Design Conversation #63 Teaching from the Edge

Come see how great my first day of school went with my introduction to Photography! Taking it to the edge....not jumping off of it! ha!

Who's That Lady in the Front of Room

 

 

 

I try to think about this every year:What am I going to do to make a really good impression to my students on the first day of school? In my fantasy world, I see my students telling their parents all about how excited they are about their art class, and that awesome teacher that they can't wait to see again. You know, as they are eating their dinner all together as a family, and the Dad at the end of the table asked his child, "Well, how was your first day at School ?". Guess that sounds very Ward Cleaver of me. But that was me, and we were asked that question every year.  I'm sure as we got older and into our high school years, the answer got shorter and more of a grunt than a sentence. A good teacher puts herself/himself in the student's point of view. People ask me, How do you look so young ?  I think its because I am always in the spirit of the high school kid. So what motivates the High school kid these days? My first day I teach only one class (guess its good to be the chair for something) , which is Photography 1. I think right away to go to instagram and the selfie. So I'm having my students look at a power point full of my photographs that I have posted in either facebook or instagram that I feel show something about me. Some are obvious and others are more abstract. They will have to pick and choose photographs to use to respond to a number of questions. including "which photo is a fib?" Leading to a compiled list of a successful narrative selfie. I've included photos of me in various stages of my life: youngster on vacation, graduate with my Dad, punk rocker at the Marble Bar, on my latest travels and antics with my friends; along with views of my desk, studio, sweatshop, and screaming blueberry pancake man. And then I will have my students sum me up; tell what they think makes me tick!  Hope it works. I will actually be talking about this lesson and its results on Sept 2, for the design conversations at the Wind Space. Wish me luck! Happy Back to School!

 

 

 

Look who is "American Made"

I saw this last year and had been kicking myself for not doing it. Luckily it happened again this year. I loved the questions. Hoping my DIY punk attitude came out in the question "What does American Made mean to you". Check out my profile and pass the word about jennyjen and her Birdy birds! Comments are welcomed ! 

Here we Go..... School Year 27!

We are off and running! Or should I say, we are going to laugh and have as much fun as we possible can this school year! This is going to be my mantra for this 27th. year of teaching. This is my first goal for this year. The closer I get to retirement the more I'm going to teach the way and what I want! Luckily it all gels with  the rigorous,creative and relevant art curriculum of Baltimore County. Another year for me to work on establishing the artist community in my classroom that contain enthusiastic, open minded, critical and creative thinking, cooperative and pleasurable beings! I tell my department that you need to train your students into being the people you want to spend time with! A huge challenge for the high school beast...but it is doable! My other goal is to keep an updated blog...yes Again I am going to try this! If I figure out how to make time work for me, this could work! I have so much to tell you about my amazing summer and all of the places I went to along with my best craft show ever! So I promise to be back with more post! OK, back to planning! Cheers!