Juried Art Show

I am excited to say that my Art was accepted into the Juried Art Show to be held at www.TheArtGalleryofMississauga.com  beginning January 16 through to February 22, 2014. The piece which I entered was developed as part of my newborn series. The awards and opening reception will take place January 16th, 6-8pm. Please come and join in, meet the other artists - there are many artists with fantastic works. I look to teach the elements and principles of design and hope to include this as part of my routine in the classroom. You may view my art at www.karenplumb.com

Artisan Marketplace

After successfully completing the first Non-Objective Art course with Bianka Guna I am thriving in the second Non-Objective Art course by Bianka as well. I have been working very diligently and have made great efforts to create great works. I developed so many that I entered my work into the Juried Artisan Marketplace last weekend and had some good results. I enjoyed spending time with my fellow Artists and chatting with friends. Here are some of the pieces which I sold.

Abstract Art Results

How wonderful a new idea grows with the proper amount of inspiration!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Non-Objective Art Course which I successfully participated in through Visual Arts Mississauga www.visualartsmississauga.com . The instructor www.BiankaGuna.com

 is phenomenal. She used various teaching techniques to successfully get the point across. It was definitely an experiential learning exercise where Bianka used demonstrations and technology in the studio and she gave every student the opportunity to participate and practice. Her critiques were kind and informative and educational to all of the participants. She is a ‘go to’ person.

Here are some examples of my work.

Abstract Art

I am taking a course on Non – Objective Art by Bianka Guna at Visual Arts Mississauga and I'm finding it to be very enlightening in that it has opened my eyes to understand what "Abstract Art" is or how to understand Abstract Art and more importantly how to create "Abstract Art." There is a 'science' to it and once you discover it you can use all of your knowledge and ideas to create beautiful pieces. I am embarking on a new voyage with my Art and so far I like it! It can be serene, powerful, complex, multi-layered and more.

The following is a brief review of Abstract Artists' work based on the given websites.

Helen Frankenthaler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_F3Hh2NUFM

She believes that the piece should not allude to any brush work or any clue to how it was made. The piece of art should be created in one fell swoop so that it all looks apart of each other and together …all made at the same time.

Rothko, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ8AIIAgYpg

- Painted for Seagram’s

He committed suicide after having dealt with some bad emotional problems.

He used big all encompassing colours that were very powerful usually using very little spaces of white.

Jackson Pollock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgBvpjwOGo

He liked to pour the paint onto the enormous surfaces. He tried working on glass and used ‘foreign objects’ such as nails, string, broken glass… He wanted to become a part of the painting so he painted on the floor so that he could walk all around the painting to view it from all angles.

Siqueiros http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53kc8QoCohU

He first used acrylic paint and discovered that different colours of paint had different densities so that certain colours would rise up to the surface and others would recede, making a beautiful flow of colours that any imagination could dream of.

Back to School

Hello and welcome back to my blog at this time of the year again. I will be involved with a Reading Intervention Program at a school as well as continuing to tutor. I look forward to helping students increase their reading ability and fluency through strategic techniques.

Reading is so important that everybody should learn to read especially at a young age. Beginning in Kindergarten students are introduced to reading in various ways through modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. Using the  Dolch Sight Words can help the students read whereby they learn to memorize the words 'by sight.' Once they remember most of these words their reading excels and if their curiosity is piqued they are off to the races. The students' interest in reading must be fueled by encouragement and positive support so that the student will develop a natural enthusiasm to read on their own.

Tutoring!

Life as an Educator brings many opportunities outside of the school. For example, tutoring has been my staple this year with 5 students whom I've been tutoring in English and Mathematics. Over the course of this year and since last year I helped one of my students increase his writing mark by almost 10% to a 79 on his last report card. I'm hoping that this time he will have made it over the hump and achieved an A (80s). I have designed programs specific to the students' needs and learning abilities/styles. Other students are being tutored on class material only and extensions to this. I find it very rewarding and the results are excellent. I have received good feedback. For example, one of the comments from one of my students wrote "Thank you for teaching me all these wonderful things, your enthusiasm is very positive."

Teaching Grade 2!

The year is almost complete with one more month to go. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in the learning process of many topics with a grade two class. I designed, developed, delivered and assessed while collaborating with the Grade 2 Teacher, lessons and mini units in Language (Verbs, Antonyms, Synonyms, Writing Friendly Letters,  How to Write a Fairy Tale, and 2 Stars and a Wish about fellow classmates’ Fairy Tales), Math (Estimating and Counting Money,  Solving Money Problems using Addition and Subraction), Health (Making Healthy Food choices, making a healthy meal using the 4 food groups, Food at Celebrations, and Safety at Home and at School) and Science (Creating a toy using simple machines). I used techniques which involved multimedia, skits, think-pair-share, brainstorming, group discussions and encouraged inquiry based learning. I also supervised and organized students on a field trip to Heartlake for a 'Water and its Recyclability’ learning experience.