Teachers Teaching Tips & Writers Writing Wit (T³ + W³)

Multicultural Art Education

2011-08-20T14:47:00.002-06:00

I read an article posted by a grade 11 student who wanted to give reasons for multicultural art education. Its a good description of the reasons for teaching in this diverse way. So, I have shared some of the article by Lisa Wang who wants to reach a greater audience than her teacher who assigned the project.

Multicultural Art Education – What’s the Deal with That?

What is it?

The goal of multicultural art education is to expose and familiarize students to cultural diversity. It uses examples of traditional ethnic art and art activities to encourage them to explore both their own cultural identity, as well as others. By focusing on the art of many cultures, this method intends to peak students’ interest in learning about different ethnicities, while putting emphasis on the diverse styles and elements that make each culture unique.

In multicultural art education, art is also used to look at the history and development of a culture. Students will be able to study the traditional styles, discuss them, and, later on, practice them. The objective of this is to engage the students and allow them to have both group and independent learning, where they can form individual opinions and comprehension through art.

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Sample activities

For teachers who are thinking about trying this method, there are a number of activities which can be done in a classroom to introduce multicultural art. Some of the most common ones are listed below:

· Traditional Art Pieces – Students can look at traditional art and be taught to observe the elements and styles within the compositions. Artwork can also be compared and contrasted between different cultures. For younger grades, it is best to focus on the basics. For older grades, the development of this artwork can also be looked at, as well as more complex analysis; questions such as why certain styles or elements were used, and why these styles may have been important can be discussed.

· Practising Art Styles – Students can have the chance to create some of the styles and elements used in traditional painting. This is usually a lot of fun for them, and helps to keep them involved and interested.

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The largest concern with most people is learning how to teach traditional cultural art. However, to teach multicultural art, you don’t have to be an expert. The main aim is to have some prior knowledge or background on the subject or culture; enough that you are able to lead a discussion and show examples.

There are many books and websites that outline activities and give instructions about how to learn a specific art style. This makes it much easier to learn the basics of cultural art, and from there, to create a step-by-step lesson plan.

Tips and Hints

Keep the class engaged. Although art is usually fun for most students, some do tend to get bored of it quickly. The key is to find activities that interest all of the students in the class, and to keep a steady pace when teaching. This might not be easy, but as students learn more about cultural art, you may find that they keep focused better.

Be prepared. There are many elements to every single kind of cultural art, and the best thing to do is to get to know them beforehand. Learn the background on the cultures you will be teaching, so that you can explain it well to the students, and answer their questions accurately. Study the artwork to understand some of the elements used before discussing them with your class, and practice the art styles before doing a lesson on them. Authenticity is huge when dealing with cultural art, so have traditional paintings by experienced artists ready to show to students as examples.

Keep it simple. Don’t give your class too much information at once. Begin with the basics, and build from there. Multiculturalism is huge area, and even simply looking at traditional art styles can take quite a while. Make sure that you develop the concept during each lesson, but don’t go too fast.

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Overall, multicultural art education is an area which holds a lot of potential for any teaching situation. Because it is still in development, there may have to be some experimentation in order to find a suitable lesson plan. However, the reward of a good education should be worth the effort.

Lisa Wang's report was revealing and hopefully her efforts at using multicultural art in teaching will be rewarded in students who are engaged. Here is the wiki she has on the full article and personal findings: Multicultural Art Education

Thailand Teaching Experience

2011-04-17T14:46:00.000-06:00

I have finally written an article about my teaching experience in Thailand. I would like to pass on my message to any teachers reading about teaching in another country. It was very easy to write and explain personal experiences and why I went to Thailand. Read and comment on it if you like. Traveling and Teaching in Thailand

Visual Learners and Visual Aids

2011-03-05T18:02:00.000-06:00

Visual learners need color, visual aids and repetition so they can visualize what they learn. These basic ideas were written in an article which I added the pictures to. The ideas are straightforward and are for any grade level. Read the revised article Catering to the Visual Learner Strengths in the Classroom and respond with any ideas of your own. I know I need a calendar in grid form to plan the month ahead!

Math Article for the Calculus Student

2011-02-27T20:22:00.000-06:00

Since I wrote an article on how to solve limits in Calculus, many students have viewed this article. So, to be more helpful, and to create more views, I wrote an article on how to find the derivative. This should be helpful to the high school student struggling or the university student lost in the world of college professors.
See if it helps you. How to Find the Derivative in Calculus is the article with a media file of 25 examples to help apply the rules of derivatives at Derivative Problems and Solutions.

Anime Characters, Anime Faces, Anime Drawing - Lessons to Use

2011-01-29T15:51:00.001-06:00

Anime is fascinating and not that difficult to get students to draw. I teach it in grade 8 because a student who was good at it doodled anime characters all the time. It gave him a chance to shine. So now its lessons on anime drawing for everyone. I wrote an article on the progression of lessons I use to teach this topic in art. Check it out at Anime Lessons for Art Class: Anime Drawing Made Easy. I don't think many teachers do it. There are many anime drawing lessons online and help people can get.
Some people are natural at anime drawing and their style shows through even without demonstrating they used all the different forms and facial features taught.

After the drawing lessons, I usually have them paint a character and then create an anime mask. These are fun if you have big bright eyes painted on and foam hair to glue on for big sparkly hairstyles. Students are usually happy with their results. Here is the lesson on creating an anime mask called How to Create Anime Characters Using Plaster Mask Making .

I display all the masks together for everyone to look at the different styles. The blue hair and blue eyes are fun to see as well as green and red too!

