Transitioning my New School to Choice- General Art Class 1st Semester

As the end of the school year draws close, I've been reflecting on the last 9 months. I feel like I've kind of stumbled at times trying to find middle ground between what I think the students were used to and where I eventually want to go with the program. Here's what I did in "graphic design", our general art class*, in the first semester of this year and what I want to try next year.

*In this class I have everyone from seniors who are in multiple classes and have taken art every single year to freshmen who haven't had art since 6th grade.

1. I've never been a huge fan of the Elements of Art when isolated, but the curriculum for my general art class featured the elements. For the first assignment, I tried to give students choices about how to show they knew the elements- ATCs, drawn document, photographic poster, etc. (Link to the assignment). There was not a lot of enthusiasm from any of us and it ended up taking longer than I hoped. 

Next year: Instead of dragging it out, I will probably review the elements and let students work with a partner to take photos to represent each element. Goal- one class period.

2. Observational drawing- students practiced observational drawing with some drawing on the right side of the brain practices- drawing hands with continuous line, wrong hand, and blind contour- and then by drawing simple still life objects and rendering them with graphite. These are good skills and will probably be part of my drawing boot camp again next year, though I will probably encourage students to bring an object from home that has meaning to them.

3. Ink compositions- stole this idea from my cooperating teacher during student teaching. Each class brainstorms a list of objects that every student has to include in their drawings. Students plan in pencil then finish with ink, using various techniques including hatching, cross hatching, contour hatching, stippling, and scumbling. We tried to avoid objects that are too specific so that students would have flexibility. I thought this would be a fairly quick and portable assignment students could work on when I was supervising school pictures and they would have to move to a different classroom across the hall from the photo room. It ended up taking a LOT longer than expected and students burned out on it. If school pictures happen the same way next year and I feel like ink (sharpies and drawing pens) are the best option, I will probably demonstrate the same techniques but give more options on what they can make.

4. Colored pencil practice- No pictures of this, but students filled out a practice guide with colored pencil layering, color mixing, etc. We also did a lesson on color theory with a pre-test so I could collect data that I didn't end up having to turn in. The post-test was part of the final for the semester.

5. Painting Boot Camp- In our painting "boot camp" the idea was to quickly let students try out the media and get a feel for it so that they could choose the right medium for their ideas later. We did a team color mixing challenge where students mixed tempera to try to match paint samples, a one class period (some took longer) acrylic painting of fruit that I brought in for them to observe, and a one class period watercolor painting. I gave them paper that was about 5x7 inches for the quick paintings.

Next year: I will probably do something similar to this next year, but spend more time on watercolor techniques instead of a composition. Hardly any students wanted to try out watercolor so I think I need to "sell" it more next year.

6. Collage & Monoprint Boot Camp- Each student made a small torn paper collage and did at least one day of mono printing with our gelli arts gelli plates. I will keep this as part of the 2D boot camp next year.

7. Idea Generation- After students had tried out most 2D media we offer, they worked on generating deas using any of the media we'd already used.

Next year: I think I will do something similar. This is a very TAB lesson in that it's pretty wide open in medium and theme, the students just document the process. Next year I will work on better ways to document since that part wasn't given full effort. I got some good ideas at NAEA16 to help with this.

8. Collaborative Drawing- Each student drew at least one section of a photo showing a district employee and Vietnam veteran on the Honor Flight. There won't be a Honor Flight next year, but I would do another community service kind of project if something comes up.

9. Portrait, Still Life, Landscape- Trying to hit one of the standards about different categories of art. Students could use any medium to create a portrait, still life, or landscape.

Next year: I will probably just have students categorize their own art or others' to hit this standard instead of doing the lesson the same way. I think this lesson limited their ideas instead of expanding them.

10. Jr. Duck Stamp Program or State Fish Art Contest- Students chose between making a picture of a fish or waterfowl in their habitat. JDS and SFA are both excellent programs to teach about conservation through art and draw parallels between scientists and artists. One of my high school students even got 2nd place in Kansas for her age group with her duck drawing.

