I haven't been on here for awhile. I have been busy. I am still doing my long-term Art Teacher position for Middle School and High School Art. It is not as idylic as it sounds. It is amazing to see the behavior of students - like they think it is acceptable to yell in your face or at you, not do their work, throw markers across the room. I have had Middle School Lunchroom duty also which included gym time afterwards. I was hit in the head by a basket ball once and in my upper, sensitive part of my torso another time. With all the balls flying, I am lucky I didn't develop PSTD. I don't know how the kids do it, but maybe they are oblivious. With the semester change, I now have High School lunch duty. Things are not as loud and calmer in both the commons and the gym. I had the opportunity to see kindness and including others in their game which really blessed my soul!
The semester change brings different classes and different prep. I now have 7th graders which actually after a couple of days have been better behaved than the 8th graders, but will need to stay firm to keep it from getting out of control. There may be a lot of talking, but they seem to have different abilities and like art more. I had a boy ask if they were going to get to do airbrush. I didn't know how he knew that we had the equipment, but no, it will be in high school. I think these two groups will be fun.
My Senior High classes are -
Crafts - I was disappointed this was on the menu because it does not seem like Art, however, students are looking to make things and probably feel uncomfortable in Art. Things that in the past were considered crafts have made it into an Art form so, hopefully they will find something they enjoy doing from my class. I have a vast range of skills that are considered crafts and I have quite a few that want to learn crocheting and knitting so, this may be fun. The semester switch was just this week so I wanted to start them out with a bang. We did marble painting, shave cream marbling, and water color paint effects - washes, salt etc. I think we will next do perhaps paste paper and then with this make collages and cards. It has been nice to see them so eager to learn things and also they are good at cleaning up after themselves!
Next, I have the Print Shop. Our school has built up their regular Shop Classes into a big deal. The district has allowed the Shop Teacher to expand his vision on what the shop is. They build and construct things for people and businesses in the area. His senior group is hand picked by their behavior, working skills, ethics and they are able to earn scholorships. Locally based companies that have a global outreach have helped support and sponcer them. He has set it up as a business and people come from all over the country to see his set-up. His goal is to train students to be good,responsible workers for the manufacturing industry if that is what they choose to go into. It is nice if they have good skills, but he is also looking for good attitudes, responsible students, so skills alone do not guarantee them an in. They have to apply to be accepted.
This is the first time the Print Shop has been offered, so there is nothing for me to go on. They are hoping it will build up into a similar thing like the Shop has become with a separate work area and supervisor from the classroom. It may take ten years for it to get there. There is nothing for me to go on, so I am winging it as I go. I am setting it up with teams of students doing research, keeping the books, doing the work. The want the the Print shop to be able to print t shirts and other printed material, create logos etc. It will start out adressing the needs of the school and then maybe with other nearby schools and businesses. I was told there was a model in the Twin Cities which is about 100 miles to the west, so I may have to research and see if they have days that explain their process or a time to tour and ask questions. I started them out this week by having them research POD shirt companies and demonstrating silk screen printing. right now they want to jump in and make something. I also assigned a group as secretary and a separate one as bookkeeper. I have taken $2000 out of my budget to buy equipment and part of their job in this class is to research and decide as a group what equipment they want to spend the money on. I bought - with their approval - blank t-shirts for each of them at Michaels on sale and that was $40, so I think they will be surprised how fast it goes. I have also said that we are tapping into the experience of the students in the group so they need to share what knowledge they have. I know some are more technologically saavy than others, but they can share what they know. The school has just gotten the Adobe CC suite, so I will be having access to that sent to them so that will have it's own learning curve. I think this may be the class I will be blogging about mostly this spring.
I have Studio Art with about 10 students. This is where I am going to focus on the Elements and Principles of Art. I want them to learn good design skills. I also have Ceramics again. It is the same time and group that my Painting class was last semester so we all know each other and it should be fun.
With this job, I acquired the back storage room and an upstairs storage room that needed to be cleaned out. So, I have been doing lessons, making lessons up, grading, meetings and the full clean out. There is some vintage stuff from the past two teachers. Some is dust covered and when I am upstairs, I am aways afraid that I will put my hand in a box and find a tenant! I have found some treasures upstairs. I found an old printing press that I need to clean up and see if it works. There were three blankets for it still in plastic. There was quite a bit of linoleum blocks and paper to use also. There are tons of silk screen frames that have a wonderful patina of old age as well as paint on it that would be great for a project. I found something I can do with them - repaint and make as a birdfeeder, but now I wonder the type of ink - oil or water-based.
Anyway, it is a little daunting now with starting a new semester but it seems like I have some pretty good and eager students and that helps that I have a great team on this adventure.
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