NeelsArtRoom Newsletter Week 9/8 - 9/12

Happy Friday Artists and Families,

Another great week full of creative adventures in Visual Art. We finished our first projects and started our second..."The Portfolio," Check out this project in each grade by clicking on the following links: 6th Portfolio, 7th Portfolio, 8th Portfolio. In the upcoming few weeks, students will be learning about Graffiti art, creative lettering themes, and linear perspective.

Important information:

1. Students in 7th and 8th grade were introduced to Google Classroom on Monday. Their first discussion topic was due today. As with the S.K.I.L.L.S assignments, discussions can be completed in class OR at home (students may choose). Unfortunately, some students waited until the last minute and ran into technical difficulties at home. I hope this will be a learning experience for future assignments. There are directions to access Google Classroom from home computers and personal devices located on the home page of my website, NeelsArtRoom. As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me at Lindsay.Neel@fcps.org.

2. Students in 6th grade took a field trip to the computer lab Wednesday where they were introduced to Google Classroom. They will also have discussion topics bi-weekly. More directions and tutorials to come. Stay tuned.

3. Sketchbooks with glue bindings rather than spiral bindings are already falling apart. Eek! I highly recommend the spiral binding sketchbooks found at Wal-Mart or A.C. Moore (they last the longest).

I can't wait to post portfolio designs.

Creatively,

Ms. Neel :)

NeelsArtRoom Newsletter Week 9/2 - 9/5

Hello Artists & Families,

Students, please share this newsletter with your parents/guardians. :)

As we finish up our first projects this week, I'm happy to say that the talent this year is above and beyond what I expected. Each week I will post in progress artwork along with descriptions of what we are studying, reminders, and class happenings in a Friday newsletter/blog post...similar to this one. :) I highly encourage you to read these updates, and view the artwork as a way to stay connected to our class since students are not able to take any artwork home until the end of the year.

Important Note: Our first S.K.I.L.L.S assignment was due today. S.K.I.L.L.S. assignments are not considered "homework." They are bi-weekly mini projects in our sketchbooks that occur at the same time as larger studio projects. Students are encouraged to spend 5-10 minutes each class working on them. With that said, homework in the past was worth 10% of a students' overall grade. This year, they are in the 30% category (outlined in my syllabus under formative assessments). I want students to change their mindset about these projects and not think of them as "homework" even though they are allowed to work on them at home if they choose to do so. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to email me. Google Classroom discussion topics (being introduced next week) will occur the same way and I will provide more information very soon. 

*All of the above information has been discussed in detail this week. 

If you are a member of Twitter or Instagram (not required) you can also follow @NeelsArtRoom.

Looking forward to week three! :)

Colorfully,

Ms. Neel