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Here is the technology that Damaris Miller has acquired through Digital Wish:
Flip UltraHD™ 1 Hour Video Camera 2-for-1, Flip UltraHD™ 1 hr Video Camera - 2 for $150
Mrs. Damaris Miller
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Chelsea Public School
Hometown:
Montpelier, Vermont
Class Information:
Room Number: 143
Students per Class: K-12, 150 students
Class Description:
This semester, I am teaching Art I that is open to grades 9-12, Kindergarten who I see once a week for 40 minutes,grades 1-5 twice a week,and middle school for nine weeks each grades 7 and 8, and then 6th grade. The Spring semester changes in the fact that I add a Sculptural course open to grades 9-12, Art II also open to grades 9-12, and a new Illustration/SequentialArts class that is open to grades 9-12 and is hopefully going to be enhanced by the usage of digital technology to add to the Animation part of the course.
Position:
art teacher
Needs:
I have been thinking about introducing Illustration and Sequential Arts to my students after talking to some older students who felt that Art I and Art II were two classes that attracted not necessarily serious art students but rather students who were looking for one credit. This idea does not really bother me since I write my own lessons and pace the class as I get to know their artistic voice as well as their style and seriousness. But, I also listen to my students and take their concerns seriously. I have done a fair amount of research into what colleges are offering to art students,what art students are doing, and the digital technology that is one more creative outlet and device to use to communicate ideas, thoughts and needs. Right now, my art funds go to the classics of art teaching, and there is not much room let a lone money to buy digital technology to enhance my teaching courses. I have bought things on my own and brought them into the classroom so that students are not in left field when I talk about techniques or programs and I do not mind buying from my own pocket because I believe that I share a lot of ideas with the teachers and professors who teach college level courses. But, I cannot afford a lot at a time and I need help in procuring the technology tools needed to enhance my students' vision and possibly hopefully future in the digital world. At this time, my school only offers Accounting in several forms in the computer room although all students have access to seven computers in the library during school hours. It is difficult to teach the animation projects at the students pace or when I want to add them to our curriculum when I have to secure the 7 computers ahead of time in the library, hold class in the library and make sure that programs and files are secure for the next time. Having a Digital Wish would be a dream come true for all my students and would make my job of creating lessons and not worrying about how I am going to implement them successively much more wonderful. Thank- you for this really special forum for use wishers and dreamers... the Art Teachers!
Personal Information:
About Me:
In the sixth grade, after creating, producing and really enjoying the making of an enormous effort called 'Egypt' for the Cultural Show with a team of three other girls, my every wish was to go into the field of Egyptology. But somewhere along the way, I turned thirty and was volunteering in my young son's art class and enjoyed that too. It seems now at forty, and a K-12 Art teacher in a shire town called Chelsea, Vermont that I meant to be an Art teacher all along. I really enjoy watching students of all ages problem solve their ways through projects and facilitating the means of getting from the brain storming area of art making through various stages of feeling good and not so good about those ideas, and then producing them into art that communicates some or all of the process. Whew! After writing all that, I must say also that the process is more important than the end product for me because what students take away from their art explorations is what makes them curious to learn more. After last year's Claymation Unit, a mother of one of my students said that her son and his friends have continued to make videos and it has been the best thing since they have to make and produce and then watch rather than plug in a video game and play. I would love someday to find a way through digital technology to introduce students into making their own video games. Maybe the makers of 'Halo" will need more help from some eighth graders? "Hello, Bungee?"
College and Degrees:
I went to Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas trying to get as far away from Vermont as I could and study Illustration and Fashion Design. After two years, and enough sewing skills to last me a life time I came home and took Art History courses, Art classes, and went to the Vermont Studio School in Johnson, Vermont where I met Wolf Kahn and realized that I really liked studio work rather than outdoor lights, egg tempera, science fiction, and my then boyfriend. I ended up marrying the then boyfriend and finishing my B.A. in Art History with an art show to boot from Norwich University in 1991. I started teaching Art in 1999, am a certified K-12 Art teacher and continue to take courses, workshops and do my own art today.
Activities:
I really like spending time with my family once I get home from school and my activities revolve around that. But, my activities also include oil painting (I love the Surrealists especially Remedios Varo), reading young adult fiction and illustrating my versions of Neil Gaiman's stories (at the moment that is), thinking up new projects for my students and eating the cookies in the cookie jar at the same time, researching for those said projects and finding ways to make them that more interesting or slung with a curve ball, and teaching school. I am having the best year so far! Yahoo!
Favorite Books:
My favorite books are surreal science fiction for young adults genre which include Terry Brooks, Riordan, Gaiman, McKean, at the moment. But my interests change like the seasons and I do at times go back to old classics such as Batman comics, art techniques books, and biographies that enhance the art world and give my discussions more fodder for thought and a good laugh.
Favorite Quotes:
My interests are very broad and my ideas make my interests on the eccentric side so I don't always share them right away until I can plug them into both curricula and Standards. But, Right now, I am having vast thoughts about digital technology in the art room and finding creative ways to make the teaching of Illustration both with a classic atelier feel and the technology to take it further. I love the old school way of making art and believe that it is very good for students to learn classic drawing skills, working of warm shadows, cool lights, training their visual eye and feeling comfortable about their drawing skills. I also believe that the combination of drawing skills and transforming programs add freshness and a self confidence in students artwork and that is very wonderful to see.">My interests are very broad and my ideas make my interests on the eccentric side so I don't always share them right away until I can plug them into both curricula and Standards. But, Right now, I am having vast thoughts about digital technology in the art room and finding creative ways to make the teaching of Illustration both with a classic atelier feel and the technology to take it further. I love the old school way of making art and believe that it is very good for students to learn classic drawing skills, working of warm shadows, cool lights, training their visual eye and feeling comfortable about their drawing skills. I also believe that the combination of drawing skills and transforming programs add freshness and a self confidence in students artwork and that is very wonderful to see.
Interests:
My interests are very broad and my ideas make my interests on the eccentric side so I don't always share them right away until I can plug them into both curricula and Standards. But, Right now, I am having vast thoughts about digital technology in the art room and finding creative ways to make the teaching of Illustration both with a classic atelier feel and the technology to take it further. I love the old school way of making art and believe that it is very good for students to learn classic drawing skills, working of warm shadows, cool lights, training their visual eye and feeling comfortable about their drawing skills. I also believe that the combination of drawing skills and transforming programs add freshness and a self confidence in students artwork and that is very wonderful to see.
Employment History:
I started my first real job helping to prepare and serve food for the old ladies at the Gary Home when I was fourteen and have had a job since then. I started teaching Art at one then two private elementary/middleschools in Central Vermont in 1999 until 2006. I taught at a public elementary school in the Mad River of Vermont area and now teach K-12 in Chelsea, Vermont.
Why Do I Teach?:
I teach because I want to be apart of the team who educate our children and our children's children in order to create a society of people who care for their fellow brother or sister, who will take care of the Earth and who will be witness to beauty, truth and goodness.