Critters on Zonkey Street: Boston

Whenever I get the chance, I try my hand at a little vGraffiti. The photo above was taken at a train station in Boston this summer. However, I don't post that much on this blog anymore.

I still like the blog format but posting to other social media is some much convenient. I don't need to open a browser and type, I just take the picture and share.  Sometimes I share on Twitter but more often than not I post to the Critters on Zonkey Street Facebook page. Check them out.

Also taken in Boston at MassArt.

How To Milk A Dinosaur: Back in Print

If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn't weird enough, imagine how strange it's going to get when Trip Stanley's class start's drinking the milk! 

How To Milk A Dinosaur is the original version of the book How To Milk A Dinocow, published by Peak City Publishing, LLC. That version of the book is out of print but the story is virtually the same in  How To Milk A Dinosaur 

On Writing Poetry: Shellless

Shellless on Amazon

On Cracked Pencils: Shellless

Shellless on Amazon

On Being Ignored: Shellless

I have two major problems. I get ignored and I get ignored.
 See, I had to say it twice because you probably ignored me the first time. 

Shellless on Amazon

The Open Art Room

After two years of writing, editing and editing... The Open Art Room is ready for pre-orders! Based on years of experience, both successes failures, working with the students at Apex, The Open Art Room provides a student-centered approach to art instruction at the secondary level.

The Open Art Room By Melissa Purtee and Ian Sands 

Taking inspiration from a variety of contemporary approaches, this book presents a framework for Choice-Based instruction for Secondary Level (grades 6–12) Art Education. 

The Open Art Room provides a student-centered approach to art instruction that is inspirational, practical, and classroom-tested. 

Highlights include: 

• Flexible instructional frameworks with options for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of Choice 

• Assessment for Choice-Based art teachers 

• Unit plans, bootcamps, mini-lessons, and classroom examples

• Clear connections to the National Core Art Standards 

• Engaging stories of student struggles and successes

Put The Open Art Room on your summer reading list! Click here!

Mouse 1 and Mouse 2

Mouse One and Mouse Two... New Critters on #ZonkeyStreet

New Critters on Zonkey Street

A new batch of Critters on Zonkey Street 

Pizzly: A hybrid of a polar bear and a grizzly

 

J-raf: We farm these for the meat ;)

Liger: Cause who doesn't like ligers?

Gator: With love

Download Project Flop: Free for Christmas!

Did you get a Kindle for Christmas and need a good book to read? Well, I've got another present for you! It's the eBook Project Flop and it's free!

Download Project Flop for Free December 24-26!
Click here!

The only class I ever failed in college was ‘Intro To Art Education’. Ironic, as I am now the Arts Department Chair at Apex High School. So why a book about failures? Because I believe I can’t take credit for my successes unless I take credit for my failings. There are hundred’s of books about classroom successes. This is a book about failures

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

All project start off with the best intentions. Whether you create the lesson from scratch or borrow it from someone else, in your mind you envision success. You write your lesson trying to plan for every situation that may arise. The supplies are laid out, a presentation and a demo are reviewed and practiced, and everything should go off without a hitch.

Then, be it fate, a misalignment of the planets or perhaps the art gods are angry, the lesson falls apart. Regardless of your preparation the students don’t understand. As for your enthusiasm, the class simply doesn’t share your zeal for the project. You try to pull it all together but in the end, for lack of a better word, it fails. Worse off, you take it personally. You feel like you failed. You will be happy to know that you’re in good company.

Project Flop consists of stories from some of the biggest failures that Ian Sands ever taught at Apex High School. Some projects were domed from the start, others appeared successful till an unexpected twist occurred.

Kindle Edition on Amazon 
Paperback on Amazon

Here are some of the best failed projects!


Monalloon:
I wanted a project that would out do any project we had done before or probably would do again. I came up with the best idea in the world. A giant replica of the Mona Lisa created out of balloons. Click Here to see The Monalloon!

Interactive Chalk Mural:
I was standing in the courtyard watching the students snap photos of their friends inserted in the art. I leaned over and asked the creative writing teacher what she thought, expecting obvious praise. “I hate it,” she said. View the Interactive Chalk Murals!

Expressive Skittle Portraits:
The project created a class full of students weary of gluing rows of candy, angry moms tired of purchasing Skittles, and a hungry mob that circled the trailer waiting for any chance that the door might open. View the Skittle Portraits!

Broken Kites:
March comes in like a lion and after having been cooped up all winter in a musky auditorium, I thought it would be fun to take the Art History class outside and let them feel the wind in their hair. View the Kites Project!