I am quickly wrapping up a quarter for this school year. I am enjoying watching my students gain strength in decision-making and planning their time in the studio. Many have presented in class to share all the progress and research they have accumulated on their Sway links.
My most experienced artists flow from one project to the other, completing all the necessary tasks required to close a piece. They document daily progress, keep a written record of transitions, share changes to the concepts, and maintain a dialogue with me on necessary details. Assessments and artist statements are submitted at the close of each piece. They are working artists and their ideas flow seamlessly from one piece to the other. The artist voice is clear and the artist statements almost write themselves.
Other artists need more support. This is where a clone of me would be helpful. Each and every student is on their own individual path to be creative. Each and every student comes with a different set of skills and different degrees of engagement. It’s my job to help my students make the leaps and grow. This of course doesn’t happen on my schedule but on theirs. It’s all developmental.
My students have been presenting a lot this year. WE do this in class for the whole class or they opt to present to a smaller group in class…either way they will gain confidence in presenting and will also gain more clarity about their own voice. I am using screencastify to record my students on screen presentations with only the voice recording. I save all the presentations on the Gdrive and share it with my students so they grow accustomed to presenting. This component of presenting is very important to help motivate, model, and celebrate the artists work.
Offering students choice and supporting their goals is one of the most rewarding ways to spend my time. I have students who share images of their progress with friends and family without my prompt, I have students “hacking” my classes, duplicating the same requirements of documentation, and submission without a grade. I have students forming ideas for future projects while still finishing the current project. I have students asking to volunteer to present in class and volunteering to present for our ARTS REVEAL NIGHT. I have students who are not currently in my studio courses but have creative adventures to share and want to present what they have been doing independently. I even have students doing community service projects who are not in an art studio course. They are coming in and working so they can be artistic and to be near the creative space.
YES! We got something going here.
Art Around 
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