Collaborative Connections with EdCo: Mike Mitchell and Brandi Hodge, Pixel Art

EdCo Member, Mike Mitchell, recently collaborated with Brandi Hodge to find a way for students to recognize their content mastery with pixel art. Joining EdCo provides a direct connection to amazing educators like Mike and Brandi. 

*originally published May 20, 2021

 

Brandi Hodge and I collaborated briefly during both our first years at Mount Pleasant Middle School of the Visual and Performing Arts. It was very successful so when I chatted with her this year and asked if I could come into her class at the beginning of this school year she said yes! When I got there she excitedly told me about seeing a teacher online use spreadsheet pixel art that slowly revealed itself as correct answers were input by students. I told her that is what we should work on and spent the next few hours teaching myself how to do it from a youtube video.

From there we decided to focus on having her students create slow reveal pixel art using multiplication facts because we could share it with our 3^rd and 4^th grade teachers on the Mount Pleasant campus but also with any 5^th-8^th grade teachers that might need it for their own students. I worked with her over a period of a few days and we co-taught all 8^th graders in our building how to code their own work of art.

Brandi took it to the next level by creating a linktree that can be shared with educators all over the world and will continue to grow the catalog of art each year with each new group of 8^th graders. It has also positioned Brandi to front load that multiplication artworks at the very beginning of next year ,so her students will then know how to code slow-reveal artworks and they can use that skill to approach other math standards that Brandi feels it could complement.

 

The Educators\’ Cooperative is a non-profit organization that provides a professional learning community for K-12 teachers. Created for teachers by teachers in 2016, EdCo provides professional development and support for educators to collaborate across sectors, disciplines, and career stages. EdCo aims to revolutionize teacher development and leadership by focusing on the essential agency, autonomy, and common ground all teachers share. EdCo is based in Nashville, Tennessee with a reach far beyond that physical location and potential for replication in communities throughout the nation. When educators collaborate, the future of education is greater than the sum of its parts.   

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