Arts Empower Mega Conference 2017

All too often when we think of art taught in schools, programs like Arts Attack! and Meet the Masters tend to dominate the curriculum. However, these programs are often designed to teach children a very traditional way of thinking about and executing visual art. The world of contemporary art is vast, and there are countless ways artists are communicating ideas about the world, their lives, and academic subjects such as math, science, and language arts. Tapping into the breadth of contemporary art and utilizing it as a tool to teach other subjects through arts integration, will allow teachers and students to experiment, explore, and discover a whole new level of creativity. By encouraging critical thinking and creating project prompts that are open-ended, students will have the opportunity to translate their ideas into pieces of art that can be shared with friends and family in new and unexpected ways.

Explore how you can integrate visual art projects into classroom teaching! This session will take place in the Timken Museum of Art galleries where you will be surrounded by original works of art that date from the 14th to the 19th century. You will learn interesting facts about one painting in the Timken collection and receive an overview of a lesson that features that particular painting. The lesson is designed so that you can easily teach it in your classroom following your visit to the Timken. Participants will receive FREE bus transportation to the Timken for their students

Art appreciation of mandalas in Asian and Native American cultures. Students hone analytical skills in interpreting mandala symbolism, and take on the artistic challenge of creating their own mandala. Included are cross-applications to the math curriculum for K-12. Online video support is available.

Educators will create a Leonardo Da Vinci inspired project through a hands-on workshop which will incorporate contemporary mixed media techniques.

In this session, you will do a short cardboard art project (great recycled art activity that you can use in the classroom) then you will experience peer grading/critiquing using google forms and the FormMule extension. With these tools, you can have students critique art, receive the feedback, make adjustments, then grade all digitally! You will walk away with several classroom ready procedures. Come with a device for the best experience.

This session will focus on experimenting with a variety iPad apps that you may use in your classes to address National Arts Standards, teamwork, and working through fear of failure. Apps featured will include Assembly, Morphi, and 3d Sketch Studio. Attendees are encouraged to bring these apps installed on a mobile device.

This is a bead weaving lesson that can help develop fine motor skills and eye hand coordination. Weaving can be connected to math, writing and social studies. I use this lesson with my fifth grade students when they are learning about the Native American tribes of the east coast.  Attendees will create a simple bracelet using plastic beads.

Did you know that Oreos can teach subtractive sculpture? Art can be accessible and engaging for everyone-- even those who think they're "bad" at art. In this session, you will learn about 10 unique art projects and lessons that teach art standards... and EVERY student loves them. You will receive tons of information about things like Oreo carving, interactive art, creating installation pieces in which all students can participate, a list of cool artists that inspire and amaze, and more. The session will provide both hands-on opportunities and written materials.

Cameras Across Cultures expands students’ global capacity by exploring other cultures, places, and perspectives through the power of photography and film. Through the power of visual media, students can build a sense of empathy with each other, with their communities, and with the world around them. Cameras Across Cultures has traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jordan, Thailand, Colombia, and Namibia, and have brought conversations & stories around immigration, human rights, health, and the environmental back to students in San Diego. Participants will experience the power of cross-cultural curriculum, and learn how it can be adapted & brought to their own classrooms.

What is motivating your students? Come learn about apps, technologies, and tricks that students love...we will even help you create your very own digital cartoon likeness and show you how to use it in your classroom.

Attendees will experience the exhibition space at Mingei International Museum, while learning how to use local museum collections as primary resource material in art lessons, discussions and offsite experiences.  Museum educators will share strategies for collecting and using resources held and produced by local museums; how to make historical and cultural connections between art objects and common core goals; and, how to lead an engaging art discussion when you may or may not be familiar with the art form or artist yourself.

This presentation will cover step by step how to use an iPad with students to start a 3D project. What are the resources and how teachers can guide the students from virtual design to complete and printed project?

This is a make & take! Attendees will learn the process for transferring a photograph onto a piece of wood (or other similar surface). Bring your own laser-printed image or select from provided materials to create you own photographic work of art! Simple hand outs and instructions will be provided. You will walk out of this session with a lesson & project you can immediately apply to your classes!

