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Fillmore Arts CenterFillmore 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 18 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 arts, ceramics, sculpture, chinese brush painting, lego animation, and so much more.
Many of our wonderful, dedicated teachers are working artists. |
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I.am.a.proud.teacher.of grades 1-5, digital arts + media at Fillmore Arts Center, a DCPS Arts Elementary School. My motto is yes.they.can
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Photoshop SkillsLearners 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 AnimationLearners 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. |
StopMotion + Movie MakingIn collaborative groups, stop-motion learnerss explore and experiment with 4 main animation techniques:
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BENEFITS OF COLLABORATION - PEER TO PEER STUDENT LED LEARNING
Collaboration affords learners the real-world opportunity to develop important communications skills as they share and cooperate with ideas. Encouraging them 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.
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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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