I ran across this blog post yesterday...and felt compelled to re-post and link back to the author.
Little duckies all in a row, facing forward, not an art tool in sight.
Thinking
back to what I loved about art class when I was growing up I remember
the excitement that brewed in my belly as I walked to the art studio
because I knew that I was going to do something fun, creative, and hands
on. This was before the days of one to one laptops and before the time
we’re in now when arts education has developed beyond the expectation
that you’re just making pretty pictures for the campus walls. The
expectation that art education now encompass history, social awareness,
cross-curricular ties and more has undoubtedly improved the learning
experience for the students in many ways. However, it has also
increased the time students spend sitting at a table in front of their
laptops researching, with no art materials within reach; a scene that
could be in any of their other classes on any given day. Enriching the
depth and breadth of learning in art class is important and necessary to
meet current assessment criteria, but, at it’s core, shouldn’t art
class still be the fun, creative and hands on part of a student’s day?
Using
laptops to do research is an effective luxury and a rejection of
technology in the art studio is not what I’m after, but, when a class
goes by without any ‘making’ I start to get depressed and so do my
students. Nothing is more of a buzzkill than the students bounding into
your classroom with excitement and then hearing that they get to sit at
their desks looking at websites about artists and take notes for the
next hour. Researching about artists, artworks, techniques, cultures and
more enhances their understanding to be sure, but spending an entire
class period on this type of screen centered, passive and usually
independent activity makes for a tedious class period. I’ve decided to
restrict this type of activity in my lesson planning to 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes we much take what we’ve learned and interpret it or
build upon in with some sort of hands on activity; could be an
illustration, photo collage, text art, etc. It helps the students to use
their time researching wisely because they know that they have a
limited amount of time during the class to do it and they know that they
will be expected to interpret or build upon what they’ve learned so
there is some pressure to understand what they’ve found rather than just
copy down notes or write a basic summary.
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There
is of course the possibility of creating art work digitally which
requires students to be on their laptops or work in a lab for an
extended period of time. Yet again, I would argue that there are many
ways to break up this time and develop their digital work with some
hands on activities during each lesson. One example of a hands on
activity to enhance student understanding while working in Photoshop is
to print out different layers of images onto clear sheets of overhead
projector paper and have the students play with the different layers by
stacking them in various configurations manually. This activity allows
them to develop their understanding of how the ‘layers’ concept works in
Photoshop but also gives them a chance to work with their hands and
potential get more social with their learning as they can easily do this
in pairs or small groups. Printing out their work for the lesson and
then artistically annotating their process in their sketchbook is
another idea for how the students can reflect on their work and work
with their hands at the same time.
Jackson Pollock in his studio, you can't argue that the guy was a busy, busy artist!
Every
art teacher has a different style in terms of the cleanliness and
organisation of their studio teaching space. Some people maintain a
relatively orderly room throughout the year and some just let the chaos
rule. For me, the start to a year is always a challenge as far as the
room goes because the students from the year before have taken their
work home, everything is sparkling clean, new supplies are crisp and
shiny; it’s weird. Personally, I love an art room where the walls are
plastered with student art, examples, and sketches. I want the students
to see materials that have some wear and tear, I want them to see that
it’s okay to get messy and I want them to never feel the need to
confess, “Um, Miss, I got some paint on the table, I’m so sorry”.
Balancing book/computer work with hands on work is more important than ever and challenging for art teachers, especially those who teach MYP Art and similar programs. Maintaining the passionate spark that the students walk in with is simply not going to happen if we do what’s easy and let the kids sit behind their screens in the studio. They may be comfortable there, it’s where they spend the majority of their time, but it’s certainly not going to make any of them remember art class in their futures the way I remember mine from my past.
Balancing book/computer work with hands on work is more important than ever and challenging for art teachers, especially those who teach MYP Art and similar programs. Maintaining the passionate spark that the students walk in with is simply not going to happen if we do what’s easy and let the kids sit behind their screens in the studio. They may be comfortable there, it’s where they spend the majority of their time, but it’s certainly not going to make any of them remember art class in their futures the way I remember mine from my past.
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