Presenting some idea suggestions for this lesson

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"

"You must do the things you think you cannot do"

Eleanor Roosevelt

Kind of a weird day at school today.  The kids had last Friday off for Secondary Fair Day, so a long weekend.  Right away we got into watching the videos I prepared just before school started with my iphone and tripod.  I really liked the way they came together and the setup in the classroom was much better than when I did them at home in the studio.  The light, the height of the desk area, and the availability of media was a lot easier to put it together.

The first one I showed was taken from the DRAW SQUAD book by Kintsler.  I had shown them 1 point perspective and how they might employ it in their new lesson.  This exercise uses what I call a "faux" perspective concept, where they are not concerned about any objects relating to any given point in space, just for the object to appear to be 3 dimensional and relate to the other shapes and forms in the design.FAUX PERSPECTIVE LINK

The second video presentation was using circles to create a "flowing rhythm" design using repetitive circles and the shapes created when two or more circles intersect.  I used the left-over spools from the leather laces I used for the runners' finisher medals project I had just completed.  I saw a lot of interest in this way of dealing with the lesson.cIRCLES VIDEO

The third video used the 3" squares we used last year in the motif repetition watercolor paintings we did when studying Rhythm and Movement.  I used the squares similarly to the circles, except I used overlapping to make the shapes appear to be in front ot one another.SQUARES VIDEO

I discussed ways that they might think about finishing off designs of this type with the medial they had to choose from.

The classes got right to work incorporating the ideas I had presented on their idea sheets.  Some even began using larger paper to play with the ideas.  My third period class was interrupted by a "fire drill" which ended up to be just a water pipe burst at the construction site.  Longest fire drill I have ever been a part of.  We were outside for the better part of an hour.  By the time we returned to the classroom, we barely had time to view the videos, discuss the ideas, and finish up with the grade sheets and log book entries.  Too bad.  Because of PSAT testing on Wednesday this week, we won't be back in class until Friday.

Parent conferences tonight (Tuesday).  I hope that I get a lot of parents in to present the blog site to them for their perusal.  I'd really like to get some feedback from some interested parents.  Of course, I ALWAYS look forward to hearing any comments from those of you who have taken the time to follow this blog process.  Thanks for your support.  P.S. If you would like to comment more privately, you may drop me a line at  jochumpottery.com  also.

So Much to Do...So Little time

"Putting off an easy thing makes it hard.Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible."

George Lorimer

A lot of paperwork and logistics needed to be handled today.  I handed out the new set of forms necessary for this cycle's activities.  The new grading rubric, the new daily grade log, and the new idea page for starters.  Then I explained and handed out our new 6 week test format.  I decided to try another tack on the one I originally set up.  I didn't feel that enough core material was researched by the students by simply having them write their own questions and answers.  This cycle I have given them a study guide for the unit on SHAPE and an actual test over the unit on RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT.  Their goal will be to read about these two concepts and answer the questions.  At the end of the cycle, I will have them turn them in and we'll grade them in class.  It will be an "open book" test, as it were. 

 I gave them an alternative to doing this as well.  They can choose to research a topic and give a 5 minute presentation to the the class on what they have researched.  It can be simply a topic they are interested in or a demonstration of a media or technique they found interesting that they want to show to the class.  I really hope that a few of them will opt to do this so I can video tape their presentation and post it on Youtube and link it to this blog.

I passed out the paper to the class that they will use this cycle.  I told them that any paper they had left over from last cycle could be used to either complete projects from then or they could use it to expand their involvement in this cycle's lesson.

Some of the students spent the majority of class time today working on the test papers and reading the textbooks.  A lot of them got started in earnest on their new ideas for this lesson.  Some brought their first ideas up for me to look at and I am seeing some exciting things even at this stage.  Next post I know I will be posting two or three of these works in progress.  We have an "off" day on Friday this week for the Secondary Schools Fair Day.  I'm going to try and prepare a coupe of video demos in the next few days to post.  Other than that, like the fella says, "not much to write home about."

Cycle Two, we begin ANEW

I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

I haven't used the overhead projector for a while.  I decided that today I would demonstrate and discuss the concept of PERSPECTIVE with my students.  We talked about EYE LEVEL, VANISHING POINT, and THREE DIMENSIONAL drawing.  Since this cycle's lesson deals with SHAPES and the principle of design RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT,  I chose to include drawing all kinds of shapes in one point perspective.  I thought it might be kind of fun for some of the students who didn't pursue the still life assignment with enthusiasm.  They appeared to enjoy the way in which the common GEOMETRIC shapes took on more interest when drawn in perspective, becoming forms.

Next we got out the ART TALK books and looked at the unit on Rhythm and Movement and I discussed with them the idea of "BEAT" and the concept of REGULAR and ALTERNATING RHYTHMIC patterns in music.  As they looked through the chapter, I pointed out some of the ways artists use this principle in their paintings.

