Archive for the ‘Arts Integration — Photography’ Category

At long last, the weather and school schedule were both good on the same day. I led groups of fifth graders at McLeod Elementary School on a field shoot. We were in search of living things in the schoolyard. Each student carried a digital camera. Each group chose a different section of the schoolyard to shoot in. I am sharing some of their photographs here. As we went about our work, the students and I generated lots of questions. “What is it? Why is it that color? Will I find these where I live? Will it bite?”

My work on this project is funded by the Ask for More Arts collaborative of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson. McLeod is an Ask for More Arts school and participates in the JumpstArt program, which brings artists of all kinds into elementary classrooms across the city for arts instruction integrated with traditional academic subjects.

Day 1

6-10:30 a.m. Rise, walk dog with Richard, prepare boys’ lunch, walk dog with friend, Pilates.

10:40 -11:05 a.m. Conversation with filmmaker (who happens also to be a friend) about script for book trailer. Glad to be working with a professional. Moving images and audio are way out of my area of expertise. Grateful for grant from state and local arts agencies that made it possible for me to hire professional filmmakers for my book trailer.

11:10-11:30 a.m. Shower.

11:35-11:55 a.m. Start blog post for later this week, featuring an interview with video.

12:00-1:00 p.m. Re-heat lunch and eat with Richard. Sneak downstairs to computer for a minute to email some links and a still photograph to filmmaker.

1:05-2:30 p.m. Rest. A little longer than usual because I was savoring the end of a fun novel, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. (The cover art bothers me a tad; Alice Blackwell marries in a cotton two piece that her mother-in-law dismisses as a pioneer girl outfit; the dress on the cover is NOT that.)

2:35- 3:02 p.m. Put finishing touches on blog post.

3:02 p.m. Email from magazine editor. Needs phone conference on piece slated for August. Reply that I am free until 3:50 p.m. when I must collect two younger boys from school.

3:05 – 3:35 p.m. Tie three split chicken breasts around two onions and two sprigs of fresh rosemary. Rub with olive oil, more rosemary, and some thyme. Editor calls. Use cordless phones and headset to discuss magazine piece. Concerns must be answered. A potential re-write angle is discussed. Editor promises to email the potential new angle. I promise to think — and figure out a direction by noon next day.

3:45 p.m. Start oven preheating. Bundle up for unseasonably cold weather. Gloves, hat, scarf, fleece. Go to door to let my oldest son in. “Is it that cold inside?” he asks. G’s always a bright spot in my day.

3:50 p.m. Pick up younger boys at school. Conference with teacher about blazers that need to be purchased with booster club monies. I am the keeper of the booster club monies, but I forgot to bring the total. Her computer is down and the Blazer company’s phone line is busy. We agree to talk next day. I promise her we have enough money for 5 blazers — even though I don’t know how much money we have, nor the exact cost.

4:30 p.m. Home. Put chicken in oven. Peel white and sweet potatoes. Add to roasting pan.

4:50 p.m. Print potential re-write angle.  Call critique partner to see if she can brainstorm later. Make 6:30 p.m. appointment. Sit in living room chair to consider rewrite.

5 p.m. Place call to editor — even though it is an hour after close on the East Coast. Editor at desk. (They work long hours.) Convey my belief that rewrite angle is bad idea, but promise to try something later.

5:10 p.m Wash and trim asparagus for steaming. Cut the chicken while Richard makes gravy.

5:30 p.m Sit down to roast chicken, potatoes, steamed asparagus, and gravy.

5:55 p.m. Walk dog with Richard. One boy does dishes, one boy feeds dog and takes out trash, and one waters the plants.

6:30 p.m. Home just in time for call with critique partner. Not really much brainstorming. I’ve decided I can’t rewrite from proposed angle. Back and forth. Discuss a small bit of school business.

