Les Trois Inventeurs (1980) by Michel Ocelot

This is an amazingly beautiful video in which the artist created everything from doilies.  Just, wow.  It was created in 1980, but I had never seen it until today.  It's causing my brain to do a happy little shift.

Thanks for the link, Julie.  Check out her blog at:  A Succulent Life

TOWANDA!!

As I stood at the sink this afternoon, feeling as though I was going to cry, Idgy Threadgoode's voice rang in my ears. "You need to get yourself some hormones, honey."

This video is from Fried Green Tomatoes after the Kathy Bates character does get hormones and accesses her alter-ego, Towanda. I love this clip. It makes me feel better just watching it.

Snippety Kids

I got a generous grant from BestBuy last year to buy video cameras. After buying the cameras, my brain got stuck; I wasn't sure how to proceed with my idea after that. I wrote the grant for having students create shadow puppet plays.

Finally, I decided I'd better just jump in and do it. I chose a class with whom I worked closely while doing National Boards. They're patient with me and will try most anything I throw at them. So today, within one 80 minute class, they decided on the play they wanted to put on, created the puppets, and put on the play. Crazy. Here are a couple of the shows.

Monkeys Jumping on the Bed


Alien Hokey Pokey

When they were done they begged me to let them do another one! I may just do that. I'll encourage them to be louder and more vibrant next time. I think they did well anyway, considering all that I put on them.

Another Sub Video

I've got another sub lesson video "in the can." The artist's representative told me that I could use her work for my lesson and share it with my friends. If I want to post it on YouTube, I will need to put her name on each still frame in big letters. So, for my own purposes, this is finished. If I want to share it with a much larger world, it needs more work. I will put the extra work in it when I figure out how to do it. (Which probably means that I will spend tonight working on that.)

I've got two other projects that I'm working on. One is a series of "Quickies." When a whole class of kids finish their art work early, I scramble around for something to fill in the time. These videos will be short drawing exercises for that purpose.

The other one is simply for my students to see. Three classes made pipe cleaner circuses and I videoed them. I'm trying to clean those up a bit and rerecord the voices that weren't loud enough.

I'm going out for a celebratory dinner with a friend tonight. (She achieved National Boards. Yea!!!) Afterwards, I am hoping to get some time in down in Snippyville.

Ski Jan's Bike Trail

High point of my day: Cross country skiing on the bike trail across the street from our house.

(This is only 14.5 miles from the White House. Surprising, isn't it?)

Low point of my day: Hearing my iTouch hit the inside of the toilet bowl. I didn't let it linger long enough to get a shot of it, but here is where it will reside for the next 24 hours or so.

7am

As I came downstairs this morning, a red fox came out of the woods and ran in the yard. I tried to catch it with my camera, but of course, it was too late. This is my view...sans fox.

The Delicious Paintings




There is a part of teaching that I absolutely ABHOR. That is writing sub plans. HATE IT!!! And after you go through all the torture of writing them, someone, who may or may not have any art experience, has to interpret it. I doubt it is any more fun for the sub than it is for me. Alas, it occurred to me to just film me teaching the whole kit and kaboodle. All the sub has to do is to pop in the DVD and hit play.

After finishing the video, I thought of lots of things I would like to change. I don't know that I ever will though.

Art teachers.....I did this lesson with second grade, but I would try it out with second through fifth to see with whom it fits best.

iMovie Notes to Self

I'm working on iMovie to make sub plans on video. I mentioned it on Twitter, and my art teacher friends are giving me tips that really open up the possibilities. They're old hats at this and I am thrilled to pick their brains.

My first computer was a Mac, but when it was time to get a new one, I was persuaded to get a PC. It was really convenient to have so many programs available as compared to the Mac at the time. My school went all PC as well, so PCs have been the tool I've used for the past ten years. I came back to Mac mostly as a way to avoid viruses, but it has just been a dream using the creative tools that Mac has to offer.

Notes to myself about my project.......

hilland @School_Marm I've also used my built-in isight camera to record project directions and demonstrate clay building techniques for subs.

theresamcgeeart @School_Marm Using iMovie works so well for lesson plans! I will often break it down into "chapters" in iDVD to pace the lesson.

.........
Please ignore this.  I have to upload this image somewhere so I can link to it on my TPT shop.  

Printin' and Singin'

Beware. I am singing in this video. And the "song" might get stuck in your head. I make up songs for my preschoolers that help them remember small concepts.



Note, the first person singing the tune in the video isn't me. I'm just joining in.

My preschoolers are doing their second printing lesson with me and I am trying to get them to remember that a print is a copy.

To do this lesson you need this:

and this:



I got the idea from The Crafty Crow blog who got it from the Daisy Yellow blog. The kids loved it and left the room singing.

Tutorial 3D Papercut

Pat, my blogger friend at Zen Crafting, asked me to make a tutorial on how to create a 3D papercutting from a child's drawing. Since I am trying to learn iMovie, I thought this would be a good opportunity to develop that skill.

scherenschnitte

Snowmen Snip - 3D

I must be longing for a bit of snow, as snow images keep surfacing in my snips.

It was well below freezing this morning, much colder than it normally is this time of year in Northern Virginia. We rode the mountain bikes on a nearby trail. I didn't feel up to par for it. My lungs felt as though they just couldn't fully expand. Then there's the part about freezing toes and freezing fingers. Sometimes I'd just as soon enjoy the winter from the inside of "Snippyville", the little art space in my house.

To create this snip I hand sewed three sheets of paper together and folded them in half. I used "Dippety Dye" paper, which is stronger than tissue paper, but not by a lot. Cutting through six layers of this was relatively easy however.

I didn't invent 3D scherenschnitte, by the way. I've seen it around as long as I've been snipping. (That'd be about 25 years now.)

Kirie--The Art of Japanese Papercutting

Teacher Scream

One of my goals for the year, which I have yet to even think about, is to create and upload a video to Teacher Tube. Fellow art teacher, Tricia Fuglestad, creates fun teaching videos with and for her students. This is one that is applicable to most schools right now.

And it reminds me that I need to work on one myself............

Animoto Love!

I found a link to Animoto.com through an art teacher's del.icio.us tags. It is a fun site for animating your photos. I love PhotoStory, but this is just a bit fancier. Now sure, PhotoStory is provided for me for free by my school system, and is sure to be my default photo animation tool, but I can see myself paying to use Animoto once in a while.

Here's a short animation of some of my fairy snips. Animoto lets you do a 30 second animation for free. They even let you choose to use their music or upload your own.