Japan Society Junior Fellows Final Projects

Our guests from Japan presented their final projects at the Japan Society on Sunday and had some interesting insights about their experiences and our school.

Aya presented data she collected from Smithtown East students and her Japanese classmates about fear of terrorism and thoughts on Japan and US policies, Kenga showed off his collaborative Japan-US painting, and Imagine presented on what is means to be cosmopolitan and international.  The presentations included many students and teachers from Smithtown East and were really interesting!

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year!

Welcome to a new school year!  Today in class we'll be going over some of the basic and discuss the expectation for each class and below are links to a few of the contests and opportunities we will be talking about:

National Art & Media Art Honor Societies- the art club is open to all students enrolled and meets Wednesdays after school in room 161.  We do art workshops, alumni talks, volunteer at local events such as the Hampton's Film Festival, go on art related field trips, arrange the annual haunted house, work with outside charity organisations, arrange art shows, and work on student driven extra-curricular projects.

Google for Education- We'll be taking advantage of Google's new classroom technologies to share information and collaborate in the classroom.

The Japan Society's Going Global program- Classes will collaborate on lessons virtually with students from Japan, the US, and Pakistan on projects throughout the year.  There is also a student exchange program which students may enroll in.

AP Art: Japan Society's Junior Fellows student guests

 

Today we are welcoming Hikaru and Anna to Smithtown East.  They are both students visiting from Japan and they will be staying with us for 2 weeks through the Japan Society's Junior Fellows program.  they will be working with us in class as well as working on a project they've designed which we'll participate in. I've also arranged a short talk with our guest and all the students in classes and the Art Honor Society who worked on the Going Global program this year.

2014 Japanese Student Visitors

Next week we will be welcoming two visiting students from Tokyo, Japan for a two week stay through the Japan Society in NY who's Going Global project some of us worked on last semester.  The students will be staying with Gabby and Allison from my AP Art class and they we be participating in a talk that I am putting together with my classes for next week. 

This visit is a great experience for all of us to learn a bit about a new culture and teach them about ours.  The video above is from a terrific TED talk Derek Sivers gave that gives some perspective of how the different cultures view things and opens you mind to how we might view things differently.  I encourage you help welcome the girls next week, to be open to the experience, and most importantly to try not to judge things that you think might be weird, they are just different.

To give you a sense of how different school is in Japan, below is a photo of me and a class of Japanese students from the Nagoya area of Japan in the Aichi district.  The school had some elements like dress codes, student cleaning periods, student led field trips, and grade charts posted on the walls that were different but when class began the learning and students were very similar.

 

 

We'll be doing an art project I designed while in Japan next week based on the Tanabata Festival where you will interpret the myth visualy and use the color palette from Japanese woodblock prints.

Media Art: The White House Film Festival Submissions

One of our final assignments in Media Art class is to create an entry for the new The White House Film Festival using all the tools we learned in class.  for this assignment students were given create freedom in interpreting how to best illustrate STEAM in schools and how it might be important in the future of their education.  Above is a terrific example from Allie who used clips of our recent SKYPE and Google Hangout sessions along with examples from our ongoing Japan Society program Going Global in her piece, great job!  Make sure you films are totally completed by Thursday this week (we may have quite a bit of snow coming our way so you might want to bring some material home to finish your projects)! 

Our Talk with Nick Cannon and actor Brock Ciarlelli

Mr. Needles Smithtown High School East media classes have been working on an ongoing project this month as part of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month and this week students have the opportunity to talk with actor/singer Nick Cannon (from NBC's America's Got Talent) and actor Brock Ciarlelli (from ABC's The Middle) about bullying.  The performers will be talking to the students and invited guests who had person experiences with bullying via a video conference made possible by Skype in the Classroom and Google in Education Tuesday and Wednesday.

After the talk the students will create a short public service announcement which follows-up on the video they created last year. The students have been working with classes in Japan and Pakistan discussing the issues related to bullying as well as comparing and contrasting their own personal experiences through a Japan Society social media program entitled Going Global.  The final public service announcement will include input globally from all the classes involved around the world.

Media Art: Bully

October is National Bullying Prevention Month and we'll be creating a short film about the subject in partnership with classes in Japan and Pakistan through the Japan Society Going Global project.  We'll begin by taking a look at a few clips from the film Bully and discussing them and explore what has come from the film in the Bully Project.  Below is the short PSA the media class created last year in conjunction with the School Improvement Team for reference.