6:45 p.m. Sit at computer. Bring up final, edited version of magazine piece. Pull out a few research sources, search internet for more information. Become more firm in my position that proposed angle won’t work. Write email to editor. At a loss for how to proceed. Suggest scrapping article or pulling byline. Am out of ideas. Give morning schedule so editor can reach me.

7:45 p.m. Read to D from Shadow’s Edge.

8:30 p.m. Seek to connect with N about science fair project that is causing problems. He’s in no mood for it.

8:30 – 9:30 p.m. A little kitchen tidying, a little web browsing. Eat popcorn with nice, warm cup of tea. 10 p.m. Asleep.

Day 2 (Today)

Early routine same. (substitute recumbent bike and treadmill for water aerobics because pool heater is not working and water is COLD.)

6:54 a.m. Editor replies via email. Editor ready to throw in towel, too, but only temporarily. Will sub another article for August. Will work through issues somehow.

9:30 a.m.  Take model airplane to school so youngest son will have it for Science Olympiad after school.

9:45 a.m. Re-heat black-eyed peas prepared two days ago for today’s church lunch for the food pantry customers.

10 a.m. Shower.

10:50 a.m. Hand off black-eyed peas to friend who is attending lunch.

11 a.m. Prepare lesson on transferring digital photographs for 5th graders. Review script and time line from filmmakers. Field email query about macro lens. 12 noon. Eat reheated soup for lunch.

12:10 -3:45 p.m. Teach 5th graders. Computer glitch makes it impossible to transfer photos so we take more photographs. Meet with teacher after school.

3:50-4:10 p.m. Transfer students’ digital photographs to my computer.

4:15 p.m. Head to Post Office to send check for Blazers via Priority Mail.

4:50 – 5:20 p.m. Home. Brief chat with Richard about the day.

5:20 p.m. Take G to piano lesson. While he’s having lesson, run to library to get book.

6:10 p.m. Home to Richard’s tasty pasta salad (quinoa salad for me because I eat gluten-free).

Walk dog. Kids do chores. Blog. Review script with Richard. Read to Douglas. Sleep.

Today at McLeod we pulled the Kodak Easyshare M380 cameras out of their boxes and the students started taking photographs. The fifth graders started by taking pictures of each other. We had the class divided into six groups of four students each. I led three groups at a time with hands-on camera work and my two teacher partners, Mrs. Courson and Mrs. McBride, took turns leading the other three groups on a walk around the school grounds.

They were looking for specific examples of plant and animal life. The next time we go out the groups will be taking photographs of some of the living things in the McLeod Schoolyard so we can make a Schoolyard Field Guide. This is a JumpstArt arts integration project sponsored by Ask For More Arts, a partnership spearheaded by Parents for Public Schools of Greater Jackson.

The students did a pre-assessment which asked them to list the producers, consumers, and decomposers in the schoolyard. We will ask them for this information in a different way once we have completed our field guide. We are confident that they’ll engage these concepts more deeply as they produce a schoolyard field guide. Some of the living things on their lists from today’s brief walk were: butterflies, oak trees, moles (when I asked about the mole, they said they had seen evidence of moles in disturbed dirt), blueberry bushes, mushrooms, and poison ivy. We are going to need some good field guides of trees, plants, insects, reptiles, and birds. If anyone has any books they’d like to let us borrow or have for our project, please get in touch with me.

My newest arts integration project begins in earnest today at McLeod Elementary School. I am partnering with a class of 5th graders to make a schoolyard field guide. We’re calling the project “It’s Alive!” and we’re using a book called No Student Left Indoors by Jane Kirkland. You may have noticed my recent spate of nature/science /art workshops. I am learning more every day about how to integrate the four things I love: nature, writing, photography, and teaching.

After my most recent workshop, I wrote about mistaking the stuffed hawk for a live one, but I didn’t show you any of the work I created in the class. Here’s the piece I like the best. I used a rubber dog’s paw. I inked it with black ink and pressed it down four times. Then, when it looked like a flower, I filled in some color with a red marker. This was part of a lesson called Tracks.

