We Totally Heart Art

I presented at Ednado, a tech conference in my district that drew in participants and presenters mostly from local districts but some from further afield (2-3 hours away, on a Saturday at 8 am?! Whoa.).               Ms. Hesslein making art in MOMA art lab app during my session at Ednado!  I am pretty new to blogging and tweeting, so the fact that I presented is a bit mind blowing for me. Turns out, I learned a ton at the conference, saw 3-D printing, Augmented Reality, and kid-built robots that hook up to circuit boards and move!  I was in a workshop with Brian Blodnett, a middle school math teacher who uses Guitar Hero as a Music Monday brain kickstart, getting his students' brains ready to work (plus it teaches fractions in the form of half, quarter, eighth and whole notes, and promotes respectful teamwork).  Very fun and engaging--how can I use this idea?  I loved the presentation by middle school STEM specialists from Middletown Schools, showing the steps their students took i

The art shows are fast approaching--my favorite time of year!  The faculty and staff always love seeing so much artwork hanging in the halls, and the students are thrilled to see their work showcased. I usually do 3-D projects with my students as close to the art show as I can, for storage purposes (translation: "where am I going to store all of these sculptures?"). Right now, there is a lot going on to show you!  Students used problem solving skills to decide which 2-D shapes would be best to draw their animals and which 3-D shapes would correspond to the 2-D shapes in their drawings.  So, if a bird has a beak that is a triangle, then what is the 3-D shape to use in a sculpture?  There were lots of moments of discovery and amazement!  Love witnessing those moments! Model magic, play-doh, clay...any modeling materials are great for the development of fine motor skills and spatial awareness.   WARNING: this could have probably been about 5 separate blog posts, so bear with me