Studio Art: Going Global

We have finished the introductory project of creating a crane so next log on to the Japan Society's Going Global social network and share their work and begin a conversation.  We will upload photos of the crane's we created and introduce ourselves to the classes in Pakistan and Japan.  The crane above was created by Gabby, a senior who was with the Japan Society this summer for the student trip through Going Global.  She spent 3 weeks touring the country and attending school with her "host sister".

Studio Art: Introduction to Japan

Now that we have finished our origami cranes we will be creating a short introductory video featuring photos of our cranes and images of the class to begin our exchange in the Going Global program.  It's always a good idea to learn some basic greetings and know how to introduce yourself in another language when you are working with a different culture so here are to short videos from the Japan Society that teach us the basic greetings and introductions in Japanese.

Media: The PSA Project

Here's a great short PSA (Public Service Announcement) from Columbia University's Water Center and the Global Citizens which explains the pretty frightening situation we are heading towards with water consumption.

This year we'll be creating our own PSA as part of the Going Global project with classes in Japan and India so it's important to look at a concise and effective example such as this for insight on how it shares information without overwhelming the audience leading to better comprehension and retention.

Our PSA will be on an issue some of you may know well, bullying.  I was a bit surprised in this summer's conference to see it was an big issue globally with many of the same symptoms so we'll be talking with the students around the world and looking at what the commonalities and differences are then brainstorming ideas for our own PSA.  We'll start today by asking everyone in class to write a short paragraph on what they think "bullying" is and how it's dealt with positively and/or negatively.

Studio Art: Japan Society’s Going Global Social Networking Project

 
Today in Studio Art we will begin working on the Japan Society’s Going Global Social Networking Project with classes from Tokyo, Japan and Karachi, Pakistan.  I had a chance to meet all the global educators this summer at a conference and above I am pictured with the teacher of the class in Pakistan Iram Sadiq who we'll be interacting with shortly.

Before we begin its important to understand a bit of the different culture and environment of these to give us some context for understanding so I designed and began putting together a short, simple game which asks questions about the countries, states, cities, towns, and schools of the participating classes. 

Above is an image of 6 of the facts that I included now it's your turn to do some research and contribute to the game before we play it.  Each student will go online and research the given locals to find an interesting fact which will be added to the game (try to think of what might be interesting about your hometown, state, or country to someone who has never seen it or been there).  Next week we'll load the questions into the game along with the facts collected from the other classes then play it.

Media Art: Shorts- Paris Je T'aime

We are beginning our film class by looking at a series of short films from Paris Je T'aime in order to go over the basics of film and critiquing in addition to getting some international perspectives before starting the Going Global project next month.  We'll watch 5 shorts which are listed below and after the films you'll need to choose 2 to critique using the template on the assignment drive. You can use imdb.com and the NY Times Film Section to aid you in your critiques.

Director		Segment
Tom Tykwer		"Faubourg Saint-Denis"
Gurinder Chadha		"Quais de Seine"
Wes Craven		"Pere-Lachaise"
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen		"Tuileries"
Alexander Payne		"14e arrondissement"

Welcome Smithtown 2013-2014

Welcome back to school, I hope everyone enjoyed their summer!  Next week we are going to begin working with students from Japan on a project from the Japan Society so I thought this short video can give some insight on the other side of the world!  I hope everyone has a terrific year!

School's Out for Summer!

Now that the grades are completed and art room 161 is packed up for summer, here's my last post for 2012-2013.  Above is a great montage of images and video from this year's Art Honor Society that was put together by our president Jess and I which I wanted to share, she did a great job this year! 

I also wanted to sat congratulations to all my seniors who are graduating next week, I wish I could be there but I'm actually part of Mt.Sinai's graduation ceremony as part of my 20 year high school reunion.  I just want to say thanks to all of the club members and cabinet members who worked hard to make this such a great year in our clubs and a special good luck to Gabby who was chosen by the Japan Society to travel to Japan for 3 weeks this summer after working on the Going Global project- Godspeed!

Japan Society: Welcome to my Life

This week we will conclude our Welcome to My Life project on Going Global with the final four images.  Logon and post them by Friday and don't forget to comment on at least one other person from another school!
WEEK ONE – Create a photo collage of the most important places in your community. Comment on other students’ pictures.

