I know it has been over a month and a half since I last wrote, but it’s kind of been the same old, same old in my classroom. But, as the new year and the new semester began, I have many new ideas and things I am trying out with my students. And, I am going to start with a new to me way of exploring. I did an activity similar to what fellow TAB teacher Cynthia Gaub does called Around the Room. I changed it to Exploration around the room: collage and mixed media.
Art 1 jumped right back in when returning from our winter break. They had new media and techniques to explore and I wanted them to have a new way to explore them.
So, I lined the counters with some large sheets of paper and place a ton of items out for them to explore with: plexi, excess pieces of laminate, and plastic bags for monoprints, cardboard and styrofoam for printmaking, bubble wrap, flowers, feathers, spools, and a plethora of other items for stamping.
I gave a brief introduction outlining part 1 of our exploration activity and then let them go on their way to create some new textures and backgrounds. At first some were hesitant, but by day 2, they were comfortable and trying new ways of printing with the different methods and objects.
Once we were done exploring stamping and printmaking, we learned about collage and mixed media. Students were then challenged to take what they had made during their exploration and to use them in someway…either as the ground for a new artwork to be placed on top or as paper to be cut up and used in a collage.
Once the students finished with their exploration artwork, the students reflected on what they learned through a technique exploration blog post.
Here are some of the fabulous practice works the students created.
I have a few tweaks to make, but I like this way of exploration. I want to combine it with the other methods I use. Not sure how I am going to do that yet, but it will come to me.
TAB Studio with Mrs. B 
Awesome