Thursday, February 25, 2010

My senior high students at D.C.'s School Without Walls are learning to create blogs integrating their creative writing. They've been using images found on the internet to illustrate specific aspects of their personalities based on the five senses.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Self Identity through the Arts and Technology

Using language art coupled with visual art and technology, I will be collaborating with Humanities/AP teacher Kamel Igoudjil at the School Without Walls Senior High School in D.C., in an exciting 6-week residency through the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I feel fortunate to be working with Mr. Igoudjil again, a 2009 D.C. Mayors Art Award recipient in the category of Language Arts. In our first session last week, students wrote about the origins of their names in their journals and created cut-paper collage self portraits using recycled newspaper. These portraits along with their creative writing will be incorporated into blogs, e-books and podcasts in the  upcoming weeks. 


Saturday, February 6, 2010

A Successful Collaboration

The student above created a striking visual narrative about 
her little sister learning to walk for the first time.

I can't believe the 4 day residency is over. It was great teaming up with art teacher Sandra Alger at Longfellow Elementary, and putting to practice everything I learned in the intensive 5 day Teaching Artist Institute (TAI) seminar. Master teaching artist Maria Barbosa, offered her expertise and support throughout the months long journey. The 2nd graders struggled to finish up the fantastic scenes they created from cut and torn paper that they decorated in previous sessions with me. They pasted down the figures made from simple shapes. The people they created represented significant people in their lives and the final composition told a great visual story. The session culminated with a Gallery Walk and students roamed from table to table admiring their classmates art, offering thoughtful comments and feedback. What an awesome experience. Every picture truly told a story!

Figure It Out



In the 3rd session of my "Every Picture Tells a Story" residency I showed my second graders how to assemble a person using basic shapes cut from paper. The students used the painted papers they made last week to make these figures that represented special characters in their families, as part of their visual narratives.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Spring In Me

What is it about nature that holds a promise for us? During a four week residency in a correctional facility in Maryland, I start working again with women and explore collage, painting and paper decorating. We began the first session with a discussion about spring and its significance in their lives. Through the art of collage, these women learn how bits and pieces of paper can be cut, torn and assembled to form something new and beautiful. With ordinary materials they are literally piecing together new forms of expression.