INTRO: Our project is to create a four part graphic novel, called Spirit Skies, which follows the migration of a Rufous Hummingbird as a tool to teach about environmental stewardship using applied arts, humanities and the sciences. The Humanities students are using Common Core Curriculum design to produce the graphic novel, and collaborating with the Art Conservatory, as well as Science, and Social Science Departments. It was a seminal moment for these students to have the opportunity to have presented at SDCCI the past three years, and now we would like to present on a panel to demonstrate the success of our project. We want to expand our presentation to share our insights on how a graphic novel by students, for students, can be achieved. GRAPHIC NOVEL: The hummingbird spirit meets a teen who is challenged to commit to environmental stewardship. The overarching theme is to instill in the reader a sense that there is, in fact, no separation between wildlife and human society. Vol. 1 is complete and we are now looking for a publisher. We are also in the middle of developing Vol. 2, and preparing for Volume 3 for next year. PRESENTATIONS/CONS: For the past three years, Canyon Crest Academy’s Envision Conservatory for the Humanities has presented at San Diego Comic-con International's Comic Arts Conference, twice we have presented at the San Diego Co. Office of Education Mega Arts Conference. We had a full panel at Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comicon, and introduced the project at Mike Towry’s San Diego Comic-Fest three years ago. This past February, we presented Spirit Skies to the Ministries of Education and the Environment to the Republic of Panama, and the Mayor of Panama, along with US Embassy Officials. We will be introducing our project to the Green Schools Project - or Aulas Verdes - in Panama soon. They will be invited to write their own volume of Spirit Skies, from the Central American point of view. Our next step in our long-term plan is to invite a group of Panamanian students to SDCCI to talk about their ideas for their version of Spirit Skies. After that, our long term plan has us collaborating with a school in the Pacific Northwest, so they can write their version from the temperate or artic perspective. In the end, Spirit Skies will be a complete comic series, stretching from Panama to Alaska - all following the migration of the hummingbird - uniting the Pacific coast in environmental conservation. PANEL: Our panel will consist of the following: the coordinators of the Humanities’ Conservatory, describing the creative process and the Common Core curriculum design; the Arts Conservatory coordinator, explaining the collaborative creative process of working with the artists and writers; and last, the students themselves, who will share their experience creating the Spirit Skies project from concept to final volume. For more information see www.spiritskies.org In April, members of the Conservatory went to Washington DC to meet Rep. John Lewis. He has co-written March with his aide Andrew Aydin. I met both of them at Comic-Con three years ago. I have maintained correspondence with Mr. Aydin. When I told him that my students were coming to Washington, I asked if we could share our graphic novel with Rep. Lewis. He asked us to his office and we spent over 15 minutes with Rep. Lewis. It was a humbling experience to meet with the Civil Rights icon. We talked at length on how comics have played an important role in his life and how the youth of today are such visual learners and the graphic novel is the perfect vehicle for these students. He spent time reading our comic and repeatedly asked if this was all student art work. We said “absolutely.” His appraisal of “Spirit Skies” was that it is “truly wonderful” and a “beautiful” comic, and that he would be sure to refill his hummingbird feeder as soon as he got back to his home in Georgia. I asked him if we could quote him, he said, “Absolutely.” We have met with Will.i.am of the Black Eye Peas who has recently written a graphic novel. We are also writing common core curriculum for "Boilerplate" another graphic novel. My Bio: Before moving to his native San Diego, Timothy Stiven taught History at The Brentwood School in Los Angeles for 15 years. He was Chair of the Humanities’ Department. Since 2006, he has taught AP History at Canyon Crest Academy, a public school dedicated to the Arts and Sciences, and is Coordinator of The Envision Conservatory for the Humanities. Tim’s mission is to bring private school programs to a public school. The Conservatory, a three-year, project-based, after-school program – committed to deepening students’ mastery of the Humanities. He is also Chair of the Education Subcommittee of the San Diego Panama Sister City Association.

Using some recycled and free materials, students will create their own printing plate and print an edition of originals which can be enhanced individually. From this experience, each artist will create many prints and a plate that can be exhibited.

This session will share ideas and examples of visual arts-based activities, infused with self-care themes to meet the social and emotional needs of professionals and youth communities, simultaneously.

This session will explore visual literacy and focus on using the elements of art and design to comprehend fiction and nonfiction picture books appropriate for all ages.   We will utilize visual literacy strategies for deeper comprehension of visual texts.  Bibliographies of student texts and professional texts will be shared.

Session will provide an outline of ways in which a creative community can support individual student learning goals and develop authentic creative practice to prepare visual art students as working artists.

Explore new ideas to connect, engage, and reach students and educators through youth exhibitions and museum programs. Learn about a student exhibition tradition that has remained on the cutting edge.