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Over conferences, I had the opportunity to work in my back room a bit for the goal of creating a recording station. I flip most of my lessons. Flipping your lesson is when you record what you want to teach and you have your students learn via the recording. Traditional flipping is when you instruct the kids to learn outside of class via your video. I use it in an alternative way most of the time. My videos can be used for sub plans. I sometimes play a video for instruction for many reasons... it allows all students to be able to see well due to the large format on the projection screen. I can stop and replay, it's good for a review, sometimes it gives me a couple minutes to prep for these little guys, it assures all students are getting the same information, it allows students to learn ahead or behind personally on an iPad... I use it for a lot of reasons. Because I make so many videos, I wanted a station that was going to help me record them.

First, I know I have an amazing... really amazing room and great storage space, however, I don't want that to stop you from dreaming if this inspires you to want to create a similar station. You have to look at your situation and see how/what will work for you. First, let me show you my back storage room.

That's pretty much the overview of the room. I have had to do a lot of organizing to open up a space to have this recording station. It has been a work in progress over the last two years I have been in this room. Below, these two images show my 'choice materials'. I have tried to set this up for students as I'm easing into more student choice.

Here is my recording station. As you can see, it's flooded with natural light. That was by design. With all that natural light, I don't have to have a second light resource that might cast shadows. As you can see I have this propped on two twin shelves. This allows me to record at different hights according to the needs of the lesson/artwork.

Here is how I made the contraption that holds my iPad. It is two trays from under a whiteboard. I saw them laying in the custodian's room, ready to be moved to storage... I claimed them right away. The glass is from an extra shelf I had from one of my display cases. I have it taped down to the metal trays. There is space for the iPad to lay flat on the glass. This makes it parallel to the work being recorded. You will also see a set of headphones in the picture as well. These were donated by Donors Choose and are used by my students often. I have one set place aside to be plugged into the iPad as I record. This helps the direction of the sound and makes it more clear on my videos. Many times after school programs are in my classroom and by shutting the door and using the headphones and microphone, the recordings are still successful.

I have spent years on working setting up my station and taking it down because class was coming in. I'm very excited to have a place to record now. If you have something like this, or you create a recording station after reading this... Please share it with me, I would love to see pictures.

Comment below or Tweet me @MiniMatisse

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Over conferences, I had the opportunity to work in my back room a bit for the goal of creating a recording station. I flip most of my lessons. Flipping your lesson is when you record what you want to teach and you have your students learn via the recording.

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Great conversations have been happening in our Art Teachers #PLN (Professional Learning Network) on both Twitter and Facebook. Here are a couple of questions that have come my way. I'm going to do my best to answer what is working (or has worked) in my classroom situation.

Great questions ladies... Let's get started talking about devices.

I have the opportunity to use both iPads and Chromebooks in my classroom. I am all about the iPad in an elementary art classroom. I feel that iPads are better for creation. Chromebooks are awesome for a lot of things too such as writing assignments. Chromebooks are awesome if you are a Google school sharing Google Docs, Slides, and Forms. They are awesome if your school is using Schoology and I think they are cost effective. I would use a Chromebook more often in the middle and high school levels because I was requiring them to share with one another with words and almost every student in my middle/high school level had a device in their pocket if I needed QR code scan or for them to download and app. iPads are better for me in the elementary because we are using creation apps, we are taking pictures of work, and we are scanning QR codes. Our school also uses Seesaw, a digital portfolio for students, and iPads are perfect for that. I have been tempted a time or two to try an Android tablet too... they look very versatile as well.

I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to check out a Chromebook cart and/or an iPad cart. The carts look like the one above. They can be rolled down to a room and are checked out at my school using a shared Google calendar. It works well. Each grade level has a cart and the specialist share one. Media has their own carts and lab for class. A major drawback to these carts, is that the slots for the iPad are small, students are asked to return them in order (that takes time), and they are kind of a pain to plug in. The solution for this is to have the iPads returned to the top of the cart and a couple of 'technology managers' work at the end of class to return the iPads to the correct area and plug them in. When you ask a class to do this it takes no less than 15 minutes to complete.

