Instructify

It’s a good thing they didn’t let me design the Instructify site. We probably would’ve ended up with a generic graphic of a chalk board on a background of brown and light blue, one of about three color schemes I know looks good.

If you have art students as inept as I at choosing colors, LaurenMarie at Creative Curio reminds us that picking good color combinations is as easy as looking at your trusty color wheel. I felt pretty foolish when the article reminded me that you can find complimentary colors simply by looking at opposite sides of the color wheel.

This is helpful advice for students in your painting class or who are experimenting with Web design. If you’re not an art teacher, it’s equally handy for choosing which color of paint matches your couch, or just trying to put an outfit together when you get dressed in the morning.

The problem with everybody having access to programs like Photoshop is that it convinces artistically talentless folks like myself that they’re graphic designers. Maybe if more of us n00bs learned the basics of color and design, the Web would be a better looking place. -BILL FERRIS

The Color Wheel and Color Theory via Creative Curio

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Lights, camera, video…in the classroom? You betcha! If you think kids like watching videos, wait until they start making them. Creating stuff is at a higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy than bubbling in a test sheet. But where to begin?

This handy and easy-to-understand guide from Education.com on producing an educational video is a great place to start. It breaks the process down into pre-production, production, and post production, step-by-step. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment, as most digital cameras today have a video mode on them (my experience with Flip has been fantastic). I would add only one point to this otherwise superb article - for editing there is a free resource for Windows users in Movie Maker. It is not the most stable program (in the interest of disclosure, I have had Adobe Premiere Elements lock on me too, just not as often), but I’ll share a resource that should help you with these problems, PapaJohn - Movie Maker 2 - Issues-1.

A few other resources to help you out are Mathew Needleman’s excellent Video in the Classroom.com site. If you think your kids are too young, wait till you see what he’s done with 2nd graders. If there is an NYU Film school for videos in education it’s the AFI (American Film Institute) which does a lot of workshops teaching educators how to effectively help students make interesting, high-quality videos. -ALICE MERCER

Producting an Educational Video via Education.com
PapaJohn - Movie Maker 2 - Issues-1
AFI ScreenNation
Video in the Classroom.com — Integrating Video Production in the Elementary Classroom and Beyond

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Photo Credit: Stacy Lynn Baum on flickr

Lights, camera, action! Looking for a way to bring your students’ book reports, science/social studies projects, or writing projects to life? Let them create a Claymation Movie.

Claymation is a type of stop motion animation created by moving an object in very small amounts and taking a picture between each movement - think the California Raisins or Wallace and Gromit. You then run all of the pictures together at a fast pace to create the illusion that the object(s) are really moving.

Thanks to the low cost and high availability of digital technology, you can create your own claymation movie with only a computer, digital camera, tripod, and clay. You start by placing a clay figure(s) in front of a backdrop. A cut-out box works great for this. You take a digital picture then move the object(s) a very small amount and take another picture. You continue in this sequence until you have moved the object(s) through all of the motions to tell your story. To liven up your movies or create more drama, incorporate props with your clay object(s). You then insert the digital pictures into a program like Movie Maker. You can make the duration of each photo frame as short as necessary to give your clay figure(s) the illusion that they are moving when you play the movie. If you want to enhance your Claymation you can add narration by using Audacity or add some sound effects by using Sound Dogs. -MONIQUE ST.LOUIS

Claymation Movie - Shooting Hoops, courtesy a 2nd grade student in Burke County, NC

You want me to draw a picture for you? Well, I’ve got the programs to do it. Who doesn’t want more self-expression? Who has longed for something more interesting than MS Paint? Here, dear readers, are alternatives!

1. art.com artPad will let you paint with two tools, a brush (which you can change the size on) and in an homage to Jackson Pollack, a paint can that you can use to splatter paint from.
2. Flash PAINT will give you a grid to work on (nice for linear work), and you can change the paint/pencil depth create a realistic pencil or watercolor effect.
3. offtype.net has the easiest interface, and starts you immediately on a canvas. This one is great for young ‘uns, or folks with limited computer skills. Oh, you can also embed (put a copy) of the drawing canvas in your blog or Webpage.
4. Cubescape will give you a three dimensional option, PLUS you get to blow up (as in explode, not expand) your work, or replay its construction.
5. viscosity - it’s difficult to describe what you are creating here. Imagine a multi layer pudding in a clear bowl, and swirling a spoon through it moving the layers and colors. That’s sort of what you end up with. Anyway check out the example above. It’s really easy to use, and the results are interesting.

art.com artPad
Flash PAINT
offtype.net
Cubescape
viscosity

I’d like to credit Larry Ferlazzo for tipping me off to most of these. -ALICE MERCER

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There are few artists more suited to use in the primary and elementary classroom than the late Keith Haring. Many of you may not know who Keith Haring is, but you’ll recognize his quirky and iconic “men” (see the example above). His work was used for a number of public campaigns benefiting children and AIDS, from which he died in 1990. Now that work lives on at the website, Haring Kids.

