Wait. It's mid-term already?

Here in the middle of North Carolina, we are already in the middle of the first quarter of the school year.  How did that happen already?  The Bulldogs are getting ready for homecoming in a week and the weather has prematurely turned very fall-ish.  I keep telling myself that summertime is going to have one last hurrah! before the cool autumn days set in, but I'm not sure if I believe it or not.  The weather has been awfully odd this year, starting last winter with an unusual amount of actual snow and a relatively mild summer.  Sure, we had a few hot days but nothing like some of the 100° + days that we have seen in the not to distant past.  I wonder is this is a predictor of the winter weather this year?  Silly me, I forgot to count the number of fogs that we had in August, I haven't seen one woolly worm caterpillar to measure their brown bands and I haven't seen any pigs gathering sticks.  I guess I could try to find some locally grown persimmons to see what shape their kernels are but that seems like an awful lot of trouble.  The sunflowers this year were kind of tall so, who knows?  I guess we will all be at the mercy of our local meteorologists and waiting for that text message, phone tree call, blue line on the bottom of the screen on the 5:00 a.m. news and the greatest announcer of the snow day-Facebook posts from all my fellow teachers.  Let's face it, teachers get just as excited about a snow day as the kids.  We are also very fond of the 2 hour delay and the early release just to be clear.

I didn't intend for this blog post to turn into a conversation about the weather, but who knows where my fingers on the keyboard will take me?

So, back to the Art Room...we already have a couple of projects under our belt. One was not very successful as far as the outcome, but I am blaming that on the fact that I can't afford halfway decent watercolor paper and am forced to use construction paper.  Our second project turned out nicely.  We talked about infographics and the kids did a time wheel that depicted a typical day in the life of a middle schooler. I was happy with the result of those and I learned an awful lot.  Some of my kids have awfully jam packed busy days.  No wonder they are sleepy.  I'm going to hang some in the hallway this week and I'll take a few pictures to share with you.

This week, we are doing a project that falls under so many categories in our Essential Standards that I had a hard time narrowing it down.  I saw an image over on Pinterest by an artist when I was just scrolling through one day.   I think it was this one, but I can't be sure.  At any rate, it gave me an idea, which is by no means an original one.  I've seen similar projects all over the interwebs, using paper (similar to Notan designs), markers, colored pencils and paint.

In this case, I have my students working on 6 x 6 squares of paper.  Why 6 x 6 you ask?  Well, I can get more squares for the buck out of my 12 x 18 construction paper.  Who says we don't do math in the art room?  As if...

We divided the paper into 9 - 2' squares.  I then told them to draw an identical geometric (not organic!) shape in the center of each square.  Next, they had to draw the same shape, smaller, inside each shape.  For the last drawing step I had them draw 3 squiggly lines through their design.  The lines were to go from one edge or corner to the other and they weren't to cross.  Then they had to draw the same thing on their second piece of paper.  This was greeted with a lot of middle school worthy sighs and groans, a few exclamations of "This is too much!" and "This is haaaaaaaaaard!".  I reminded them that we could just walk down the hall to their math classrooms and start solving equations and writing down formulas and the room suddenly got quiet.

The hardest part of the project is the planning.  They have to actually sit there (OMG! MizzzzzzSmiffff!) and plan where the colors are going to go.  The first square is in black and white and they get to choose 2 complementary colors to finish the second.  I tried to explain to them that if they don't plan it right, it isn't going to come out right and they are going to have to DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN and I am so mean, I know this.  The rules are that the colors cannot touch side by side, so I instructed them to do the black and white one first and to write (LIGHTLY) a 'B' where the black will go.  So far, I've had about 7 or 8 kids to have to do it all over again out of 5 classes.  Not to bad, I guess.  This project covers positive and negative space, pattern, repetition, complementary colors, contrast and planning and Op Art.  Not too shabby.

I think they are going to look really neat when they are done.  I am thinking that our next project is going to be one using Emphasis.  I am not sure exactly what I am going to have them do but I have a few ideas swimming around in my head.  After that, it will be mid-October and I think I am going to try some atmospheric perspective with some spooky trees.

Treasure working diligently

Meghan doing a fast duck and Emma trying not to smile.

I love these guys.  They all do such a great job in class and seem to like art, which makes my job easier.

He gets it.  That would be his mid-term progress report right there by his left arm.  Again, time is flying.

Christopher, working hard.  

Misty, planning where her colors are going to go.

