Friday Two Cents: The Pen is Mightier

In the past few months I have found myself writing more using pen and paper rather than typing on the computer.  I believe it started when I took over a kindergarten class as their long term occasional (LTO) teacher.  I would constantly write down my anecdotal notes and observations about the students to better help document their learning. Like many of my generation, I know how to write using cursive letters, and many of the students would see me do it and say that I wrote like their parents.  I also found myself during my off-hours writing letters and other things.  I did not realize it initially, but I was also helping my brain optimize my thinking, language, and memory at the same time.

A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has found that cursive handwriting helped the students’ brains learn and remember better.  In the study, they hooked up a group of 12-year-old children and young adults to EEGs to monitor their brains’ electrical activity while they performed cursive writing, typing on a keyboard, or drawing visually presented words using a digital pen.

They found that areas of the brain known for working memory and encoding new information were more active during the cursive writing sessions: it would appear that the physical act of forming letters helped activate more real connections.  Researchers suggest that typing also requires physical movement but did not activate the same on-task level of thinking within the brain as cursive writing did. 

This study states what many educators have been saying for years: cursive writing has many benefits to students. Despite this, the curriculum no longer requires teachers to teach it. I have however  found opportunities to teach cursive writing in the classroom through art: one of the seven elements of design is line and during one lesson for this section, I taught students to write using cursive letters.  I told them that by using a continuous line, they could create art with words themselves.  Their enthusiasm for the writing activity was genuine, and I could have easily extended the lesson for several days or crossover to other areas like language arts and creative writing.

Just writing a letter

With my experience of late, I should not be too surprised at this revelation.  Whenever I create a piece of visual art, whether with paints or digitally, I always use a pencil and paper to help me envision the product first. This allows me to get close and personal with the piece, to feel what I want to show.

That is probably why I am writing more now. I want to feel a connection to what I am expressing and to help myself remember the experience.  As they say, the pen is mightier than the sword, but in this case that should amend it to say, the pen is mightier than the keyboard.  

Comic Strips: Legality

 

Well it is the start of a new school year with a fresh crop of students and situations for my comic strip, The Craziest Things. The genesis of this comic strip came from the situations I observe from the students. I thought it would be great to create a comic strip based on those situations and thus The Craziest Things was born.

I use many different themes to inspire me to create the comic. Some include the difference in the generations or the use of technology in the classroom compared to their parents. Yet there are some themes that are universal to all generations. Yet the majority of the inspiration comes from real life situations that I experience with the students.

This month centres on the first day of school. Yes that amazing day when you have to go back to the salt mines, I mean classroom and begin a fresh new year of learning and discovery.  

However with technology being so easily accessible to the students, in particular cell phones, many people wonder how far will it go. I for one have seen students as young as grade 3 come into the classroom with phones and personal devices. With such an easy access to information and communication how far will some students take it?

I hope you enjoy October’s The Craziest Things: Legality.

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 9

A few years ago I created a Comic Book Club for the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills. Prior to the club I taught them how to draw three-dimensional objects and characters but this year they wanted something different.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing. Yet due to the amount of work involved in drawing a comic book, I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they also had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

On page ninth The League of Justice have arrived to put an end to the Legion of Doom’s plan, except they find that they are too late. At last, the new leader of the Legion of Doom is born and makes an entrance.   Many of the students asked why don’t they see the new leader. I told them this build suspense for the audience and for all of you. Also what he has to say will set the tone for what kind of leader, and Arch enemy for The League of Justice, he will be. I hope you enjoy page 9 of “The Rise of Lord Ominous” as much as the students did.

Boy Character 05

Boy Character 06

The Rise of Lord Ominous: Page 09

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 8

A few years ago I created a Comic Book Club for the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills. Prior to the club I taught them how to draw three-dimensional objects and characters but this year they wanted something different.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing. Yet due to the amount of work involved in drawing a comic book, I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they also had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

On page eight we see Dr. Mindbender ready to put his plan of fusing the DNA into one person. With the students we drew each cell and the biggest question was what are those tubes in the background. I told them that those are the DNA solutions from each of the heroes and villains. I reminded them that they could see the tubes in the background on pages 2 and 3. The challenge for the students was the action pose of the character Angel.  They were use to drawing the characters more in a standing power pose but once I showed them to draw the bones of the character they quickly drew the rest. I hope you enjoy page 8 of “The Rise of Lord Ominous” as much as the students did.

Boy Character 03

Boy Character 04

The Rise of Lord Ominous: Page 08

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 4 – My 500th Post

 

It seems fitting that my 500^th post would about art and an activity I did with the students. People say I inspire them with my art, stories, life experiences and joy of life. In fact they are the ones that inspire me to do those things. Therefore, with this in mind I started this blog with my one guiding principle, to post …

My innermost thoughts I wish to share. These things Inspire me, maybe they will inspire you.

After 500 posts this principle continues to be my centre. So, onto my 500^th post …

A few years ago I created a Comic Book Club for the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills. Prior to the club I taught them how to draw three-dimensional objects and characters but this year they wanted something different.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing. Yet due to the amount of work involved in drawing a comic book, I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they also had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

Page four is where we begin to see the different members of the League of Justice, each character’s name and abilities. This way each student, who wanted to be a hero, can see their character and how to draw it but it. This also gives the other students practice on how to draw these characters. I hope you enjoy page 4 of “The Rise of Lord Ominous” as much as the students did.

