I made it my priority to take time to work in my new fancy sketch book and to exercise daily throughout my Christmas break. I am proud to say I am doing both daily. I have also been practicing to be mindful and this has helped me to be less stressed and to focus on being in the moment.
As I have been working on myself the quiet pull to focus on my studio practice is calling me. I have been doing some research, reading, and following the lively conversations on the Art Teacher FB page. I do read and comment but I also practice scrolling on by. It is a choice to participate or not participate. As much as I love to keep working on my style of teaching, I know everyone has different levels of comfort and a variety of situations that can influence an art educators style of teaching. I strive to share what I am learning and discovering while I am actually doing it in my studio.
I believe I am always learning and experimenting with my artists in my studio. I work with my artists to create the best studio experience I can. I am student centered educator and so I have a structure that stays in place with slight modifications, but I am always willing to swap out when something is not working well for my artists.
This next semester I have one new course from first semester and that is Sculpture plus a semester of Mixed Media but this time around my students expressed a desire to focus on Digital Art and Photography. In addition, we will be able to incorporate into each studio course, our new Ultimaker 3D printer.
It is my plan for my artists to continue to utilize the artist proposal format with daily progress documentation on Sway. I will be leaning on my Intermediate and Advanced art students to demonstrate the quality of the submissions. I will be modifying my artist proposals for the experienced artists with a presentation of their proposal, research, and sketches to the class. I then plan to have the entire class ask propelling questions to push the framework of the initial proposal to have an expanded direction. I feel strongly that by doing this my students will push each other to move away from cliché images and be connected to the meaning of the piece. I have found that my students respond well to class discussions and critical questioning about their ideas. I want to continue to develop these conversations earlier in the designing of the artist proposals to strengthen the students voice.
My Themes and Artistic Targets will stay the same but I will be creating units based on media to keep the studio organized and be able to provide the necessary spaces to create with the specific media. My studio space is limited so I do need to work with the individual artists on scale of sculptures and spaces to store works in progress.
I will also be chunking the media for some of my courses to help with the distribution of supplies and storage. I am planning on offering cardboard, plaster, clay, wire, and paper at different times for the first quarter. Second quarter I will encourage students to break out into areas they wish to develop further. Of course I will always offer soft sculpture and the 3D printer on the side. My digital photography students will go through a planned scaffold program to ensure quality compositions and levels of understanding of using Photoshop.
The art courses that are moving onto second semester will dovetail our experienced artists with a few completing work from first semester, while new students will learn all about Choice Art Studio and how to implement their own learning in the studio. I will repeat the same content as first semester to teach students how to navigate the Haiku platform with resources, learn how to use Sway for documentation and research, and all about the Google forms for submitting artist proposals. My artist mentors will also be presenting ideas, critiquing work in class discussions, and completing summative assessment forms with artist’s statements. So the new art students will be pulled into the current of the art studio by hearing the discussions, watching demonstrations, asking questions, researching, collaborating, and recording reports using Screencastify for the archives.
As usual, I have also been kicking around a few challenges to help move students along a continuum of exploration. A couple of challenges I want to pose for my students are:
- White Space
- Micro and Macro Fabrication
- New design approaches for solving societal challenges
We will see how it goes…
I hope you are all looking forward to the New Year. I am looking forward to New York and serving through the NAEA ChoiceArt Co-President position. I hope you all take the time to read the newsletter from NAEA for the article Anne Bedrick and I crafted for all of you. Looking forward to our face to face conversations at the convention.
NAEA Convention
Thursday, 3/2/2017 4:30 PM – 5:50 PM
Hilton/New York/4th Floor
Meet the Choice-Art Educators!
You are invited to the first meeting of the Choice-Art Educators special issues group! Come meet like-minded educators and discuss any questions or concerns.
Anne Anne Sommer Bedrick and Joy Schultz. Co- Presidents Choice Art
I am also excited to start a fresh set of semester courses and to gear up for our recycle runway show and my student trip to Paris in June. So much to look forward to in the new year.
Recharge and Make ART!
Art Around 
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