The hands say it all

                                                      Holly S. - piano

Art 1 has been studying Leonardo DaVinci, and with that we have been doing hand studies.  What better way to study hands then to draw them saying something in sign language.   They are asked to come up with at least a 5 letter word in sign language that has visual clues that can be drawn with it.  So nouns work the best, like money, cross, trees and barns.

Once they pick a word they need to draw the word in sign language on a 6x18 piece of paper.  After they draw and shade the hands they then need to draw and color some little clues as to what the word is.  So for money you could draw bills and coins.

                                                     Abby K.  - piano

                                           Sebastian G. - happy

                                                                 Hannah S.  - faith

Twist and twirl

I wanted to do a project that involved using up some of my construction paper.  I am sure I am not the only one out there that opens a cupboard and says that some of this needs to be used.  Well after a trip over to Pinterest, I decided a quilling project looked like it might be fun.  So I challenged my Art 3 class to create projects using quilling techniques.  We spent some time looking at a variety of ways to approach quilling.  I then told them that they could do any picture that they wanted with as many techniques as they liked.  I think if I do this again, I might try to have them use at least 4 different techniques so that they try some of the other ones.

Demi H.

Jozlynn P,

Karly N.

Kelsey C.

Yeva S.

Taking color up a notch

Sometimes the hardest thing is to come up with projects for my advanced classes that reminds them of the basic elements of art.  I always love having my students look at the color wheel and see if they can re-invent it in a fun way.  So I basically turned them loose and said they needed to at least use all twelve colors of the color wheel and other than that they could do anything they wanted.  I love the variety of ideas that they came up with.

Brooke A.

Hunter S.

Kamber L.

Madisyn V.

Sierra A.

To boss on embossing or not?

Have you ever tried a project that didn't work exactly like you thought it should?  If you have tried to teach anyone anything, then you should know things don't always work out.

It's been a few years since I have had a student teacher, and don't get me wrong I always love the experience, but I am struggling this time being quiet during class.  In the past, I had both elementary and high school and I have the full twelve weeks with a student teacher.  They had time to watch me and get comfortable with my class, but this time I had to share her since I only teach high school.  So I feel like I am having to push her harder to get her into my classes.  This also means that she really didn't have time to watch me teach and see my style.

I understand that she has to come in with her own style and that it takes time to develop that, and trust me I have been asking myself a lot lately what I was like as a student teacher, but for some reason it is really hard for me to sit back and watch this time.  I feel like she is missing key points with her lectures, and some of the enthusiasm that I feel I bring to a presentation.  I am wondering, how do you teach enthusiasm or does that come as you get more comfortable with the job?

The main reason I am writing instead of showing something, is that while I liked the first project she presented, I am not thrilled with how they came out.  I feel like she didn't give enough explanation or practice to get the students engaged.  The project was taking metal tooling and to create designs on it and then turn it into a small box with a bottom and a lid.  In theory they are really cute,  ours needed some help.

If anyone has suggestions as to how to teach enthusiasm, I would love to hear them.