Haring Kids is wonderful not only because of the art (which is kid friendly), but the writing is also suitable for early readers. The site boasts a variety of activities. First, kids can find animations of typical Haring figures. What’s the Story? is a great writing prompt for language arts. You can also find e-Cards, printable coloring sheets, and games (like Hangman and tic-tac-toe), all of which are rendered in Haring-script and with his figures. The art and project sections show examples from children.

This site is great for both art and language art instruction. So add some (primary) colors into your classroom with Haring Kids. -ALICE MERCER

Haring Kids

In any given classroom you’ll find lots of different talents and interests, and it can be difficult for one teacher to find the time and resources to address them all. And, with school budget cuts hitting arts departments hardest, schools in general have fewer resources to let kids explore their talents and and give them a much-needed creative outlet. So, wouldn’t it be great if a virtual utopia dedicated exclusively to the visual and performing arts existed in which your student could run wild with their creativity?

Believe it or not, this utopia of the arts exists! Artopia is a free, interactive Web-based arts experience designed for middle school students that lets them explore the arts, including: theater, sculpture, dance, music, painting and media arts. Your students can go behind the scenes of a theater, learn about choreographing dance performances, create storyboards, get behind the soundboard in a music studio, view important paintings and works of art, and so much more. And, on top of all that, they can even watch performances and write critical reviews of them. There’s so much to do and see in Artopia, and luckily your students can keep track of it all with their own virtual portfolio, which they can access by registering and logging into the site.

Artopia also offers a special area for teachers with downloadable lesson plans and classroom materials that tie in with the activities on the site, making this a great way to let your students’ creativity shine and also encourage them think critically about art.

So cater to all the artistic talents and tastes that co-exist in your classroom, maybe they’ll even find some common ground in Artopia. -LAUREN FROHNE

Artopia

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Plautus once said, “No guest is so welcome in a friend’s house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.” He obviously never met Flat Stanley.

If you haven’t met him, either, Flat Stanley is a little guy cut out of paper, sent to young students from other children in schools the world over. The program works like this: students make their own Flat Stanleys and take him around with them, keeping a journal of their activities (went for ice cream, cleaned their room, etc.). After showing him a good time, the kids mail Flat Stanley and a copy of the journal to another school. These students there take Stanley out on the town, too, jotting down what they do, before sending him back home again, often with souvenirs and pictures. As someone who enjoys travel, I’ve never been so jealous of a paper doll.

The Flat Stanley Project is basically a souped-up pen pal program. Thousands of schools participate every year, and the only costs are paper and stamps. As the Flat Stanley website says, “By sending a Flat Stanley it’s as if the senders and the recipients have a mutual friend - a little flat guy they can both talk about.” The Flat Stanley Project is a fun way for your students to interact with kids from far-away areas, and they can associate a face with their new friends, even if its only made of paper.

You can sign up your class to send and receive Flat Stanleys at the Flat Stanley website. It’ll be a fun class project, and you’ll never have a more considerate guest. -BILL FERRIS

Flat Stanley

You might have read this review of the Read*Write*Think Activities which described a “veritable playground” of fun, and instructionally sound activities. In case you have not taken the time to check this site out, I wanted to share one of the fantastic activities available on the site, Bio-Cube, that had some of my fourth grade students engaged, writing, and loving it. And best of all, at the end they got to make “art” from their work.

What is a Bio-Cube and where can you get them? Bio-Cube is an online flash (animated) application where students (or even you, dear teacher) fill in details about a character, or themselves - who doesn’t love to talk about themselves? It then formats what you put in, and when you print it out, it has a template with easy-to-use instructions to cut it out and glue it together in a cube. It’s writing, it’s math, it’s awesome. Check it out! -ALICE MERCER

Bio-Cube
Bio-Cube Lesson Plan for Teachers
Read*Write*Think Activities

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Back in February, Jeremy blogged about Doodle 4 Google, a contest where students redesigned the Google logo based around the question, “What if…?”. The entries are in, and you can now vote for your favorites. The winning drawing will replace the usual Google logo on May 22.

If you missed the contest deadline, you can still take advantage of the lesson plans Google has made available for the project. The contest’s central question, “What if…?” can be a springboard for lots of creative ideas beyond just the Google logo. For example, I think the Instructify banner at the top of this page would be a great choice. -BILL FERRIS

Doodle 4 Google - Vote

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Ever have that student that just can’t seem to get a concept (especially in mathematics) without concrete examples? How about the ones that do better when they make something, rather than taking notes and doing calculations? That probably describes 50-85% of some classrooms. Well dear readers, we have some tools for you.

Are you teaching about symmetry and reflections? Kaleidoscopes are a great way to teach students about these concepts. Myoats is a great online tool for this. It lets users create kaleidoscopic images with 1 to 16 lines of symmetry. You can even save your creations as an image file. There is also a library of images created by others that you can use as examples.

Tessellations are great for visually showing patterns, and Math Cats’ Tessellation Town! is easy enough for primary kids to start building. It gives you a choice of different tiles to work, and you can start clicking away.

Do you have tappers and drummers in your class? Spring is their season, so let them go to Phil Tulga’s Playing Fraction Pies to get all those phat beats out of their system, AND learn about fractions.

