making emphasis relevant

i've been asked to create a lesson plan that deals with emphasis as a principle of design. this is not the easiest thing to get 9th and 10th grade students excited about, but i think i've found a way to make it relevant. what is emphasized in our society? product, capital and ADVERTISEMENT! ads are everywhere. when you're out, they are around, on buses, buildings, in shopping malls, doctors offices, hair salons, grocery stores, etc. even when you head home you're surrounded by advertisement. the television is the number one source, but it's also on the things we use. our cleansing products and food packages are all carefully designed to make us want more. I believe that getting students to think critically about advertisement by breaking down its design will help them to understand what is being sold. is it really all that important to have? i want students to find emphasis in commercial art and compare it to fine art. both are selling something, or promoting something, but the difference is what they will have to determine.

main idea:

fine art uses the principle of design: emphasis, to draw attention to an idea

ex:

vs

commercial art uses the principle of design: emphasis, to sell a product

ex:

now what to do for an activity..

to be continued...

New Inspiration (to me)

I would like to start using this blog as a record of new and inspiring artist that i stumble upon. I too often lose thoughts and names that may one day be helpful in the classroom.

                  

Amy Singer is a  very powerful artist. She is an animal rights activist who creates very graphic and morbid looking work from taxidermic animals. She would be great to use for a lesson dealing with sculpture, appropriation, juxtaposition, etc. Her work is provocative and  ironic. she does not agree with the use of animals for any purpose other than to keep one company as a pet, though she uses taxidermy animals in almost all of her work. She contradicts herself, but regardless she is a talented and interesting artist.

global art projects

I love finding collaborative art projects that span outside of the classroom. I feel that this can help peak students interest, when they realize that people who are not being assigned to make art are still making art. This is now reminding me of JR's global "inside out" project. I want to use this in the classroom some day. I want my students to work in and out of the classroom. I want them to be active.

education without grades!

for my field work this semester i am in  a ceramics based art room. the school that i'm in seems like a wonderful district and i get along great with my cooperating teacher, but i know absolutely nothing about ceramics. i wonder why we choose a concentration for a major in art education. i feel like we're (prospective art educators) missing out on other possibly important information regarding process in art making with different mediums. Seeing some of the work that students have done in the ceramics class has inspired me to learn more about it. I think it is important to be a well rounded and adaptable. I do not want to take any more classes through SUNY (for money and stems related reasons), but i want to continue my education of art. I was happy to discover an affordable public work space for women artists (strange gender isolation) so close to where i'm living. Getting involved with other artists from your own community gives you insight into what students may want to learn about or create.

with my college career nearing its end i often think about where i'd like to wind up teaching. i really cannot see staying in new york, so i've been looking in to national certification. i was under the impression that there was an exam (or series of exams) that you could take to validate your certification for any state within the united states. if this article is right, then i was wrong.

byt the value of researching beyond the .com is finding information like this...

"Basic Steps for National Board Certification:

National Board Certification consists of two parts:

1. Teaching Portfolio
   Teachers typically videotape their teaching, gather student learning products, and analyze their teaching practices.
2. Assessment.
   Teachers answer questions that relate to content specific to their fields. The assessments focus on breadth of content knowledge.