Saturday, March 3, 2012

Day at the NAEA!


Friday I attended my first of two days at of the NAEA conference.  This was my first national conference and it was super busy! I've been to the NYSATA conference a few times, but what is so great about the nationals is that you get to meet teachers from all over the country...It really invigorates and inspires your teaching practices....

For this post I'll highlight one of the many seminars I attended.  This one in particular was from a woman who teaches in Illinois, it was entitled Artistic Voice: Expressionism Through Digital Storytelling for Young Artists  or as I liked to called it 'Red-Dot Digital Storytelling'.  


The basic idea of the workshop was that students in grades k and 1 were filmed discussing their artwork.  Each student was given a few minutes to draw on a white 12x18 inch paper using only black marker.  The equivalent of a sentence starter in English language arts, the teacher used a small red dot as a jumping off point for students drawings. The only parameter?   Create a drawing that somehow incorporates the red dot.


The students voices were then recorded, only being prompted by the statement "tell me about your work.


As always, it was intensely interesting to listen to students discuss their artwork, and this type of activity would make for a great parent/teacher highlight video, a great clip for your school art site, or even as an advocacy tool for presentation to administrators/teachers.  You can never downplay the importance of explaining how integral the artistic process is to the overall learning and positive cognitive development of children (and adults too!). 
 
Some of the programs mentioned were
Mac: imovie, garageband (for background sound), picturemaker
PC: Moviemaker, Photostory
Free web based programs: Aviery, Flixtime, Voicethread


*Note: I have yet to try any of these programs, except for garageband, which I am still dabbling in.. If any of  you have tried or know about using these programs, post some feedback, or post a link to your blog if you have ever posted about using them in your art curriculum!

3 comments:

Phyl said...

Oh no! Another blogger who was at the NAEA convention and I didn't get to meet you!! I had such fun meeting bloggers from Art is Basic, Art Project Girl, Color,Collage and More, and a couple of others that I had previously met. So sorry we didn't discover each other. BUT - since I'm a fellow NYSATA member maybe next October in Rochester?

Phyl said...

Or maybe I did meet you and I don't recall? I know I talked to someone who enjoyed the workshop you have described. I'm so glad your workshop experience was better than mine.

ArtMuse said...

Hi Phyl,

I ended up spending less time at the conference than I had initially planned due to some family obligations that popped up Friday night, so I basically crammed in every second I could on the workshops and vendors I could! But like you said, there is always NYSATA!