Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Artistic Process


Blogs can serve as a tool with many uses within the classroom. It is up to the teacher to incorporate blogs into his/her classroom in a meaningful way. English teachers might use blogs as a way to provide students with formal writing practice (Richardson, 2010, pg. 29). Social Studies teachers might link up with other classes from other parts of the word to discuss government, or culture (Richardson, 2010, pg. 27).  

In my art classroom one way I could use blogs is to connect teachers, parents, and students. As students are working on an art project, they can post updates on their artistic process. They can reflect or ask for suggestions from their teacher, peers or the world, to improve their artwork. Other students can join in to critique the art, or see how other classes are approaching the same lesson. This would connect students in an artistic community. Parents can also have access to the blog. At the high school level, it is a rare occurrence that artwork actually makes it home. I will find missing pieces of work around the school; sometimes teens can be forgetful. By posting artwork online I can provide a platform for me to respond to students work, for students to grow as artists, and for parents to see the artistic process/artwork.

Have you ever used blogging as a way to show/tell?


Resources
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for  classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

5 comments:

  1. Jennifer, you have some great ideas for using the blogging tool. I believe students would get a kick out of seeing their work online! One challenge might be how to get it there. You could possible scan it in or take a picture of it and download it? I am not sure but good luck with what you are doing!

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    1. Timothy,

      My teenaged students would love seeing their artwork online. I am sure they would even post a link on their Facebook page or Twitter account. I have been blogging on the personal level for years, and already have the blogger app on my iphone. When you are in the app you can take pictures and post them online, or you can safe the pic in a draft post. I prefer to draft blog posts from my phone and do the final formatting on a computer. Thanks for the feedback!

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  2. Jen,

    I agree that using blogs to showcase students’ artwork would be extremely beneficial and enticing in the high school art classroom. I am sure that most students would embrace the opportunity to share their creativity with others, and parents would love the chance to actually see their children’s artwork. I understand how students can be “forgetful” when taking assignments home. I was curious how you would deal with a student who was reluctant to have others see their work. Many high school students experience a great deal of insecurity. How would you help them get over that and feel confident about sharing their work? I am a high school English language learners (ELL) teacher and am planning on implementing blogs in my classroom as well. This idea of my students being self-conscious about their work has been on my mind a lot. Many ELL students do not feel comfortable sharing ideas with others because they are not confident in their abilities with English. I have contemplated not having peers post comments at the beginning as my students become accustomed to writing blogs and having their ideas open to the public. As they build their confidence, I would like to have peer comments because I know it is a great tool for growth. I do know that I will be very clear with my students about what is appropriate when commenting on the work of others. I want the blogging process to be a positive one for all my students. I would really like to hear how you would deal with student insecurities with posting. Blogging is new to me, and I love hearing other people’s thoughts and opinions about it.

    Thank you,
    Amy King

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  3. Jennifer,

    I think the idea of getting suggestions from outside the school and the teacher is wonderful. I will admit I do have some worries over the students responding directly to one another and critiquing each others works of art. How do you control their responses to make sure they are actually helpful and not hurtful?

    Daniel

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  4. Jen,
    I was hoping to use blogs in my art room in a very similar manner to what you have planned. However, the logistics of taking and uploading pictures might be a bit more difficult for me because I teach elementary students. I’m curious to know if the best approach would be for each student to create his or her own blog and have to the students subscribe to each other’s blog or to have one community blog. I also love the idea of using a blog to give your students more timely feedback. Would you make this feedback public so others could view it or would the comments be only seen by the one student? While critiques are an essential part of art education, I sometimes find young artist to be very sensitive to certain feedback. I would treat the comments on a case by case basis on whether or not the feedback is public. I think with a lot of practice, and access to the technology, I might be able successful have my older students share their art online. I look forward to seeing how it goes!
    Lindsey

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