So give the right side of your kids’ brains a workout during math with these fun and easy-to-use sites. -ALICE MERCER

Myoats
Math Cats’ Tessellation Town!
Phil Tulga’s Playing Fraction Pies

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We should probably notice the trend of Manga and other comic literature making its way into the hands of students everywhere, but perhaps we shouldn’t be so fast to pull it away from them. The Graphic Classroom is a blog dedicated to helping teachers and librarians find high-quality literature in the form of graphic novels and comics. There are recommendations for different grade levels, ranging from illustrated classics like Treasure Island for middle schoolers to Art Spiegelman’s astonishing graphic novel Maus for ages 15 and up.

You can search the blog for ideas of graphic literature to use in your classroom, and even find some ideas of what is not recommended. (Journey Into Mohawk Land? Yeah, probably not…) Graphic lit is a medium that is as important as any in today’s age, so it is just as important for educators to understand how to teach it. Let your students know about Free Comic Book Day, which is this Saturday May 3rd. The Graphic Classroom recommends the anthology Graphic Classics, which includes stories by Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Shelley. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

The Graphic Classroom

One of the neatest projects I ever did for a college literature class was to interpret a novel through a digital collage — and not just because it got me out of writing a paper. Creating a visual representation of the themes and motifs in the book let us tell a story through images rather than words and made us think about how the story would look if it were, say, a painting (not to mention, we didn’t have to write another paper).

If you’ve wanted to integrate digital collages and photo editing and sharing into your classroom lesson plans, but can’t find room in your already tight budget to invest in one of those expensive software programs, then look no further than Splashup.

Splashup is a free, full-featured online image editor that allows users to create new images, edit existing images and manipulate layers with all kinds of filters and brushes. The interface is easy to use and resembles Photoshop, Illustrator and other familiar photo editors. It’s basic enough for novices to get the hang of, but has sophisticated features that even professionals can appreciate. And did I mention it’s FREE?

What also separates Splashup from its competitors is that it seamlessly integrates with photo sharing sites, including Picasa, Flickr, and Facebook; which means you can import photos from those sites, edit them, and then export them right back for immediate sharing capabilities. You can even save your work in Splashup and come back to it later to edit it some more from another computer — oh, the wonders of data portability!

So, get those new media assignments on your syllabus ASAP. I promise your students will appreciate the change of pace — and not just because they don’t have to write another paper! — LAUREN FROHNE

Splashup

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My sister once created a portrait of Albert Einstein for a high school art class. Instead of drawing traditionally, she wrote the phrase, “Knowledge is Power” over and over on the canvas until it took on an Einsteinian shape. As someone who couldn’t draw a recognizable picture of anybody even if I was tracing over a photograph, I was pretty impressed. And totally jealous. After all these years, though, I may have a way to do something just as impressive thanks to artist Robert Bosch of Domino Artwork.

At Domino Artwork, I can download instructions to create domino portraits of Abe Lincoln, the Mona Lisa, Martin Luther King or the Statue of Liberty. If you’d like to join in on the fun, you’ll have to spend a few bucks buying 12 sets of dominoes, as well as glue, and some vinyl panels to serve as your “canvas.”

If you’re looking for a fun elementary art project, Bosch encourages you to use his designs for class. All he asks in return is you credit him and his website, and send him a photo of the completed work. Me, I’ll be sending a photo to my sister. Your Einstein isn’t so cool now, is it, sis? -BILL FERRIS

Domino Artwork

I don’t know how we’ve forgotten to mention flickrCC for so long. Any time you see a photo on Instructify that isn’t a screen shot or logo of what we’re reviewing, it probably came from flickrCC.

What is flickrCC, you ask? It’s a search engine combs through free photo-sharing site Flickr for pictures that are shareable under the Creative Commons license. In layman’s terms, it means flickrCC does the legwork in rounding up pictures you can use in class so long as you give credit to the photographer.

What’s that mean for you? You now have a limitless supply of free photographs to use for class projects, clip art, presentations, bulletin boards, and anything else you can come up with. The only limit for most photos is that they can only be used for non-commercial purposes. A few may also require you to get permission before using, but I’d be amazed if they said no to a school. If you want to edit the photo, you’ll have to specify that in your search.

With flickrCC, you can add the power of images to any assignment without having to buy yet another clip art collection. -BILL FERRIS

flickrCC

Nick is working on an “adobe.” Can you say that with me? [Tour group responds, “Ahhhdoooohhhbeeee.”]
I’m sorry, I just had an 80s movie flashback. Now thanks to Adobe Photoshop Express Beta, you too can work on an Adobe (although, all the cool kids call it Photoshop these days).

So that photo of you has evil, red eyes? Or you want to add evil, red eyes to an existing photo? No more having to crank up your bulky Photoshop application. Just upload your photo and start tweaking. Adobe Photoshop Express Beta allows you to use a lot of the useful features you’re used to—all on the web.

Adobe Photoshop Express also lets you store up 2GB of photos, free of charge. That’s something that definitely comes in handy when you’re away from your personal computer but still want to show people all of the evil, red eyes you’ve added to your photos. –NICK YINGLING

Adobe Photoshop Express Beta

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