NATIONAL Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Day!

It is Monday, March 16, 2020 and that means today is NATIONAL Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Day!  The finalist for 2020 will be released at noon!  Best of luck to all of our finalists!

Corona Virus Closure

The school district announced that we will be closed all of next week to clean for Corona Virus, blow are some of the details.  Today we will complete all of our activities and prepare for the future.

Is school open on Friday, March 13, 2020? YES 

 Are there after-school activities on Friday, March 13, 2020? YES

Will athletic teams have practice and/or games for the closure week? NO

Will the SAT exam be given at HSW on Saturday, March 14, 2020? YES

Will instruction or instructional materials be provided during the school closure? NO, as in snow emergencies we will not be providing instruction or materials for the week of March 16-20, 2020.

Will the District buildings be thoroughly cleaned next week? YES, during the closure our custodial staff will do a thorough disinfection of all buildings including classrooms, all-purpose rooms, auditoriums, walls, doors, desks, chairs, book cases, floors, etc.

Will school now be in session on Friday, May 22, 2020? YES

Will this emergency closure impact April break? TO BE DETERMINED

Will the District be providing transportation for students to attend out-of-district placements and private/parochial schools? NO

Will students that are presently scheduled for home instruction still receive the home instruction next week? NO

Will the District lose State aid for closing this week? NO

Are Adult Education classes and activities cancelled as well? YES

Are outside organizations permitted to use school facilities during this closure? NO

Doodle for Google Contest Due

The Doodle for Google Contest deadline is March 13 so we will spend some time organizing and submitting our finished entries.  Make sure the form is completely filled out with the drawing on it and it is signed by a parent or guardian.  Above is an amazing digital drawing entry by Elisa from Digital Media Class.

Film: What's in a Pilot Episode

Today we'll begin looking at understanding and creating a pilot episode of a television show. The example above from the Simpsons show how the first episode may have many problems even though the show turns out to be a hit. Finding a great pilot episode can be difficult, in fact many pilots never get to air and are reshot, recast, or totally reworked. We'll explore what needs to be included in a pilot and how the process works so we can create our own.

AP Art: AP Portfolios

In AP Art we critiqued our AP Portfolios and now it's time to begin photographing the work for the AP Test and posting it on the testing site.  Digital work like the awesome piece from Juliana above is easy but 2D and 3D work needs to be photographed and uploaded to the AP Studio Art page: https://apstudio.ets.org/apstudioart/

Here are the codes that are necessary to logon and create an account:

School Code: 335001
School: SMITHTOWN HIGH SCH E CAMPUS
Teacher Key: xwt0100

Digital Media: STEAM drawings

Today we are working our STEAM drawings, did you know that Charlie Chaplin spent time in St. James or the Albert Einstein lived on Long Island?  Many of the most import STEAM pioneers had links to where we live!  The digital drawings are due tomorrow on Google classroom.

STEAM Power Challenge

We are taking part in an art challenge for our next project to celebrate Youth Art Month! Draw a digital portrait/illustrated quote of an important figure in STEAM and we'll be sharing them all month on social media.  Here's a link to my Quizlet featuring some important STEAM heroes to get started: STEAM Power Influencers.  Below is an example from Thomas Edison.

National Art Honor Society- Take Action Project

The National Art Honor Society will take part in the Take Action Project, here's a little bit more information:

This year, the United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The UN Secretary General is looking to youth to answer this question: 

What kind of world do you want to create? 

The #TakeActionProject is designed to guide students in grades K-12 (age 5-18) through a 9-week inquiry experience moving through levels of self to local community to global community to examining our place in the universe. The project will conclude with Take Action Day on May 1st where we will join in an online global celebration to showcase projects and work, and then we will all together send a collective message to the UN Secretary General with our ideas as we look to the future our students hope to create.

To help us answer this guiding question, we have enlisted some of the best minds and thought leaders in science, peace and justice, and sustainability. Our collaborators have helped us curate resources, probing questions, and inspiration to share during the coming weeks. Classrooms and teachers will also be invited to participate in expert webinars, social media conversations, class-to-class video exchange discussions, and community outreach through action research! 

This week's activity is to create their own project digital badge to represent participation. Students can also select to submit their designs to become the Official Take Action Project digital badge for 2020. One badge will be selected in Week 3!  Below are some examples from Apple's Earth program.

Digital Media: Salvador Dali AI

I had a chance to take a #selfie with Salvador #Dali thanks to some pretty amazing #AI technology that interpreted years of footage of the artist to create an interactive video installation @TheDali in Florida! Pretty amazing! pic.twitter.com/R1rHausNM4

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) March 4, 2020

We recently learned about Artificial Intelligence and did some work with machine learning in class so I wanted to share this interactive art project from the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersberg Florida because it used AI to recreate the artist himself using hour of film and television footage.

AP ART: AP Senior Shows

In AP ART we will finish the portfolio critiques and talk about the schedule for our upcoming AP Senior Shows for the Spring.  Below is a look at some of the variety of show's we've done over the years to give you a better idea of what to expect!

Digital Media: Doodle for Google

In Digital Media class we are finishing up our Google Doodles for this year's Doodle for Google contest.  Once they are complete you  need to finish the application which is available online or in the assignment drive and write a few sentences about your work so it can be submitted.  The last step is to get a parent or guardian signature.