I told them that all their grades were in and that they could take their paintings home, bring them up to place in the hall display cabinets, or leave them to finish in their portfolios.  A number of them brought up to hang and were quite excited about going out to see them hung.  I've taken a picture of one of the displays and posted it here.  I just love the variety of expressions, subjects, sizes, and media represented.  

I did have a "bubble bursting moment" today, however.  Nothing to do with the curriculum itself, but maybe the disappointment was more severe because of what I feel I'm providing for the students.  I use an ipod shuffle to present movies and slide shows to my classes.  Sometime during 2nd period today, one of the students stole it.  The security guards were not able to find it among any of the students belongings.  It held up their going to their next class and my 3rd period from coming in on time.  As a result, today, my 3rd period was not privy to the same presentation of slides.  We will need to do that on Wed.  I hope by talking about the incident here that I'll be able to "get past" it and "let it go".  In all the 40 years I have taught, this is the first incident of this kind that has ever happened.  Maybe I should feel lucky.  Right now I just feel betrayed.

Tomorrow we begin again...

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.

Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)

In Thursday's blog, I posted a link to Youtube and there you found a video I edited of three students discussing their artwork.  When I recorded those snippets, I used my iphone camera.  When I went to edit the footage in imovie, the software distorted three of the videos because I recorded them in a vertical format.  I have since uploaded these three videos to Youtube and am listing their links here.

Student discussing her artwork 1

Student discussing her artwork 2

Student discusses her artwork 3

As with the other three videos, these students were not expecting to be called on to discuss their work on camera.  I thought they did an outstanding job.

Tomorrow is the first day of next cycle.  I will discuss with the students their options for what to do with their completed or incomplete art work from 1st cycle.  I will tell them they can 1.  Take it home today, or 2.  Hang it in the hall display board, or 3.  Leave it in their portfolio to complete whenever they have feee time to do so.  I want THEM to make those decisions and it will be interesting to see what they are.  I'll have them write about them in their blog tomorrow.

I will be handing out the new lesson for the cycle, which will be to study the element of art, SHAPE and the principle of design, RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT.  We will be working with other subject matter than still life, but THAT will be an option.

Hope to post more video this week.  

One more thing:  I was extremely pleased on Saturday when I received a return email from Daniel Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND, two books which I read this summer and that provided the inspiration for me to develop this curriculum.  If you interested in learning more about this idea of intrinsic motivation, please click on the following link.  Dan Pink's website

Cycle One comes to rest today

"Only the gentle are truly strong"

James Dean (who died today in 1955)

Student Video 93010  

Today was the last day of the first school year's cycle (6 weeks) and grades are due next Tuesday.  That typically means all physical work is finished and graded, all six weeks tests are given and graded, and all "paperwork" such as reports, etc. are to be turned in and graded.  So the students were busy the entire period taking care of business, as it were.  

I collected three pieces of paper from each student today.  The first was the "ART SELF-EXAM" where they were to list 10 questions and 10 answers from their reading and research this cycle.  Most had this finished.  I'm not as happy with this portion of this curriculum, yet.  I have told them it was to reflect what they had read in the textbook chapters on the subjects, not on their ability to copy definitions out of the glossary in the back.  I may change this part for next cycle in some way.

The second paper was the completed RUBRIC they used to assess their grade on their completed art work.  In this case, ALL were finished with this process and I felt that the results were surprising.  A few of them gave themselves failing grades.  The questions had them ask themselves whether they put anything of themselves into their project, whether they brought in any materials to complete it, whether they researched the lesson outside of class, among others.  

The third paper was their daily grade log they keep each day on the activities they have dealt with that day.  I have them average their grades in such things as to the completeness of their daily log, notes on demonstrations, notes on movies, and the progress of their art work.  Again, in looking at them, I felt that the grades were very close to what I would have given them

Overall, I feel that the greater percentage of the students are doing well with monitoring their progress in all these areas and I think that I will not change much in this regard very soon.

Lastly, I encourage you to check out the video I posted on Youtube with a link at the top of the page.  I had three students discuss briefly their art projects in terms of the lesson on LINE and BALANCE.  With no more warning or preparation than come back here and talk about it, I felt they did very well.

Almost There...going down to the wire

"In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind."

Louis Pasteur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htZKDlPsHI

The link above is to a new 2 plus minute video of my students on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010 during Period 2 working on their self prescribed art assignments that are due on Thursday.  I wanted to show how diverse the choices students made were and how engaged they are in the process of creating their work.  

I started the period out by having them write down in the their log books the goals they needed to accomplish this week having to do with their projects, their 6 week test, and their grade sheet rubric for evaluating this art work.  At the end of the period I had them check off or comment on which goals they worked on and possibly accomplished.

I spoke with a couple of students suggesting alternative ways to enhance their drawings.  They seemed to take the input positively and continue working to improve their work.  Very gratifying.