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

2010-12-18T16:33:00.000-06:00

November and December Projects

2010-12-17T13:44:00.001-06:00

Grade 7 Human Faces Project involves sketching the human face, sketching a self-portrait, painting a self-portrait on canvas and finally painting in 2 minutes a self-portrait with no paintbrush!
Mask-masking of the human form is next. The students love to create a mask with beards, mustaches, noses, ears and other lumps on the mask. Once painted (with eyes closed), they are allowed to glue on various accesories such as hair, earrings, glasses and caps to cover the head.

As tough as it is to direct the students to create a human form rather than a more creative creature, they like making it look realistic with the accessories. So, I try to buy cheap hats and glasses at liquidation stores and doll hair for hair rather than yarn.

Grade 8 Anime Project involves sketching anime faces, anime facial parts such as different noses, eyes and ears, anime bodys in exagerated proportions and finally an anime character. After painting the anime character, the students then make a mask from a human form. They must build up the eyes and minimize the mouth by painting the mask skin color and the eyes bright black colors. Then they attach foam hair in sparkling bright colors to create the pointy block hairstyles of anime.

The results are amazing and once again, the students have fun realizing art can be achieved through different mediums.

Mask making is a lot of prep work but is rewarding to the students. They love seeing their displays of their creations.

Fall Leaves Projects

2010-10-11T14:08:00.001-06:00

Every fall I try to paint using the influence of nature. I paint on leaves, with leaves and this year made leaf pictures. I also do a leaf watercolor project. It is easy and the students find success doing it. Here is the link to how it is done: Easy Watercolor Project For Fall.
When using leaves for pictures I used leaves from strawberry plants, peonies and geranium petals. They turned out lovely. All students needed were glue sticks. Some tried to make animals out of their materials. They only last a few days on the display wall but it was worthwhile to do.
Finally, I made rice paper with students using leaves. Also used strawberry leaves in this project with chrysanthemums and gerianium petals. Looked great on the Grade 4, 5, and 6 windows!

Textured Drawing Teaching Tips and 10 Easy Tips for Teaching Drawing

2010-09-12T15:41:00.000-06:00

Here are some simple drawing techniques for you to use with grade 4 and 5 and beginners at drawing. Drawing Lesson on Textured Drawing. They are simple practice lessons to help you find an art activity. They are part of an article on Tips for Teaching Drawing which include lessons for grades 1 to 8.

Try them as you see fit! Don't forget to post any questions or comments you have to me here at this blog or at the article's site.

Mountain Dew Bench is complete!

2010-07-24T21:15:00.001-06:00

After promising to update the pop art park benches in the school's park, I was able to finally paint the bench on the top of the hill. It was easy to complete the theme - a Mountain Dew on the mountain. So in July when there seemed to be 2 consecutive days with no rain, I went to update the 5 benches my students and I had painted in the spring of '08. It took 7 hours to repaint, repair and revamp them before I could begin the last one. At 7:30 at night with clouds looming I went home to rest. The next day my mind was set and I completed the last bench. It only took about 4 hours as I had painted the background shape the day before. I was happy with the results and satisfied that I had completed the job. I hope it will leave a lasting impression on the school, the park, the community. The benches really pop!

Mothers Day Scratch Art - Spring Scratch Art Project

2010-06-24T22:33:00.000-06:00

You can do scratch art anytime, but I used it for a Mother's Day project. Since I used flowers it is a good spring/summer design to use in May and June. Tulips, roses, sunflowers, all work well. I also made frames of silver tin foil rubbed with black paint. The silver scratch art paper is unusual and creates beautiful effects so should be used on simple pictures. The method and steps are written in the Scratch Art For Spring Article.

It was easy to do and I would do it again. The frames were a little harder to create effective designs so I would try a new frame next time.

June Jitters

2010-06-11T21:36:00.002-06:00

June is a busy month. Changes come fast. Weather gets you going. Up with the sun, down with the rain. Coffee to wake you up, tea to settle you down. Lots of trips, lots going on, lots yet to do, lots to see. Spirits to rise, spirits to take flight and spirits to say goodbye. I like to run in the green grass in a late night soccer game in June. I teach pop art at this time in art, powerpoint (or photostory) presentations in computers, and flight aviation in science. Its a fun time of year and still there is new things to learn. Use this as the most concentrated, yet fun time to teach and learn. If a project doesn't get done, it doesn't. And yet somehow it all does. We get tired and we have to remember that we'll catch up on sleep in July!

Here's a video of a group called "In June"...."All I Have"

Grade 7 Art Lessons - The Human Face

2010-04-16T21:28:00.006-06:00

A self-portrait??? Yes, hard to believe but I did it. It was after I drew myself and then transferred it to canvas. After that we got to do a two-minute self-portrait. So much fun!
If I could do it, then I knew my students could do it. So after that workshop I taught lessons on how to draw the human face, paint your own face and then do a fun 2 minute painting using no brush!

The results are quite great and surprising to the students. So for 2 or 3 years now I have used this lesson in grade 7. In grade 8 we do more of the anime faces and Japanese anime known as manga.

Here are the 3 lessons I wrote about the methods, materials and hints for drawing, then painting faces. Really good advice I used: How to Draw Human Faces
Painting Realistic Self - Portraits

and Mask Making of Human Faces

Trying to draw magazine faces just didn't help the students' confidence too much. It is a good introductory lesson. Have the students draw the faces from magazines upside down to get their right side of the brain working and looking for contours. Post their drawings right side up with the magazine face right beside.

Math Made Sensible

2010-04-10T11:26:00.000-06:00

Some math can described so simply and other math is so full of jargon, terms and specific conditions that students get lost. By clarifying basic strategies to solving math concepts, practicing and doing things step by step, some math can be made sense of. I wrote a guide for teaching a calculus concept called limits. Then I wrote up some sample questions and solutions, for students in grade 12 to follow. I learned this when I was in grade 12. So passing on these strategies has been satisfying.
You'll find great teaching tips for this concept in the article: Calculus Limit Problems Made Easy.
Then accompanying study guide for students is in the article: How to Solve Calculus Limit Problems.
The special cases of limit problems is in a separate but related article called: How to Solve Special Cases of Calculus Limit Problems
The articles are all linked together and provide examples wih a sheet of solutions. It is free Calculus help for students and teachers alike. Hope it is useful.

