Don Bosco Kindness Tree Idea Expands and the "Don Bosco Art Gallery" blooms!

At Don Bosco School where Principal Cecilia O'Toole-Frederick inspired the Kindness Rocks Project idea at the beginning of her school tenure last fall, Mrs. O'Toole-Frederick had another idea this year:  An indoor Kindness Tree Mural.

After discussing this with WPU Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras, WPU PIR Robin O'Brien, and Don Bosco art teacher Patty Kaminski, this idea has become a reality. 

Art teacher Ms. Kaminski and her students have been painting the mural this fall in the front hallway of the school building.  The original "sketch" for the Kindness Tree (September 2018) was the image below:

Ms. Kaminski and her students started with this concept and expanded upon it with acrylic paint together with help and guidance from PIR Triada Samaras. In the first phase they removed the paper sketch of the trunk (above) and began painting the trunk (image below).

After the trunk was completed, Ms. Kaminski and her students worked on grass, flowers, leaves and new text all of which is hand-painted on the wall.

Now, the Kindness Tree is fully grown!

Last week, Ms. Kaminski and Ms. Samaras added the DB Founding Father Thomas Jefferson art project to the hallway.

A collection of Aztec-inspired student artworks on square metal foil tiles are now being added to the hallway (see below.) 

A large-scale portrait of American Revolutionary War hero, Deborah Sampson will be added next.  "The Don Bosco Art Gallery" is in full bloom!

William Paterson University Annual Educational Technology Conference

Above going clockwise:  WPU PIR Betsy Golden, Technology Teacher Mr. Hill School 29, Technology Teacher Mr. Rhein School 12,  Technology Teacher Mrs. Selino NRC, WPU Professor Heejung An and Principal Mr. Ventura School 29 

     Last Friday, the WPU Educational Annual Educational Technology Conference was held at WPU. Featuring Keynote Speaker, Mr. Christopher Kavcak, the theme was:  "Working Smart: Effective Open Educational Resources (OER) For Teachers ."  
https://www.facebook.com/WPEdTechConference/

Among those presenting at this conference were NRC technology teacher Janette Selino who has been part of the Dodge Arts Integration Team via this grant there for many years, working closely with WPU Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras.  

Above:  Technology Teacher Janette Selino assists an attending teacher at the conference.

Ms Selino has consistently integrated arts and technology 
with her 350 technology students grades 6-8 in both her technology and STEAM enrichment 
classes.

At the WPU Conference she shared this knowledge with her presentation:

Creating an Interactive Bulletin Board Using QR Codes

By Janette Selino, Paterson Public School District
"In this session, the participants will learn how to navigate around a free poster software program and insert a QR code to make their posters interactive. Your students will love to make their posters come alive! You will need to bring your smartphone and all participants will learn how to download a QR scanner. This activity is good for all academic subjects and infuses art into all academic areas of your curriculum. Participants will create a free poster account and will leave with one completed poster with a QR code in their own personal free web-based account." (JS)  WPU Education Technology Conference Weebly

In addition this year Ms Selino has introduced a new robot to her STEAM extension classes.
In the image below Ms. Selino (left) discovers the new robots Dash and Dot with a phone app with Ms. Aramayo, art teacher (left).

Below students ponder programming the robots for a variety of uses.

Below is a video of Ms. Selino (right) and Ms.Aramayo (left) and WPU Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras experimenting with the new robots:  Dash and Dot:

Science/Arts Integration Abound in Paterson Public Schools this Fall!

NRC has a new science teacher this year, Mr. Blake who has been using arts integration to a great extent to teach science in his classes and enrichment periods.  Art PIR Triada Samaras has been working with him, and gave Mr. Blake a copy of the "WPU Arts Integration Lessons Binder" compiled for the Arts Integration Summer Institute 2018.  Dr. Heejung An, Dodge Arts Integration Coordinator, is highlighting the content area of Science for the 2018-2019 Arts Integration Grant in the Paterson Schools this year.

Mr. Blake has already attracted a group of eager and interested students to his classroom where these hands-on lessons and pedagogy captivate them.
In this first project Mr. Blake adapted a lesson on race cars which was contributed to the WPU Arts Integration Binder by WPU PIR Simone Sandler: "Creating Arts that Move."


Students in Blake's class were given the assessment details that their cars would be judged on three categories:  Beauty/ Speed/ Most Style.  Teams of students were given the following materials:  1 piece of cardboard, 2 large straws, 4 Styrofoam trays, 4 small straws, masking tape. His directions were:  "Use any class or personal artistic research to customize your vehicle.  To win, entries must be operational. Prizes include cash and candy for the winning teams!"

