Hullo! I'm Corey, a college freshman majoring in art education, and I hope to one day teach high school art in a small town like the one I grew up in. Its not a glamorous dream but its what's going to make me happy. This is just my place to jot down anything I think of or come across that I want to remember for when I'm actually working in a classroom. Its also a place I hope that future me will come back to and remember all the reasons I wanted to become a teacher and my values going in to all of this. should I ever lose sight of who I am as an educator.
Things I want to be
an art teacher
the coach of the cross country team at the school i teach for
to live in the same town as the school i teach at
I should start volunteering at the elementary school…
It was so much fun! maybe before break is over I’ll email Mrs. E and see if i can come in for a day or two. maybe even stay through for a project from beginning to end! Id love do some stuff at the high school too… but I kind of burned my bridge with etter… cuz i dislike him. idk. he doesn’t hate me I’m sure but he would probably tread lightly around the idea of me helping him in the classroom.
Coffee Watercolor Lesson
This is a great watercolor idea I found on Artsonia. It uses coffee for the paint. There are so many fun possibilities!
This print out is from The ABC’s of Art by M. C. Gillis. Click through for many more awesome art education resources including games to use in the classroom, teacher tips, and more print outs on the elements and principles of design!
Art Gallery of Ontario: “Explore art with your students.”
This goes well with the Visual Thinking Strategies video I posted a while ago.- A., Mathaf Education Intern
As our first assignment in AP art this year, students created political posters solely using cut paper. Their goal was to create a poster that compels the viewer to take action.
If you like what you see, give them some love, as they have submitted their work to the Say Something Poster Project.
Click here to give these students credit for their awesome work!
This is just how I feel…
I want to be an educator first and for most and an artist second. That is how I feel any teacher should view themselves in order to be successful and keep their mind in the classroom and not wandering about thinking of what a fabulous career they could have with all their knowledge in the field if they weren’t a teacher. I think that a lot of people become teachers for the wrong reasons and end up with chaotic classrooms because they aren’t invested in being there.
If a student comes up to my desk asking to tweak the project…
first of all I want to encourage them to just do what they feel will work for their piece and not feel like they need to consult me on the parameters of the assignment. I’m going to tell them that they can change things and tweak the assignment to whatever fits best with their idea and their vision as long as they are still getting the key lessons behind me giving the assignment in the first place from doing the project. Example: if the assignment is to do a black and gray still life of an apple and the student wants to instead do the still life of the apple in color, that would be perfectly acceptable, because they would still be working with gradient and observation (the reasons and things to be learned and practiced in doing an apple still life, although i hope to god I’m not going to be so cliche of a teacher and make kids draw apples…) However if the student wanted to substitute the subject matter for… say a skateboard (i don’t know maybe to follow their interests a little more closely) i would have to say no simply because a skateboard lacks a rounded reflective surface to practice shading and gradients, however i would be willing to work with the student and maybe think of an angle from which the skateboard could be used for the project. basically. I want students to realize the assignments aren’t about adhering to my parameters and pleasing me with their rule following and exactness. Its about them, learning and growing as artists and practicing their skills.
Found this project on deviant art being random and weird by searching “popcorn dragon”. I was eating popcorn and thinking about dragons. I don’t know…
So heres how the the assignment goes and what I hope students will learn from it.
On the left is a still life gray scale drawing of some pieces of popcorn. Its fairly detailed and shaded so Im assuming it wasn’t done in one class period. The popcorn would probably have to be glued down to a piece of black paper so students won’t lose the scene from class to class.
On the right is a color drawing of what the student came up with after tracing the pieces of popcorn and using those shapes to create something new. There doesn’t seem to be any parameters on the drawing other than you need to incorporate the shapes of the popcorn from the first drawing.
I think this is a fantastic first project! Whether or not its especially art 1/ beginner freshman art I’m not really sure. maybe some introductory/ building lessons would be a good idea first, but i love how it has students do something very rigid and specific (as well as practice some basic skills like observation and shading) and then teaches them to break that idea that art as to be observational and makes them think outside the box and make some random shapes in to a composition. the dragon scene made from the popcorn shapes is a little crude but its fantastic all the same! the fact that the student was about to see a dragon some fire and a cave in those forms is great. Some advice for my students however would probably be not to necessarily think about the traced shapes as clouds that need to be assigned an object or image but maybe think more about how those shapes could be incorporated in to a composition. don’t just thinks shape to be defined. think about the positive and negative space and how you can see and work with it.
My Classroom #1
So, I know what most of you are thinking “if you’re serious about art, why don’t you become a college professor or an actual artist yourself?”. Well first of all to be terribly honest, I’m not especially serious about art. I’m serious about teaching art. Which means that while I myself am an artist I will be putting my work and myself as an artist aside in order to teach young people about how to develop themselves as artists and learn the basic skill of being able to communicate your thoughts visually through lines forms and colors. I swear I’m not psychic but I also know the second thing you’re going to say “high school teachers are just glorified babysitters, especially art teachers. you’re going to have a handful of talented students who will be serious about it and everyone else in your class will just be there to screw around”. Well, I’m not going to be a teacher just to pluck those talented few out of the crowd and make sure their portfolios are perfect and ignore everyone else. Art doesn’t have to be what you make your career for you to learn about it. Like i said, its a skill. Its therapeutic. Its just plain fun. I want my classroom to be for everyone. Whether you need someone to guide you in building your college portfolio for art school or if you’re just some burn out who needs a passing grade in an elective to keep from repeating a grade. I’m there to be a teacher, and a mentor even if its not in art, but you’d be surprised the amount of lessons you can convey through an art assignment. Well thats all i have for now on thoughts of how my classroom is going to be.
