Wednesday, August 20, 2014

2014 WELCOME & Class Info

Welcome to Visual Art 2014/2015

Hello all Visual Art Students & Parents,

Wow, summer flew by! Welcome to a brand new school year and a new art experience. The syllabus for 6th, 7th and 8th grade Visual Art is located on our classroom website's homepage. You can click on this link NeelsArtRoom to check them out. I encourage students AND parents read through the syllabus and come prepared to class with any questions. You can also email me at Lindsay.Neel@fcps.org if you would prefer. After viewing the syllabus please browse and bookmark my website so that you can easily revisit it as needed.

This is going to be an exciting year in Art. Not only are we a visual art studio, we are also a 21st century learning environment. What exactly does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that all of my students (those with and without registered devices) will have access to online learning resources. Registered device users will participate regularly in our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) pilot program. Students will utilize our classroom website, blog, edmodo, and remind 101 on a regular basis. Let me explain how each of these resources work together so you have a better understanding of our 21st century studio.


  • The NeelsArtRoom website at www.NeelsArtRoom.weebly.com is our main classroom resource. It is a tool for students, parents, and staff. On here, you will find class syllabii, rubrics, project sheets, powerpoints, study materials and more. It's basically an online course at the middle school level. This makes it EXTREMELY easy for students and parents to stay connected at home and saves A LOT of paper. Any internet or computer issues need to be reported to me as soon as possible so I can make arrangements for a computer or hard copies to be available in class. 
  • You can link to our class BLOG through the website(NeelsArtRoom.weebly.com>BLOG). The blog (which you are reading now) is a way for me to communicate with students and parents on a regular basis. Blog updates will happen every Friday (possibly more often). It is also where I post student artwork, information about the artwork, and of course day to day happenings in NeelsArtRoom. 
  • Edmodo is an online learning community that we will discuss in detail throughout the next week or so. Stay tuned for more information regarding this AWESOME resource!
  • Remind101 is a one-way text messaging and email system. With Remind101, all personal information remains completely confidential. Teachers will never see phone numbers and you will never see theirs. I use Remind101 as a tool to remind students and parents of important information such as homework due dates, updates to blog posts, etc. Students will be bringing information home on how to sign up for Remind101. Students and parents should sign up by Friday 8/29
Please email me if you have any questions and/or bring them to class. We will be discussing all of these resources in more detail during class. 

I look forward to an amazing year! 

Sincerely,

Ms. Neel