Summer vacation is here and classrooms across America are empty. We only know of one art room that is open all year long. The doors to Miss French Fry’s art room never close because she has mirrored the creativity her students experience in school with a bright, constructive and amusing blog, http://missfrenchfrymakesart.blogspot.com/.
“Teaching art is my dream job,” says Melinda Donelan (a.k.a. Miss French Fry). “I like to use my blog as an outlet for sharing some of the fun things we work on in the art room.” And share she does. About twice a week, Donelan publishes posts that show projects her students are working on as well as classroom décor/organization tips. Sometimes she even gives her readers a sneak peek into her personal life by revealing what she is making for dinner and her wardrobe selections for the week.
What sets this art teacher’s blog apart is her fusion of creativity and organization. Every post focused on art education starts by introducing the project and the inspiration behind it. Maybe she traveled to a museum or was inspired by a famous painter from the past. She explains how she does this intentionally, “When I develop lessons, regardless of what the objective is, I like to ensure that the projects tie in with something else, whether it’s a cross curricular connection or a piece of literature.” After tying each project to a deeper purpose, she springboards into the details of the project and shows her students bringing their artwork to life by using pictures. She has lots of pictures that show readers what the students are doing step-by-step. She also shows a finished project, too.
In reading her blog, it is clear that Miss French Fry really enjoys her job. “One of the biggest things I enjoy about teaching art is celebrating my students’ uniqueness,” she says. “Before teaching art, I worked as a special education teacher for students with behavioral and emotional disabilities. It’s been wonderful incorporating that background into my art room and definitely inspired quite a few blog posts.”
Miss French Fry’s blog posts can inspire more than just art teachers. All teachers could benefit from some of her posts. For example, the “Sub Tub” is an organizer she has created to store and label lesson plans for substitute teachers. All in all, her clever instructions make it simple for any teacher to feel prepared when they leave their classroom in the hands of a substitute.
In this 24/7 world, always accessible art education resources are hard to come by. With her blog, http://missfrenchfrymakesart.blogspot.com/, Melinda Donelan is changing this. Explore the adventurous, industrious and sometime wacky world of an art educator. Get some fresh ideas and walk away feeling encouraged and more creative.
Read more Segmation blog posts about colorful artists:
Is an art education necessary?
What does a Good Art Teacher Look Like?
Reviving Art as the Heart of Education
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What is beautiful about a world that exists in a constant state of war? News media broadcasts incessant reminders about natural disasters, impoverished nations, and a drowning global economy. Not long ago, people made it a point to read newspapers in the mornings and watch nightly news programs. Now, more people are moving away from this practice because the news is downright frightening and often blamed for the onset of depression.
Ritualistic— People who gather together to create and critique art have more unifying interactions and ceremonies than groups who don’t. A evolutionary ethologist, Ellen Dissanayake, makes the point that historically, people who came together for the purpose of art “…were able to survive longer than those who did not engage in using art.” Art rituals have been part the human experience since its beginnings. In fact, much of history reflects that people have always come together for the purpose of art. Do you remember studying Tibetan sand paintings? Or Native American totem-polls? These were sacred rituals for cultural groups at certain times throughout history. Malchiodi points out how these rituals were founded in human survival-instinct because “they help us make meaning of life as well as reduce life’s inevitable stresses.”
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The contribution Josef Albers made to the world of art is undeniable. He was successful at merging traditional European art with modern American art, to create an abstract style all his own. While his roots were grounded in the type of constructivist thinking that allowed Bauhaus school of arts and crafts to flourish, his experiences in America allowed him freedom to explore patterns and colors that are now the signature of optical art.
Outside The Lines 