Creatures - Fun Easy Symmetry Art

2010-02-15T12:39:00.000-06:00

As a last minute make a pretty Valentine project I thought we could cut hearts out of paper and smush paint along the fold, open it up and have a psychedelic design. Since we had to let the acrylic paint dry, we made a second one where the students got to choose the colors they wanted in the painting. We opened them up to see a design created that later you can turn into a creature or whatever you see in the paint. This is such an easy project. Its messy as the paint oozes out of the paper when you fold it. Also, the paint sticks to the paper. However it teaches symmetry and using creativity to create something out of the paint blob. What creatures do you see in these examples?? I see a bee, a moth, an ice cream cone and a globe.
An article about the method and other examples of symmetry in art can be found at Bright Hub.
Here is the link to the Colorful Art Using Symmetry article.

Valentines Day Watercolor Project - 3 Styles

2010-02-02T16:20:00.000-06:00

Painting a watercolor background in purples and pinks is the start of this project. Once the background is wet, you can use heart blocks wrapped in tissue to blot up heart shapes in the background. These are filled in with painted Valentines messages.
The background can also be stamped with white acrylic stamped hearts. These are nice and easy to do. Thirdly, you can cut out hearts from the background and paste them onto a watercolor background. Grade 1's can do this.

You can also sketch hearts on a smaller watercolor paper and then paint each heart in with 2 colors of watercolor such as yellow and red. This makes a nice bouquet of hearts. 3 projects, all easy to do!

All three ways of doing this have been written at Art from the Heart: Watercolor Valentines Day Art Project
Which one do you like doing the best???

Watercolor Winter Projects - Fun and Easy

2010-02-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

Watercolors can create excellent and easy art. In grade 4 we created a winter scence using blues and purples for the sky, greys for the snow and fisnished with white snow on grey trees.
See the article called Winter Watercolor Landscapes Lesson.
Also in grade 4 we used a frosted window scene for a smaller 4 by 6 watercolor. Using grey and pink sky colors, we also painted in a branch and a window sill. The glass looks frosty by adding glitter to the painting after its dry. Try this one as its a nice effect. Use plastic to make crinkles and and lines in the wet paint to help draw the frost on later. See the article Winter Watercolor Window Art at Bright Hub for all the steps, pictures, hints and tips.

Fall Art Projects

2010-01-30T13:01:00.000-06:00

This fall I did fall watercolor leaves with grade 4 and 5 students, carved gourds with 7's and 8's, and made clay arthropods with science grade 6 students. I have written articles on the methods at Bright Hub for these projects. The science creatures were very fun to do. The invertebrates are displayed with cards describing the adaptations. If you have access to clay and a kiln, try this art/science project!
Details are found at: Making Clay Arthropods-A Fun Science Activity.

The carved gourds was interesting, a bit difficult for grade 7 and 8 students but we had fun trying. I discovered many things you can make with gourds as a craft, but are time consuming. Candles, bowls, purses and drums were a few of the interesting cultural crafts made from them. We simply carved them and made them brown by applying shoe polish. The article and method is at: Gourds and Gourd Art Etching

Watercolor leaves was a fun and easy watercolor project where the students drew leaf shapes and painted in 2 colors and then filled in the background. They were displayed altogether and it was a lovely fall display. I would do this again. The article with the steps is found at: Easy Watercolors for Fall

2009-09-20T19:02:00.000-06:00

In August I took photos of murals in our city and wrote 2 articles on painting murals with students. One article is about painting an ocean themed mural near a splash park or near a sink in an art room or kindergarten room. It can be found at this website: Murals: An Ocean Wall Mural - An Art Lesson. They were part 2 and 3 of a 3 part series on painting murals with students.

The other article focused on a lesson about murals that show perspective. The lessons included how to teach drawing with a vanishing point. Practice drawings are included to help students draw the eye in to the picture. I included photos from around the city on murals which were optical illusions to help the viewer think that the mural continued from the street into the wall. There were also several good websites to show artists (eg. Eric Grohe, Julian Beever) who do large murals like this all over the world. The art lesson is found at this website: Murals: Wall Murals Using Perspective to Draw You In

Pop Art Park Bench Project

2009-07-13T13:12:00.001-06:00

This was one of the projects that I had the most fun with in art with my grade 5 to 8 students. I was asked to paint some park benches near the playground. The community bought paint. I had freedom to design what I wanted. So I chose the Orange Crush can as a bright orange bench to paint. From a distance you can see the orange slice on the back of the bench. We are a nutrition positive school so I was worried about using pop as a theme but no one seemed to care. People from the community liked them and said so as we were painting them. The students did the backgrounds and I did the fine details to perfect the letters and droplets and shadows. I did Sprite and 7Up on either side of the Crush bench mainly because that was the pop sold in our machine at school. Also they were blue and green.
The next fall I painted a Coke and Pepsi bench because they were near the ball diamonds and the pepsi can had a girl on it with a baseball cap. Coke and Pepsi are rivals and these benches faces opposite ball diamonds. The Pepsi bench was much more creative than the Coke bench. Kids loved them. The idea was to avoid graffitti. But they still spray painted red on the white Coke letters and blue on the white Pepsi letters.
This past year the community asked me to paint the park bench on the top of the hill. I plan to do Mountain Dew on it. The other school had painted red and white stripes on it and green and yellow stripes.
I've written an article on murals and how to paint them at Bright Hub. The article is called Pop Art Park Bench. It talks about the materials, method and mural websites to check out. This has been one of the lasting art projects I have done at this school and one of the most rewarding.

