#ipadsintheartroom

“Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” –  Stephen Hawking

Creating constellations on sketchbook covers and editing images for presentation

Sketchbook Covers

We started a new semester (2 terms) on January 23. After making foldersto hold artwork for the next few months, we made sketchbooks as…

International Dot Day 2018

In the Miscoe Hill 5/6Art room we have had a blast creating dots and watching them come to life using the Quiver app on iPads. Why create dots? Because of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Here is a narrated video of the story:

We colored in templates made by Quiver and then used the app to view the dots we have made. Quiver…

When I searched for an appropriate quote for this post about SketchNoting, I was thinking of note taking as idea gathering and remembering, working through thoughts in a visible way. Of course my mind jumped to Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, which are full of his documented ideas for projects, philosophies, and observations. I love them and have seen some of them in a museum. You can see them and virtually turn the pages of some of them here.

SketchNotes are rich visual notes created from a mix of handwriting, drawings, hand-drawn typography, shapes, and visual elements like arrows, boxes, and lines. – Mike Rohde, The SketchNote Army

Over the past few years the concept of SketchNoting has become talked about and practiced by many of us who learn well visually. Personally I find that by translating content into writing, sketching, and illustrating, I remember it and make better sense of it, finding connections that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Many people SketchNote with writing implements on paper (especially in notebooks). I prefer to SketchNote on my iPad, employing many of the digital painting and blending tools. You can see some of my SketchNotes from conventions, workshops, courses, and books here: https://www.behance.net/amgentilidf49

Here is an example of my SketchNoting to retain content, from an MIT MOOC (massive open online course) I took a couple of years ago – I use the Adobe Sketch app:

Because I enjoy SketchNoting and find it helpful in retaining information, I decided to show my students how to do it, also using iPads, but with Autodesk Sketchbook app. I offered them the opportunity to SketchNote a book or movie and asked them to include the title, author or director, characters, and setting. We kept it really simple because the act of SketchNoting was challenging. Here are some of the results:

Allie B.

Brynn D.

Justin Fr.

Finn L.

Kyle M.

Theo B.

Justin Fe.

Kiara S.

Tommy E.

Conor B.

Jacob S.

Gretchen U.

Gwen K.

Nolan M.

Grayson S.

Zuleica B.

Cassidy L.

Abby S.

Maggie L.

Shortly after my students finished up their SketchNoting projects, renowned SketchNoter, Sylvia Duckworth, released a series of tutorials in advance of the release of her book on SketchNoting. Here is the playlist of those SketchNoting tutorials: SketchNoting Tutorial Videos.

As I reflect on this activity, I think I would start the kids with pencil and paper first and work up to iPad SketchNoting. They would have benefitted from more time on the project as well. Most importantly, I would like to see some second attempts, because many were really grasping the process just as they were finishing up. I understand some of my students have been given the option of using SketchNoting in other subjects areas recently, and I’d love to see those results as well.

International Dot Day 2018

In the Miscoe Hill 5/6Art room we have had a blast creating dots and watching them come to life using the Quiver app on iPads. Why create dots? Because of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Here is a narrated video of the story:

We colored in templates made by Quiver and then used the app to view the dots we have made. Quiver…

“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” – John Steinbeck And what happens when an artist teaches?  Wonderful magic, of course! Especially here in the Mendon-Upton Regional School District.…

“And BOOM! Masterpiece!”

It was with such enthusiasm that Gillian Y. crafted her Artist’s Statement when she uploaded her Notan art to Artsonia last week. Gillian Y. Notan is a Japanese concept of light and dark. Fifth grade students used sets of complementary colors to create Notan using construction paper. The process of “Painting with Scissors” they employed is modeled after French artist, Henri Matisse, who created…

60 To Zero In Five Seconds Flat

As I know I mentioned before, I was fortunate to spend a week in the Project Zero Classroom program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this summer studying the big ideas of prominent figures in education. One of the big ideas I encountered is Making Thinking Visible, introduced by Ron Ritchart and David Perkins. Of the Six Key Principles they identified, this one stands out for me:…

Student Art on Artsonia

Both fifth and sixth grade students are uploading artwork from their iPads to Artsonia this week. Fifth grade artists are uploading to the Abstractions gallery and sixth grade artists are uploading to the Symmetrical Butterflies gallery.

Abstraction by Kurstin C.

Butterfly by Kacy M.

When finished with these projects, students are working on Snow Creaturesand are invited to upload their art to…