A New Year!

I am super excited to get back to the Art Room for a exciting New School Year!  I look forward to catching up with some of my returning students from last year as well as meeting a brand new group of young artist.  I can wait to dive into our art project together.  

Why an Art Class Website?

 I plan to use this website as a communication tool in three areas. 

1. To keep families informed about the subjects being learned in the class.
2. To provide ways for students to enhance learning from home with links to videos used in the classroom and website for further exploration at home.   
3. To showcase the work created by the students in the class.  

I highly encourage you to check back often or to subscribe with your email address to the right.   

A few facts about my Art Room:

• All students will come to my art class once a week with their homeroom class for 45 minutes.

•  Art Curriculum: The students will be introduced to art through a discipline based art education approach.  This means that the students study art works from the following four discipline perspectives: Production: creating or performing, History: encountering the historical and cultural background of works of art, Aesthetics: discovering the nature and philosophy of  art, Criticism: making informed judgments about art. 

• Art Production:  All students in grades K-5 will create works of art through drawing, painting, printmaking, craft and ceramic sculpture throughout the school year. 

• Grades:  All art students will receive both an academic and conduct grade quarterly.  Academic grades are made up of  daily project progress assessments based on observations of student performance as well as final project grades assessed through a combination of portfolio reviews, self evaluations, rubrics, peer evaluation, teacher created tests and written art criticism responses.  
• Students in grades K-1 can receive the following grades for art learning and conduct. 

S - Satisfactory

N - Needs Improvement

U - Unsatisfactory

• Students in 2nd - 5th grade will receive the letter grades A, B, C or F for art learning and S, N or U as conduct grades

 A -  90-100

B -  80-89

C -  70-79

F - Below 70

•  NG (No grade) will be used for any student (K-5) who attends art fewer than 4 times per nine week grading period.

• When will their art work come home:  Most student art work will be kept in an artist portfolio within the classroom until the end of the year.  This is to assess the student's growth over time.  Parents are always welcome to schedule an appointment to come view this work. 

• Contact Information:  Please don't hesitate to contact me with any problems or concerns.  The best method is through email.  My address is...  
  

smithb1@fultonschools.org.

• Volunteers and Donations:  Any and all donations will graciously received.  Great donation ideas for our art class are as follows: Wet Wipes, Paper plates (large & small), Large zip lock bags, and sponges.  Anyone wanting to volunteer your time to come help in the classroom or assist with art displays throughout the school can contact me directly through email.  Thank you in advance for the support!

•  My Schedule:  I am an elementary art itinerant teacher for Fulton County Schools which means I will travel to different schools to teach throughout the week.  This year my schedule will be...

Mondays - Barnwell Elementary

Tuesdays - Cogburn Woods Elementary

Wednesdays - Cogburn Woods Elementary

Thursdays - Ocee Elementary

Fridays - Ocee Elementary

First Projects!

Kindergarten- Will look at shapes and lines in art and will study Van Gogh's The Starry Night.
1st Grade - Will study lines, shapes and color mixing by taking a close look at Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
2nd Grade - Will learn about the 7 elements of art and the work of author and artist Faith Ringgold.
3rd Grade - Will focus on shapes and Value in art with artist Henri Rousseau. 
4th Grade - Will review the element of art focusing on line and gain inspiration from a young Hawaiian artist Coleen Wilcox. 
5th Grade -  Will review the elements of art and practice their skills of observation drawing as well as exploring their own artist style and voice.