5 4 3 2 1...

Heading into the last four lessons of the term and thinking about the reductive lesson I'm teaching to my painting and drawing class. We're on week three of this lesson, and only at the second printing. It's time I think to reign it in and finish it off. We'll be adding any further carvings today and printing with black on top of the first colour.








And a few hours later after the lesson it's done. They look amazing. I'm exhausted and looking forward to a new lesson next week.

Right About Now

As unbelievable as it sounds, we're already past the middle of November which means December is looming and the end of term is right around the corner. I still have two more lessons focused on reductive printing for my Painting and Drawing students and the lessons I had planned to follow up are still looking good to me. With my preschool and toddler classes I'm wavering, in fact I've already changed my mind for the Art exploration lessons I was going to do this weekend. It's a bit of a running joke between me and the admin where I teach that I'm likely to change my mind a few times before a class starts. As much as we laugh about it and as much time and energy that I spend building a lesson plan I do quite often change my mind' sometimes in the twenty minutes it takes for me to walk to work.

So even though I'm sure I'll change my mind... It's time now to start thinking about Plans for next term. I'm fairly new to creating lesson plans. I don't have a background in education so how I plan lessons and create a lesson plan might not be what is common. I'll share my steps here to give you an idea of how i do things. I'd love to see how others approach planning too.




I use Pinterest heavily to build my lesson plans; not just for inspiration but also for organizing, and giving myself a visual reference of what I'll be teaching each week. On top of continual browsing and adding ideas to dedicated lesson inspiration boards on Pinterest; each term I also build a lesson plan board full of ideas to make my own; and in a few cases to just straight teach. And I don't want to forget that I also keep a board on Pinterest of lessons I have taught. When I get stuck I like to browse through that board to see if there are any techniques or lessons I can adjust or revisit. I have in the past taken ideas straight off of Pinterest and used them in my plans but I rarely leave them untouched, I may use a technique but change the subject of a lesson; or take a subject and try to adjust the techniques used so that each lesson is my own.

For Painting and drawing lessons I cross reference artists or art works; movements and elements of art to reference in the lesson with that Pinterest board.  For my Preschool classes I also look up books to read aloud to the class (combining literacy and art is an ongoing goal for me). Then I start compiling supplies needed for each lesson,  and start writing a description for each lesson that explains the steps, what elements of art I'm teaching and what the learning goals are.

I make a list of what dates I am teaching for each lesson and then use my calendar to figure out what order I'll teach them in and adjust any lessons to suit holidays or seasonal changes. In some cases I'll even try to coincide materials for different classes taught on the same day so that transition to the next class is simpler and clean up isn't too heavy or complicated.

Once I have a good idea of what I plan to teach each week Add my descriptions and supply lists into a word file that I can print for myself and email to the centre where I teach so that any supplies I will need can be stocked or restocked.

In a few cases I will source materials and include them in my invoice. When I make my plans I keep in mind budget restraints as on top of student skill levels and all the other things that  make a difference to the success of a lesson IE: that one time that there was overwhelming refusal by a whole class of toddlers to use strings dipped in black ink for a lesson and the subsequent improvisation that followed; and the adjusting of the plan for a later class to avoid the same problem later that day. 

All of this usually takes me a full day for each class to complete with a 1/2 day to edit and adjust for dates and overlapping classes. It's a lot of work but it's also the part where I get to become excited all over again about the upcoming term.

About Setting up Boundaries

In any given class I am pretty open about what ends up on my young artist's final pieces because, Art. I love their creativity and I normally don't want to put up boundaries or barriers to their creativity because and I'll say it again: Art.

There are times, lessons, techniques, and projects that require boundaries, limitations and rules to be followed. This multi-week lesson is one of those times. While I am completely psyched to see my young students take a technique and subject matter to a completely different place than I could have imagined; I also think that constraining the boundless creativity once in a while is a wonderful way to flex the creative muscle in a different way.

A reduction print using black, white and two other colours was going to be a tricky lesson regardless of the age and skill level of the students in my class. To make things simpler I reigned in the subject on top of the limits to colour application. Instead of a pictorial image I had my students use geometric shapes to create a pattern inside their image frame. They could place them side by side, overlap them or create an image with their shape. I then had them choose two colours to add to their composition leaving some areas white, filling in some areas with black and using the other two colours at their discretion.

All of this was shared at the beginning of the first of the classes  and revisited through out that lesson with explanations of why I had given them these limitations. Of course with out a finished project to demo for them there was a lot of confusion but for the most part they stayed within the restrictions I'd set out. I am a tiny bit humbled at that, these young people are putting faith in me to lead them through this mysterious project. The pressure is on.

 I have a few students who are know for owning boundless creativity and their work is highly detailed; often following their own inspiration as opposed to the subject demoed in a lesson. They use the techniques I set out in the lesson but create a work of art surpassing the lesson. Conveying to these free spirits the importance of working only within the boundaries I'd set up in this lesson was a battle fought on a slight incline that became steeper with each step.

I am currently wrapping my brain around ways to get these ideas across to these two young artists. When fine detail will hinder a project, when an abundance of colour can't be fit within the time frame of the term and will likely become too frustrating; and even worse, boring. As it is I'm already considering reigning in the lesson even more and taking out one of the colours in the design...

This lesson is one where not only am I teaching a technique but I am also learning about how best to teach it. I'm really looking forward to see how they all turn out and on top of that I"m looking forward to the lesson after this one is completed: a straight up painting project.

My House Smells Like a Candy Cane : Reduction Printing

Last week I posted about a multi-week printmaking lesson I was starting.

I knew it was going to be challenging but I suppose I didn't quite get the level of challenge this class had the capability of reaching. I am not quite sure that that last sentence actually means what I think it means but I'm going to leave it as is...

I'm teaching myself how to teach this lesson. There are technical challenges for this project that I've been figuring out and problem solving throughout the planning and the execution of the lessons and the challenge of transferring my student's images from paper onto the Styrofoam plates they will be using to print off of is one of the most technical. I've had my brain working overtime to figure out the best process for transferring the images while keeping the integrity of the plates intact. Any indents made to the surface would become white areas on the print and I didn't want my students health to be a factor; on top of that there's the factor of time to consider. This project will take at least three classes to complete.

I want my students to begin the process of creating an image as soon as possible otherwise they'll lose interest. Keeping those things in mind I tested a few image transferring techniques and settled on using peppermint oil to transfer the coloured pencil drawings onto the Styrofoam plates. An extra plus is that with further testing I now know that peppermint oil will transfer oil pastel drawings which offers a solution to the more detail loving student challenges this lesson brings to the table. The nature of this project is not friendly to teeny weeny details big shapes and bold lines work best. providing the intricate artists in the class with oil pastel forces the issue... which means there are more challenges involved....

First colour printing of my demo plate. Next step is to
carve out the ares that will stay yellow and print
the second colour on the plate. 

My living room is minty fresh and the evaporation from rubbing the drawings gently onto the plates has made my hands cold. With that solution in place I'm now considering the other challenges this lesson is providing.