The fewer devices the better. I was granted a 'class set' of iPads for the art room this last year. When I say class set, I mean seven student iPads. I requested this because I have 7 table in my classroom. For many of the technology supported activities, students can share easily. When students submit to Seesaw, or take pictures to put on Creatubbles, they can share. When a device is needed for research, many times it can be shared as well. When we are doing projects of creation or self-paced learning, a full class set is preferred. I got these rock'n little iPad Baskets for my set. I LOVE them!!! The are easy to transport and easy to charge. You can even get them in different colors ( click here).

Couple more tips about the iPads. When I first got my set, I was given iPads with covers. This did not work because the covers would hide the camera. A primary use of the iPads is to take and share photos. My solution was to drill a hole in the cover... my dear technology assistant of our school quickly made an order for these iPad covers and they ROCK! The are kid-friendly and have protected the iPads well. Draw back is the iPads do have to be shut down manually (I have the settings so that they stay on throughout a class period in case we are using them as a resource). You will note a paper clip taped to the iPad. This help students know where to look when you are taking a picture of them. They can find the camera better if you say, look at the paper clip, or sticker... or whatever. If there is a project that I want to download but don't have time right away, I use masking tape to place on the cover with a little note on it. It helps me remember what iPad I need when I have the time to download.

When I do lessons like my self-paced, one-point perspective lesson, I do ask students to bring their headphones. All of our students use headphones for testing... Isn't it nice to have them also use them for self-learning as well :) I have a set of seven headphones with microphones for students use. The microphones work AWESOME for students recording their voice... even with a whole active art class in the background.

This is my current situation. It's pretty sweet, I know. When I was working at the middle school I had a very different situation. I had accessibility to check out a cart but they were hot... everyone wanted to use the iPads for assessment or research. In the testing months, there was not a lab, or a cart available. I quietly offered BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). There was a sign in the front of the room that said device on/off. When the off sign was on, the devices ha to be in their pockets. This was mostly during instruction. When it was on, students were able to have the devices out... fully out, they had to be on the table and students lost all privacy rights while they were using them. I could pick up the device at any time to see if they were texting, I could pull the earbuds out of their ears to see if their music was appropriate. If there was any situation that they were not meeting my expectations, they would loose the right to use the devices in my classroom for the rest of the quarter. The devices were a motivator for sure and students did NOT want to loose them. In the three years, 12 quarters that I worked at the middle school, I had no problems at all.

Yep, I understand not every kid has a device. I get it. I don't have a cell phone. No matter what I do, I always offer a not technology alternative. I also can most often supplement for the students who do not have a device... having access to about 5 iPads was usually more than enough.

Well, that's what I know, I'm sure there are more tips and tricks out there and I would love you to share in the comments. Let's share what we know so that we can learn from each other.

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Great conversations have been happening in our Art Teachers #PLN (Professional Learning Network) on both Twitter and Facebook. Here are a couple of questions that have come my way. I'm going to do my best to answer what is working (or has worked) in my classroom situation. Great questions ladies...

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This is one way to get your students attention

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A few more tips on how to use Snap

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Many of you know this about me... but I just got my first phone. I went to the store in March and said, "I would like to buy a phone."

The sales person said, "Great, what phone would you like to trade in?"

I said, "No, It's my first phone."

"Oh" he said, "You have been sharing with your husband?"

"No, It's our first phone."

The man was so confused. Eventually, we were able to help him understand that people still survive without a phone... I was a little sad that day to join the rest of the world... I have loved being phone free, but I know my kids will have a phone sooner than later. So my job as a parent is to learn the proper use of a phone and model that for them.

Well, it turns out I use this tool all the time for school. I mean ALL the time. One of the latest tools that I have started to play with is Snapchat. What a hoot. I do not want to use it socially... I'm not snapping (is that what it's called?) my friends. I am recording and downloading to share a message with my students. I have been very inspired by GREAT educators such as Kari Haan, Holly Bess Kincaid, and Abby Schukei. Both have used Snapchat for instruction for their students.

Here is how I did it... of course... there might be other ways, but this works for me.