Below are several constructed cars before painting.

                          One car after being painted below:

Ramp test for cars:

                                          Video of car test in the classroom below:

Another Arts Integration lesson that Mr. Blake teaches in his NRC classroom is a "Tinker Toy Activity he adapted from the Internet."  Again, there is an assessment built into this activity.
(See below)
















































In addition Mr. Blake and his students built an "earthquake tester machine" to test the structural soundness of the students' handmade "buildings" according to the earth quakes waves. 




















"These Arts Integration activities never fail to capture the attention on my students,"
Mr Blake said.

Below are two student-made buildings constructed out of paper and tested on the machine.
The weakest building crumpled the most. Students learned about force, compression, tension, torque and other principles of engineering.

Science Teachers Collaborate on Arts Integration Projects

In November of this year at New Roberto Clemente School, in Ms. Munem's science inclusion class, students researched, wrote, and conducted presentations about the systems of the human body. Students used the Foss Kit for "Human Systems Interactions"   as a foundation for this project, first researching these systems to learn more about them. 

Next. students connected their new knowledge to the planning of an arts project, and by developing an informative poster.   



Ms. Munem provided the students with a wide variety of art materials so they could better visualize all of the aspects.  Bilingual science teacher Mr. Segovia observed this lesson and implemented some aspects of this project into his own science classroom.  Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras provided support and feedback.

Lastly, students displayed their creations in the hall and conducted oral presentations. 

        
Some sample questions would included:

• How would you generalize_____?
• How would you express _____?
• What can you infer from _____?
• What did you observe_____?
• A true Arts Integration project scaffolds up the Bloom's Taxonomy of "questions."  
• This project reached the higher levels. 

A new Robot at NRC!

This year at NRC Technology Teacher Janette Selino and STEAM Art PIR Triada Samaras are collaborating on a number of STEAM Projects for Ms. Selino's two, daily STEAM 

enrichment classes.

. 

Above:  Ms. Selino's Technology Class at NRC

Ms. Selino with coaching from Ms. Samaras is using questions from Bloom's Taxonomy and the different levels of questions to help students think critically and problem-solve on their own.  So far, students have been using a pre-coding game and a programmable robot.

Above:  Students learn to play a wordless pre-coding game and brainstorm their ideas for a version of their own.
It takes time for students to problem-solve and learn to use new materials collaboratively.  
Students are enamored with the two small robots and and look forward each day to learning more of their capabilities.  They are envisioning what their own robot might look like if they could manufacture it themselves.

Above:  Art teacher Ms. Aramayo (left) and Technology teacher Ms Selino (right) experiment with commanding robots via a cell phone app.

Above:  Technology teacher Ms Selino (right) listens to her enrichment students discuss the new robots. 

Above:  Students are fascinated by the robots and brainstorm their abilities almost immediately.

Above:  Ms Selino and the students brainstorming.

Above:  Students master sending a sound to the robot.

Dr. Heejung An visits NRC in Paterson!

Recently, full Professor and WPU Dodge Grant Director, Dr. Heejung An visited New Roberto Clemente School in Paterson, a Dodge STEAM Grant Recipient School.

From left to right: Technology Teacher Ms. Selino, WPU PIR Betsy Golden, Dr. Heejung An, WPU STEAM PIR Triada Samaras

     Dr. An's visit focused on the Geraldine Dodge STEAM Grant at NRC adding new initiatives for the 2018-2019 academic year. This year Dr. An would like to focus on STEAM and/or Arts Integration in the Science/Art Classrooms. Dr. An envisions science and art teachers working collaboratively in a fashion that will add research data to her on-going research in this area.

From left to right: WPU PIR Betsy Golden, WPU STEAM PIR Triada Samaras, Ms. Abaza Science Teacher and Mr. Segovia, Science Teacher
     Art teacher Ms. Aramayo, Science teachers Ms. Abaza and Mr. Chase, Technology teachers Ms. Selino and WPU PIR's Triada Samaras (STEAM Art PIR) and Betsy Golden (PIR) all gathered together with Dr. An to brainstorm (see images above).
     Below:
Students proudly display their Arts Integration project, a roller coaster combining methods from both science and art, at NRC in Science Teacher Ms. Post's class.

Above:

Ms. Browne, Science Teacher at Don Bosco School (another Dodge funded STEAM School) used Art Integration (methods from both Science and Art) to teach her non-English speaking class of 8th graders (refugees from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico) about cells.