Fun in the Sun Art Project - Rice Paper

2009-07-11T10:47:00.000-06:00

This project is easy to do with little shells and feathers you collect from the beach. I have done this project in the fall with collected leaves and flower petals. I have also tried it with glitter and flat chinese napkins with gold leaf on them. It is very easy to do. The hardest material to have on hand is wax paper. It can be made as long as you like. I made a long wall hanging with it for my bedroom. Looks nice with light shining through. This project I describe is for kids in the summer at a beach who want to do a craft. You can use it on a nice lantern or hang it in a window. See an article I wrote called: Fun in the Sun Summer Art Project.
I have made paper in art class but this project has turned out to be one of my favorites. I use it usually with grade 4's and 5's. Its messy with the white glue and kleenex but I would recommend it. Have the students collect the materials and bring them. Make sure they are flat. I tried to bring in flat fossilized leaves which were very pretty but rather expensive and not needed. Kids like adding glitter or sequins but you can't see them through the paper very well. Colored leaves, petals and flat cedar boughs work well. Anything you recommend would be welcome.

Pop Can Pop Art Project

2009-07-07T18:41:00.000-06:00

To end off the school year, I had students learn the pop art genre of art. Instead of Andy Warhol's famous tomato soup can, I had grade 8 students choose from among several pop cans to sketch and then paint in bright colors. I explained about contrasting colors, how pop art should pop out at you and how it deals with unexpected colors such as bright blue on a typically red and white coke can.
The students created great sketches and were in the middle of painting when year end activities cut short this project. At bright hub, I wrote an article on the materials, preparation, and procedure for this project. See this article write up at: Pop Art Pop Can Project - An Elementary Art Lesson.
I was able to use some current examples of pop art in this lesson and received permission from the artist, Van Taylor Monroe, to show his pop art of Obama painted onto shoes. There is also some interesting pop art now being created for designs on flash drives. Where have you noticed pop art in today's culture?

Father's Day Art Projects

2009-06-08T22:19:00.000-06:00

With Father's Day approaching, teachers might find it hard to come up with a quick and easy art project for Father's Day. Some teachers make birdhouses with their children. This requires planning, materials and help from parents. So, I wrote an article to create some simple art projects in grade 2 to 8 for Father's Day. They mostly involves sketching, cutting and pasting collages from magazines and posters, or painting. Try some of them.
The first 4 of 10 projects are found in this article at Bright Hub: Top 10 Father's Day Art Projects

The next 6 projects are found in part 2 of the article at:
Top 10 Father's Day Art Projects - Part 2

I suggest making a Father's Day card as a separate project. At the grade 4 level we are creating bowls from magazines. This project has taken several classes. The magazine bowl project procedures and lessons can be found at: Recycled Art - magazine Bowl Project
The gift to their father is to put some Hersheys hugs and kisses in the bowl, or golf tees, fish hooks or other small items. We also spray painted the bowls in sivler, black or red. The students liked this effect but did not hold the bowl in place too well.

May is Math Month

2009-05-28T22:35:00.000-06:00

I find this month to be the crunch time at school since lots of curriculum is yet to be covered and students are ready to go play outside. The activities at night make homework hard to accomplish. Teachers have a lot to get through and the track and field days, band concerts and outdoor cleanups are taking more and more time out of a typical spring day. So, I wrote 2 articles suggesting how parents might help teach their child at home the concept of fractions. This can be reinforced many times and will help give the child hands on opportunities to understand fractions. The article is about using an egg carton to teach parts of a whole. Then the child goes on to use measuring cups in a chocolate chip cookie recipe to help measure fractional amounts and then double a recipe. Doubling or tripling a recipe helps to make the child want to understand the concept of multiplying fractions so they don't ruin the cookies! Try these with your child.
Fraction Fun at Home: Modeling Fractions and Multiplying Fractions

Recycled Art Projects - Shoe Sculptures

2009-05-25T22:46:00.000-06:00

The Conservation In a Shoebox art show prompted me to assign redesigning shoes to Mr. Shewchuck's class. Don't chuck shoes, reuse! was a message written to the students. I asked them what "footprint" they would leave on the earth. How would they mount the shoes? Would they walk on water, walk the walk, walk on a thin line, walk on a path, follow someone?? Did their shoe shine? Did it shine a light on conservation? Did they "toe" the line? Did they make a stand and stand up for what is right? By posing these questions on the board, the students came up with some pretty creative shoes.
An article written about the project is found at: Recycled Art Project: Shoe Sculptures
The top shoe was called "Flower to Empower" and was made of paper mache with flowers glued all over it. The "Bee Free From Pollution" shoe mounted on a flower was my second pick. Creative and fun project that I took many pictures of and will do again.