I attended a workshop at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science on using art to teach science. Teachers who were in Jackson for the Mississippi Art Education Association conference had the chance to earn continuing education credits for attending the workshop. I was there to learn more about writing lesson plans to formalize the teaching I do in my school residencies. The first thing we did was go out onto the trails behind the museum to draw what we saw. Our teacher was Limeul Eubanks, director of visual arts and library media services at the state Department of Education.

He pointed out this beautiful bird and I tiptoed up and started sketching — as fast as I could. I don’t draw very fast or very well, but I was determined to get something down before this bird moved. Then, after I had a quick sketch, I took a few photos. I winced as the shutter clicked and looked sheepishly at Limeul. Remarkably, the bird kept still. I had time to make another quick sketch.

Several groups of students came through. As they approached us, they quieted down and started tiptoeing and staring at the bird. Several asked whether the bird was real. I said, “Yes, I saw its head move.” Several of the high school boys seemed so interested in the drawing we were doing that one of the teachers tore some pages out of her journal and handed them each a pencil. Upon learning that most of us were art teachers, the boys said they didn’t have art at their school.

At the end of our session outside, one of Limeul’s helpers reached over into the leaves and picked up the bird’s stand. It was stuffed. I was floored. And embarassed. I told the kids who came back through and saw the bird being walked into the museum that I hadn’t told them anything I didn’t believe myself. I have always been a trusting soul. It turns out I could have gotten a good bit closer and gotten a really nice shot. We went out again later in the morning and picked up leaves. I found this beauty. It didn’t even fit in my bag.

Last spring, I worked with second graders at Davis Magnet School to document their school neighborhood through digital photography. The students’ photographs were compiled into a photo book, using Blurb.com. It is beautiful. You can preview Davis on the Map and buy a copy if you’d like.

Here are some photographs of the students taking pictures. You can look at their photographs on the gallery page of my website, too. Next week, I’ll be meeting with teams from two more Jackson schools to begin planning two more photography arts integration projects. This work is funded by the Ask for More Arts Collaborative, which is led by Parents for Public Schools of Greater Jackson.

I wrote several posts about the Davis on the Map project. I am looking forward to working with new classes of students. Taking photographs with digital cameras is so much fun!

I spent the day Tuesday teaching teachers how to use photography to document their work integrating arts into the curriculum. At the invitation of the Ask for More Arts Collaborative, I led two groups of elementary school teachers through several hours of work on creating and capturing high quality images of arts integration. Parents for Public Schools is the convening partner in the AFMA collaborative. Last year, I was a partnering artist, working with second graders at Davis Magnet School on a project called Davis on the Map.

I divided the workshop into two sections: How do we create the image we want to communicate? and How do we capture that image? Roughly, these translated into the big picture and the practical considerations. We discussed how to create engaging lessons, inviting spaces, and trusting communities. I told them the biggest, hardest part of the job had to happen before they ever picked up a camera.

I was warned that teachers don’t like to sit still for long lectures any more than kids  do so I created two hands-on activities. In the first, each group of teachers considered a batch of images from a single school project or event. They had to choose six images from the dozen or so they had to “tell the story” of the project or event. Next, they had to choose two images for a newsletter they would send to parents or a communication with funders. Finally, they had to choose one image for the newspaper and they had to write a cutline.

During the second half of the workshop, the teachers made frames from single sheets of cardstock. Others at their tables photographed the frame-making exercise. Several volunteers handed me their cameras’ memory cards and we conducted a group critique of the images they’d captured. The biggest challenge, as it often is in indoor settings, was light. We were in the fabulous grand hall at the Mississippi Museum of Art, but we were in the side without windows. This was good for watching the slideshow and viewing images on screen, but not for capturing.

We learned a lot and had a good time. I wished for more time to address the questions the teachers had about specific cameras and settings.I learned that some teachers are already using photography in collaborative art projects with their students: self-portraits and bookmaking and in communicating with parents through blogs and newsletters.

