Archive for the ‘optical illusions’ Category

It will be interesting adjusting to being in the art room. It is tricky getting set up and then cleaning up and trying to get back to my classroom – since the Promethean Board isn’t working right now, I don’t need to unhook the computer, so that will make things a little easier. But I need to have my folder for emergencies, my attendance book, dry erase markers to get agendas and objectives up – plus set up activities. At least I don’t have to clean up before leaving – I can always set up the first thing.

My two aides have been cleaning and organizing the storage closet – we have lots of great stuff, so I should be able to do a lot of interesting activities. I have the laptop computers in, which was a hassle, but the kids liked to look at the optical illusions, especially my seventh graders. They were so attentive, and they were very careful with the illusions they chose to recreate. These are a couple of good sites:
optical illusions with lots of movement, and more optical illusions that are constantly updated.It should be interesting to see how that kids handle this.

I will use more activities from the Incredible Art site, as I know what I have for materials. I miss not having Photoshop right now, as the kids could do samples of lines. I need to get some pics of the room- lots of great windows, we need to have window blinds put up on one side, because the morning sun right now is pretty strong, especially when using the computers. And I need to get the garbage emptied, so we can continue to clean.

32 more days till Eric Maisel visits the blog. Once I read through Van Gogh’s Blues, I want to start thinking about questions that look at making meaning for adolescents. I am enjoying reading other blogs.

My eighth graders finished their first art assignment, doodling, then creating a small frame to move around the doodle and decide on an area they would like to frame. Then they colored inside the doodle and we posted them. The kids kept sneaking outside the classroom to see the artwork. They were all really pleased at how they did. And – I got more of the work in from this group of eighth graders. The only issue this group has is horrible language – had to deal with the F word several times in that class….

And then in my enrichment class the kids wanted to know if the true meaning of “bitch” was a female dog. So I said yes and used the word correctly in a sentence – which about made them shocked that I would. Ah, adolescents….

But the kids seem to be settling in well to art – with a good dose of the optical illusions as a way of looking at basic line. They are entranced. As we look at the use of color in the illusions, I noticed for the first time that most of them tend to use complementary colors to create the idea of movement. Tomorrow the seventh graders will have a chance to look at the paper artist – they loved the pencil lady!

No more education rants – I have a new blog just for that!