Cardboard Shoes

Our ICON in CARDBOARD SHOES

Things get a little crazy when we run out of hot glue!

One of our "almost" finished shoes

Drawing and planning of the design

Hoping we don't make a "wrong" cut as cardboard is becoming a hot commodity in the artroom

My Art 1 classes have using the works of Mike Leavitt, a modern artist, who began constructing in carboard in 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Leavitt_(artist),as a springboard in the the design and construction of carboard shoes. This has become quite and process. On the first and second day of construction they were quite clueless as to how to begin. Finally with some help from you tube I found a video, http://youtu.be/l0oiIpjhNXc, that showed children how to make a shoe from cardboard using their template. Although the students have to create their own template, they were still able to visually and metally able to put all the pieces togther.

http://youtu.be/YpwK1uFOe0o Mike's quick put together

There are not a lot of required materials for this project. We used drawing paper and scotch tape for the template and clothing boxes and scissors, and hot glue for the actual shoe. We are going to be painting some of them, but I believe that spray paint will give us the nicest finish and then students can add detail if they choose.

Photo 2

Students are working on (and hopefully) finishing their first independent assignment for the semester. I have a very very small class this semester to at the beginning, we talked and decided that each student would work in an independent format. They had to research and present a syllabus of sorts to me as to what they were going to accomplish this semester. I am enjoying what I am seeing. Although I am not sure this type of teaching would have worked so well as a larger class, it suits us just fine. Above are a couple newly turned in assignments.

Rio

A few works from one of my seniors who spends the majority of her life in my classroom. I am not complaining. She is going to make an awesome art teacher in about 4.5 years!

My Room Looks Like It Exploded

Sooo, we have been so busy this semester. I got tired of all the 2-D artwork that occurred last semester and I was so refreshed and inspired to start our semester of predominately 3-D courses. On the other side of that comes the craziness of where to put it all. Kids are so funny because they always want to "hide" their stuff so no one bothers it. Hiding becomes putting it behind Mrs. Phegley's desk. Today I laughed as I literally climbed over art to get to my desk. There has to be a better way, I'm just sayin'.

My Little Art World

When you teach at a little school you find yourself in a unique little world of having to know everything about art. OK, so not really, but you have to pretend you do, or at least act like you do. It seems like a normal high school teacher is expected to know one subject and teach it all day. For me, in class calendar year, I teach 8 different preps. Which means 8 different sets of lesson plans, 8 different curriculum maps, and no textbooks.

That was probably the scariest thing coming out of college and walking into a classroom. Not knowing everything. Give me a giant floor loom and I could rock it out, hand me a piece of metal and I was clueless. But I am getting better, I think...Being an art teacher requires constant learning. I had to admit, as hard as that was, that I just don't know sometimes.

I love my high school kids, they aren't afraid to try anything once, therefore we become guinea pigs together. Although I am going on two decades of teaching soon, I am finally enjoying the learning process. I don't feel like I need to have all the answers. It is really more fun to say "I don't have a clue, let's try it" and together as a class, sometimes we fail and sometimes we succeed with great results. You just never know.

This week, my students are exploring in exploding color in photoshop, creating in porcelain, designing and constructing shoes in cardboard, creating clothing from non-traditional items, and making art from recycled magazines, just to name a few things. It should be a fun week of learning...for all of us!