High Tech High

School: High Tech MiddleAuthor: Shani Higgins Subjects: ArtGrade Levels: 8th

How do we create values using only one color and black and white?
For their first project this semester, Shani Higgins’s eighth grade art students at High Tech Middle created “Larger than Life” Monochromatic Self-Portraits. They practiced by painting smaller monochromatic pieces inspired by Vassily Kandinsky’s abstract paintings. To start the process, Ms. Higgins took pictures of each student in the class. Students then used PhotoShop to alter images of their faces and used the altered images to create large drawings. Students projected their faces and traced the altered images from the wall. Working with acrylics, students chose their favorite color for the monochromatic study. Each face is at least 18 x 24”. They worked from light to dark, first painting the light areas and gradually adding small amounts of color and black. It was important that students paid close attention to line, value, and detail.In addition to the extenuated size, another unique aspect of this project is that the Art classes worked with the technology classes to make audio recordings of the artists talking about their work. We will have all of the work on display during Exhibition Night on March 23rd, 2006. Visitors will be able to sit down at computer stations, put headphones on, click on a web image of each student and listen to them talking about their work. As an audience, you be amazed at the kind of artwork these middle school students are capable of. Also on display during Exhibition Night will be sample work by every sixth and eighth grade student at HTM.

What Will Students Be Able To Do:

Alter images on PhotoShop. Paint image using acrylic paints and use a monochromatic color scheme for self-portrait.Recognize and create different values using one color and black and white. Talk about the process and reflect on their work.
What Will Students Know (content covered):

I don't like the military and the politicians!

Stan, portrayed by Austin Link from Jesse Bethel High School CA, rails against the military, the politicians, and the dogs of war. This monologue is from the collections of Roger Karshner.

Monologue of a daughter

Sophomore Carla Alvarez from Bethel High School in Vallejo CA performed "Barbara" from Roger Karshner's monologues. Barbara is a student who is annoyed by her mother's outrageous dietetic demands (Courtesy of VCAT, California)

Student Engagement !!!

Tim Bedley, a veteran elementary school teacher, demonstrates a writing lesson where 4th and 5th graders critique each others writing assignments using an activity checklist. Observe how the students are engage in this amazing class activity. This video exemplifies the real definition of peer learning. My congratulations to Mr. Bedley!

Clinton and Obama's Youth Symphony

The Green Valley High School Symphonic band from Henderson, Nevada is a popular and prestigious youth symphony orchestra hand picked by two US Presidents in their inauguration parades. The group performed in President William Jefferson Clinton's inauguration in 1993 as well as the 2009 Inaugural Parade of President Barack Obama. In this film clip, they are playing Elegy by Elliot Carter.

Kids and their future professions

Professions in Europe, a project initiated and developed by "Gheorghe Titeica" High School of Romania in collaboration with various high schools from Germany, Poland and Italy integrated an activity that will make European students think seriously about the professions they are to choose in the near future.

According to the participants, the activity inspires them to plan ahead and think about a career that fits them. "Although I was a student in the 11th grade I had never thought seriously about the profession I was going to choose and I must say that when I filled in the application form I realized that I must decide on my future. So I admit that this project gave me the opportunity to explore options and decide on a profession," a participant said.

To inspire the students, activities involving top rank professionals from various industries and fields in Europe were invited to speak and mingle with the students.

Chemical Identity Masks

In a Humanities Class in Chula Vista, California, students created two-sided identity masks as representations of their individual personalities. One side they represented their personal identity, as it has been formed through their socialization by family, friends, and the media. On the other side they represented a chemical element that they felt best symbolized their personality.

This was our first project of the year. It was a great way to create a positive culture in our classroom, while introducing students to the basic principles of sociology and chemistry. It takes a certain amount of trust to breathe through a straw and allow someone else to completely cover your face with wet plaster for 15 minutes or so. The students bought in to the process and had a great time. It also was a great way to build a culture of critique and refinement, as students worked through multiple drafts to get to their final product. In the end, there was a wide range in the quality of the masks. In reading the student reflections, many students with less developed masks mentioned that they wished they used their class time better. We modeled and did several critiques, but because creating the masks was such an involved process, many students had trouble revising concepts once they had begun. When I teach this project again, I will make sure that students take the process of generating ideas and drafting their masks as seriously as making the masks. Then they will have a clearer vision before they begin designing and painting. —John Fisher, Humanities, High Tech High, Chula Vista CA

I don't like my part-time job!

High school junior Edward Clark performed "Les" from Roger Karshner's monologues. Les is a student who is not enjoying his part-time job. He is venting and complaining about everything from his family to his present employment (Courtesy of VCAT).

Cooking Lumpia and Adobo

Bethel High School students cooks Adobo and Lumpia in a cooking laboratory for their project in their Filipino and Tagalog Classes. While the students are learning another language, they are also learning the culture and heritage of the Philippines at the same time. Bethel High School is just one of the few schools in California that offers these classes. UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford University leads a bunch of top rank universities that offers the language course in college.

Tahitian dancing

A group of Hogan High School students performed the Tahitian Dance at the University of California- Davis last March as part of their multicultural activities to share the wonderful tradition of the Asia-Pacific before a large audience of college bound kids from various high schools in Northern California.

A revolutionary way of learning

Teachers using Investigations in Number, Data and Space from Scott Foresman, not only let their students talk in class, they encourage them to do so. With Investigations, developed by TERC, a non-profit Technical Education Research Centers in Cambridge, MA and funded by the National Science foundation, there is more than one way to get the answer. Students collaborate to explore math problems and come up with strategies to solve them. Pueblo Gardens School in Tucson, AZ is one of the many success stories in which students are learning to become mathematical thinkers, setting them on the path to continuous achievement (Courtesy of Pearson).

Learning World War 2 from the eyes of a soldier

90 year-old Marnie Yasay shares his harrowing experience from the Japanese during the war in the Philippines in 1942 with students of Bethel High School in California. After the fall of Bataan and the surrender of the American and Filipino forces, Mr. Yasay was incarcerated and brutally tortured by the Japanese.

A monologue on teen pregnancy

A monologue performed by a student about teenage pregnancy. Half the pregnancies in the United States (US) are unplanned. About three million a year. Almost half of those were teenagers and students. One-third of the girls in the US get pregnant at least at the age of 20. Six of ten teenagers who have had sex say they wish they had waited.

Reading a Filipino Poetry

Bethel High School Class reads a tagalog poem entitled "Ako ang Daigdig" (I am the World) outside the classroom to practice their speaking and listening skills in the Tagalog Language.  Bethel High School is one of the many few schools in the Vallejo City Unified School District and the State of California that offers Filipino Classes to its populace. Students learns poetry surrounded by nature.

Looking for Financial Aid in College

Vallejo, Benicia, and some other bay area students in Northern California visited University of California-Davis to check college opportunities last summer. Most of the students were from poor income families looking for any financial grant or aid from any educational institutions in the state to fulfill their college dreams.

Think before you say something!

School children performed a powerful piece in California about love and respect for one another.