I told the teachers that it was near-about impossible to take good images and teach the class. (You can be the judge of these images.) Please send images if you took some during the session that you’d like to share with everyone. I know you have some good ones.

I learned yesterday that my application to join the Mississippi Arts Commission‘s artist roster as a visual artist was approved. Last year at this time I joined the roster as a literary artist, but because I offer both writing and photography presentations to schools, I decided to apply as a photographer also. This way schools and organizations may use MAC grant funds to pay for up to half of my presentation fee. I had to pass muster with a professional panel on each art form individually. I felt and still feel that a picture book creator should be allowed to submit words and pictures together. I believe that mastery in my art form includes mastery of the way images and text work together.

That being said, I am now on the roster in both categories so schools and organizations will have access to grant funds whether they choose to hire me to present and teach on writing or photography. The next application date for mini-grants this year is Nov. 2, 2009. I appreciate the work the commission and its staff do to support artists and arts instruction in schools.

This photo of river otters appeared in the Look at the … feature of the July issue of Highlights High Five magazine. You can find this feature inside the back cover of the magazine. Richard and I have three more images in upcoming issues.

One of my goals this year is to learn more about photoshop. I followed a tutorial to create art images from three photographs I took last year. I like the bottom one best. What do you think?

This is a strange photo, I’ll grant you. Richard took it using our new point-and-shoot camera. N is trying to trim the end of a wire on his braces. He didn’t succeed, but he also didn’t cut out a chunk of his cheek, which is what I was afraid of. I bought a Nikon CoolPix S560. Oftentimes, when I go places to speak and I try to hand over my camera, people are reluctant to take it. I feel like my Nikon D70 is pretty easy to use, but people are more familiar with point-and-shoot cameras.

The other reason I got it is because it is so much smaller to carry around. Most of the time I am on my own for school/library visits and I am usually carrying a netbook, a projector, extra copies of my book, bookmarks, a camera, a purse, and a water bottle. I have two rolling suitcases that I use for the heavy stuff, but I was always having to tote the camera bag. Now, I’ll just slot this into a pocket. Alright.

The other little gadget I got was a Sony Webbie. One of my goals for next year is to join the Mississippi Arts Commission‘s roster of teaching artists. I am currently on the roster of artists. In order to join the ranks of the teaching artists I must present the commission with video of me teaching children and adults. I borrowed cameras during two of my school visits this year and I got good video, but the MAC application calls for video of a specific lesson plan. I think my new camera will be just the ticket.

I’ve been considering these purchases for some time now. I decided to go ahead and get the cameras this weekend because I have a library visit tomorrow. I’ll be taking my cameras along and I’ll post some images when I get back. I’ll be at the Harriet Person Memorial Library in Port Gibson — where I grew up.

This week I wrote a proposal to present a workshop at the International Reading Association‘s annual convention next April. The title I proposed is “Seeing is Believing: Photography in Nonfiction.” My decision to do this was prompted by several things. First, my recent blog exchange with Elaine Sloan (also known as Texas Librarian). Her explanation of the reading comprehension strategies she employed as she read Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator inspired me to read some of the current scholarship on early literacy. Check out Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller, Nonfiction Matters by Stephanie Harvey, and Strategies that Work by Harvey and Anne Goudvis.

Second, in discussions with other writers, my editor, and my publisher, I have come to understand that spreading the word about Wolfsnail’s potential for use in early literacy settings is part of my job as a published writer. But, more than that, I love being in discussions with librarians and teachers of young children. I have really enjoyed presenting sessions at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival for the last two years.

Third, I am interested in sharing the arts integration work I did this year in partnership with the second grade team at Davis Magnet IB World School and with participants in the 21st Century Schools program in Claiborne County, Miss. (where I’m from).

This is the first time I’ve written a proposal for a national conference; I recruited my editor and a friend who is an elementary school  librarian (with a gift for arts integration) as co-presenters. I’ll keep you posted on what happens.