My First Year Teaching and Writing the Rocky Point Animation Curriculum

As a first year teacher I had never expected to find myself in a tenure track position at the high school level BUT also writing the curriculum for the Rocky Point animation program. This has been such a blessing and a fantastic learning experience. I have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing veteran teachers and talented students in this journey and I cannot express enough my gratitude for being trusted with such a position.

At the beginning of the school year I knew right away I wanted to create an ambitious and challenging curriculum that pushed students to take creative risks and think outside of the box. I am lucky to have so many amazing students that really rose to the occasion to create some fantastic work.

With animation being offered as an elective students with a wide variety of artistic competence were placed in my class. I knew I wanted to make the curriculum flexible enough that students at all skill level would feel challenged but not under pressure to preform at the same level as their classmates. This included flexible due dates and projects where students could really take the project and run with it should they feel artistically inclined.

My biggest hurdle in writing this class was addressing the challenges of learning the animation software, being that this class is far more challenging due to that technical aspect I made sure to provide supports to students such as extra help and online video tutorials I created myself to allow them to rewind methods at their own pace.

As the school year has progressed I have seen such a great level of growth in my students from their character designs to their animations and even their confidence in using the animation software. We have currently been wrapping up our rotoscoping unit where students designed their own characters and created a dance sequence. I am so proud of my students for taking on such a challenge and creating such beautiful work!

Pixel Animation

Pixel art is a great way to introduce students to animation without the excessive baggage that can at times come with traditional drawing. There is something so mathmatic about pixel art and the simplicity of changing a pixel or two to create interesting animations is a great way of getting student interested in the art form. I love using the website Piskel as it is free and very simple to use!

Exciting Announcement!

It brings me great pleasure to announce that I have accepted a full time tenure track position at Rocky Point School District as their High School Animation Teacher! It is such a blessing to be given such a wonderful opportunity as a first year teacher! I am so very excited and have started drawing up my lesson plans for future classes so much to come!

My Summer at Hofstra University

Teaching with Game Builder Academy has been so much fun! As we wrap up out first session I have had the opportunity to introduce my students to 3D printing/ making tools, digital art, photoshop as well as character design. Introduce students to these tools through the lenses of their favorite games/ characters is a great way to open a door and explore different concepts on their terms.

My Graduation!!!

I am so happy to share that today I have officially graduated from Adelphi University with a Master’s in Art Education! This has been such a whirlwind experience! I started my journey in January of 2022 and am now graduating in May 2023. Student teaching, my classes, tests, workshops and so much more. Having my husband by my side through this experience has been such a blessing and the fact that we are graduating AT THE SAME TIME! Fantastic! There is so much to celebrate, so much love, so much excitement.

3rd Grade Zines!

Creating zines with my third grades is a fun and simple way to create wonderful illustrated stories! Teaching my students about how to express themselves through art and writing allows them to express themselves and think about what they really want to say with their work!

Lemon Leaf Rubbing Outcome!

Giving students several opportunities to create the second part of the lemon leaf rubbing project was an idea I had just before class. Implementing this was a bit chaotic but did lead to some fabulous results that really showed me how students engaged in the projects.

2nd Grade Matisse Collage

In an effort to find a use for the mountain of scrap paper I had built up after my Galapagos birds project, I introduced students to one of my favorite artists Henri Matisse!

On top of being one of the most influential artists in modern history, Matisse is a beacon of perseverance. Having established his paper cut-out style at the age of 72 after battling stomach cancer it is miraculous that Matisse was able to create such influential work having faced so much in his life.

The video above I presented to my students at the beginning of class to introduce them to Matisse as well as introduce our project. During the vide I made sure to pause and explain to students a few voab words I wanted them to understand such as :

Geometric Shapes: Circles, Squares, Triangles, Rectangles..etc

Organic Shapes: Shapes found in nature. The shapes of flowers, leaves, and raindrops are organic shapes

5th Grade Horoscope Lesson Update-- 1st Try Background Design

The most exciting part of teaching elementary school is seeing students take on a project and really run with it. My students were all very excited to create watercolor illustrations based on their zodiac signs so as I began my lesson on watercolor techniques I was excited to see what they would come out with and BOY did they blow it out of the water.

My biggest fear regarding this first run of the project would be the colors getting very muddy and students not understanding how to mix the colors properly. Lucky for me my students were able to take to the project as well as listen to my instructions regarding the wet on wet techniques and create these beautiful backgrounds!

Galapagos Birds Finals

My students created so many beautiful birds!

Class: Maio

Class: App

Class: Mams

Class: Greco

Class: Hernandez

Class: Arrango

Class: Kollmer

Class: Croteau

Class: Segerra

Galapagos Birds Project Update!

So excited with how these turned out! My students really knocked this one out of the park and went above and beyond to create some beautiful birds!

Galapagos Island Birds Project Commences

Beginning my Galapagos Birds project with my 3rd and 4th graders was very exciting and having just come back from spring break I knew my students were hungry for a new lesson and I was ready to share with them my love for both ecology and art! A few vocabulary words I sprinkled into my lesson were:

Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

(I would explain this as lots of different types of plants and animals all living in a pretty small area together )

Adaptation: Make (something) suitable for a new use or purpose; modify.

