Our Latest PBL in Art!
10/22/2018
Working To Build Community Through Art!The Third through Eighth Grades are working on the Annual Veterans Thanksgiving postcards that will be given to the Veterans at Thanksgiving. These postcards will go all over the state of Alaska. Last year the students made 100 cards thanking the Veterans for their service to our country. We were asked to make 600 for this year, and we are finishing them now. Our final count was 821. The postcards for the Veterans are an offshoot of the Postcards of Hope, a global project started by William Scannell, who attended PNA. The Art Department also participates in Postcards of Hope, and will be sending hand drawn postcards to Washington, D.C. In each of these art forms, the students discuss what happens when someone receives a card and realizes that someone is thinking of them and wishing them well. It is a good feeling to know we can do so many things to build a world community through art! All the classes have been preparing imagery for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Eighth Grade is making life-size figures out of cardboard. Other classes are drawing and painting portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Sixth/ Seventh Grades Art Class are designing a sculptural mobile. In classes we have been learning our foundations in art: Line, Shape, Value, Texture, Color Theory and Perspective. There is so much to accomplish this year! Every student will learn both the abstract and the practical side to being an artist. I am teaching the philosophy of teaching art so that everyone knows the basics of being an artist-teacher. It is great fun! Taking Education "ON THE ROAD!"
10/5/2018
This weeks blog is dedicated to taking theatre education and getting OUT of the classroom!When I was in college, I had to attend a "class" called Performance Forum. If you are picturing a large lecture hall with hundreds of students listening to a professor talk about "how to be a performer" you are way off base! Every quarter, students at Shenandoah University had to attend 25 performances! The idea: Performing cannot be taught in a classroom. It is a 2-way street and to be a great performer you must appreciate being the audience and the performer. At PNA, we believe that education doesn't happen solely in the classroom. If you are learning about tsunami's you go to the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer. Learning about animals, why go to the Alaska Zoo or Conservation Center! 8th Grade has been learning about William Shakespeare! (the man, the myth, the legend!) Key points we have covered:
Here is a brief plot summary of Much Ado About Nothing: In Messina, as Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon, and his officers return from a recently concluded war, a message comes to Leonato that the prince intends to visit his house for a month. The Duke’s party arrives with Count Claudio, who had before the war been attracted by Leonato’s only daughter, Hero. Another of the visitors is Benedick, a bachelor, who enjoys speaking his mind in witty argument with Hero’s cousin and companion, the Lady Beatrice. Leonato holds a masked ball to celebrate the end of the war and the engagement of Claudio to Hero is arranged while the Duke’s brother, Don John, resenting the celebrations, seeks a way to spoil the general happiness. Don John plots with the soldiers, Borachio and Conrade, to deceive Claudio into believing Hero is false to him. As a result a trick is carried out with the unwitting assistance of Hero’s maid, Margaret, who talks from Hero’s bedroom window with Borachio at night while Claudio and the Duke watch secretly from a distance, under the delusion that the girl at the window is Hero. Hero and Don Pedro meanwhile are convinced that Benedick and Beatrice are ideal partners and by means of overheard conversations the two realise they do indeed love one another. At the wedding Claudio denounces Hero and leaves her apparently dead from shock, while her father, Beatrice and Benedick, amazed at the situation, decide that with the aid of the priest. Hero’s recovery should be concealed until her name can be cleared. Help is at hand as the village constable, Dogberry, and his assistants have arrested Borachio and Conrade after overhearing them boasting of their deception of Claudio and the Duke. The play comes to a joyful conclusion when Dogberry’s information is, eventually, after some difficulty, given to Leonato and Don Pedro. Claudio agrees to accept Leonato’s ‘niece’ whom he has never met, in place of Hero, whom he believes has been killed by his slander. The ‘niece’ turns out to be Hero, and as the lovers are reunited Benedick and Beatrice announce that they will share the wedding day. Don John has been captured while trying to escape and is left for future trial while the play ends with a merry dance. So the play is a BIG "much ado about nothing" really. One person, Don John, causing mischief! Here is what a few of the 8th Grade had to say about the play and learning about Shakespeare: "I really liked Much Ado About Nothing because it was super funny! I got a little hung up on the shakespearean language but I could still mostly distinguish the wording. I have to say I think I liked the movie a bit better just because I liked the era it was set in better." - Maya "During your play, I thought that the language was just a little bit confusing at the start. towards the middle and end of the play, I could interpret the actors' speaking better because I was hearing it more often. I think that the costumes and setting were different between the two films. In the movie, it's more medieval in a way, with princes and such. In the play it was more 1970's as we discussed in class." - Keno I did not go to the play myself, but I’ve seen a little bit of it in class. I’ve noticed that it’s sense of humor is very different from now. It also has a different kind of language, like words and adjectives that are not used anymore. - Tully
Seeing much ado about nothing, it changed how I felt about the play. When we watched it in class, yes, it was funny and I understood it, but then we saw it in real life and I suddenly could relate to it and laugh at it even more. I really liked it and definitely would suggest it to people, or even see it again. I think the Shakespeare version of it (the movie) was harder to understand, but that also just might be because it was my first time watching it. Watching the movie before seeing the play was helpful because then I knew what was going on, and I wasn’t as confused. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to more Shakespeare in the future. - Rylie I really liked seeing the play live on stage, because after a while, I kind of forgot that they were speaking old English, and everything made more sense. I did like the more traditional movie just because it made more sense with the plot, but both I really like. -Anna I really liked the energy on stage when even if the actors were just filling space, they still were very entertaining and really made the scene seem more realistic. Watching parts of the movie really helped me grasp the concept of the performance so the language was much easier to understand, though in some parts the actors talked rather rapidly so sometimes it was hard to make out what they were actually implying. For the most part I really liked the effort that got put into this play to set it in the 70’s. Even if some parts of the storyline/plot didn’t quite fit the time period, I could tell by the music, small bits of dancing, and the costuming that it was truly the 70’s. My one wonder would be what was the reasoning behind doing a more “modern” version than the tradition one. I think it would also be cool to know how auditioning for something like this works and how popular it was to audition. - Lilly Taking students to LIVE theatre (or any performance) builds a greater appreciation for the arts and simply makes their lives fuller! 6th and 7th Grade has been studying Thornton Wilder's Our Town. They will have a similar opportunity in November when they go to the Performing Arts Center to see the show with an Alaskan Twist. If you are a 4th or 5th Grader looking for something to do this weekend, go to the Performing Arts Center to see YOUR Anchorage Symphony Orchestra present the Music of John Williams! |
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February 2021
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