Fear

I know I'm kind of skipping around my school year here, but if you're reading this, you're likely an art teacher so I think you can roll with it. :)

I ended the school year in my intro class with the theme of Fear. I had previously used the theme with my advanced class and made the mistake of doing it in October. Unless you want gory artwork, I don't recommend that timing. I stressed to students that the fear didn't have to be a traditional phobia, it could be more of an anxiety or a challenge they had to face. Students have to be a little bit introspective to be really successful with this theme.

Anyway, I thought it would work well for the last 2 weeks of school. To make sure that the students would have time to complete the project, I encouraged them to think about using digital media. A few used paper but many incorporated photography or tried out one of our graphics tablets. 

You can get the lesson plan on the smARTteacher.

Here are some of their projects!

Fear of not fitting in

 Fear of failure and fear of not being the best

This student expressed fear of snakes since he's almost missed seeing them when walking through fields. He did a really good job on the coiled snake.

Claustrophobia

Straight digital photos  for these projects.

I think this student really captured the stress that so many feel at the end of the semester!

Next year in May, I think I'm going to do more of a daily challenge for students who have completed all their work. I forgot about just how many classes are affected by track and all of the other end of year activities. I think that would be better all around!