And so it is...

Nearly a month down, and I can say I'm still breathing and I still have some life to me...*pinch*, yep and I'm not dreaming. The year has been great to me so far (mind you it's weird to say 'year' when I have a ways to go) and the projects are rolling along steadily. With two classes of 7th graders, two classes of 8th graders, and a period each of 5th and 6th grade - let's just say...I'm surrounded by young, hormonal pre-teens all day, every day except for Saturday and Sunday and even then, I live with three college men - that's saying something.

My 5th graders are diving right into color theory and material expectations - so far they've mastered using markers, colored pencils, and paints. They'll hit the finale of this unit by creating a project using a particular color family that describes a particular noise/sound/music using design shapes and outlining in black. In the end it's a lesson in Kandinsky's music-related and colorful paintings.

My 6th graders are learning all about Georgia O'Keeffe, first in lesson and then applying what they learn to their own paintings by picking out plants and flowers that are colorful to paint and using watercolors to paint them. They learn all sorts of techniques like salting, masking, wet on wet, scratching, blotting, and watercolor pencils.

The unfortunate thing is that I see 5th and 6th graders once every six days so they spend a lot of time away from me and we often get stuck reviewing a good chunk of the period. :( On the good end of that is that I see them all year unlike my 7th and 8th graders who I see every day for only a trimester.

My 7th graders are chugging along, already having completed their first project - a lesson in the Principles of Design/Elements of Art. After a few exercises, they apply what they know using bright pastels on black large paper. These turned out 50x better than I expected (not because of their ability but because I had never taught this lesson before) and I can't wait to show them around school. They are now working on Optical Illusions. Every few days we view new illusions, all the while they are creating their own using technical designs and their very own name - one of my favorite units.


7th Grade Principles/Elements Project

My 8th graders are also well on their way, after completing their silhouette project during which they practice outlining detail, learning the history of silhouettes, and enlarging an image of their choice using grids onto black paper. After using color families to make a blended background, they then cut their image out and paste it on their paper. These look great - very cool. They're now stepping into their ceramics unit (the messiest) that they've all been eager for.


8th Grade Silhouette Project

In conclusion,

Current Challenge: Getting students to do their homework (i.e. printing a picture to bring to class).
Current Success: Students leaving class and discussing what they learned today.
Current Thoughts: I love this job.