-it-all

Students were lined up and told they could only contribute one word when it was their turn to speak. This word was to help make one collaborative statement that answered my question. This game forces you try to adjust to other people's thoughts and contribute a word that fit grammarically.

I was invited to Keynote at the USSEA conference in Indianapolis, IN.
I was surrounded with some of the greatest minds in Art Education: (Enid Zimmerman, Marjorie Manifold, Elizabeth Delacruz, Juan Carlos Castro) Professors of preservice Art Educators, Doctoral students, Researchers, innovators, thinkers, and ...then me?!?

I was distracted by the flow of polysyllabic words during the presentations but loved the challenge to dust off the cobwebs a bit and join in the conversations. I'm on the front lines as a K-5 art educator putting theory into practice amongst the constraints of curriculum, schedules, resources, management, and time.
What I had to share was my technology rich and connected classroom at Dryden.
I shared my stories of how my students have had authentic audiences because of our connectedness. 
My students have made literature inspired art projects and then connected with their authors online.
My students have made art that was shown on websites, textbooks, 30ft LED screens in NYC, on TV, and shown in children's museums around the country.
My students have made Fugleflicks (student-created, art-related videos) that have screened at local, national, and international venues.
My students have connected with app developers as they use their apps on ipads.
My students have won recognition for their artwork in state and national exhibits.
My students continue to wow me with their high levels of motivation, effort, and achievement. 
My students have taught me to TRY MY BEST as an art teacher.

The 2012 International Society for Education through Art (InSEA)/United States Society for Education through art (USSEA) Conference, Education through Art: Teaching for Global Understanding & Engagement will be held in Indianapolis Indiana from June 23rd -26th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. I will be a keynote speaker on Monday, June 25th. Learn more about the conference here. Download the schedule here.