I wanted to take a little time to reflect on our winning year that YOU helped to create in so many ways from voting, to donating, to purchasing items on Artsonia.  I listed the most notable events that have increased our resources and gave new experiences to our students throughout the year and for years to come. Thank you for all your support!

ABC/25 Grant and Edbacker Campaign for a Lego Wall.
We now have the supplies to do collaborative art projects made from legos. There will be a display area in the hallway where we can enjoy this reusable art and math installation.
Our first challenge was to create rotational symmetry. Learn more here. See the gallery of tiles here.

Internet Safety Video Contest. Students won the second place prize for their super cute and useful video, The Internet was Created for Good. The $1000 went towards an iPad for the art room, a class set of styluses for teachers to check out for their classes, and $200 to spend on apps for our Dryden School iPads. See their video here.

STEMie Award Prize, $5000. In October we were awarded the second place prize for our Rotoscope on iPads Animation Project. This went towards 8 iPads for the art room and the cost of apps. This prize help form the goal of having 2:1 iPad access for students in the art room.

Donor's Choose Project for an iPad and stylus was funded. This project was funded by the Lily Sarah Grace Fund and a generous single donor. Every iPad we receive gives more access to students to write artist statements, draw, collage, research, photograph, animate, and more. Take a look at the pictures I posted to our donors of all the ways we are using the iPad in the art room. It really is an amazing multi-functional artist tool.

Artist of the Week on Artsonia. John Michael helped the art room win $100 dollars when he won the most votes during the Artsonia Artist of the Week contest which helped to fund two art projects during the year. We used the money to purchase colored permanent markers for our Zentangles in 5th grade and our Shrink Plastic experiment in 2nd grade.

NextVista. org has given the art room a $50 Amazon gift card for Show of Hands placing first in their student video contest this past fall. The money went towards buying origami papers for our Origami Day with Mrs. Sessler. 
Many other Fugleflicks have become finalists this year. See all our finalists/winning Fugleflicks on my newly organized page here.

Artsonia Technology Fundraiser. We raised enough money via our online digital art gallery to purchase an iPad and pay for applecare (mandated by the district for each device)  for both this iPad and the one received through the Donor's Choose grant. This plus some money squeezed from the budget for another iPad completed our goal of 2:1 ! 
In other words, the art room has 12 iPads for students and one for the teacher!

In this podcast I shared my thoughts on how small class sizes make a HUGE difference in art education as I reflected on the successes of my 6 student class last week.
I also mentioned my Edbacker project, my Donor's Choose project, and the student-created, art-related Fugleflicks that have been finalists (and winners) via Nextvista.

Elementary Musical, last year's award-winning Fugleflick is in the running for Student Video of the Year 2012 through NextVista.org. This also will be decided on April 26th.

Update: not chosen. View all finalists here.

I just returned from a wonderfully energizing conference experience with thousands of art educators from around the country meeting for 4 days in Fort Worth, Texas. I loved the time I had with my Personal Learning Network (PLN) face to face. These are the people I learn from all year-round online through our social networks. All SIX  of my presentations were with people I connect with online, three of which I had never met in person before! We decided ahead of time to buy this shirt from Inkpixie using our Twitter Handle and wear them as we gathered on Saturday for coffee. We posed together for this picture. (Our hands look funny because we are trying to imitate this picture that Stacy Lord made when she was being silly on a snow day.) 

Technology Tools in Elementary Art
Theresa McGee, an elementary art teacher in Hinsdale, IL, and I traveled together to Texas. We rushed over to the conference as soon as we arrived 15 minutes before our first presentation where we took turns with two other art teachers including Jessica Balsley demonstrating how we use technology. I quickly demonstrated this iPad art lesson called, It's Not Christina's World Anymore, based on the painting, Christina's World. See the finished student art here.

Connected Art Educators: PLNs
Dr. Craig Roland, Prof. of Art Ed at Uof Fl, Dr. Elizabeth Delacruz (my former professor from U of I), Ian Sands, H.S. art teacher from Apex, NC, and I each took turns sharing how our online personal learning network has made a difference for our professional growth and has benefitted our students. I talked about three stories: Careers in Art, Doink Alien Animations, and IPEVO. It's too much to explain here, but trust me, they're great stories!

Western Region/Southeastern Region Elementary Art Teacher Showcase
This presentation was part of winning the Western Region Elementary Art Teacher of the Year Award. I tried to sum up everything we do in 20 minutes. I used this video to preface the presentation and followed with a focus on how we use technology in our art room. I explain it better in this online presentation. The other presenter was Jennifer Johnson Keith of Louisiana who shared about her wonderful program in 20 minutes as well. It is hard to condense a career full of stories into 20 mins.

Artsonia-Online Digital Art Gallery
This is the 5th year I've been able to present on using Artsonia as a tool to create a digital portfolio with my students. Our presentation has grown and evolved over the years as the company has improved and changed to make their service better and better for art teachers and their students. The CEO and President of the company joined Susan, Theresa, and I to help answer questions from the attendees and hear their concerns and questions about the process of getting started. Learn more here.

iPads in Art (Part Two)
This session was a continuation of the session that Suzanne Tiedemann and I (Theresa Gillespie was with us in spirit) did last year to a standing room only group. We thought that since the room was so small we should offer it again so those who really wanted to learn about creating art on iPads can get a chance. Luckily they gave us a larger room where all 150 or so attendees could each find a seat. This year Theresa Gillespie joined me (Suzanne was with us in spirit) as we presented about the top three projects we successfully accomplished with our students. You can learn more from my page, Theresa's page, and this page made jointly by Suzanne and me.