First I record my videos in short clips. Traditionally snaps are 10 seconds or shorter. Recently, Snapchat allows you to record longer videos by recording into a new video. I like the idea of 10-second clips, so that is still what I'm using. It forces me to be concise and to the point. My overall videos are right around 1 minute... that is perfect for most of my students to get a tiny bit of information.

I record a video horizontally. It appears that the video will turn out sideways, but when it's downloaded, it is the correct orientation.

I choose a filter. The filters are the things that change your face. Some of these filters are only intended for vertical use, but I have found most to work horizontally.

I record, and then download... you will be able to save at the bottom of you snap... it goes into your 'story' (that no one sees because I don't have any 'friends' on Snapchat but it also downloads to my camera roll.

Now, I go into iMovie (my favorite app on my phone) and quickly bring in the clips I recorded.

I double check the order and edit if needed then upload my new movie to Youtube.

So far there has been an overwhelmingly positive response from students. My K's are mesmerized, my 6th graders are completely entertained.

Here are some ways that I have used the Snapchat videos thus far

Introduction to a concept or project

Celebration of my students

Even a little mindful, deep breathing

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Many of you know this about me... but I just got my first phone. I went to the store in March and said, "I would like to buy a phone." The sales person said, "Great, what phone would you like to trade in?" I said, "No, It's my first phone."

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One example besides using it to flip my lessons

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Using patterns in Art Class is critical to my curriculum. Kindergarten student start learning patterns in Math class early in the year school, so by the New Year, it's a good time to bring it into the art class and do a little review for students who might need to work on the ideas of patterns in a very visual way. Since this concept is new in the Art Studio, I like to give my class a chance to create patterns in the security of a group for the first lesson. I developed a Collaborative Patterns lesson last year. See the previous post for pictures and an explanation video that is student friendly.

Last year, I shared the lesson with pictures on Seesaw and the parents were very receptive. I wanted to show them the process this year. Show them all the excitement and teamwork that goes into this project. I created stations by taping down a sheet of large format paper and set some blocks or bottle caps beside it. I chose to set up iPads over each of the stations. Once the kids were in place I simply started the time-lapse on the iPad.

One of my favorite parts of using the iPads is the ability to show the videos in class using AirPlay. It's a bit glitchy for me sometimes, but when it works... it's amazing! In the video, you can see that the students watch themselves all at the same time. I do this kind of review for stop-motion projects as well.

When finished, I used AirDrop to send all the videos to my one iPad and I placed the clips together in iMovie. With a little editing (adding music, speeding up the time-lapse) I then shared it to Seesaw. A quick caption in Seesaw explained to parents the concepts covered for the day. In this case, patterns and working collaboratively.

This process of recording in time-lapse can be used for all learners. With older students, you can have them recording their process on their own, and sharing it on social media. I use it for my lessons too. I often record the process in time-lapse so the kids can see all the actions but in a short amount of time. If you are unsure of how to use time-lapse, check out this blog post by Matt Klein, How-to Geek.

I know some of you are wondering where do I get those awesome iPad sands. I know I would be. Get decided to purchase them through curriculum review and I use them on a very regular basis. Here is a post explaining where to get these great iPad Stands ( click here).

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Using patterns in Art Class is critical to my curriculum. Kindergarten student start learning patterns in Math class early in the year school, so by the New Year, it's a good time to bring it into the art class and do a little review for students who might need to work on the ideas of patterns in a very visual way.

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Example of a lesson using this app

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This #Crush from my crush series belongs to Ginger Pacer of Paint Brush Rocket! When choosing another blogger to write about I was beyond struggling to choose just one. I follow and admire so may amazing brains and creative doers in the blogging world. Here is how I came up with my Blogging #Crush. Who is currently inspiring the lessons in my classroom? Who has been an inspiration in the past? Who continues to share ideas, tips and tricks... so Ginger wins this February! I was able to meet this amazing art educator last year and really felt a friendship connection. I saw a post a couple months ago on radial balance and knew I had to give it a try. Check out Gingers post , because she really gives a lot of tips and tricks that I'm not going to cover in this post.