WEEK TWO – Create your own photo collage of your personality. Comment on other students’ pictures.

WEEK THREE – Create a photo collage of where you spend your free time. Students will comment on collages.

WEEK FOUR – Students create a collage of their futures using your own photos or internet pictures. Students will comment on collages

Edscape Conference 2012

 

Edscape Conference 2012- How to Go Global: Connecting and Motivating American, Japanese, & Pakistani Students Online Tim Needles October 13, 2012- New Milford High School

 

Since Fall 2011, my students and I have been participating in the Going Global Social Network run by the Japan Society which has connected my students to classrooms throughout the United States, Japan, and Pakistan. It has been particularly successful in creating connections across disciplines, sparking interest in world affairs, and engaging all students.

 

Going Global Projects:

 

What's My Sentence: An idea taken from Dan Pink's terrific book Drive modified for the classroom which asks students to write in one sentence what they accomplished 30 years from now.

 

 

It works both as a motivational tool and as an icebreaker in the Going Global project plus it's interesting to see the similarities and differences in students goals across cultures.

Favorite Foods: An icebreaker which asks students to share their favorite foods, recipes for those dishes, and expands to ask their favorite foods around holidays.

Everyone loves food so it's an easy introduction that can be approached from different angles depending on the class subject. I did it with my photography class as you can see above (most delicious project ever), the cultural differences are evident immediately as you can see in the comparison with the photo below.

 

 

What is Beauty: A project that asks students to think about what beauty means to them and create an image in any media then share it explaining what makes it beautiful.

The project was a success in that the work the class did was strong and they had a virtual audience to share and discuss it with which helped them understand what they were doing a bit better.  It also gave a glimpse into some of the different values of the cultures as a whole as well as the individual students as you can see from the comparison with the photo below from a Japanese student.
 

 

Technology In The Classroom:

Instagram and Statigram

SKYPE in the Classroom

 

You Tube



Smartboard

Wikipedia

Twitter

Best Practices:

The art of the hashtag-
#NeedlesClass

Creative ideas that spread outside the classroom-
Inside Out
Inspiration! 
PSA's
Senbazuru

Freeware-
Photoshop.com
Go Animate
Blogger
Visual.ly

Merge your outside activities with the classroom-
Short & Sweet NYC
Chewy Donuts
Publications
 

Media Arts: Going Global- Our town

Today we will continue working on the Going Global project and in Media Arts class we will work on arranging the photographs that we've taken of our town and local sights in Photoshop and then posting them to the social network to show the students in Japan and Pakistan what our community is like.  Above is a great photo Don took last week of the St. James General Store which, aside from being a popular local landmark, is the U.S.'s oldest continuously operational general store.

Going Global Week

Throughout this abbreviated 3 day week we will be focusing on our first Going Global project and today we will begin by looking at the culture and environment of our cooperative classes in Tokyo, Japan.  This video above from ANA airlines gives a good look at some of the major sights in the city but when I was there I also really loved the Roppongi Art Triangle and the Shibuya area (especially the Starbucks overlooking the crossing). In your interested in more information National Geographic also has a terrific website on Japan.

AP Art: What's Your Sentence?

 This week we started our first Going Global project with the Dan Pink "What's Your Sentence?" assignment in which students are asked to imagine what goals they would like to achive in their lifetime then write it in the future as if they've completed it.  Here are two examples from Clay (above) and Brianne (below).

Going Global 2012

This year Mr. Needles classes will be participating in a global project with students from Japan, Pakistan, and the U.S. in which we will simultaneously work on a collaborative lesson.  The project is sponsored by the Japan Society and is entitled Going Global.  Before we begin the project we will learn a little bit about the culture of the students that we will be working with including how to say hello and introduce yourself so above is a simple video that teaches us how to say hello in Japanese and below are the phrases we will use:

Good Afternoon - Konnichiwa
How do you do (nice to meet you) - Hajimemashite, dozo yoroshiku

Thank You - Arigatou (casual) gozaimasu (formal)
Excuse me, I'm sorry - Sumimasen
Goodbye - Sayounara

Additionally, below is a short piece on the popular Japanese inspired company Tokidoki ("sometimes" in Japanese) which is very popular both in New York and in Japan as well as Europe that well speak about in class as part of one of our projects.