When our football team has a home game or a play-off game, we have a pep rally. At these pep rallies, the football team chooses a teacher to name them Teacher of the Week. This teacher gets to wear a Taylor Duck Football jersey and can stand on the sideline at the game if he so chooses. This week, I was given the honor of being chosen as Teacher of the Week. I must admit, I almost cried when my name was called. (In all honesty, I did cry a little bit later, but thankfully, no one saw.)

I went to my school’s final football game tonight, braving the almost freezing temperatures. I had been planning on going to the playoff game regardless, but having been named ToW, I really had to go–I kind of had no choice.

My boys played hard. Sadly, we didn’t win. I went down to the field after the game. The first player I saw was Ethan. He hugged me so hard. He was crying. We didn’t say any words. None were needed. I think he knew how proud I am of him.

I continued to hug my boys, offering open arms to give them some sense of how much they mean to me. Just seeing my kids have this raw emotion really changes how I see them. I am so proud of student athletes, but tonight even more so of all my senior boys. I don’t know how to describe it. I have a new found respect for them. To have been chosen as the teacher of the week by these fine young men, with them knowing this was most likely their last game, I am truly humbled by my students.

Something that has been on my mind lately is grading and fairness. I don’t mean what grades to give and grading in the least subjective manner. I feel I’ve got that down pretty good. In fact, I believe I am very fair and forgiving in that area.

The area I am talking about is when it comes to late work and what to accept, when to accept, from whom to accept, and ultimately, giving a zero.

I want to be fair and I don’t want to treat one kid different than another. But, it is so hard sometimes. I see some kids working really hard and I want to give them a chance by reminding them to turn something in when I know they worked on it, but forgot to turn it in. But, I see other kids that do nothing, forget to turn something in, and I don’t want to give them even an inch.

I know in my head this isn’t fair and the rules I am supposed to follow when it comes to grades and late work that my district has set forth. But, my heart doesn’t always agree.

The school year has finally come to an end, and so have the mixed-media artworks my art 1 students created.  It has been a whirlwind the past 2 weeks in my art room during periods 2, 6, and 7.  We were messy on day 2 making monoprints.  We explored composition and the involvement of the audience in an artwork on day 3.

Then for the rest of the 2 weeks, my young artists cut out magazines, painted with tempera and acrylic, drew with colored pencils, graphite, charcoal, conte, chalk pastels, and markers.  They used block prints and burned their paper.  One student used thread and spray paint.  Another added torn newspaper and watercolors.  I was asked for yarn and plastic mosaic pieces and bubble wrap.  I showed them where the materials were, and I sat back and watched, helped, learned, and was amazed at what my students were doing.  THEY WERE BEING CREATIVE!!!  They were having a voice.  They were exploring.  They were communicating–with me, with each other, with an audience.

“Look Into His Eyes”

“The Joining of Two”

“People”

“Dreaming Dancing Girl”

“Stay Thirsty”

“You”

” ‘Merica”

“New Discoveries”

“A Great Penguin Disaster”

“Road to Divorce”

“Track the Vibe”

“Dark Space”

“Secrets Hurt”

“Her”

“Wild Fire”

“Future Revolution”

“Foggy”

“Breaking Free”

“Everest”

“Lucid”

“Art Attack”

“Two Sides”

“Demonic Flower Girl”

“Woman’s Secret”

“The Almighty Fish God”

Students were given a reflection sheet/rubric on which I would grade.  Most were questions based on their thought process.  I think the most telling questions were “If you to title your artwork, what would it be?”  and “Explain what is going on in your artwork”.  I enjoyed reading the reflections.  I made the grading rather simple–10 point if the student only collaged and did not explore the addition of other media, up to 10 points off for not trying to utilize the composition concepts we discussed, 5 points off for not turning in a rubric, and up to 5 points off for what they say on the rubric.  In other words, they will all receive a passing grade as long as they turned it in.  I am contemplating having reflection sheets similar to this next year.

From students:

“[My favorite art making activity was] my final one because I tried to take everything that I learned this year and put it into it.”

“[My favorite art making activity was] this one because of the freedom and creativity this produced”

“I enjoyed this project the most.  It gave me a lot of leeway.”

They all worked hard, well, most worked hard.  Of course I had those few kids in every class that just cut out random things and glued them down and called it finished.  But I am okay with that.  I feel that I am not being realistic if I expect 100% engagement in this type of project.  Several students weren’t sure how to proceed after the collage part, but I talked them through and they eventually got it.

As I reflect on this project, I think more time, maybe a period tops, needs to be spent on content.  I think that is where some people struggled.  We originally talked about surrealism, but as kids progressed through the process, many veered off that and found topics based on the magazine pictures that interested them.  I am okay with that.  I guess we need to talk more about how to work through things.  I am hoping as I move to a more choice-based class and we talk more about artistic behaviors (thanks art teachers of APEX HS) next year, this might not be as much as a struggle for some.

I look forward to doing this project again.  I so much enjoyed it this year.  In fact, I think it was my favorite of the year (for Art 1 anyway.)  Many students asked if they could take them home.  I want to say no.  I want to hold onto them to hang at the beginning of next year to help brighten up the hallways and to show off this wonderful artwork they made.  In fact, that was the choice I made, and they seemed okay with it.