Sewing in class

This year I wrote a grant to create a quilt with my students. For this I needed to teach the kids to use a sewing machine. When I gave my classes an impromptu survey about 2 or 3 students per class had used a sewing machine, usually with a grandmother. Not very many but by the end of next week all 500 of my students will have sewed two straight seams.
All of my students will participate in this project in some way. Today I have the two TMH (Trainable Mentally Handicapped) and I had them sewing or at least sitting in front of a machine watching how it was done. It is quite interesting sewing hand over hand.
I also found it interesting how well the boys did. They would watch the demonstration and study the mechanics of the machines and do quite well with their first experience with sewing.
This week all the students are making small bags to store the clay trivet in that we have spent the last month making. All are looking froward to being able to take home this treasure.

Sometimes my head just hurts.

One of the blogs that I regularly read is "Wired Top Stories". On November 24 there was a follow up story on former Connecticut school teacher Julie Amero who had been prosecuted on pornography charges. From this she faced 40 years in prison.
Then on December 1 there was another story about Lori Drew. She was the mom that created a fictional MySpace page that eventually drove a 13 year old girl to commit suicide. For this she now faces up to 3 years in jail and $300,000 in fines.
Why do I get the feeling that we are not on the same page.

FAEA Tech Workshop

Web 2.0 Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: faea art)

Last month I led a workshop at the FAEA State Conference on using the new web 2.0 tools in the art classroom. I originally signed up to present this workshop last February. Over the next few months I created a PowerPoint, handouts and wiki describing how these new tools could be used in the art classroom. By the end of May I was satisfied with the presentation and I put it aside to work on other projects.
Big Mistake!
In September I revisited my wiki and was surprised to find that many of the tools I had featured in my presentation had changed or I was using different tools. I realized that the presentation could not be on specific tools or exact way to use web 2.0 in the classroom but must be about the evolving nature of web 2.0 and learning in general.
So!
My presentation became totally web based. No powerpoint, no handout except for a business card with the url of the workshop wiki, my e-mail and more. Also did I mention tha the theme of the conference was Green. You can' t get much greener only using one sheet of card stock for all the handouts in a workshop of 15.
But!
Doing the workshop in this way I was able to and did make changes to the presentation up to the last minute and even added to it during the presentation. And by having the presentation in wiki form and the workshop was in a computer lap participants were able to add their thoughts and ideas to the wiki.
Also!
By having the workshop web based I was able to use the equipment available at the site the workshop was given, less wear and tear on my back lugging all my tech tools around. Just show up with a pocket full of cards and I'm good to go.

Empty Bowls

Every year my students and I participate in the Empty Bowls Project. This unit in my curriculum combines the study of ceramics and social awareness. Students make bowls that are given to American's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay to be used during the Empty Bowls Luncheon. At the luncheon for $10.00 you can get a bowl of soup, a piece of fruit, a roll and a bottle of water. And a ceramic bowl made by an elementary student of Hillsborough Schools.
For the past few years I have had the students work in groups to make bowls. This helps when we give them away and this way we end up with larger more interesting bowls.
This year the students are making figure bowls. We are using gingerbread men cookie cutters to make the figures. Then using 6 or 7 figures in a circle we make a bowl. Each student is responsible for one figure to make and glaze. I think that they will look very cool when done.

Nap-Time

Nap-Time
Originally uploaded by blisschan

This is the result of a workshop I took this weekend at the FAEA conference in Orlando. It is called a bueprint or cyantype image. It is created by cutting a stencil and then placing the it on top of the photo sensitive fabric. This is pressed under a sheet of glass and placed in the sun for 15 minutes. After that time the fabric is washed in water to reveal the image.
Thanks Patricia Velazquez for the workshop.

Fridays FAEA October 17, 2008

On Friday I took a workshop in the morning that was really challenging. Flash in a Flash. This was a workshop on creating Flash Animation. There is a lot to the program and I will have to play with the program before I feel comfortable with it.
I also taught a workshop called "Web 2.0 Publish to the World" I had about 11 people there and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Here is a link to the second half of Fridays Keynote Speaker

FAEA Conference in Orlando 2008

Today was the first day of the FAEA State Conference. I began the day with a Gallery Hop to various Museums around the Orlando area.
We first visited the Orlando Museum of Art and saw a very interesting exhibit called Provocative Parings. The exhibit was made by pairing works from the museums permanent collection that represented different points of view and or use of media. It was very good and in some cases funny, I laughed out loud at the work titled "Head Cheese".
The next museum we visited was the Mennello Museum. There we an excellent collection of works by the artist Earl Cunningham.

Later on Thursday we had the FAEA General Session with the keynote speaker Dr. Deborah Reeve. Here is the first half of her talk.

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