Work from three of our students will be on display at the National Museum of AMericaan Jewish History in conjunction with their Bill Graham exhibit. Bill Graham was recognized as one of the most influential concert promoters in history, he launched the careers of countless rock & roll legends in the ’60s at his famed Fillmore Auditorium. The posters used for advertising these concerts became widely known and collected due to their bold colors and interesting lettering. An example is pictured below. Our students were inspired by his work and created posters of their own subject matter incorporating unique lettering and bold colors. The exhibit will be on display until January 17th at the museum.
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Funny when asked to make the robot no one asked why. Mr. Roboto was called into action as our mascot for our new robotics club. Mr. Mayger received a grant from Amazon to host a robotics club. Dr. Hite, members of the School Reform Commission and ofcourse, Amazon were on hand for an assembly in which several schools were awarded $12,000! Thank you Amazon. It was an exciting day and our choir also performed flawlessly. Way to shine Wilson Our choir can be heard singing please click on the photo below
https://goo.gl/photos/aeEdnGTyYdcT2Z5P6 My classroom phone rings at 8:45 am and I think this can't be good. I answer and I am asked "Can you make a robot by 3pm today?" Without hesatation I say "Yes, ofcourse we can!" Well what a day, I pulled students from 802 to create a robot in less than 7 hours with only the materials we had in the building. Luckly art teachers save everything. These kids created out mascot Mr. Roboto. He can dance too.
With the short week we had this week students used this time to practice their drawing skills and to learn to use charcoal. I dragged out boxes of interesting objects for the students to draw. They had 5 minutes and then we switched objects. Great results by all and some smudgy fingers and faces.
Wilson's first annual Fall FestivalOn November 3rd, Wilson had it's first annual fall festival! This was a PBIS event that was open to all students to kick off what hopes to be a fun school year! I am sure the kids enjoyed themselves. There was donut diving, sack racing, ring toss, mummy racing, scarecrow making contest, face painting, a photo booth and of course a DJ to spin all their favorite tunes! A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO SHOPRITE COLLINS MARKET for DONATING ALL the PUMPKINS and DONUTS for our festival some more fun scenes from the day! Scarecrow Design CompetitionEach advisory was encouraged to participate in a scarecrow design competition during the fall festival . The students were required to bring in their own supplies to make the scarecrow. All of the entries were fabulous! Many of these students had never made a scarecrow before. The contest was judged and the winners will receive a pizza party. Skeletons and Masks in 901The students in section 901 made skeletons and masks this week. The skeletons were created using paper strips glued on to marble painted paper to create either a human or an animal. We had many humans, a tiger and a fish!
The masks were created using a mold and paper mache, each student created their own mask and then used paint, glitter and feathers to decorate it. I should have probably posted weekly but with 19 classes and almost 600 students I was busy teaching, grading, and trying to learn names. I have a lot of students named sweetie and while I may not know all their names yet, I will learn them. I do however remember all their art. And it is fabulous! The projects are going very smoothly and creatively. Making the switch from 75 minute classes to 45 minute classes was a bit difficult at first but we are getting in the swing of things and even have Barney for clean up. I will start with section 901 and all the projects we have been working on. This is a small self contained class and that allows for one on one time and some creative leeway among the students. We started with a name design project based on Jasper Johns. Useing brushes and roller the students painted the background areas different colors and patterns. Then using stamps the students added the letters of their name. To finish it off we painted more patterns and added glitter. The results are excellent and the work in hanging in the marble hallway for all to see. Next we worked on some small clay projects just to introduce the class to pinch and coil methods. I had one student that is going to be a sculpture, he created a human form. These will be fired in the coming weeks and the students will then glaze them. GRADE 6 students are also working on a name design project inspired by Jasper Johns. The paper was folded into 8 sections and the students began by drawing out their letters using different fonts. They are at the stage now where paint is being added, learning how to control the brush and the paint has been challenging for some. These will hopefully be finished this upcoming week GRADE 7 students are working on a spiral name design project where they are learning about balance and radial symmetry. The have designed their own fonts and have used descriptive words about themselves along with patterns and objects to complete