Escaping The Cave

Escaping the Cave Keeping Our Art Teaching Practice Invigorated Through PLC’s, Technology, Collaboration, Creativity and Grants

For Worcester Art Educators Fall 2013 Laura Johnson Art Educator blog www.artroomonline.com pinterest www.pinterest.com/caravella twitter @artedlab email johnsonl@lynnfield.k12.ma.us email ljohnson60@hotmail.com http://ararte.ning.com/profile/LauraJohnson http://arted20.ning.com/profile/LauraJ

Professional Learning Communities “A professional learning community (PLC) is an extended learning opportunity to foster collaborative learning among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_learning_community

Online PLC’s for Art Educators that you can join: Art Ed 2.0: www.arted20.ning.com Asia Region Art Educators: www.ararte.ning.com Other ideas to help you build your own PLC for teaching Art: The Art of Ed: www.theartofed.com Frank Curkovic’s Art, Tech+ Creativity for teachers+ students: www.frankcurkovic.edublogs.org/ Frank Curkovic’s Slideshares: www.slideshare.net/elemICT/presentations Art Inspired Wiki: http://artinspired.pbworks.com Edutopia- What Works in Education: www.edutopia.org The Teaching Palette- Perfecting the Art of Education: http://theteachingpalette.com/ The Carrot Revolution- A blog about Art Education: http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/ Deep Space Sparkle- Art Lessons for Kids: www.deepspacesparkle.com/ TED Videos: www.ted.com University of The Middle East Project: www.ume.org Edcamps- free “unconferences designed for educators by educators” PLC of Denton Elementary Art Educators : www.dentonisd.org/Page/25045

Technology

Twitter: phone app or www.twitter.com (try searching for #arted, #artsed, #designthinking for tweets that are specifically relevant to art educators) Instagram: use this phone app to follow your favorite artists Pinterest: www.pinterest.com Wordpress Make a free blog: www.wordpress.com Weebly Make a free website: www.weebly.com Slideshare Put your power points online or embed them into your blog: www.slideshare.net Issuu Embed your handouts into your blog or website: www.issuu.com Kickstarter “The world's largest funding platform for creative projects�: www.kickstarter.com Dropbox Free file storage and sharing: www.dropbox.com

Collaboration E-luminate- Service Learning for Your Classroom: www.e-luminate.org Collaborative Poetry and Art Project – pair up students in the same class, or a pair up students with younger kids or kids from other schools.

Alternative Typography ABC Book - Have your 5th or 6th graders make a creative ABC book for the kindergarteners.

Design Thinking Design Thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking

Design Thinking for Educators http://designthinkingforeducators.com Design Thinking for Educators is…

A creative process that helps you design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community.

Stanford’s Crash Course in Design Thinking http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift Edutopia Article on Design Thinking www.edutopia.org/blog/design-thinking-betty-ray 8 Videos About Design Thinking + lots of links http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-designthinking-in-schools

“The Secret Phrase That Sparks Creative Solutions” Source: http://designthinking.ideo.com/?tag=how-might-we October 23, 2012

I spoke with writer Warren Berger recently for his Harvard Business Review post on “the secret phrase top innovators use.” What’s the phrase? Three words: How Might We. Within this deceptively simple phrase each word plays a powerful role in spurring creative problemsolving.

“How” assumes that solutions exist and provides the creative confidence needed to identify and solve for unmet needs.

“Might” says that we can put ideas out there that might work or might not—either way, we’ll learn something useful.

“We” signals that we’re going to collaborate and build on each other’s ideas to find creative solutions together.

Asking “How might we” at the start of a team project is a creative problem-solving tool that can be applied to almost any ambitious, achievable challenge.

Read Berger’s full HBR post to learn more about why some of the most successful and influential businesses in the world now tackle difficult creative challenges by first asking, “How might we… improve X, solve Y, or achieve Z goal?’ Then try a ‘How Might We’ approach to reframe the problem and spark creative solutions during your next team challenge.

Full Harvard Business Review post is at : http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/09/the-secret-phrase-top-innovato/

Creativity Austin Kleon www.austinkleon.com Newspaper Blackout- a fun exercise to have your students try Steal Like an Artist-a book and also a great video on TED.com

Try it:

Mind Mapping A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added.

Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches. Categories can represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items related to a central key word or idea. Mind maps can be drawn by hand, either as "rough notes" during a lecture or meeting, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available. (Source: Wikipedia)

www.mindmapart.com/ “showcasing the world’s finest mind maps”

The S.C.A.M.P.E.R Technique SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for: •

Substitute.

• • • • • •

Combine.

Adapt.

Modify.

Put to another use.

Eliminate.

Reverse.

To use SCAMPER, you simply go down the list and ask questions regarding each element. Remember, not every idea you generate using SCAMPER will be viable; however, you can take good ideas and explore them further.

From "Scamper: Creative Games and Activities for Imagination Development" by Bob Eberle (page i). © 1996 Bob Eberle.

“HOW TO MAKE ART… in elementary language” Posted by Cindy Erickson

CREATE A SYMBOL = DRAW A SYMBOL OF SOMETHING THAT IS MEANINGFUL TO YOU TRANSFORM = TAKE AN ART MATERIAL AND MAKE IT (TRANSFORM IT) INTO SOMETHING VARY = TAKE AN OBJECT AND SEE HOW MANY WAYS YOU CAN CHANGE IT, ADD TO IT, DO IT DIFFERENTLY USE IMAGINATION = USE YOUR BRAIN TO IMAGINE A PERSON, AN ANIMAL, A PLACE, A THING INVENT = THINK UP SOMETHING NO ONE ELSE HAS EVER THOUGHT OF OR A BETTER WAY TO DO SOMETHING FRAGMENT = TAKE A PICTURE AND REDRAW ONLY A PART OF IT METAMORPH IT = TAKE AN IDEA OR A PERSON OR AN OBJECTS AND MAKE THEM ALIVE OR NOT ALIVE, OR IN A DIFFERENT SPACE OR IN A DIFFERENT TIME HYBRIDIZE IT = TAKE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS OR TWO DIFFERENT IDEAS AND FUSE THEM TOGETHER REPEAT = TAKE AN OBJECT OR A DESIGN AND REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER DISTORT = TAKE A PERSON OR AN OBJECT AND MAKE PART OF IT MUCH SMALLER OR MUCH LARGER OR MUCH ---ER???

FANTASIZE = USE IMAGINATION BUT ADD SOMETHING REALLY UNREALISTIC OR UNUSUAL ANALYZE = REDO SOMETHING YOU’VE DONE BEFORE BUT MAKE IT BETTER BY RETHINKING IT Source: www.incredibleart.org/files/ideas.htm Check out this website for tons of other info on the subject of “where and how artists get ideas”

"Stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places— you may find marvelous ideas."

-Leonardo da Vinci

Resources/ Grants Donors Choose (“Teachers Ask. You Choose.”): www.donorschoose.org What change do you want in your classroom?

“DonorsChoose.org lets you share your classroom needs with a thriving community eager to help.

Supporters have brought teachers' ideas to life in more than half of all U.S. public schools.”

In order to register, you must be a full-time educator at a public school (employed by the district), spending at least 75% of your time working directly with students.

How it works:

•

Choose the exact items you need and describe how they'll benefit your students.

•

People, companies, and foundations can help fund your request.

•

Once funded, we'll send the resources directly to your classroom.

Resources/ Grants Box Tops for Education www.bettycrocker.com/products/box-tops-for-education Shoparoo www.shoparoo.com Target Arts/Field Trip Grants https://corporate.target.com/corporate-responsibility/grants Free Art Books for Libraries and Schools www.ducprogram.org/index.php Lowes Toolbox for Education Grants www.toolboxforeducation.com 19 Technology Grants for Schools www.technologygrantnews.com/pages/grant-index-by-type/school-grants.html Free $ Ideas from Wantaugh Elementary www.wantaghschools.org/Page/5860 My Coke Rewards and Ink Cartridge Recycling + other ideas from Gilchrist Elementary www.gilchrist.leon.k12.fl.us/pto/freemoney.html Operation Free Money from McDougle Elementary https://sites.google.com/a/chccs.k12.nc.us/mes-pta/mes-pta/operation-free-money “Real Classroom Ideas”- A Long List of Grant Opportunities www.realclassroomideas.com/17.html Educational Grants http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/52098 Worcester Arts Council Grants http://www.mass-culture.org/worcester