Art Teacher Seeking Art Blog

I’m searching for something that I can’t find. The longer I look online, the more determined I am to find it, but the more frustrated I get because, despite my searching, I can’t find it anywhere. I find things similiar, but never exactly what I want. Yes, I’m very particular, not only about this, but about most things in my life.

What I want to find is a blog that exemplifies an idea in my head. Maybe I can’t find it because it only exists in my head. The idea is this – in the next few months, I am going to create a classroom blog to use with my art and photography students. My purpose for starting the blog is to use technology to enhance the student learning associated with perceiving and responding to their own and others’ artwork.

My idea involves posting photos of finished pieces, both artwork and photography. Students will be asked to post artist statements and comments to critique others work. I’m hoping they will learn how to respond in a respectful and knowledgeable way and that they will learn from the critiques to grow as artists. The blog will be a great way to utilize assessment for learning (also see Dylan Wiliam) and it provides an opportunity to advocate for the arts (I’m a district rep for the BCATA). The classroom blog could also increase community awareness of the great work being done by the students.

Has anybody heard of a blog that could serve as an example for this idea in my head? If you have, I’d love to hear about it…

8 thoughts on “Art Teacher Seeking Art Blog

  1. There is a first time for everything and I was curious about edublogs–I have never commented on someone’s blog before, so thanks for the invite… and to borrow your title, I had “just a thought” for you about the blog for your students… I have been inspired but have yet to implement (it’s coming, really) Voicethread… perhaps you have heard of it, but it would give your students a forum for their critique on artwork (their own or others) and allow for feedback. Because it can be as public as you allow it, the comments would be constructive/supportive and yet address the objectives you are seeking… perhaps if you take a look at the example Craig posted–I don’t have the URL now, but he set up a Voicethread with a series of images and welcomed commentary, and analysis of the pieces… I imagine doing something like that with my 4th and 5th graders–with their own work, and discussing individuality, collaboration, what it means to cooperate… through art.
    By the way, I have a lot of updating to do on my website, I have been focusing on my webpage at school–it does take time, and there is only so much. good luck!
    Samantha

  2. in my school similar things are often posted on wikis where kids can all respond but no one from outside the class can respond. It stops bad email comments as all are tagged and you know who wrote them.

  3. @Samantha – Congrats on your first blog comment! And thank you for adding your thoughts, I do appreciate all comments! I have heard of Voicethreads, but haven’t used it yet. It does seem a natural fit for art critiques, doesn’t it? I’ll look for that example you mentioned, that will be helpful!

    @D – Thanks for that! I hadn’t thought of using a wiki as the format. It would be interesting to see some examples. I’m at the point now where I need to see examples of how others are using technology in critiques. There are so many options, I’m finding it hard to decide!

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  5. Hope you find what you are looking for! I set up a virtual gallery for my class (Special Education – Mainly Autistic ) to display their art works. It’s very basic but art means a lot to my kids. What I would really like to do would be part of a group that links to the art exhibits of other blogs.It would be really inspirational for the kids to see others commenting on their art and for the kids to have a look at the art works of other children on a regular basis ( and to get some fresh ideas for teaching for me) Do you know of any group doing that sort of thing? Good luck with your project. I am sure you will find lots of things to fill the gap left from study!

  6. Hi Sue and class! I’m so happy to have other teachers who value art commenting here! I don’t know of any group such as the one you mentioned but it’s a great idea. That’s a larger version of what I want to do and it has great possibilities.

    Some of the nings have purposes similiar to that. You have to sign up via email to become a member. You might want to check into http://images4education.ning.com/ and http://arted20.ning.com/. Those are two online communities of educators interested in art and technology.

  7. I have seen voicethread used effectively for commenting on artwork since not only do you have the audio but the pen tools as well. Many people can comment on the same piece and it can be embedded into a blog.

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