Paper Sculptures

I came across this little freebie and thought I'd share with everyone. http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/animal-global/

Yamaha is normally known for its motors however they believe people should play as hard as they work and have come up with some very interesting downloadable and interactive resources for you. Check out the link above it will be worth our time. You may just find something interesting for your next project.

Art Exam Pieces

As I stated in my previous post I am now putting on a few of my Yr. 11 students exam paintings up here. I am very proud of the whole class and the outcomes of their exams. This was a 10 hour, two day exam that culminated in a final piece from the previous 8 weeks of study on the theme of Ordinary and Extraordinary. It was interesting to note how some of the students latched onto ideas they already knew very well, IE, religion or global politics to develop their themes. For me it is nice to see students putting a lot of thought and meaning into their work rather than just trying to paint a pretty picture. I beleive art should have and carry a message.
Here are some of the images:

Well I've been a bit busy as of late, finishing off one of my Master modules on education and preparing my Yr. 11's for their art exams last week. Overall, I was very pleased with their outcomes. More to follow on that though in my next post. In this post I wanted to mention and hope to receive some feedback upon my latest art educational based teaching resource. Like my others it can be found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Colour-Theory-Match-and-Sort-Game. How I propose to do this, to make it a bit sporty and offer this teaching resource free of charge to the first 10 people to leave their email in the comments on this blog. I will then email the product to you to be tested your your art classes. In return for the free resource I would like to get some feedback on this blog after it has been used in the classroom. If this interests you please keep reading.

A Little Gadget to Help Stay Organised

I received an email from my wife who got this tip from a work college. This programme called Evernote is a little gem when it comes to keeping things organised and on task.
Basically Evernote is like the Microsoft Word programme but in ‘cloud’ form, so any changes you make to a document on your work computer are visible and editable on your home computer and iPad, making it easy to work on stuff at home/on the move should you need to. You can also add annotations to documents and add images from internet/smartphone cameras etc so is ideal for putting ideas down for lesson planning, articles or general notes when you are out and about.

It allows you to share documents between multiple users with the paid version, allowing more than one person to work on a single document in turn. The basic version is free and allows you to do pretty much most things except share between users.
Check out the website below for further information.

http://evernote.com/

Do Boys and Girls Learn Differently?

We recently had an inset in our school to which a speaker by the name of Geoff Hannan gave a compelling lecture to students, parents and teaching staff about the differences in how boys and girls learn. He was very entertaining and seemed to capture the students imagination quite quickly. Some of his concepts didn't seem new in anyway but it was very interesting to hear some of the science behind his methods and reasonings. I'm not going to say too much more but I highly recommend reading the sites below and seeing one of his presentations live.

This is an article from the Times Education Supplement (TES) that discusses Geoff and some of his techniques. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=311424

This is another website that sites Geoff Hannan's work along with others and discusses and suggests ways to improve boys attainment.
http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_62212.html

The powers of water?

Do you let students drink water in your lessons?
I hadn't thought much about this until I read this article posted online in the The Star, a Canadian news network. The reporter, Stephanie Findlay, states that UK researchers have studied university students and have come to the conclusion that students whom take a water bottle into their exams scored 4.8% higher than those that did not.
I found this to be an interesting study. For me this reinforces my view to allow students to drink water (I only allow students to drink water, no juices, if is spills then it won't leave a sticky residue) The article can be read using the link below. Enjoy the read and I would like to here your thoughts on this subject. Do you allow students to drink in your classes?
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1163551--why-taking-a-water-bottle-to-an-exam-could-turn-your-b-into-an-a

Thanks
Mark

Silhouette Portraiture

What is a portrait? Traditionally speaking it would seem to be an image of a person drawn, painted or photographed. This was what my students thought when questioned. A more modern approach leads to inanimate objects that describe a persons characteristics. As a teacher this is a humbling thought. Standing at the front of the classroom and letting students know the next scheme of work is going to be portraiture is not always the nicest of feelings. As soon as the words leave my mouth I often see students starting to cringe, diving under desks or blurting out 'I can't draw'. Something about drawing the human form (face) tends to seem 'too dificult' to even attempt.
To try something a bit different