Recycled Art Projects - Conservation in a Shoebox

2009-05-24T19:27:00.000-06:00

Recently, a student art show prompted me to do conservation based art projects. The projects were for grade 6 - 8 students. They brainstormed what they would like to see in their future in a perfect green world. Then they designed projects to fit in a 12 by 12 by 24 inch high space. The title was "Conservation in a Shoebox". One class had to design shoes. The medium could be clay, paper mache, pop cans, old shoes, cardboard, wire, etc. They had to give a title to the piece, medium used and name. On another index card they had to explain what they were trying to teach the world about conservation.
The project was very creative. Especially because they knew that a few pieces would be chosen for a student art show. Some items the students designed were: pop can shoes, bowls from magazines, recycled worlds (dioramas), pop bottle hats, magazine shopping bags, pop can tops jewellry, wind energy farms, parks, biomes, birds made of seeds, and a hot air balloon as alternate transportation.
The shoes were painted with buttons glued on, paper mached with flowers glued on, molded out of wire, cut out of foam, redesigned by gluing on pop cans, newspapers, and sand.
I wrote 4 articles about the projects. They can be found at Bright Hub. The procedures and pictures are explained in the articles with hints and tips.
How to make robots out of old nuts and bolts: Recycled Robot Project
How to make bowls out of magazines: Recycled Magazine Bowl Project
How to make sculptures from pop cans: Recycled Pop Can Project

Exercise and Learning - A New Science About The Brain and Exercise

2009-04-28T22:16:00.000-06:00

A book about exercise and learning called, SPARK: A Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by Dr. Ratey summarizes a lot of research about learning. I wrote an article about the book and then made a 4 step study plan for parents and children. Basically its about using more aerobic exercise in your homework plans for the evening so that the brain is more alert. More will be accomplished. However, it takes changing and committing to the idea of exercise rather than relaxing at night. The article is called: Spark: A New Science of Exercise and the Brain - A Parents Guide to Help Students Study at Home
The book is easy to read and motivating to help people change their ideas about studying. If you do regular aerobic exercise you will already know and feel the benefits of more alert thinking after exercising. The interesting new knowledge is that aerobic exercise actually grows new brain cells! Fascinating.

A Science Project - Tomatosphere

2009-04-26T15:04:00.000-06:00

Tomatosphere is a project for grades 2 -11 who want to do some hands-on science and help the Canadian Space Agency. Students who are registered are mailed 2 packages of tomato seeds. One package has been exposed to space conditions such as no gravity and low pressure. The other package is a control package. Students observe and record how long it takes for the seeds to germinate. Teachers enter the results online. At the website at Tomatosphere, there is a lot of information on agriculture in space, space missions, astronauts, Mars and the International Space Station. A very excellent project at an excellent website. This is the second year of involvement at our school for students in grade 2, 4, 5 and 6. Its easy and fun.
I've written an article on the project. It is found at: Tomatosphere: A Simple Space Science Project

Self Esteem for Girls

2009-04-20T18:24:00.000-06:00

An email regarding a Dove campaign on girls self esteem, showed an excellent website about hosting a sleepover for girls. The website offered self-esteem programs for adults to show the girls, videos to watch, songs to download, Pj's to purchase, and many other ideas to help discuss issues girls have in this area. Excellent site to show to 8 to 11 year old girls.
Here is the link to the Dove Sleepover for Self-Esteem

Here is the link to the educators part of Dove's website:
Dove Educators Guide
The video I liked on self-esteem is called Evolution. The link to it is here:
Evolution
and there is a good one called Amy at the video section.

There are quizzes and discussion areas at the dove website. You can register for the sleepover and your city is put on the map. You receive 3 free downloads of music for the sleepover.
Overall the site is well organized, easy to follow and great to pass on to friends. I recommend it.

Helping Writers to Write Online Articles

2009-04-13T19:07:00.000-06:00

This very useful article helps those who are writing articles online to get right to the point. It helps you to write articles the way a search engine would find them. Online writing is very different than report writing, blogging, twittering, etc. So this article will help you if you are making the endeavour to write articles. Click here: Web Writing: The Ground Rules
The author, The Barefoot, is a writer at Associated Content. He has his own blog and is a helpful writer for anyone who needs things explained.

Watercolor Art Project For Fall Leaves or Spring Flowers

2009-04-12T16:56:00.000-06:00

This is the last in a series of watercolor projects that are easy for students to paint in grades 1 - 8. The shapes of leaves are painted on a contrasting background or flowers for spring. I would suggest tulips, irises or daffodils. Then the details are filled in with a gel pen or fine sharpie marker. I have tried all the watercolor projects and found the Easter Egg watercolor to be very effective. The next one I am trying is the Spring project of a rainbow and umbrella for Grade 5. If there are other ideas you find for watercolor projects, please post them here.
The article for this project is published at Bright Hub. Click here to find instructions and photos:
Easy Watercolor Project for Fall

Watercolor Art Project - Summer wheatfield theme

2009-04-07T09:19:00.000-06:00

This article describes another watercolor art project in the series I've created. It is about painting a background which can be a sunset, with a fencepost in the foreground. The fencepost has barbed wire detail, and the background has wheat or grass detail painted on it. Tips and techniques are included in the article. It links to the other projects in the series. Read about it here: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/31176.aspx

How to Recycle Your Old Computers for Money

2009-04-01T10:25:00.001-06:00

This interesting article discussed a website for recycling old computers, ipods, phones that you may not want to sell, or can't sell because they are a little older. You access a website, give details about the computer and they estimate what they will give you for it. They take it apart usually for parts to recycle it. Its much better than dumping it in a landfill, but you have to take into account the money to ship it. It is located in the U.S. For more information click on this link to the article at Bright Hub:
environment/green-computing/article
It sounded like a great idea. We need a company like this based in Canada.

Art Project for Mother's Day

2009-03-30T13:08:00.000-06:00

This watercolor project is a third in a series I've written at Bright Hub. It is for Mother's Day, or for any spring day in art. You are creating flowers on a watercolor background. The flowers can be daisies, mums, pansies or simple white flowers stamped on in acrylic paint. Its easy to do and fun for kids. The article link is: www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/30441.aspx
If you like this project, or have one of your own, let me know at this blog.

Creative Ways to Get Students to Read and Report

2009-03-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

An article at BrightHub caught my attention because it was about writing book reports in a new way. The article talked about reading a book and creating a blog about it, then leaving the book for someone else to find. Here is an excert form the article: There is a website, www.bookcrossing.com, where students may go and register the book they have read. They then write a blurb about their book and receive an identification number. To complete this project, students write the ID number in the book and then leave their book somewhere with a note to whomever finds it. Using this website, students participate in a modern, technologically advanced “message in a bottle” activity.