I saw her amazing paintings and knew that I what I wanted to do but first I wanted to teach a digital version of this using the app Brushes. The students were VERY intent to learn this lesson shown below. This is one of my favorite apps to teach because it teaches the system of layers. I like teaching apps that teach a system... this concept can be transferred to many other art programs such as photoshop. Get this concept in the minds of our littles and they will be able to jump right ahead when they learn like programs in the future. This is a VERY quick tutoral focused on giving you, the readers of this post a quick over view. This is not editited... simply a flip vid.

Students created some amazing works in the hour that I had them! I had several students download this free app and send me emails of their artwork. They really learned how to create more advanced artworks when exploring at home.

The second part of this lesson was painting. As I mentioned, Ginger's explanation is much better than I will be providing on the 'how' of teaching the painting portion. Some of the things that I did differently was provide a tracer and the students kept the artwork on a large sheet of tag while painting and cut it out later. Also, I only painted one day and on day two students added details with oil pastel.

When painting, some of the kids got done a little early I allowed them to play with blocks... but they had to create sculptures that were using the concepts of radial balance.

As mentioned, day three was adding the final details with oil pastel, cutting out the circle, and answering this small evaluation to place on the back of the artwork.

I only made a graph for one of the classes but I found it interesting to read that most of the students loved and would choose creating in paint over digital if they had to choose. I still find that it's valuable to use the digital medium to expose students to different forms of art as well as meeting ALL student interests and skills.

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This #Crush from my crush series belongs to Ginger Pacer of Paint Brush Rocket! When choosing another blogger to write about I was beyond struggling to choose just one. I follow and admire so may amazing brains and creative doers in the blogging world. Here is how I came up with my Blogging #Crush.

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Flip Your Lessons

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Creating a Management Message

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This idea of Mr. Brush is not new... but it works so well. I have used this video with my K's through 3rd grade. Each group get's a l...

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Advanced Drawing App

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A incredibly realistic watercolor brush. Colors flow and blend together, creating stunning effects.

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Simple Drawing Tool

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Do you use Google Draw? I love it. I mostly use it for myself at this point but I want to incorporate it into my older grades. For those of you who are not using it, it's part of the Google options in Google Drive. The icon looks like this (see above). I found a good, quick explanation on this on Tek Handy.

While at the recent TIES conference, I ran across this little tool. RESEARCH!! It has been really good for me. During the conference there were several of us on our staff that went so we created a google share folder to put notes in. I shared on draw and a coworker, our amazing media and technology specialist, Mrs. Harapat informed me that our district blocks the use of research. Most images will come up as an 'X'. So I wanted to share this for your personal use as educators as well as to try with a kid or two before you develop a lesson using it.

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Do you use Google Draw? I love it. I mostly use it for myself at this point but I want to incorporate it into my older grades. For those of you who are not using it, it's part of the Google options in Google Drive. The icon looks like this (see above).

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Motivation for learning

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Communicate with Students

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Schoology Learning K-12 learning management system makes it easy to implement hybrid learning and integrate your favorite teaching and learning tools.

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Communicate with Parents

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Seesaw - Student driven digital portfolios and simple parent communication. For iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Chromebooks and Computers with Chrome or Firefox. Free for teachers!

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Share with your tribe

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Share with your tribe

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Collaborate

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First Grade Parents: I'm excited to teach secondary colors using playdough in an upcoming unit!! I would so appreciate you signing up ...

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Real Time Data

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We are down to the final two!! The kids are loving this! They cheer and celebrate, boo and hiss... it all depends on where they have voted the week before. It's a lot like the basketball March Madness... these kids are engaged with this activity and guess what?? They are learning about Art History!

Here was the result of the 'Final Four'!! Close game between Matisse and Bob. Sawyer is freak'n out to take on Bob this week. What a blast! To learn about this whole mARTch Madness event, click here.

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We are down to the final two!! The kids are loving this! They cheer and celebrate, boo and hiss... it all depends on where they have voted the week before. It's a lot like the basketball March Madness... these kids are engaged with this activity and guess what??

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Make your class Interactive

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Check out what you can do with Google Slides

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This lesson is intended for our youngest Artist. This will allow them to work on some complex images by breaking the image into shapes. Students will be shown a slide with an animal on it (cow, sheep, chicken, or pig) and then shown what shapes can be used to make that image.