Mr. Mills Blog

I want to talk about the decision to keep schools in Chicago open today, but I’m going to try and keep this positive for now. Let me just say that although it was wrong to keep school open today, I am glad to see that many students did make it.

The 3rd graders are just about finished with their puppets. The students are going to create mini-plays within their table groups to perform for each other. Also, Mr. Brown is working on setting up a time for the kids to perform their plays in front of the Pre-K or Kindergarten students. That should be the fun part.

I’m sure the 4th graders were happy this week to begin working on their global warming public service announcements this week. Above, you will see a couple pictures of the students in action. After a few weeks of preparing them to make the videos by learning about global warming, they were put in groups this week to start brainstorming ideas. Ms. Walsh and I really stressed that they used this time to come up with different ideas and now get too bogged down just yet on how they were going to make the video. We wanted them to let their ideas really flow and not be constrained just yet with all the technicalities of making the video. Next week, we will be talking more about specifics.

All of the 5th grade students are done with the foamcore houses and we are moving on to hip hop and breakbeats now. Since we had a low turnout today, we did not get to start talking about hip hop with Mr. Rowell’s class, but Mr. Bynum’s class had a history lesson into the origin of the breakbeat and began learning how to make a breakbeat using an audio editing software called Audacity.

The 6th graders are just about finished with their stop animation videos. We are going to take a short hiatus from the animation videos during the next couple weeks because we are going to start working on mosaics that are going to eventually be put up on the underpass between the Museum of Science and Industry and the lake. We are working with an artist to create these mosaics, and she is scheduled to come in next week.

Also, just wanted to say that we are almost half way through Saturday Academy as of this coming Saturda. The students are making “dub video” using Adobe Premiere Elements. I know it is sometimes difficult to come in every Saturday, so I’m happy that so many students make a point to come in on the weekend.

Until next week…

For some reason, this is the first year these days off during the school year have really upset my schedule. With half days, we still tended to be on track with most of our projects during the school year. Since we have these full professional development days, it has been throwing off the schedule for some of my classes. So while it might seem that one class is “behind” another class…it is really just the days off making it difficult,. We are nothing if flexible…

The 3rd graders have finished or are finishing their flip books. Some students needed to take their flip book home so they could finish it, but most are already done. After finishing the flip books, we are heading to the computer lab to create landscapes using Windows Paint.

The 4th graders are finishing up their contrast portraits. These will be graded and hanging in the hallway by the end of next week. After finishing the portraits, we will be creating origami cubes.

The 5th graders are still working on their Google SketchUp buildings. Mr. Bynum’s class will be finishing them by the end of the first quarter, while Mr. Rowell’s class will be finishing them at the beginning of the second quarter. The projects that are finished will be on Art Sonia and on my blog by the end of next week.

The 6th graders are finished with their Frank Lloyd Light tiles. These will be on Art Sonia, graded, and hanging on the ceiling by the end of next week. After this project, we wil be making embroidered pillows. Please look out for a letter that will be going home next week about these pillows.

Also, I have scheduling a lot of lab time recently for the lab…that’s how it should be!

Until next week!

I’ve heard this a few times already in the past few weeks, and I’ll give my normal answer, “I know.” With all this switching to IMPACT and First Class, it seems that student logins this year have taken a back seat. It has been frustrating, but I am hoping to get the students back in the lab to learn their new passwords next week. Some things are out of my control…

Also, myself, the language teachers, and some folks from CUIP received training this week on how to use Rosetta Stone. It is really an excellent product and I’m looking forward to working with it very soon. We hope to have the new language lab up and running by the beginning of the 2nd quarter.

On to fine arts…the 3rd graders have been working on symmetrical aliens this week with myself and Mr. Brown. First, they learned about the meaning of symmetrical. Then, they learned how to cut things out so they are symmetrical. Everything they cut out was going to be used to create their alien.

The 4th graders finished up their rhythm project this week. I hope to have them hanging in the hallway next week. We got very messy creating them, but no matter how many times I do this project, I am always amazed at how many different ways students approach this project. It seems like there is only a few possibilities, but the students find many different ways to make a fast or slow rhythm painting.

The 5th graders continue to work on their weaving project. As I have told them, it is not difficult to learn how to do, but it takes a lot of concentration and persistence. I’ll be interested to see how they all turn out.

The 6th graders are finishing the emotion project. Like the rhythm paintings, I am always excited to see how this project is approached by the students because it is different every single year. The students are writing short stories, poems, or songs to accompany their paintings. I hope to have them hanging very soon.

Until next week!

Since the Sun-Times referred to him as the “art czar”, I guess I will too. Although, I worry that he does not have an official title yet. Anyway, it is good to see new blood in the Chicago Public Schools top fine arts position considering many new hires want to make a good impression and they are more likely to push for reform and change. I’m not sure where that leaves CPS as a whole in terms of the arts, but I wish him all the best.