The full article can be found at:
Help Students Think Outside The Box With These Book Project Ideas.

Smart Ways to Use the Smartboard Series

2009-03-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

I've written 3 articlesS in a series called Smart Ways to Use the Smartboard. The first one deals with uses of the Smartboard in daily classroom routines, reading and writing activities. The 2nd article deals more the Smartboard specifically in math lessons, the 3rd is for science lessons. All 3 give easy ways to use the Smartboard's drawing tools, pictures and backgrounds, multimedia and online resources. The resources are mostly from the UK. The math resources provide an excellent site with 90 math activities. There also some great online science sites to go to. Check the article out at www.brighthub.com

Smart Ways to Use the SMARTboard series
Smart Ways to Use the SMARTboard in Math Lessons
Smart Ways to Use the SMARTboard in Science Lessons

Mathletics Website fo Math Motivation

2009-03-22T21:36:00.000-06:00

For the next 2 weeks, grade 2 and 3's will be doing a trial demonstration of a product from 3p Learning at www.mathletics.com This program had the world math day timed math contest for students to play against other students in the world. The student gets to design their own avatar before they begin the games. The program also offers math lessons that a teacher can require students to perform at a level between 1 and 5. The lessons are start with a pre-quiz, several lessons that can be repeated and then a post quiz.

The motivation to perform the lessons is that gaining gold bars will allow more games to be unlocked by a student. It is very motivating math and something that students will likely enjoy. By participating in the 2 week trial, the students can access their accounts from home, to try it out after school hours. Seems like a fun program. If you've tried it before or would like to comment, please post a reply. I will be reporting how the demo went, to see if we do decide to purchase this program for our school.

Watercolor Art Project for Spring

2009-03-19T23:05:00.000-06:00

Watercolor art projects are so easy to do and design. The latest project I designed involves a stormy sky, a rainbow and a child holding an umbrella. If students can't draw the child they can just paint the background and have a separate painting of an umbrella and a pair of boots. You then cut out the umbrella and boots and glue them on to the background with a sponge holding them away from the background. Simple and cute.
Watercolor Art Project for Spring
Check out the article on the materials and procedures. It is part of a series on watercolor art projects that I have written at Bright Hub. As I do more watercolor projects I will post them. If there are any art ideas that you would like to add, please comment.

St. Patrick's Day Project

2009-03-18T09:31:00.000-06:00

On March 17, I found a quick easy art project to teach about creating color. The color was green of course. I simply had students divide a 12" paper into 6 equal parts. At one end we painted blue and at the other end yellow. Then as you move toward the center, paint each section a green. On one end paint more yellow than blue, on the other end, the blue end, paint more blue than yellow. Create various greens that blend into each other. We found tempra paint to work poorly compared to acrylic paint. So, if you want to teach about blending colors, or the differences between tempra and acrylic paint, or between blending colors on paper or on a paint tray, then try this simple lesson. The kids enjoyed learning about color blending without having to accomplish a great masterpiece. This was done at grade 4 and 5 level.

Science Project - Gr. 4 - 6 Plants & Space

2009-03-17T18:20:00.000-06:00

The CSA, Canadian Space Agency has an excellent scientific experiment for kids to perform with tomato seeds. At a website called Tomatosphere, you can learn all about ways to use tomatoes to help actual astronaut test conditions in space. By registering your class or school with the project, they will send you 2 packages of tomato seeds, one of which is a control group and one which has been exposed to conditions like those on Mars. The seed packages are labelled M and N. Students grow them and find the rate of germination. Experiments are easy to set up. Students send in their results to the website. Later they are informed which package of seeds are the control group.
Its an exciting hands-on project. There are videos to support it. Many teacher resources are included on the website. We have done this project last year and unless you back out, you carry on the project for 3 consecutive years. Try it out! Try www.tomatosphere.org to see it.

To see a video of the project click here:http://www.tomatosphere.org/media-room/vids/mFincke.wmv

Easy Easter Art Project

2009-03-16T18:48:00.000-06:00

I took a watercolor project that I learned from Gail Schmaltz, and added an Easter aspect to it. Most of her watercolor projects are easy to do, end in beautiful results and the kids love them.
You really should have watercolor paper for these and all watercolor projects as it soaks up the paint in a certain way. You can purchase watercolor paper at Colors or at Art Placement. Probably Michaels will have it as well. Paints can be from the dollar store. Here is the link to an article on watercolor project for Easter Eggs:

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/29123.aspx

There are other Easter egg coloring pages, pastel projects and traditional Easter egg dying (Pysanka Art) which I do at Easter. Do you have any favorite projects??

The Lost Generation

2009-03-14T10:41:00.000-06:00

This video is interesting. It won 2nd place at a meeting of the AARP (American Association of Retired People). It was submitted by a 20 year old. The contest was called "u @ 50". When shown, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant because it reads a completely different message backwards than it does forwards. Its about today's generation. Its simple yet effective.

The link to it is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
or you can try clicking beflow:

Advantages of Blogging

2009-03-12T15:13:00.000-06:00

In researching advantages to blogging as a teaching tool, I found a great resource called: 11 Advantages of Using a Blog for Teaching. Some of the advantages are: learning is indepent of time and location, learning becomes self-directed, more peer-to-peer collaboration occurs and writing competencies are improved. The powerpoint on the 11 advantages is at: http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/11-advantages-of-using-a-blog-for-teaching
It was a slideshow created by Frank Calberg, in Switzerland, 10 months ago (June 2008).
Check it out. Perhaps you will start a blog with your students.
What advantages do you see to blogging with students??

