teaching moments.

After being challenged multiple times last week from friends for the ALS Challenge near and far, my teacher brain kicked in and I saw this as the perfect teaching moment. The internet and social media are often abused and taken for granted for. However, whatever the message, it all comes down to communication and personal interaction in our society. Last Friday in my painting one class, I asked my students to relate ART to social media. It’s all about that communication right? Just a different method. They’ve all seen ice bucket videos, but many didn’t fully understand the power of an image or video. This lead to such a unique conversation and fun friday in the art room! We looked at The Art of Elysium‘s social movement calling their ART ARMY to raise awareness for their cause to bring the arts to children’s hospital patients. By showing our #ARTHeals, students discussed the power of ART for the individual, media, and world. Students were very shocked that I was encouraging them to post onto social media in school – but when its for the better, why not!? My father always ends his phone calls with the saying “Go forth and do good”, I believe that if we remember to start with the good, we can start to brighten our interactions, our art making, and our voice.

Prezi link to intro the discussion; http://prezi.com/eiknbkbgws7b/power-of-images/ 

#artheals #olyartists

extended drawings; pinecone

My Drawing 3/4 have been cursing my name lately with the extended drawings I’ve assigned them. However, they are crushing them! To start off the semester, I’ve been challenging my adv. drawing students to really pay attention to “drawing what they see”, line variation, composition, & focusing on the style that makes them an artist.

Ingredients; Go hiking & collect a bunch of pine cone, give every student one, set them free.

back into the swing of things.

Holy cow! That’s a great way to describe what the last few months have been like. I went non-stop all summer enjoying my first summer ever without a camp job. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss working as a camp counselor, but I definitely crossed a ton off of my bucket list. From concerts (Celine Dion, Beyonce, & Billy Joel), friends & family time to spending as much time in the Colorado wilderness, it was one for the books.

Now, as I sit here and start my blog again, I cannot believe we just started our 4th week of school! My school started with students the first week of August. Where it is very early, now we’re back into the entire swing of things. This semester I am teaching Drawing 1, Drawing 3, Painting 1, and Painting 3. For the first time at my school we’re offering those 3/4 levels of courses, so I am extremely happy to start offering advanced opportunities for my students.