Sunday, March 22, 2020

Italian Renaissance Arts Affect On Essays - Western Art, Renaissance

Italian Renaissance Art's Affect On Italian Renaissance Art's Affect on Today's Culture World History David 1 Many of us today have things in our culture that we appreciate without thinking about where they have come from. The things we enjoy so much could be from another culture, and even another place in time. This document will explore the influence of Italian Renaissance art on today's civilization, which has greatly changed the art of today. The Renaissance was a time period that began in the early 1300's and lasted into the 1600's. It was a time when the philosophies of the ancient Greek and Romans were rediscovered, which took place after the Middle Ages. Many of the philosophies of the Middle Ages were no longer accepted, and the Renaissance brought about a revamped way of thinking and learning, based on the Greek and Roman culture. The thinkers and humanists had much to do with the direction of the Renaissance, but the artists also had significant importance. Artists are not philosophers, although in the Renaissance they come very close to sharing in the philosophical enterprise(Gardener 561). The Renaissance was about individualism. Renaissance painters were attempting to do the same as Renaissance writers, who wanted to interpret people and nature realistically (World Book) . Architects of the Middle Ages designed huge cathedrals to emphasize the majesty and grandeur of God. Renaissance architects designed building s on a smaller scale David2 to help make people aware of their own powers and dignity (World Book). The artists of the Middle Ages focused primarily on religious subjects, not focusing on making their art realistic. During the Renaissance, all that changed. Artists then included an emphasis on human beings and the environment, which shown that this is indication of changes in their culture at the time. Renaissance individualism and realism found their greatest and most lasting representation in the visual arts (Walker 77). There were many great artists spread across the time of the Renaissance. Some of them were leading the way in new artistic techniques created during the Renaissance, while others used inspiration from a past artisan to establish their own styles and methods. About a century before the art caught on, a Florentine painter by the name of Giotto was the first to break away from the Middle Age style of painting. Giotto was the towering artistic genius of the 14th century, so far ahead of his time that no other painter approached his level of work for almost a hundred years (Walker 78). Even though Giotto was ahead, he lacked the awareness of perspective, but he used space, light, and color to create a very strong sense of the human form, along with a storyteller's ability to capture the central moment in a particular scene (Walker 78). One of the important pieces of the revolution that David 3 Giotto started was that he established painting as a major art for the next six centuries, and he also founded the method of pictorial experiment through observation (Gardener 568). After Giotto there was a architect that came along in the early 1500's that rediscovered the classical Greco-Roman style and the rediscovery of artificial perspective, which allows a painter to paint something three-dimensional on a two-dimensional plane (Walker 78). Some of his most famous works are the Cathedral Dome in Florence, and the bronze Baptistery doors he won a contest with. It was said that no space so vast had ever been spanned since the Pantheon in ancient Rome, and no dome had ever been built at this height about the huge dome that was built (Silver 162). There was also Michelangelo, who it was said that through him, art in Italy attained the 'supreme perfection'(Silver 162). He produced a marble statue of David, which symbolized his own heroic personal striving to express spiritual beauty through art (Silver 162). The next vital artisan of the Renaissance was very diverse in what he specialized in. Today, we use the term Renaissance man to describe someone who can do many things well. Many of the Renaissance's prominent figures deserved this description, but there is one that fits this description the most, Leonardo da Vinci. He painted, worked as an architect, engineer, and a general designer, of pageant scenery and costumes

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Tech Resources for Early Childhood Educators

Tech Resources for Early Childhood Educators This is a self-guided tour of useful resources for early childhood educators to encourage thinking about how technology can be used in purposeful ways with young children. For a digital handout that accompanies this tour, please click here.   Examining the Possibilities with Kindergartners and Technology Here are three fun videos related to using technology in early childhood classrooms. Miss Nelson is MissingiPad Artwork Inspired by Peter Reynolds The DotIntegrating Technology in a Kindergarten Classroom Next, explore these sites for other ideas. Note that these teachers are using technology with students to create and publish. They are not using tech at lower levels on Blooms Taxonomy. Young children CAN do more sophisticated work!   The Connected Kinders: Turning iPad Experiments into Adventures in Innovative LearningGoing on a Bear Hunt Using QR CodesHow Kristi Meeuwse Teaches with an iPadTalking Animal ReportsEdutopias Resources for Using iPads in Grades K-2 Exploring iPad Apps iPads are amazing devices for content creation, not just consumption! Ideally, educators should strive to provide opportunities for student voice and choice, designing lessons and projects that allow students of all ages to create content. Heres a collection of apps are more focused on creation than consumption and if you havent seen Osmo, check out this device that using iPads to create really innovative learning games for kids.   Other places to find high quality ed tech materials: AppolearningGraphiteKindertownKinderchat Symbaloo Publishing with Young Children Publishing should be a universal activity in all early childhood classrooms. Check out the following iBook examples:   The Adventures of the Monkey and the Cat by KinderPris Ridge International SchoolConnecting Classrooms: Activities to Promote Global Collaboration by Ben SheridanFamily Time with Apps by the Joan Ganz Cooney FoundationGlobal Book: Schools Around the World by Kristen PainoGlobal Book: Shelters Around the World by Kristen PainoA Global iBook by Meg WilsonInspired Young Authors by Jane RossMy Pet Monster by Jason Sand and Others Building Your Own ECE Personal Learning Network Use social media to enhance your own learning and to connect to others. Here are a few suggestions to get started with connecting to other educators and learning from their best practices. First, join Twitter, and start following other ECE educators and organizations. Then, start participating in Kinderchat, a Twitter chat where kindergarten teachers come together to discuss relevant topics and share resources. Finally, start finding ideas for your classroom by perusing the following blogs and pinterest boards. Blogs Enabling EnvironmentsiTeach with iPadsPassion for EYFSTechnology in Early Childhood Pinterest Augmented RealityKid World CitizenKindergarten - iPadThe Kindergarten SmorgasboardPlayful Learning Investigating Making and Tinkering The Maker Education movement is growing within US schools. What does this look like in early childhood classrooms? Starting points for further exploration may include TinkerLab. Some early childhood classrooms are also exploring the possibilities of digital making through robotics and coding. Check out Bee-Bots, Dash and Dot, Kinderlab Robotics, and Sphero.   Connecting Globally The first step to connecting globally is to get connected yourself. Use social media to meet other teachers, and youll find that project opportunities will organically happen. Projects tend to be more successful when professional relationships are established first; people just seem to be more invested if connections happen first. If you are new to global projects, youll want to get to the point where youre co-designing experiences for students with virtual colleagues. In the meantime, join existing communities and projects in order to get a feel for the project design process. Below are a few starting points and exemplars: The Global Classroom ProjectHello Little World SkypersProjects by JenSkype in the ClassroomiEARN USA Thinking About PD and Additional Resources   Face to face professional development opportunities also an ideal way to participate in professional development. For early childhood specific events, we recommend the NAEYC Annual Conference and the Leveraging Learning  conference. For general ed tech information, think about attending ISTE and if youre interested in creative uses of technology and the Maker Movement, consider attending Constructing Modern Knowledge.   Also, the  Chicago-based Erikson Institute has a site devoted to the role of educational technology in early years classrooms.  This site is a unique resource dedicated to helping early childhood professionals and families make informed decisions about tech. Finally, weve curated a massive list of ECE resources in an Evernote notebook. Well be continuing to add to this, and are welcome to browse our collection!