Lights, Camera, Learning! 
with Fugleflicks and Campbellartsoup
I was so excited to share about making movies to teach art concepts with Janine Campbell. We had been learning from each other for years online and finally met as we shared our different approaches to student created art related movie making. Learn more about Janine's program here. View our Fugleflicks index here.

On March 7th I received the Western Region Elementary Art Teacher of the Year 2013 Award from the National Art Education Association. My nominator was Samantha Melvin of Texas who was the National Elementary Art Teacher of the Year in 2012. It is such an honor to be recognized at this level for  doing the job that I love. Thank you PLN for making me a better teacher!

MY take on this trip
When I saw this photo taken by Jennifer at the showcase presentation that we shared, I had a WOW moment as I looked at a relaxed and confident person happily talking to a large crowd of people at a national conference. You may not know my journey, but here is a hint: I was so painfully shy growing up and into my adult years that I had to come home from college after two weeks because I was too afraid to go into the cafeteria for my meals.
Thank you to all the people over the years who gently held my hand and helped me grow.

We just learned that our Heart House Art Service Project video was chosen as a finalist in the NEXT VISTA.org Service via Video Student Contest.
View all three finalists here.
View our video Below.

Buy a T-shirt with your child's heart house to help celebrate and raise money for the two iPads the art room still needs.

Our 1st graders, brownies, girl scouts and 5th graders with the help of parent volunteers made heart houses to raise over $1275 to help St. Rose High School in Belmar, New Jersey after their school's art program, located in their basement, was devastated by Super Storm Sandy.

See pictures and more here.

The three  videos chosen as finalists will be watched by judges from around the world in April, and the winner will be announced at the Next Vista Awards Night on April 26th.  Each finalist will receive a certificate, as well as a $100 donation to the cause identified when the video was submitted. 

Yeah! This will make our fundraising total= $1375

Congratulations Fugleflick Filmmakers!
I just learned that SHOW of HANDS was selected as the Winner in the Collaboration Category for NextVista.org's River of Creativity Student Video Contest!

This video was chosen from all these entries nationwide by an international pool of Google Certified teachers who acted as judges
for this  Next Vista contest.

See the uncut version here.
View the behind the scenes video here.

Here is the certificate for our winners. A hard copy is coming in the mail, but you can also download the digital version here.

This little video, Show of Hands, brings us into an altered world where hands are students and teachers to demonstrate that Visual Literacy really lends a hand in learning.  This video was entered into the Rivers of Creativity Student Video Contest hosted by NextVista.org over the summer. We just learned today that it was chosen as a finalist in the collaboration category. We'll learn the outcome in September. Good luck filmmakers!

Students created this as a shadow play using the classroom projector and the interactive whiteboard. They added graphics through Mimio Studio software on our interactive whiteboard as a background. Our limited technology shows, but so does their hard work and creativity. Watch their behind the scenes video to view the process.

Congratulations to fifth graders:
Jessica, Dom, Kate, Alexa, Liana, Emma, Vanessa, Elle, Mark, and Samantha
 Our Fugleflick: Elementary Musical tied for first place in NextVista's Spring Shoots video contest for the collaboration strand. See our video below and explore the other winners here. (While you're their watch "Careers in Art" our 2011 Student Video of the year winner!)

I have more good news to share about our super cute Fugleflick, Elementary Musical.
I had entered it into the NextVista.org online student video contest back in March and just learned today that it was chosen as a finalist! (This is only the second Fugleflick ever to be chosen as a finalist in their contests. Our first one was Careers in Art-Student Video of the Year 2011.) There are three strands they will select winners from.

Teacher Strand:
Two Color Reduction Prints: http://www.nextvista.org/two-color-reduction-prints/
Plate Tectonics: http://www.nextvista.org/plate-tectonics_examples/
How to Determine Density: http://www.nextvista.org/how-to-determine-density/

Student Strand:
Nazca Lines: http://www.nextvista.org/nazca-lines/
How Glowsticks Work: http://www.nextvista.org/how-glowsticks-work/
Movie Tips and Tricks: http://www.nextvista.org/movie-tips-and-tricks/
Greek Culture Rap: http://www.nextvista.org/greek-culture-rap/

Collaboration Strand:
(note that two are on the same topic)
States of Matter: http://www.nextvista.org/states-of-matter/
What Is Matter?: http://www.nextvista.org/what-is-matter/
Elementary Musical: Art Is Not Accidental: http://www.nextvista.org/elementary-musical-art-is-not-accidental/
How To Fail a Speech: http://www.nextvista.org/how-to-fail-a-speech/

A group of several dozen teachers from around the world are currently reviewing the videos and casting their votes.  Sometime on Friday, April 20th, they will post the winners of the contest, so keep an eye out for that announcement.