art challenge | TAB Studio with Mrs. B

I had hit a slump. There were 2 packets of “The 9” left to complete for the year, but I wasn’t feeling either one of them. I considered doing a watercolor exploration, but then decided my art 1 students really didn’t need anymore media explorations at this point in the year. So, I did what any TAB teacher would do, I asked my TAB colleagues for suggestions. It was there that I decided I would create a challenge based on Phil Hansen’s Ted Talk, “Embrace the Shake“. Thus, the Power of One Challenge was born.

We started the challenge by watching the Ted Talk. We had already watched it earlier in the year, but I told them we were going to watch it again as it was very important to what they were about to be asked to do. Next, I gave them the run-down of the challenge.

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I didn’t give much other information. I told them to think back to the video and the work that Phil Hansen made and HOW he made it. I gave time for questions, and time for research. They had a day and a half to look up info needed and to print it out before losing computers. I limited computers because I have a love/hate relationship with out 1:1 school. I really wanted them to concentrate on art making without the distraction of games and movies and whatever else it is they do on their laptops.

Some kids got the concept of the challenge right away. Others took the whole day and half to grasp what was being asked of them. Once they started, I just sat back and watched them learn, answering questions when asked. They problem solved. They were creative. They all weren’t so original, but that often happens in an art class–one student sees another doing something they feel as cool, so they want to do it too.

I really enjoyed this 2 week challenge. It gave me time to recoup as a teacher, but was super beneficial to my students. When I go to do this challenge again, I will change how we present when all is finished. And, I might change when we do it, and have it be their final exam.

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Watch through the slideshow to see what each artists “1 thing” was. I am so proud of these kids.

I have been wanting to have my art 2 students take their work to a deeper level–to really bring in their voices. Don’t get me wrong, I have a couple of students that already do, but most still create artworks that haven’t quite broken the surface. I’ve tried doing a unit on stereotypes before, but it seems that I get the usual suspects. So, this year, I decided it was the year to “bring it on”, so to speak. I decided to challenge my students with the tackling of social issues.

They first started by defining some “common” words… opinion, social issue, society, commentary, and parody. I also asked them to consider why an artist would want to us social issues in their work. That question seemed to be a hard one for them. I asked them to watch either a video on Maxwell Rushton and his “Left Out” project or on Favianna Rodriguez, a Latina printmaker, and make connections between the what they watched and our unit idea of using social issues in art. The final part of their research was to find artworks that used social issues. And, they couldn’t show any that I showed them for our intro to the unit.

To help my students get warmed up for creating their own artwork, I gave them a challenge. They had 2 choices. Choice one: talk to 5 different people about some “hot topic issues” of today, and create a sketch of a possible artwork based on their “favorite” opinion. Choice two: Pick a social issue that is hot today, create a slideshow of at least 5 different artworks around that issue (on either side), and present to the class.

These girls gave me permission to share the links to their slideshows. I think they did some great work.

Gender Inequality

Islamophobia

The best part for me about this unit was how invested in their artwork the kids became. I didn’t have to prod the kids to get going. They quickly had a social issue they wanted to talk about and set off creating. I am so impressed with their work, and their voices.