My examples.  Mine are 8 x 8 because I had some scraps that size left over from something.  I'll mount the student work side by side on one piece of paper when they are done.

End of the First Semester, More Pics and Art Club

I am writing this in my jammies, it's MLK day, I have off and am looking at a 1 1/2 day work week.  It's the end of the Second Quarter, the end of the first semester and all I can say is where has the time gone?  It's almost February, traditionally the longest month in teacherdom, despite being the shortest calendar month.  But after that? March, then Spring.  And I breathe a sigh of relief.

These pics are one of my seventh grade classes working on positive and negative space.  I wasn't thrilled with the way that my first quarter kids tackled the project that I gave them for this concept.  It was all black and white and they didn't seem to put much effort into it so I decided to change it up a bit.

They traced their hands on 12 x 18 paper and added line and pattern in the back ground.

I told them they could color with markers or colored pencils or both.

Oooops.  I told Jillian that I wouldn't show her face but she is so cute how could I not?

Greyson made sure that I wouldn't post her face. 

This next bunch of pictures is from Art Club.  We meet once a week for about and hour, hour and a half or so.  It's very fluid.  I have a core of about 10 kids that come every week and about 5 or 6 more that come a little less frequently.

I have about 50 panels of lauan that the previous art teacher had cut to fit in the ceiling to put in place of the ceiling tiles.

Turns out that I can't use the wood in place of the ceiling tiles as it is against fire code.  Turns out that the ceiling tiles were painted and put up need to come down as well as the paint isn't fire retardant.  They've been up in our school for 10 years so I don't know if someone is going to take them down or not.

Chizong working on softball, while Madison and Keturah look up pictures for volleyball on the computer.

These panels have been taking up space in my closet and I am on a mission to clean it out.  The Art Club is painting quadriptych murals of the sports that we participate in at our school. 

Nicholas working on Football

Dream is doing an amazing picture of a girl playing basketball, while Angel and Caitlyn work on getting the angle of the elbow dribbling correct. 

Caitlyn and Angel

Love these girls.

 

While the kids were working I watched them, taking pictures and I just couldn't stop smiling.  They were all so independent, getting their paint and materials out without having to ask.  My art room was their art room. It was their space.  If they needed help, they asked me but they pretty much did their own thing.  I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest art teacher on the planet.  

Earlier in the year, not long after my first art club meeting I got very emotional.  I haven't had an art club in years and I had so many kids show up for that first meeting.  I think my last art club was probably 2007 or so. I couldn't help but think about all the kids that would have loved to have come to Art Club after school in those years that I didn't have it. There hasn't been a lot of support for it.  Luckily, our new administration was totally on board this year and is very appreciative of the activities that we offer after school for our students.  Our band teacher stays after school for tutoring, pep band, jazz band and bucket drums throughout the year.  Our CTE teacher has FBLA meetings and has already taken her group to the State Fair.  We have an amazing step/dance team that is facilitated by one of our EC teachers.

I teach in a small town that doesn't have an awful lot for our kids to do after they leave school in the afternoon.  If you aren't involved in a sport there isn't much to do at school when the day is done.  I am so glad to be able to spend time with kids who love art, some that won't ever have my class because they are in band, or just have art one quarter of the year.  In a couple of months, we will be going to the Artalympics to compete in art events.  I jokingly tell them that we better win a trophy (the big one) and while that would be nice, I am looking forward to spending a special day with them.

After we finish our mural, we will install it on the long wall outside the gym.  It's their legacy, I tell them.  Our next project will be doing a mural on the dugouts.  When it is warmer.  Another legacy. 

I'd love to hear what other art teachers out there do with their art clubs.  Do you charge a fee?  Do you just use supplies that you have?   What kind of projects do you do?

Positive and Negative space

We are about halfway though the first quarter and about halfway through the elements of art.  We did some beautiful continuous line landscapes that were colored in using value. I'll post some of those pictures soon.  

Today, we started prepping for some work using positive and negative space, line and pattern. I found this idea on Pinterest but I can't find the link that I got the idea from.

Students will use a template from a 3x5 index card and repeat it on both sides of a 12 x 18 pice of construction paper.  

Today, we are making zentangle resource sheets.  Using about 6 pages of different tangles that I have found all over the net, students are filling in a page of 30 1.5" squares with their favorite tangles to use on their project which they will start tomorrow.   I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with.  As always, I will post pics of the finished projects.