TIE536

About Me
I teach Art at Homer Junior High School, part of the Homer School District 33C in Homer Glen, IL. I am in my fourth year of teaching art, third year at the junior high level. I currently teach the Art/Technology classes as part of a rotation of during the school year. Our exploratory classes are currently set up as a rotation so each student will get a “taste” of each class (Foods/Sewing, Art-2D/3D, Woods/Electronics, Art/Technology, & Health). I teach 4 different classes, 2 sections 8th grade level art/tech and 2 sections of 7th grade level art/tech. Besides the classroom teachers and art moms, the first time the students in our district experience a formal art program taught by art teachers is in 5th grade. The 5th and 6th grade curriculum develops the students’ basic art skills touching upon the elements and principle of art by creating both 2-D and 3-D works of art. When the students get to 7th and 8th grade, the students build upon the basic 2-D & 3-D fundamentals as well as the experience to the digital side of art. Our department is looking forward to incorporating more visual arts technology into the art curriculum.

Technology available to use and teach with in my Classroom
Within my classroom I have 30 laptops, a tablet, ceiling mounted projector, and color printer, which have wireless capabilities as well as a Elmo(document camera and a DVD/VHS player. In my Art/Tech class the student will experience technology through researching on the Internet, Photoshop Elements, PowerPoint and Windows Movie Maker projects as well as the basic drawing and design fundamentals.

It is vital in my classroom to have my tablet computer and projector, which I use every day, when introducing a lesson with a PowerPoint, showing a video clip or demonstrating steps to a computer project. This technology allows me to easily and quickly show my students visuals of what we are learning as well as if any questions arise I can I answer them quickly by showing “how to” via the computer or document camera. Plus it’s a bonus for all students because it’s large enough for everyone to see.

Technology Integration
According to our definition formed in class, Technology Integration is seamlessly incorporating multimedia and other innovative tools to enhance the teaching and learning of subject matter.

I like to think that I try to incorporate technologies into my classroom as much as I can. I try to develop at least one or two lessons that use digital art tools to help enhance the traditional art curriculum. So many students think art is just drawing or painting and it’s much more than that. There is so much to do in the visual arts field that in my class I hope to at least introduce or improve students’ knowledge about programs or websites that will help them learn more about art.

One of my goals for my classroom teaching is for the students to learn about the basic digital/drawing tools and know how to use them correctly to create digital art and design projects. I would also like to show my student that whatever we use in my classroom they can use to incorporate into other classes project. I want to students to explore of variety multimedia software and be able think about art and design principles when creating their projects, since there are a multitude of technologies available to use. I ultimately want to build up an art curriculum using digital art tool and to learn how to use the variety of multimedia software so I can effectively teach the software to myself and my students.