Art 1/ Art History

Today is a good day. I have come to remember this year that I actually really enjoy teaching my introductory art one classes, especially when you get those classes where the students really want to be there and this semester I have those classes. They make me smile when they walk in the room.

My students come from three junior high/middle schools to make up my classes. Some of the students have never had art, even in the elementary and some have had art from kindergarten through 8th grade, so in a nutshell there is a large range of learning taking place.

Our first unit is a simple study of line. We talk about contour line and blind contour line drawing and we do the art basic practice rounds of both. For the first time in a long time the majority of these students had a very difficult time of letting go of the control. Contour is loose and continuous and simply implies the form. They simply could not let go of realism and in turn we had a terrible case of bad cartoon image. So learning from that, I headed a different direction. We took photos of each student and I had them trace in sharpie, the contour of the their own face. Once that was done, we flipped the photo. The sharpie had bled through to reveal their contour line drawing. At that point there was an "aha" moment and they got it! We then did four total drawings and took a time out to explore the work of both Andy Warhol and Peter Max. At this point students were then to take their four contour drawings and create a unique project in the style of one or both of those artists. The project is not initially where I intended to go, but I ended up where we needed to be. Our line study is coming to a close and I am so ok with what they learned as are they!

Resolutions

I have noticed that sometimes I walk away from the blog in times that I find myself overwhelmed. I suppose this fall was one of those times. I am not sure, I suppose it was a combintation of things and I could not seem to catch up no matter how hard I tried, so while my classroom is so quiet as my advanced art students are painting on their large scale works, I decided to jot a note.

I am making some New Year's Teaching Resolutions:

I have decided to make some resolutions in regard to my teaching for the new year. I am not sure any teacher is so perfect that they never need to make changes or improvements and I am truly in need of change. I look around my classroom as I am sure a lot of art teachers do and see a lifeless messy room. To many people it is simply a happy creative area. But for me I want more. I want to create a chic, cool art room that kids want to create in, not just because its the art room and they have to, but because it is THE ART ROOM. I am in the process of brainstorming inexpensive ideas. We lack storage space. Everything sits out in the open and I hate it. I know if it could all be enclosed how nice it would look. We also lack storage space for projects, and I need to be creative in storing those as well. We are in almost an attic area of a pole building, which I don't mind. It is quiet and large. But we also have three style of walls and it is beginning to show its age. I just don't know but I will figure something out. I know I will.

My second is organization. So many kids walk in and out of this room all day. One student leaves something out, ok I can pick it up, but then two, three, 20 students leave things out and I am trouble. I need to be tougher and I need to create spaces for those materials to go. To create a routine which makes it simple.

My third and final resolution is keeping up my blog. I know I can and I need to and I will!

All three are doable, I just need to do it. And sometimes, I might need a reminder.

Parent Contact

Recently our principal sent us out an email that encouraged us to email or make phone contact with some of our students parents. I had already done this from time to time, but I needed a little "oh yeah" trigger in me to do it again. So I took about a half hour and sent emails to a dozen or so parents. A lot of times, as teachers, we think, oh boy, one more thing to do. We try to find the time to do it. I know when I do find the time, I always feel good after. I don't write much. Just a couple sentences. I always wonder what the parents think when they see that email sitting there in their inbox. Their child's name as the subject and from a school address. I wonder if there is a shock factor. I wonder if they think, "what have they done now..." Monday I got one of those emails with the subject box that read simply "Ali."

So, even though I know I have a pretty good kid, I still thought, "Oh crap." And then I read the email. It was from one of Ali's 8th grade teachers and her words were just what I needed to start my Monday. It was a short note, only a couple sentences. But what she said in those few sentences made me the proudest mom EVER. To get a note from someone that I don't know well, letting me know as a parent that I am doing something right and so is my daughter is a really, really good feeling.

So every time I hear a fellow teacher sigh when we are asked to give a few minutes of our time and our words, I think I will smile inside. They will never know what an impact in a parent's life those few small words, in a short little paragraph mean to them.

Claudine Hellmuth

My art one classes are going to focus the next week and a half on altered collage/ books. Right now altered collage is booming. My students are always wanting to work in collage but their idea of collage is cutting out a bunch of pictures from magazines and gluing them on to a background. I wanted to find a way to teach them that there is so much more to collage than that. After researching, I found a couple good dvds by Claudine Hellmuth. The thing I like about her is that her style is simple and easy to understand, but the amount of layers and techniques she uses gives the students a great variety and a challenge. She explains herself well and is very detailed in her demos.

Once we finish the video, we will be beginning an altered project. Students are allowed to use the provided canvas or they may bring in an old book or box to create their project.

Side Note

Love how I am sadly addicting my students to Pinterest. They are having a great time and are constantly pinning and repinning new ideas for projects in our art classes. I love that they are finding an interest in our classes outside of the traditional class day! Way to Go!

Pinterest Project

We are working on our first project based off of Pinterest. I found this one and it was perfect for Painting and Drawing Class. They were ready to move in to painting and drawing on a unique surface and this project did the trick.

The site for the project is http://www.freewebs.com/agnestheredtutorials/gessomagimages.htm

Engaging the Parent

Last Thursday and Friday were parent teacher conferences. If you are a high school teacher you honestly know what that means. The best image I can give you is to think about a ghost town with tumbleweeds blowing across the classroom. It means, no one comes. There are a few parents that stroll in but usually they are here for another reason or they are the ones who have the kids that really aren't a problem and get good grades. I wondered why we as parents just stop coming.

In the elementary, everyone is at the conferences. You park yourself in the little tiny seats outside your child's classroom waiting for your assigned time and you pray that you only hear good things and that the teacher doesn't ask you if there is anything they should be aware of that would be causing an issue in school.

As a mom I have been to my fair share of conferences, every year from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Once my daughter hit middle school, something happened and I stopped going. I don't know why really. I suppose because she had all A's and I knew she wasn't behavior issue so why go and take up the teachers time. I am not sure that is everyone's reason for slowly disappearing from the realm of the parent teacher conference night, but that was mine. I don't want to be that parent that shows up and the teachers think "why is she here?" or "she is only coming to hear how great her kid is" and then part of me thinks, I wonder if they think I don't care? It is kind of a catch 22 as a parent.

So my question is, how do we as educators get our parents more involved in what their children are doing without the parent/ teacher conferences? Our school offers short awareness nights on topics such as Internet or online grading. The most recent is one on prescription drug awareness. I know as a teacher I send home emails to parents on their kids, just letting them know I enjoy having them in class, or something I would like them to work on more. Many teachers have websites and blogs such as this one, that talk about the daily comings and goings in their rooms. We even have online grading and parents have access to their students assignments and grades on a daily basis. By doing that, I wonder if we give them all the info they need so they don't feel like they have to contact us. I think about myself. What would or will get me into the school as the parent of a high school student next year. I guess I will find out.

If you have any ideas, shout them out here!