Module 14: Website 

For Module 14 we are working on building a webpage and includes our lesson plan.  I am looking at websites but most of the ones I know cost a fee to set up.  I have helped set up our AAU Photo Dept's website at www.aauphoto.com.  I really like the clean and beautiful style of this template.  As you can see here - the main page is very visual - highlighting our student work.  It really serves as a resource website - allowing students to read the biography's of the department directors along with downloading material for our current Spring Show 2015.  We also include content for our alumni along with social media buzz links and student news. 

I also set up the biography page for our full time department directors and family - it includes our online and on-campus. Here is a page that highlights my info and our online team.

Module 13: Lesson Plan and Rubric

For this module, I created a lesson plan for grade level nine students at a public school.  I wanted to use something photo related and thought taking photoshop and turning it into a self portrait assignment would be a fun option for 9th graders.

Below is the basic outline for a 3-day lesson plan incorporating a few Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards. 
 

Lesson 1	Student will be introduced to self-portraiture in the photographic medium.  We will view and talk about the first photographers using themselves as the subject matter as well as view contemporary photographers using self as subject. Homework:  Students bring in a photograph of him/herself to the class the next week.   Students to research other self-portrait photographers who inspire them.  Research will be done online.  Next week students introduce this photographer to the class and share why and what inspires them about this visual artist.             • Visual and Performing Arts: Visual Arts Content Standards: 3.0 HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT. 3.3 Identify and describe trends in the visual arts and discuss how the issues of time, place, and cultural influence are reflected in selected works of art. 3.4 Discuss the purposes of art in selected contemporary cultures.
Lesson 2	Students review the photographers they found online.  Students also share the photograph they brought in for the Photoshop assignment. Class Demo will include learning how to use the school’s flatbed scanners, resizing the image and saving it to the desktop.  Students are introduced to Adobe Photoshop and the digital tools.  Students are introduced to digital printing techniques.  Students spend some free lab time exploring and bring questions to the teacher for onsite problem solving. Homework:  Student to scan, modify, and print a new image and print it using the school’s lab.  Students to bring the hard copy print in next week for a group critique.  Students to also post online using one of the free photo social media sites. • Visual and Performing Arts: Visual Arts Content Standards: 3.2 Identify and describe the role and influence of new technologies on contemporary works of art. 2.3 Develop and refine skill in the manipulation of digital imagery (either still or video) 2.4 Review and refine observational digital skills.
Lesson 3	Group Critique Day.  Students share their Photoshop Self Portrait online and showcase the final digital printed image.  Student do a group critique and also share the tools they used and why.  • Visual and Performing Arts: Visual Arts Content Standards: 4.3 Formulate and support a position regarding the aesthetic value of a specific work of art and change or defend that position after considering the views of others.  4.4 Articulate the process and rationale for refining and reworking one of their own works of art.