Structures and Towers - Grade 7 Science Lesson

2009-03-11T11:06:00.000-06:00

This is a unit in Grade 7 to study structures in society. Here is an excellent source for information. If you find a good source for other students to use, post it in your comments.
tower
This is information from an online encyclopedia at:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-tower.html
Try researching information on towers and structures, then plan an informative powerpoint on various types of structures.

The Importance Of A Blog for Teaching , Posting Art

2009-03-10T07:52:00.000-06:00

In today's world, if you were teaching writing, it would be important to incorporated communicating and messaging. Would having a teacher's blog be important for teaching this? I would think that classrooms online, using a program called blackboard do this. Is there anyone who uses a blog to accomplish the same thing? I am going to check out this way of teaching. Jeff Jarvis, at www.Buzzmachine.com, a blog I'm following, discusses education in today's world. Check it out.
A website which provides 11 advantages to teaching with a blog is at:
http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/11-advantages-of-using-a-blog-for-teaching
Its a slide presentation about teaching, at college level, using a blog.

A blog for posting children's artwork can be found at:
http://theblog.weemade.com/
This is what the creators say about this blog: THEBLOG WEEMADE is a user-generated showcase. We accept posts from anyone and everyone. Scan and post your children's artwork or your own artwork from when you were child. Found artwork. Anything!

Art Project for Creating Nametags

2009-03-08T22:31:00.000-06:00

This article goes over 3 simple steps to creating a name creature. It is easy to do and involves markers and paper. I would use it at the beginning of the year to make a nametag for an art portfolio. Pictures are included to show the steps along the way. Try it, you'll like it!

http://www.quazen.com/Recreation/Crafts/Easy-Art-Project-for-Creating-Name-Tags.579997

Great and small art projects

2009-03-05T23:26:00.000-06:00

Here is an article on an easy to do art project. I have tried to give some tips and hints to make it go smoothly. It is for kids of all ages. I call it the Larger Than Life Project. To read about it, click on this link at Associated Content:http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1537305/easy_art_project_for_kids_of_all_ages.html?cat=4

Other great lessons and tips are welcome, especially for art projects that work well. Teachers can provide the best tips on how it works at different age levels. There are some projects I would do again and some I would not. There are some that go well with "creative creature" themes and some that work better with the "human face" theme. I will be posting my favorite and easiest projects here.

Which projects have you liked? Why? What are your recommendations??

World's Math Day - Mar. 4, 2009

2009-03-04T09:45:00.001-06:00

Today is the day to get students doing as much math online at www.worldmathsday.com as possible. Teachers who registered students for this contest were sent emails stating that a day before the contest, they could no longer register new students. Competition begins at different times in different time zones in the world. The company sent teachers Activity Ideas for the classroom and school. These included such things as creating a giant school graph of each class's progress, run teacher vs. student challenges, and making a large world map of countries the students have challenged. Its an exciting day if students can get online and do this contest. The link to the activities is as follows: http://worldmathsday.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2b428d47e0776e970d57d0b65&id=b085ac07ca&e=6bd3398b83

Students can get a Gold Certificate if they answer 1000 questions during the challenge. It is a very motivating math and computer activity.

Dr. Seuss Lesson Plans - For March 2 - His birthday

2009-03-04T09:38:00.000-06:00

Lesson plans for using Dr. Suess on March 2, his birthday are provided by a writer at Associated Content, Michelle M. Guilbeau-Sheppard, a teacher in k-6 in Illinois. With an art degree this writer has many lesson plans involving art, authors, poets and technology. To find Dr. Seuss lesson plans, click on the following link:http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1523715/where_to_find_dr_seuss_lesson_plans.html?cat=4

To read her other articles on Associated Content, follow this link:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/156791/michelle_m_guilbeausheppard.html

I found articles on Shel Silverstein poems, coloring dragon pictures, and and princess coloring pages.

Google For Doodle Contest

2009-03-02T15:29:00.000-06:00

A writer at Associated Content, Linda StCyr, wrote an interesting article about a contest Google is having for students. Teachers have to register their students in grades K-12. The students try to create a new Google logo. The theme is What I Wish For The World. The rules are found at the website, http://www.google.com/doodle4google/, given in her article. Only U.S. students are allowed to enter.

See the complete article at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1444408/doodle_4_google_2009_information_you.html?cat=4

You will also find my article about this contest at www. webupon.com
The link for this is: www.webupon.com/Web-design/Doodle-4-Google-Contest-What-a-Great-Googley-Idea.569461

Today Google's Logo is Dr. Seuss characters, to celebrate his birthday. At the contest website you can find out about how Mr. Hwang comes up with the logos he does. He also shows his favorites. Check them out. I like the Mozart logo. Which is your favorite??

Star Wars Can Increase Your Child's Vocabulary

2009-03-01T19:20:00.000-06:00

B. A. Rogers, a writer at Associated Content gives us the reasons why exposing children to vocabulary in context can increase their understanding. She tells us what makes a word "rare" and then provides the reasons why Star Wars books can aid a child's vocabulary. A great article by a writer with a B.A. in English, who adds life experiences to her writing. Read this article at:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1379879/how_star_wars_can_increase_your_childs.html?cat=25

Customizing Your Everything - Human Nature or Popular Culture?

2009-02-28T00:07:00.000-06:00

Have you ever noticed how important it is to us to customize our technological toys? We want a certain desktop wallpaper, background, cursor image on screen. Our name is associated with a certain signature, smiley or title. Our website, blog or facebook page has a customized dashboard, wall or layout. Our cellphone has a certain ring, with a certain personalized case cover.

I noticed one day teaching grade 4 computers that when I allowed the students to customize their desktop computers with a photo from a photographers gallery, they were excited. These 9 year olds came in weekly to change that background even though it was changed back to the default everytime they logged out of the computer lab.

