The Coolidge Art Room
  • Blog
  • 2-D Work
    • Drawing
    • Painting
    • Collage & Mixed Media
  • 3-D Work
  • Digitial Art
  • Web 2.0 Tools
  • Artsonia

9/14/2012 2 Comments

Why I Love Artsonia

I started using Artsonia three years ago and have never looked back. In one word, the site is "AMAZING."

So, why I think Artsonia is amazing?

1. Students get to have their artwork published to a global audience. They feel proud of themselves and their work when this happens. A huge part of my philosophy as an art educator is to help increase student's self-esteem. Artsonia lets me show off their artwork to the entire world! It doesn't get much bigger than that.

2. Their work is saved FOREVER on this site. They will be able to look back at it years from now and remember what they created in middle school. I wish we had this technology back when I was their age. All I have is a folder that is falling apart with a handful of pieces in it.

3. Once a parent registers with the site, they receive an e-mail every time their child has a new piece of art that has been published. As a teacher, I don't have to remind parents about checking in with the site.
4. Parents can stay engaged with what their child is making in art class as it happens. I usually don't send home actual artwork until the end of the semester. Some children never bring it home as it gets left in their locker or even "lost" on the way home. Through Artsonia, parents can view all of their child's work for the year as it is being created

5. Additional e-mails can be added as part of a students "fan club." This allows grandparents, aunts, uncles and other far away family members/friends to see the amazing artwork students create. The more family and friends see a child's artwork, the more encouraging comments they receive. When this happens, my student's self-confidence increases and they become even more interested in art! It’s a win for everyone.

6. Parents can purchase products with their child’s artwork on them with 20% going directly back to the art room. No other website that I know of like this will automatically generate funds for your program directly. You can get a check made out to your school, a gift certificate to Blick Art or Artsonia and new this year is a fund for iPads!

7. It makes your program very visible to not only parents but also administrators and community members.


I know that most of us in the field of education have very little free time. It’s hard to think of adding another task to our to do list. However, I can't say enough about Artsonia!  Once you get into the routine of taking photos of students work and uploading them it goes quick.  You can check out the Coolidge Artsonia gallery here.

So, why do you love Artsonia?
2 Comments

5/7/2012 0 Comments

EdCamp Boston 2012

It’s been a little over a week since edcamp Boston 2012 and I still can’t stop smiling about the experience! What an unbelievable day of learning, sharing and collaborating with other passionate educators. If you are an educator and have never been to an edcamp you should try to find one near you soon!  It was amazing.

As I arrived at the Microsoft NERD (New England Research and Development) Center I really had no idea what to expect.  After a bit of free breakfast, coffee and meeting other teachers there was an explanation about the day from the organizers @dancallahan, @tsocko, @ldelia @lizbdavis, @karenjan).  Anyone who knew they wanted to lead a session was asked to go downstairs and put a giant sticky note on the board.  The board was filled with room locations and how many people could fit in each room.  Within fifteen or twenty minutes most of the day’s sessions were put into a Google doc and the unconference was off and running!  Sessions ranged from technology topics such as Twitter, BYOD, and iPads in the classroom to other educational issues like using theater games to teach empathy and Common Core.  There was also free lunch and a lot of socializing with teachers from around New England, including meeting lots of people I have followed on Twitter for a while!

I loved that the day was driven by the participants.  Anyone could lead a session if they were interested in a topic or wanted to learn more about something. As I was looking at the board one person asked if anyone was interested in urban education.  It got few positive relies and a session was born.  The rule of two feet also ruled the day.  If you got to a session and it wasn’t for you, you were encouraged to leave and try another session or even gather in the hallways for very informal conversations with other educators.  
 
Another highlight of the day was the smackdown that took place at the end of the day.  Everyone in attendance was invited to have two minutes of time in front of everyone to show off something they thought was valuable such as a cool website, app or project.  It was a great way to learn a lot of new things in a short amount of time. One of the websites I learned about at the smackdown was Thinglink.com.  Check out my Thinglink of edcamp Bostonbelow!  Can't wait for my next edcamp!
0 Comments

2/15/2012 3 Comments

Radial Designs with Sumopaint

There are so many wonderful FREE web 2.0 tools available for students to use when creating art these days.  One of these sites is Sumopaint.  Besides being able to create amazing piece of art, I like the site because students do not need to register for an account and they can actually save their work to a computer.  If you type in http://www.sumopaint.com/app/ rather than just http://www.sumopaint.com you also don’t have to look at the ads from the site, which is a nice feature when using it with students.

As some students were finishing up projects in my digital arts class this week, I had other students that were done early and needed something to do.  The continuous problem of an art teacher…what to have students work on in that in between time!  This week I gave students a Sumopaint challenge.  (By the way, middle school students get very excited at just the name of this tool!)

Students used the “symmetry tool” (11th tool down on the right column of the tool bar, in case you are looking for it) to produce a radial design. I encouraged them to experiment with the “symmetry points” and then add color using the paint bucket once done.  After saving their work I asked them to try out some different "filters" over their design to see if they could come up with a piece of art that was even more interesting.  The results below are from about a half an hour worth of work.  It was a great "filler" project, but I think next year I'll try it as a more serious project being more specific with the requirements.
3 Comments

    Locations of visitors to this page
    Follow @sadoane
    Follow Me on Pinterest

    Archives

    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    6th Grade
    7th Grade
    8th Grade
    Art Club
    Artist Trading Cards
    Art Shows
    Clutter-Free Classroom
    Design
    Digital Art
    Drawing
    Games
    Homework
    Innovation
    Lesson Ideas
    Line
    Organization
    Photography
    Pinterest
    Professional Development
    Sculpture
    Social Media
    Special Events
    Still-Life
    Twitter
    Value
    Web 2.0 Tools

    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.