Examples of The Way of the Artist

Last week I wrote about The Way of the Artist, how we can inspire with art by working through the three "not so simple steps":

• Dream big
• Do the hard work to make it real
• Show off the final result

Here are a few examples of projects I've done in the past that illustrate how it plays out in the classroom. Notice that these projects require the students to work through those three steps, but I as the teacher am doing the same thing as we go through the project. I dream up the end product, work to take the class through it, then write about it on my blogs. Art (and therefore inspiration) is happening at several levels and I try to make sure it impacts as many people as possible.

• Live video announcements - My work in the high school Communications and the Media class is filled with examples of students working to bring a vision into reality.
• Smart Jams Math Music Videos - This was one of my most ambitious projects. We made math music videos with fifth graders in their Music class. It was a great learning experience for all involved.
• Digital Storytelling with WeVideo - I made this creative project to introduce students to WeVideo. It's a good example of giving all students the same starting elements (photos in this case) and they combine them in imaginative ways to make something unique. It eventually grew into this much more popular project...
• Using Comics and Google Tools for Digital Storytelling - There are countless ways to use this tool, but I usually stick pretty closely to the process outlined here. This post links to some updates I've made since that original article was written.
• Reminding Students Dreams Matter - This is another music video project, this time a lot simpler than the Smart Jams one above. I put a lot of work into recording the song, but that's because music doesn't even count as work for me! It's another example where art was happening on several levels, for the students, teachers and my family as we made up the song. We shared it on Facebook to our community and it got a lot of love.

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I'm doing a challenge this month to post on one of my blogs every day. It's in preparation for my conference session, The Way of the Google Drive. Be sure to follow me on Twitter or on either blog to keep up with the "thoughts and tools to inspire". 

Click here to see all the posts from this blog with the tag The Way of the Google Drive.