the radial design. The students are using colored pencils to add color. This is a fun project because the design always looks difficult but after learning how to do it the students all agree it is very easy. GRADE 8 students are working on a project inspired by Charles Demuth 'I see the number 5" However no numbers in their, yes you guessed it their names. The students designed 3 different fonts and used those to write their names. The paper was folded into 16 squares. Letters were written large, small and all over the place, not necessarily in order. Objects that describe the student was placed in the boxes and background along with patterns and color. Each class is in various stages of completion and are using many different materials such as colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, and watercolors. The results are turning out to be somewhat of a self portrait but with out the facial image. THURSDAY CLASSES have art once a week for 45 minutes. I decided to do a different curriculum for them. They will have bootcamps in which they will learn new techniques and media and then create a project. Their first bootcamp was on shading techniques and observational drawings. They started by learning contour line and creating several blind contour line drawings of different objects and then their classmates. This was fun because their was no cheating the students used a paper plate to hid their eyes from seeing what their hand was drawing. It was one students comment that led us to the final project in color. After the contour lines they learned how to shade a geometric form usinf blending, hatching, crosshatching, and stippling. Their project they are working on now using color was the original blind contour line drawing of their classate, one student remarked about how it looked like something Picasso would do. SO that is how we are completing them . This has been difficult for the students because they are not used to being told that the project is supposed to look out of order and a bit crazy with color. The results are very different among each student. ART CLUB students have been busy working on poster designs inspired by Bill Graham and some of them will be displayed at the Jewish Museum downtown. We did take a brief break to also work on the photo booth displays for the Fall Festival Last but not least some wonderful students from Northeast High School joined us for a little bit so that they could create a banner to honor a young girl named Philomena. Philomena Stendardo, also known as Phil or Bean, is a 7 year old girl from Port Richmond. She goes to St. Georges school and absolutely loves gym class and soccer. A brain tumor was discovered in her brain stem, and due to the location, is inoperable. She loves the color purple, soccer and her number is 22. This banner was used in the Northeast Varsity Soccer teams last game and will also be used during playoff games. #stormtheheavens
Welcome to all for what is hopefully going to be a fun and exciting year! Schedules have changed and classes are 45 minutes not 75 minutes. So what does it mean for art, well it will take longer to complete projects but the students are off to a great start! Another change, I now teach 19 classes a week. So more art to display! Our Pinwheels for Peace display is even larger than before. These 5 foot letters making up the word PEACE are hanging in the entryway to our school. Thank you to all the students that helped to assemble them. Pinwheels celebrating International Day of Peace are the first project. Each student must design a pinwheel with a symbol that represents peace on one side. On the other side the student must illustrate a place they find peaceful. Below are some pictures of the pinwheels before they were assembled.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting a teen art exhibit. Teens were able to submit their work to be juried by the Tenn Ambassadors Group. Hundreds of artwork was submitted. Jenny Sim, one of our 8th grade students work was selected to be on display. I was fortunate to see the exhibit this past week. Wow we have some very talented and hard working students in this city, the future of art is bright when looking at their work. The work ranged from painting to charcoal, to mixed media and sculpture. I have included all works below. Jenny's work is pictured in the second photo. The show will be on display until August 8th, I hope you have a chance to view it in person.
The end of the year is always bittersweet. We are excited for summer but I hope that my students will continue to create and challenge themselves during the summer. Today I cleaned and closed up the classroom and it always looks so empty. A new fresh start in September!
Today I delivered the large sculptures to 440, our district building. I love my car yes they all fit, no I could not see out the back windows at all. In fact I couldn't see past the drivers seat. The looks on the faces of the people downtown as I was carrying in the pieces was priceless. The sculptures look great in their new location. The will be on display for the PAEA conference in October. The district building is located at 440 North Broad St. The artwork is on display during business hours all summer.
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