Finding Balance

I think that the beginning of the semester always starts off the same. No matter what degree you are seeking, what year you are in, or whether you think you are fully prepared for it or not - school can quickly become overwhelming. Balancing employment, social life, family, and education can be an incredibly challenging endevour.

School, in itself, has a list of demands that breaks down from large levels of requirements to small lists. To begin with, a student had better be making sure they are signed up for the correct classes, in the correct order, in the correct year. Once you are in the correct classes the lists of assignments and expectations piles up higher and higher as the semester goes on.

Art students in particular have a high level of stress in regards to their education. Not only is there a high demand for production, such as finished projects and assignments, there is also an expectation for quality. Conceptual thought, and the ability to convey ideas through art is a challenge to learn and to teach.

In everyday life, the stress of a student is not necessarily the most desirable way to live. However, I think that this experience is imperative to becoming a successful art educator. As a student, you develop skills such as time management, stress management and the ability to prioritize. More importantly, though, actually being a student gives you the ability to relate to what your students will be going through themselves. This understanding will allow you to have a richer relationship with your students that is based on empathy, but also on levels of expectations. If you made it through school yourself, you know how high to set the bar for your own students. You can push them to try new things and challenge themselves while still retaining a realistic set of expectations.

Photos as clarification

I have decided that a critical part of my lessons, once I start teaching, will be the inclusion of photographs during my explanations. If I intend on teaching complex strategies, such as mold making and casting, I will need to have proper documentation of the entire process, step-by-step. This might seem like an obvious realization for some, but the fact that I came to this conclusion while still in school is very important.

First of all, outside of an art school, you can't just set up a foundry in your spare room like you might with painting or illustration. The process is labor intensive, requires many different materials, and a lot of space to carry around molten metal. Needless to say, if I want to take images of the steps involved, I have to have a foundry to even do the work in.

So, this brings us back to my initial point - its a good thing that I realized the need for photos while I am still in a class with access to a foundry. Part of my Advanced Sculpture work will be attempting to establish strategies for teaching sculpture and foundry in a K-12 setting, and from this point forward I will be documenting every single step as I make my own work.

Cutting and bending steel rod.

The photos included on this page are a couple very initial steps in my current sculpture project. These photos will help to clarify the process and expectations of student work as we move through the casting process for the first time.

Fitting piece in preparation to take a mold.

   I also think that photos of my own work, rather than those found offline, are a positive reinforcement for students. An art teacher needs to bring out their own work every once in a while to set a positive example for their students. Let your students understand that you actually do know what your'e talking about, and set the bar high for quality work.

The wax cast resulting from a mold of my face.

Bio

New Semester, new classes, new ideas, and a new blog.

The purpose of this space will be to provide a common home for all the experiences, thoughts and inspirations I have relating to art education. In the past, any ideas or resources I have come across have been reviewed but never saved. My hope is that now, with a common space to house them, all the ideas I collect for lesson plans, art projects, teaching strategies, and other information will be stored here, and available to look at whenever I need to. Because of the format, this collection will also be available to other art educators, and will hopefully become a helpful resource.

I am currently a student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I hope to begin teaching art at a high school level within the next couple of years. I have incorporated pages to include my own artwork, the work of students I have worked with, as well as space for ideas and resources.