(I would explain this as “Animals or plants changing so that they can be better at getting food and surviving)

Evolution: the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

(I explained this as “Animals changing to get food sources so much that they become a different species)

Though our conversation regarding the Galapagos islands and their significance was not incredibly long I did get the chance to expose my students to terms outside of the art room and have them begin to think of the world around them in their artwork. I found sharing the first half of this video to be very useful for piquing their interest and getting the conversation started around the foundation of this project.

Managing a Multifaceted Project

This project required a multitude of tracers to complete. In my classroom, there are 5 tables and up to 30 students in a given class (sometimes more!) To accommodate I made 3 different body shapes, three different wings, and five beaks that students could choose from. Each table would have its own set of tracers that would come with one of each piece, meaning that in my preparations I was cutting 60 different tracers in preparation for this project.

I experimented with different methods for dispersing the tracers for this project. as well as how to explain to students that we are building a bird piece by piece using the tracers. After two or three classes I was able to see that the most efficient method of dispersing tracers was in increments and moving with my students rather than giving them everything all at once or waiting until the entire class was ready to move on to grab the next set of tracers. It’s this relationship between not wanting to move too fast or too slow that I am working to master in my student teaching.

First Grade Rubbing Prints with Lemon Leaves!

One of the most rewarding lessons I have done so far in my experience with my elementary schoolers is this leaf-rubbing project we have just begun. This is a two-day project in which students will explore two types of printmaking. Our first types of printmaking revolved around using lemon leaves I had taken from my garden and creating rubbing prints with crayons we had peeled together. This lesson felt so magical to me as I saw the excitement on my student’s faces when I showed them how we can get the design of our leaves to transfer onto our papers. A few students had even called out that it was “like magic” and many took it upon themselves to turn the leaf rubbings into their own designs like flowers or create entire landscapes using the leaves. As I prepare to introduce my students to the second half of this project in which we print using lemon stamps I hope to preserve that sense of excitement within them!

My Kindness Jar

I am always so focused on introducing new ways to share kindness and joy with my students. My latest approach is my handy dandy kindness jar. Its fairly simple, at the end of class students have the opportunity to share kindness with their classmates by asking to dip into the kindness jar. Students cannot take something for themselves but rather they must get something for someone else. This encourages them to think of others and find joy in making other people happy. I hope to continue coming up with new methods of showing students how they can spread kindness in and out of the classroom!

5th Grade Watercolor Astrology Paintings

I am preparing an upcoming lesson for my 5th graders that will have them exploring one of my favorite mediums…watercolors! I love watercolor paint so much and I feel it is the perfect medium to introduce my students to painting ethereal backgrounds. A few of my students had started talking about astrology and had even asked me what my horoscope sign was, after talking about it for a few minutes it gave me inspiration to come up with this lesson plan, I love taking things my students are already passionate about and including them in lessons of my own!

Bunny Rabbit Directed Drawing with 1st Graders

Working with young students is something I am beginning to fall in love with, though I prefer teaching high school I can’t say I didn’t love this directed drawing exercise I did with my first graders. Their enthusiasm and excitement to create their own Easter Bunny was such a breath of fresh air! This lesson taught me a lot about patients and slowing down my lessons into easily digestible steps.

*Students faces blurred for privacy

Galapagos Birds Lesson

Introducing my students to the Galapagos birds and the diversity found on the island will be a fun and interesting way of tying in lessons they may already be introduced to in their other classes. This lesson will have multiple tracers available to the students with different beaks, wings and body shapes allowing students to create their own birds and discuss what features might help them in nature!

Elementary Incentives!

One of the most exciting things about starting my placement at Brentwood North Elementary School is creating fun and exciting ways to engage students and reward good behavior and creativity! As someone who grew up in the early 2000’s I always looked forward to a good challenge from my teachers. The challenge I am posing to my students this month is a race! Students are assigned a car card with their class’s name on it, they will “race” against other classes for a game day! On game day, students can try their hand at winning prizes in this adorable mini claw machine I picked up. It’s a very silly but effective way of incentivizing good behavior among my students.

Intro to Color Wheel Outcome

Creating these quadrant paintings with my students was a ton of fun and I am so happy with the outcome. My students were slowly but surely picking up the different elements and color schemes in their assignments. I am so proud of my students for taking this project on and working so wonderfully with me!

Critique with my students

Introducing critique to my students and exploring concepts such as self-reflection and accepting criticism was no small feat. High schoolers are the last to willingly speak up when asked about their thoughts on their classmate’s work but I am happy to report that after a bit of awkward probing, I was able to get my Fashion Illustration class to open up about their thoughts regarding their classmate’s Met Gala sketches!

*Note all students did give permission for photos

I chose to open the critique by reminding students that a critique is a tool used to understand how your work is reading to a wider audience, not a tool for cruelty or personal slights. Then the following method, while unconventional did help set aside some tension; I joked to my students about the fact that they will likely not hang their tracing paper sketches on their walls and preserve them for several years, but rather they would more than likely toss them out at the end of the year. Saying this did lift a bit of the tension amongst my students and helped them realize that they can share their opinions on the drawings because they are, in fact, nothing more than just sketches on paper. Once students felt assured that they were in a safe space and that no one was going to take their words too seriously quite a few did open up and it creates a free flowing environment. I was very proud of my students for handling the critique in a mature and open minded fashion!