Academic Aesthetic 172: Minecraft Lesson Video

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This is  a brief overview of Minecraft Classic (minecraft.net), how I related it to my curriculum, and some student examples.

Apologies for the size of the download (Nearly 50 MB, ouch!), but I unfortunately couldn't make it smaller without losing a lot of the quality.  Video is like that.

Academic Aesthetic 171: STEP Team Groupcast with Mr. Feagans

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Before our break officially started Mr. Feagans and I got together to talk about what we've been doing with podcasting this year and what we intend to do with it after Winter Break.

Academic Aesthetic 170: Minecraft

• Episode this time is 8.5 MB.  I had to use an FTP client to upload the thing.  That's how much I care.


• Powering Up With Technology conference was awesome.


• Minecraft shows potential as a tool for student learning in the classroom.  We'll see.

Academic Aesthetic 169

Moving right along.  In today's 'cast, I ramble on about:

• My county's Sharing Technology with Educators Program, or S.T.E.P.


• My new favorite Android App (still), AndRecorder, which I keep calling "AndRecord" because long names are abbreviated below my little phone icons.


• Gimp.org, because it's free and awesome.


• SumoPaint.com, because it as well is free and awesome.


• Frames, because while it is not free, it is still awesome.


• A rant against looking for things because they "work in the classroom."  That's great if we're preparing our students for spending the rest of their lives in our classrooms, but there's that "real world" thing going on outside.  Getting something to work in the classroom is good and necessary, but we should be finding and using things that will work outside of our classrooms as well as in them.

Academic Aesthetic 168: Quarter End Reflections

Today I teach my last classes of the Quarter, so as I reflect on the first 9 weeks I've asked my students to do the same.

Next quarter will be different.  Why? Because it has to be.

Oh, and the programming language I couldn't remember? Scratch.

Academic Aesthetic 167: It's ALIIIVE!

It's about time I started publishing these again.

Show Notes:

• Today is Day 3 with no intranet in my computer lab.  More like this and I'll start showing withdrawal symptoms.


• Replacement Technology = switching pencils for pens, but having students write the same things.


• Disruptive Technology = throwing out the pencils and pens to do something that pencils & pens would not help with at all.


• Even with only replacement technology in your lessons, you can be very dependent on technology.


• Always have a Plan B.

What I Teach

Want to know a secret?  A deep, dark secret that I've kept off this blog for over a year now?  One that will shock you?

Well, too bad.  I'm going to tell you anyway.

Ready?

Here I go ...

I'm not a part of my school's Art Department.

Yeah, that shocks me, too.  Here's a guy whose screen name on an umptillion of Web 2.0 sites is "The Art Guy," who may or may not have been the first art teacher podcaster (at the time I started I couldn't find another one ... that's far from the case now of course), who isn't even a part of his own school's Art Department.

How'd THAT happen?

It's a bureaucratic issue, to be honest.  I teach in a computer lab in a K-8 Arts Academy.  If it was a high school, I'd be a Computer Graphics teacher.  Unfortunately there is no course number for such a class in middle school, let alone elementary.

Instead, I teach a class called Technology Concepts.  It's a fun class to teach, if you're as geeky as I am, but it's not inherently an art course.  Therefore, I  have no reason (on paper, at least), to be a part of the Art Department.  Instead, I'm a part of the Enrichment Department.

It's not so bad...

I recently was chatting online with a former coworker from a previous school, and she lamented my change of departments.

"I'm so sorry," she said, "You're far too talented to not be teaching art!"

At that point I puffed out my chest and my head swelled with pride - and not just because she said I had talent.

"Oh, I'm still teaching art.  Do you honestly think I could stop teaching art if I tried?"

Of course she could not.

I'm an art teacher. I teach art.

Your definitions may vary, but in my book, ART is anything that involves creativity.  I don't care if it's a painting, story, play, song, dance, or video game.  An ARTIST is anyone who creates art, and an ART TEACHER is anyone who teaches students how to be artists.

I'm a teacher at a Creative & Performing Arts Academy.  Whatever subject is taught by any teacher, they had darned well better be teaching art as well or they don't belong there.

Math is art.

Science is art.

Social studies is art.

Reading/Language Arts is art to the point that the R/LA Department should be part of the Art Department as well!

Conclusion

Does it sting a bit to know I'm not part of a department named for my degree and certification?  Yes, yes it does.  But it doesn't change what I teach.

Art is universal.  Only the styles and media change.

And I'm an art teacher.