I Love My Job

I love my job as an art teacher.
I don't like it every single day. The stained clothing, the clogged sinks, the thirty students all wielding saws and knives at the same time... but those days are usually few and far between.
It's weeks like this where I walk into my classroom and smile- how could I not when my students decided to brighten up the room by painting the tables with giant happy faces? Or designing art cakes to celebrate their successes?
Thank you all for a really great semester!

AVI3M/ AVI3O Grade 11 Sketchbooks

As I wrote at the beginning of the semester, this year's group of grade 11 art students are really driven to create excellent pieces of art. Sometimes it's difficult to get them to put down their materials to clean up.
Besides the hard work that they completed in class, they were also expected to work on a Visual Journal at home. The Visual Journal is a collection of works in different medium, thoughts, designs, plans, and reflections. There were no formal guidelines for subject matter, students could create whatever they chose. I always loved to see what would be handed in and I'm sure you will like getting a sneak peek too.

AVI1O/AVI2O (Grade 9-10) Art Summatives

Our school board requires students to complete a project either throughout the semester or at the end of the semester. This project is called a "Summative", and asks that students show a variety of skills learned throughout the year. To help ensure that students would give their best work to me, I gave each one a choice of three projects. In project one they could use plasticine in order to replicate part of a painting. In project two, they could create a 3D wire sculpture based on a piece of art. Finally, students could create a drawing with a variety of changing patterns. Students also showed how they would look for an area of focus in their art, and created written reflections on their choice of materials, subject matter, and the elements of art. These pictures show works in progress. Click on each image to make it larger. Congratulations to everybody, we're almost done the semester!

AVI1O/1VI2O Lino-block Printmaking

For this assignment, the grade 9-10 students carved pieces of linoleum and turned them into stamps to make prints. The students learned how to compose an image by creating a collage and then selecting what they felt was the most interesting section of their collage- this is a great way to come up with a scene when you're in a creative rut.