Next year: I may still keep this as a required project because there are so many skills practiced and it's cross curricular.

11. Glass and Ceramic Tiles- This technique was super popular so I will probably demonstrate it again next year, though maybe not make it a requirement. This was introduced at the end of the semester when I had weird timing with students finishing up and others being ahead. All the details are in the linked post.

Up next, 2nd semester!

Fear

Fear of being alone.

Fear of heights and fear of clowns.

My last blog post was about a theme I used in my advanced art class as we transition to TAB. (Click here to read about Opposites). After "Opposites", we moved on to "Fear". The idea was supposed to be "facing your fears through art" but due to unfortunate timing (I introduced this in early October and Halloween was not even on my radar), a lot of students initially took it as "make something to creep people out". I felt like a couple projects were going in a direction that was veering toward inappropriate for school so we had to have a talk and a student said she wasn't afraid of anything. I said that everyone is afraid of SOMETHING if you're brave enough to be introspective and reminded that they don't have to be physical fears like my fear of spiders. I understand that it's hard for some teenagers to be vulnerable in their artwork, so I think that I should have sat on this theme until later in the year. I'm pretty happy with most of the students' efforts in the end.

The only good thing about my weird timing with this project, is that another TAB teacher, Mrs.Rose, just happened to be introducing the same theme to some of her students. Maybe it was even on the same day. Anyway, we were discussing it in the High School TAB Facebook group and decided to have our classes Skype about the project. I think the students were a little slow to warm up to each other but by the end they were planning to find each other on snapchat. I think it was a good experience for them to "meet" and I'd recommend other classes trying it out in the future.

To help the students see how they could FACE their fears, I decided to walk the walk and face my own fear. I think that was kind of a turning point for a few students who became very encouraging. My next post will be about my fear painting.

I really need to start taking pictures with my good camera again instead of relying on my phone. The skull represents fear of death. The skull was painted with acrylic and to make the "dirt" around the skull, we mixed brown paint, mod podge, and sand. It has awesome texture and depth to it in real life.

This project represents fear of not reaching his goals. This student thinks about every little element that goes into his work.

This painting is about the fear of being normal. Half of her face is "normal" and the other half has been changed.

The two works above were students who pursued others' fears instead of their own.

I have one student in my advanced class that is a real natural at illustrations and digital art. I've been encouraging her to keep exploring and learning new skills in Photoshop. She wanted to represent the fear of drowning in her artwork. She started by scanning her drawing and painting it. I'd already shown her how to dodge and burn to add highlights and shadows but she found a youtube tutorial to help with the water effect. Here is her reflection on the project for the students' final:

My "Fear" project is my most successful because it's the only project I've done that means something to me. I'm a great swimmer, actually; but there's something about the water that will always scare me. I only have this irrational fear towards ponds and lakes because I don't know what's at the bottom, I have to be able to see where it ends. This is why I am afraid - as much as I hate that word - of water:Before you can even begin to process what’s happening, you flail and you toss; there’s no upside down or right side up. At that point it’s hard to even think anything besides “help” or “please.” There is no begging to fear because it’s not real, it’s the product of thoughts you create. Danger is very real, and there’s nothing you can to save yourself at that point.In the movies drowning is loud and splashy; the orchestra subdues the crashing of waves so the ambience is dramatic. That’s how entertainment makes it look. In reality the only sound you can hear is the ringing of your ears as water engulfs you and you start to lose consciousness. Drowning is quiet, your moves are subtle. The moment that the breath you held runs out, your head starts to pounding as your body screams for oxygen. It feels like your head is about to explode until you finally take your last, involuntary breath. Water fills your lungs and there is no more time to think or react. Your mind stops. I look at that project and see the tremendous amount of effort I put into it and how well it turned out. The colors, texture, and shadow turned out great. Regardless of me using a tutorial, I actually didn't follow as much as I thought considering color, style, and texture. Some people say that "computer art isn't real art," and I think that's a load of bologna. I had to draw out the girl in the image before I did anything else, after that I did do the rest on the computer. I'm actually really proud of this one and have yet to find a problem with it unlike my other digital-art projects.