Grade 2 and 3 students, 7 and 8 year olds, were thrilled to play an online math game because the game included an avatar that they could customize with different hats, hairstyles, glasses, skin color, eyes, nose and facial features. These students also love playing on a webkinz site where they can buy and change things for their little stuffed pet.

As adults we can customize our cars, homes and other possessions. We have always had the choice to express ourselves this way. However, it seems to me that lately we have been offered this ability in increasing amounts on every gadget we own.

If young students and adults alike, enjoy the ability to customize programs, avatars, desktops, cellphones etc., why has this phenomenon become so popular? Is it just a big marketing scheme?
It is motivational I'll agree, but does this makes us feel unique or just one in a million?

What customizing phenomenon have you noticed?
Do you think it has always been in our human nature to personalize our space?
Does having a unique profile in a more globally connected world makes it hard for anyone to stand out?
Is customizing a way to carve out our little niche in the world?

Writing Recipe For Success : Add Some Art

2009-02-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

What does art ad to your writing or advertising. One scientific study found that art makes products seem more luxurious if art is on the packaging. So perhaps a picture of art will enhance the perception of your writing. Photos, illustrations always add to a story. So does a photo that is artistic or of an artist help your story? Find out about the study from an article I wrote at this link: http://www.quazen.com/Arts/Visual-Arts/Writers-Recipe-for-Success-Just-Add-Art.557671
This website allows pictures to be embedded with your story. See some good examples of art, graffiti, and eye catching photos.

Ways to Look Smarter - Words U Can Use!

2009-02-26T20:19:00.000-06:00

An excellent online writer, Donald Pennington, has written an article on 30 words you may want to use as a teacher or a writer. Read this and his many other articles at Associated Content. Follow this link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1415924/thirty_words_thatll_make_you_sound.html?cat=7
Perhaps you can conflate the elements of writing and teaching to sound really smart!

Math Tips and Tricks

2009-02-26T15:16:00.000-06:00

If you want to get kids excited about math, try a website called http://www.worldmathsday.com/

Here the students can be registered by a teacher or individually with an email account. After students dress and design their avatar with hats, hair, glasses, skin color and clothes, they enter a math game. The game is a mental math race against 3 other students from around the world. The program picks who they play against. It may even be someone from their own classroom. It is fun, exciting and they love it.

World Maths Day is designed to get kids doing mental math at their level (adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing). They love the race against time. They are given a score based on amount correct in the 1 minute time limit. They can improve their score. 3 strikes and they are out. They can choose a new game.

Kids learn about different country names and flags. Kids can keep track of high scores, average questions correct and other statistics. This game can be practiced at home or at school as long as they have thier name and password.

World Maths Day is on March 4, 2009. Kids can practice any time up until and even after that day. A world mathomometer keeps track of the number of correct math answers found to that date. The country and school leading the race is traced daily. Top students and classes are listed in the hall of fame.

This program is designed by 3P Learning. It is highly motivational for the winter months of February and March. They even give away an ipod as a prize. I recommend it for grades 2 through 8. You will like it at home or at school. It is an easy math or computer lesson which a teacher doesn't have to plan!

Why Teachers Are Here

2009-02-24T09:53:00.000-06:00

I started this blog with the hope that those who want to learn and trade teaching tools, tricks, tips, technology, theories, stories, best lessons and all that comes with this profession, would come here. Why here?? By providing a platform that you are comfortable adding comments to, reading and enjoying, you would find useful use of your time!

I found out there are thousands of blogs called teacher tips and tricks. The only reason to blog here would be that you are new, by chance you found my site, you are a writer at Associated Content and read my articles (www.associatedcontent.com/user/405139/lila_kallstrom), or you like are lost. Add this site to your bookmarks, favorites, and RSS feeds. Connect here and be a part of a new community.

This is also an experiment in learning for me. How can I teach technology without starting a blog? This collaboration, collection and compilation may be important for my students in their near future. Perhaps all teaching will be online blogging, researching and collaborating. Distributing the learning and teaching among the students!

Finally, enjoyment should be part of the learning. Post a few funny moments you've had in teaching and let us all share in the spirit of life that comes from dealing with people.

Writing With Clarity

2009-02-23T16:59:00.001-06:00

The Value of Clarity in Writing, Messaging, and Advertising
Writing clear and concise messages is important in writing, speechwriting, advertising and communicating. This article discusses the value of clarity.
It's clearly an important trait!
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1499508/the_value_of_clarity_in_writing_messaging.html

Smart Uses Of A SMART Board

2009-02-22T17:35:00.000-06:00

A SMART Board, interactive whiteboard or digital whiteboard all refer to technology in the classroom which is motivating to students. It can enhance learning in the same way as computers, videos, slides, pictures, whiteboards, manipulatives and other technologies have created stimulating environments for students. The digital age is aiding the learning and creating new ways to interact with computers. This teaching tool is one of many new technologies that teachers are incorporating into their teaching toolbox.

The electronic whiteboard or SMART Board as an input device can be exciting to use if you know tips and tricks of using it. The lessons provided and online resources are helpful. The tips that teachers who use the technology in their classroom, provide come from experience with the new technology. Those tips can be found in an article that is published at Associated Content. Click on the link below to read the entire article:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1488330/smart_ways_to_use_the_interactive_smart.html?cat=15

This post is provided for you to add on your tips for using the SMART Board in the classroom. Perhaps you have found the best use for this technology and would like to share your ideas. If you are looking for ways that a secondary teacher would use it, you can specify your needs here. People who are using this technology in their classroom may want to specify the grade level and subject area that they are using it with. Post your comments as to whether you like and use the digital whiteboard. What other technology do you use and how?? Let us know at this blog.