I feel a "tag cloud" in my head, and it kind of hurts! You probably know already that there is just a plethora of material and tools available for art teachers to use in the modern art room. Although I am overwhelmed, it is a kid-in-the-candy-store kind of hurt. Each blog I look at seems to be loaded with interesting goodies for an art teacher. It is worth noting that this greater use of the Internet does indeed require discipline!
One blog that I want to follow is by Craig Roland, an art educator, author, and EduTech consultant. His blog is called The Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet, with a URL of <http://artjunction.org/blog/>. This blog was started in 2005 as an extension of Roland's book by the same name (Davis Publications, 2005). His goal is to enhance art eduction via practical strategies for using Web 2.0 tools. He provides lots of ideas, tools and resources for teaching art and design in these post digital times. There is a huge blog roll of art and art related sites. Roland lists "108 Web Tools & Resources" and has PDF copies of ArtEd articles that any art teacher can use, such as his Feb 2009 offering of "Online Art History Timelines." I looked at imbedded videos from Youtube that I will definitely show my students. A great one for inspiring student reflections is a "vimeo" called "What Does Art Mean to You?"
A second blog, which was named Best New Art Teachers' Blog in 2008 by Craig Roland, is called The Teaching Palette, found at <http://theteachingpalette.com/>. This blog was started two years ago by two art teachers named Hillary Andrlik and Theresa McGee, who desired to create a "collaborative and resourceful forum for art specialists of all levels." They provide valuable teacher resources for classroom management, for music & art integration, and for teacher-authored product news. I learned about lots of uses for Flickr in managing images for classroom use and organization. Under their "Cool & Creative" tab I found an example of an ipod directed museum scavenger hunt. I found the "Shh" noise control app for ipod here too. When I looked at some of the Twitters, I found some awesome videos of drawing tutorials and some discounts for art supplies.
It sounds like you are pretty tech saavy to already be following blogs and keeping up with new trends and practices in your classroom. Your students are very lucky to have such a motivated and in-touch teacher.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jennifer. This is all new to me, and my first reaction is to take it slow, but there is no denying the creative applications out there for us.
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