Girl Character 07

Girl Character 08

The Rise of Lord Ominous: Page 04

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 3

A few years ago I created a Comic Book Club for the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills. Prior to the club I taught them how to draw three-dimensional objects and characters but this year they wanted something different.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing. Yet due to the amount of work involved in drawing a comic book, I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they also had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

Page three is where we see the rest of the members of the Legion of Doom and each character’s name and abilities. This way each student, who wanted to be a villain, can see their character and how to draw it. I hope you enjoy page 2 of “The Rise of Lord Ominous” as much as the students did.

Page Layout pg03

Page Layout pg04

Girl Character 05

Girl Character 06

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 2

A few years ago I created a Comic Book Club for the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills. Prior to the club I taught them how to draw three-dimensional objects and characters but this year they wanted something different.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing. Yet due to the amount of work involved in drawing a comic book, I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they also had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

Page two is where we see the Legion of Doom’s plan is revealed. It was a hook for the students and this page was their first glimpse at a few of the characters they would be drawing. I also helped them by providing pages with empty cells for them to draw in the story. I hope you enjoy page 2 of “The Rise of Lord Ominous” as much as the students did.

Page layout pg01

Page Layout pg02

Girl Character 03

Girl Character 04

The Rise of Lord Ominous: Page 02

Art Inspiration: Comic Book: Page 1

 

Getting and finding inspiration is extremely difficult at the best of times. Yet I have been very fortunate to work with some people who push and inspire me every time I am with them, the students. No matter what I may think what they may have in store for me, the students throw those plans out the window and make up some new plans.

That was very clear when I did a Comic Book Club with the students. They range in age from grade 3 – 5 with a large variety of skills that they bring to the class. In the past I helped them to learn how to draw three-dimensional objects but they wanted something different, therefore I created a Comic Book Club for them.

The premise of the club was to teach the students the basics of comic book drawing but due to the amount of work involved I tried to keep the characters a bit simpler than I am use to and I standardized the characters for them. They wanted a super hero comic therefore I drew a lot of different characters they could choose from. They liked that idea but they had to choose up to 2 powers, a unique name and if they were either a hero or villain for their character.

They did a wonderful job drawing the book and they also enjoyed the story. The story line was the Legion of Doom (the villains) needed a new leader so they decided to create one. However they decided to use theirs’ and the League of Justice’s DNA to create him. Each student would be either a Hero or Villain but they were creating my character, the villain’s new leader.   Therefore the title of the Comic Book is “The Rise of Lord Ominous”.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting each finished page of the comic book and a few of the character drawing the students chose from for their character. I hope you enjoy the book and characters as much as the students did.

Girl Character 01

Girl Character 02

The Rise of Lord Ominous: Page 01

Friday Two Cents: Beating The January Blahs

 

This past week was not the January Blahs but at times it sure felt like it. The students where their usually sweet selves, yet the days seemed to drag on. Yet I was able to introduce a concept to the students I hope/should carry them on in their lives. I introduced sentence structure to them. Yeah you are probably thinking big deal, but it is to a first grader.

The students were writing sentences for sometime, however I noticed that many would simply string words together when writing them. Their oral language is good and many read well for first graders but I thought it wise to help them get a foundation in writing. I began with introducing the different parts of the sentence in a language they would understand. I created a chart to help them. We did some practice writing to reinforce this “What Makes A Sentence”. I also introduced a writing success criteria chart to help them. It is set up like a checklist/success criteria; something very similar to one I created to remind them to take their things home at the end of the day. Then during the week I introduced new activities that would involve them writing a sentence, such as in social studies we wrote about their favourite place in their neighbourhood. This all came together on Friday when we made sentence puzzles.

What makes a Sentence Chart

Writing Success Criteria

The students would write a sentence using the success criteria to help them. They would cut the words out and then ask another student to try to put the sentence back together and read the sentence. This way they can use the success criteria to help guide their thinking when recreating the sentence. The capital is at the beginning, punctuation at the end. Below you can see some of their sentences and some of them are pretty funny.

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

Sentence Puzzle

In the end we all had a good laugh and I hope they learned something. In the end I guess that is a good way to beat the January Blahs.

SaveSave

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Friday Two Cents: A New Year With A New Experience

 

With the New Year I begin a new adventure.   I have been fortunate to been given the chance to be the teacher in a grade 1 class. It is a tremendous opportunity to teach a full grade one class and to put my years of education and experience into practice. I was lucky to teach in a kindergarten class at the end of last year’s school year and yet now I get another chance to teach many of the same students again in grade 1. I have been with them for the first week and it has been tiring but very enjoyable and enlightening.

The interesting thing is that I worked with a grade five class for about a week and a half before the Christmas break and now I go from a class of 10/11 year olds to one of 6/7 year olds. To say they are very different grades would be stating the obvious but they all have their own rewards. These little people in grade one are so full of wonder and excitement to learn that it has become a bit infectious. They have been eager to learn and I in turn am eager to teach the lessons with these students.

We work on subjects that I enjoy such as art but their enthusiasm for the core subjects like math and literacy is amazing. One literacy activity we did is a “Roll and Read” sight word game. Each student gets to roll the dice and whatever number it lands on they must say the words under that number as quickly as they can. I introduced it on Monday and everyday since they are eager to play the game.

Roll and Read Sight Game

Another activity I introduced is a subitizing activity. Subitizing is the ability to recognize the number of a group of items at a glance and without counting. I used bingo dabbers to make dots on a card and we practice this just before the math lessons. The real nice thing is that I noticed the students practicing on one-another during their indoor recess time.

Subtilizing Card game

It is only the bringing and I have no idea how long I will be in this class, but one thing is for sure, I am going to enjoy this experience with the students. Already I have noticed that they are learning new things but on the other side so am I.