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ART & LITERACY
I work in a district where literacy rates need improvement. I am committed to the success of all my digital arts students, and I can do this by encouraging a love of the reading, writing, and conversation that is woven into all our creative digital arts projects.
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I design projects that build digital literacy, and are based on or connected to traditional literacy components such as composition, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, informal conversation, paraphrasing, and shared reading and writing.
The digital arts lessons I provide in kindergarten to fifth grade consistently employ challenging vocabulary. In addition, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages of creating animations, movies, and comic books engage students in narrative and storyboard development, as well as peer and self-evaluation. I also use a Restriction Method in assignments as a catalyst for deeper creativity. "Draw a tree using only triangles." will encourage more action and creativity than "Draw a tree." "When you restrict yourself in the creative process you can find things you would never have found otherwise."
The digital arts lessons I provide in kindergarten to fifth grade consistently employ challenging vocabulary. In addition, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages of creating animations, movies, and comic books engage students in narrative and storyboard development, as well as peer and self-evaluation. I also use a Restriction Method in assignments as a catalyst for deeper creativity. "Draw a tree using only triangles." will encourage more action and creativity than "Draw a tree." "When you restrict yourself in the creative process you can find things you would never have found otherwise."
Ms Pollet @FILLMORE ARTS CENTER
Fillmore Arts Center has been an award winning Arts Elementary School in Washington DC for more than 40 years. I have been teaching digital arts and music at Fillmore for 19 of those years. Each day at Fillmore, students are received from their schools around the city to engage in 2 hours of comprehensive visual and performing arts electives. Typically a different school attends each day of the week. Choices include; band, strings, choir, general music, theater, dance, digital+media arts, ceramics, sculpture, Chinese brush painting, lego animation, and so much more. Many of our dedicated teachers are working artists.
A Glimpse @ What I Teach in Digital Arts
Photoshop CS6Learners explore and experiment with Photoshop, developing skills in drawing, design, image editing, digital alternative processes and photography.
It is important for learners to become the creators of content & media so they have the opportunity to actively engage rather than only passively receive. |
Flash Animation CS6Learners explore and experiment with Flash Animation, developing skills in Frame by Frame and Tweening techniques.
As learners are actively engaged they have the opportunity to self-direct and think as they learn skills, create, process, collaborate, produce, respond, deliver and connect. |
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BENEFITS OF COLLABORATION - PEER TO PEER STUDENT LED LEARNING
Collaboration affords learners the real-world opportunity to develop important life skills
- self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making -
as they share and cooperate with ideas.
- self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making -
as they share and cooperate with ideas.
Kids are naturally curious and like to learn new fun things and make new fun friends. They are captivated by things that move and seem kid friendly like cartoons and animations. Let them form a team with other kids to make stop-motion animations and, with the proper guidance, they have the best of both worlds
FUN.FOUNDATION.FOCUS.FUTURE
Encouraging learners to reach out to each other to solve problems and share knowledge BUILDS collaboration skills and leads to deeper learning and understanding. Students gain key negotiation skills - stepping up, stepping back, stepping down - and develop important social skills as they realize that their neighbor is a resource. They test their OWN theories and come to understand whether or not they are on the right track. Collaborative learning empowers and enables a student's resilience --- [Student Learning Moment (SLM) resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.] They cultivate habits of mind that are the groundwork of deeper scholarship.
News
Edwin works quietly at his iMac station with a focus beyond his years. He is in the 5th grade and attends my digital arts class every Tuesday. In 2015
I introduced the class to digital collage and stop motion animation. Edwin excelled at both. During the school year, throughout Washington DC, there are opportunities for our students to excel and step up to the next level. One of those is the Annual DC Collaborative sponsored DC Youth Art Cherry Blossom Contest. Each year I submit 5-7 student collage works. This year Edwin's collage was among those. The entires from all students were exceptional. Edwin's collage won 1st Place in his group - grades 3-5, and also won the Peoples Choice Award from the entries posted on the contest FaceBook page where viewers could vote. Some of Edwin's story as written by Rebecca-Cooper Dupin ABC7: "Every day to get to school, Edwin takes a one hour bus ride each way from his home in Anacostia to Marie Reed Elementary School. He is shy and had never been singled out for excellence in anything in his young life. So when he won this arts competition for the Cherry Blossom Festival, it meant the world to both Edwin and his hardworking mother. But what the award really meant was much more than just a shot of confidence for this shy but bright young man. The digital arts class inspired in Edwin a passion for STEM learning he never had been exposed to before. With his family unable to afford it, Edwin had no access to high speed internet and computers at home. His school also wasn’t able to supply all the tools to truly ignite his STEM passions. It was Ms. Pollet and Fillmore that gave Edwin the desire, knowledge and tools to unlock this magical but important world of computers and creating." |
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