I had to ask one student to speak with me in the hall.  She has a good sense of design and has done some fine work, even after having been absent for 4 days.  She has caught up and is moving forward.  The problem is that she does like attention and she has found it in two other students.  Unfortunately, because of the larger number of students in this class, (30), as opposed to 20 in my other two classes, there aren't spaces enough, far away from the other two enough to keep her from disturbing them and the rest of the class.  When she is out of the room, everyone is focused on their work and the noise level goes down a whole lot.  I talked to her a couple of times, but I'm afraid it just wasn't sinking in.  We'll see what happens on Thursday when all is due.  I'm posting a couple of pictures of work in progress.  This first one is a student who is using her drawings of the small plastic colored boxes to draw four related 9 X 12 drawings using colored pencil and charcoal (a combination I wouldn't have suggested, but she tried and it seems to work for this drawing).  THAT'S what I see as a real perk in this process.  Students trying things an old hand like me might poo poo.  Good for her!  The smaller one is another adaptation of the boxes on 12 X 18 and so far, just in colored pencil.  The last one in on the largest paper in pencil.  This student has worked very focussed in #2 pencil.  He drew the bone, then cut it out and repeatedly drew it in a radially balanced composition.  Then we talked about how he might set off the positive and negative shapes with some dark to light shading. As you can see at the bottom left of the drawing he is "getting there" with the value gradations.  He has a lot of space to cover with only a light pencil, but he seems to be ok with that.

I really like sharing these works as "in process" works because usually the only time people see works from my classes is when they are hanging on the hallway wall outside my room.  As these works ARE finished, I will record them each cycle and post them in a slide show on youtube for all to enjoy.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and if you have, leave a comment.  Thanks for reading.  Share with your friends.

Weekend Wonderings

Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein   September 25, 1930

"All The Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

 Layin' In The Sun,

 Talkin' 'Bout The Things

 They Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda Done...

 But All Those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

 All Ran Away And Hid

 From One Little Did"

So one day I'm sitting in my classroom having my lunch...a special treat today because I  have a couple of left-over devilled eggs from last nights pot luck at pottery class.  There was my banana, as usual, waiting to be eaten with activia, and, of course my ruffles.  Well, what else is a smart phone good for than to take a photo when the kodak moment presents itself.  I emailed it to Sue and she got a mid-day chuckle out of it.  I hope you get a mid-weekend chuckle out of it as well.

Today is Shel Silverstein's birthday and I just thought this quote from him was oh, so appropriate in light of what I'm trying to do with this curriculum; but ,also in terms of what I expect from my students in their quest for knowledge about art.  The other day in class I observed a  young man sitting and talking AT a few other students, who were also ignoring their work and paying full attention to what he was saying, which had nothing to do with art.  I asked him if he knew what was meant by telekinesis.  He said no.  I explained to him that it meant being able to control physical objects with his mind.  The ability to simply will, by concentration, something to move.  I went on to explain that it was not possible in real life to do that, but, in the movies when it is portrayed as real, the person doing it is concentrating real hard on that task.  So even if he sat there staring at his paper, his work would not get done, but by not paying ANY attention to it, there wasn't even the "fantasy" chance that it would.  Besides, he was keeping others from doing their work.

As you can tell from that encounter with this student, I have the hardest time just saying "get busy", "stay on task", or any of a number of quick responses to "lack of engagement" with my students.  Maybe I'm just antsy that this process will work and that eventually my students will "get it".  I have to remember that they are so used to being told what to do, how to do it, when to turn it in, and what to remember from the experience that they aren't used to making all those choices themselves. That's what this is ALL about.  This idea of deciding for oneself all of these aspects of learning.

Here's another quandary I experienced the other day.  Here's a student whose still life objects were the little colored plastic  boxes.  He is given the option of composing an abstract expression.  He chooses the largest format, 18 X 24.  He chooses colored pencil as media.  He draws 5 shapes of cubes in outline form only.  He colors the lines in colored pencil.  He sits there as finished.  I look at it and see all kinds of options for him to "complete" his work, not the least of which would be to simply color in the boxes.  I decided not to suggest any specific direction or alternative except to say I would encourage him to research further how other artists might have chosen to finish a work like this, and that to me it did need "finishing".  He still has two full days before the end of the cycle to work on it.  After I spoke with him, he just sat there staring at his paper for the rest of the period.  I want him to WANT to do the best job he can and to WANT to feel proud of what he"s done.  The quandary I have is how much external input into his intrinsic decisions should I exercise?  If he is unwilling to "teach" himself, at what point do I decide what would be best for HIM?  As I spell it out here, I think what I will do is  discuss with him on Tuesday some options I would think about, show him some examples with a short demo, and then, if he still is not motivated to add to what he has, have him go through the GRADE RUBRIC and answer the questions in it.  Perhaps be finishing that process, he might decide that perhaps there might be further actions he could take.  If anyone out there has any other suggestions, please post in comments.  Be assured I will look at them.

Well, thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy rambling.  I hope you share this with others and that you become a follower of the blog and use the opportunity to comment.  As I encounter future dilemmas in this process, I will try to be honest in the posting and share them with you.