Tag Archives: student work

May29

2016-17 Year in Review

Posted on May 29, 2017 by missjaybar

It’s that time. Another school year has come to an end. And, in honor of me finishing out my 10th year, I will count down the 10 biggest things that happened this year. Not everything that happened this year was good. In fact, it was kind of a crappy year. But, I did learn a lot and made some great relationships with me students. So, without anymore drivel from me, let’s do this.

10. UNITY: I will admit, I saw the Unity Project video on Facebook, and I was in. I emailed my principal and he was all in. I created a gofundme project for it and through the kindness of others, the project was funded quickly and I was able to go shopping for materials. It was a great way to kick off the year. I had so much support from other teachers and our student body. While there was a few hiccups along the way (one being when a students thought he could climb on a pvc pole and he broke it), in the end, it was an amazing installation.

9. THE PURPLE HOODIE: I had a tough student this year. He was hard to reach. He didn’t talk much, and he often had his purple hoodie pulled up over his head. I started the year off by giving him some space, and by asking his monitor teacher for some strategies with him. It took a while, but we built a relationship. He spent much of his time during his class in my office, but he would do the work I asked him to do. And believe me, he did not like making or talking about art. After a while, he would come in during lunch to hang out and chat. He did this at other times as well. We built a relationship where I could be honest with him and give him a fair dose of snark and it was all okay.

There was this one day that was bittersweet. It both made me sad and touched my heart at the same time. He came into my office one morning during tutorials, but there were already like 6 other kids in my office. I said hi, and he looked at me, but then left as quickly as he came in. I sensed something was off. I figured I would ask him later that day. He didn’t show up to class. When he returned the next day, he told me where he was…talking to some people in the office. When he told me why, I was saddened. I won’t go into details about why. And I know this is weird, but it touched me that I was the 2nd person he came to find to talk with him. The first wasn’t in her office, so he came to me. I care very much about this young man. And, I am glad I gained his trust. Sadly, he has moved to another city with his father. But, rumor has it, he will be back next year. Relationships can sometimes matter more than art making.

8. ESCALATION: I have a co-worker that has been teaching with me for the past 10 years. We get along on the surface, but when you look closely, you will notice we couldn’t be more different. For starters, we teach on complete different ends of the art spectrum…he’s dbae and I’m TAB. We don’t play well together and it has been building up for years. I finally got up the courage to talk to an admin about the situation; I went in with the intention of seeking advice in how to make our department better and how to work with him. It was suggested that we circle up, a restorative discipline term. Basically, it was like mediation. He basically refused, and one day it escalated between us in my classroom. Luckily, I was on conference and I held my cool. We still haven’t worked things out, and I have been told our head principal will eventually talk with us, but I’m not holding my breath.

Why am I adding this? Well, this was a big event that happened this year. I think it needed to happen. I would have liked to go to mediation, but I am mostly okay with the outcome. The fact that I spoke up and I was honest about my feelings and that I took ownership that I wasn’t innocent in any of it was big for me. I don’t like confrontation, nor to like to create waves in my workplace.

7. SCHOLASTIC ART: This year, I finally got up the nerve to enter my students work in the Scholastic Art contest. I was so nervous. I see the potential and awesomeness in my students’ works, but do others. My kids don’t make “normal” pieces, and often times it’s not what “they” consider gold seal work–one reason I don’t enter into our state art event. But, I was told Scholastic was different. My kids didn’t win anything, and after looking at what did win for my region, I wondered about the judges. But, that is neither here nor there. I am so proud of my students for trusting me. I still think they were shafted because their work was super cool. I know, I’m biased. I look forward to next year and entering more student works.

6. DALLAS: This year’s Texas Art Ed Assoc held it’s yearly conference in Dallas. I presented not once, but twice. I presented once about grading and TAB…it kind of bombed. I was told it was fine, but I know better. The other presentation was a overview of HS TAB. It went really well. Beyond the presentations, I participated in my first live twitter chat, got to have great burgers and beer with a friend who I met in Chicago at NAEA16, I met the terraforma cards guys, and I got to throw some bowls for a local empty bowls event. It was a pretty fun time, I must admit. It was a much needed and much appreciated work-cation.

5. THE BIG APPLE: NAEA17 was held in my old stomping ground…NYC! There was no way I was going to miss a chance to go “home”. I don’t even know where to begin. I got to room with 2 of my favorite TAB ladies. I got to finally meet and hangout with Melissa Purtee. I stayed in a hotel in midtown. I lived in Queens, so the hotel stay was new and so cool. I got to go to the MOMA, which is in a completely different location from the last time I went there…over 20 years ago. I had a fabulous dinner with other TABbers, provided by my fabulous mentors, Diane and Kathy. Times Square had become something I couldn’t believe…so bright and shiny. And, I got to have a reunion with one of my closest friends from college.

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4. 4th Annual THS Art Show: Six years into my time at THS I asked if we could have a high school art show. Up until that point, there wasn’t any. This year marks the 4th year that I have put up a show that celebrates all art made at our school. I don’t just show off my students and my co-worker’s students. We include any other elective where art is created–welding, fashion, photography, floral design, culinary, and we include our teachers. It is a lot of work, but in the end, it is so worth it. This year I was worried that it wouldn’t go off well. (See the escalation paragraph above.) But, I put that aside and just focused on the art. I think it was a great turn out. Students sold their work, and not just to their parents. The rain stayed away (every year it rains at the beginning of the show) during the show itself; I do believe it rained earlier in the day though. I found a better way of hanging the paintings, almost none fell down this year…the rain always brings the humidity and that doesn’t play nice with how we used to hang out artworks. Granted no one from central office showed up, even though they were sent formal invitations, but I’ve come to expect that. And quite frankly, those who are important, like parents, friends, teachers, and the community, showed up in support. I look forward to celebrating our students again for years to come.

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3. A SMILE LIKE I’VE NEVER SEEN: Art is a funny yet fabulous thing. It can grab hold of the most unlikely and unexpected people. This year I was lucky enough to witness this. I watched a student finish a project early and ask me if I could show him how to use the wheel. We weren’t slated to use the wheel for months, but who am I to stop a student from learning to art. That week, I knew art had put her hooks in him. Over the next few months, I watched him grow, and learn, and create. I watched him create bowl after bowl, vase after vase, each time honing his skills, and using every ounce of clay we had. But, it was more than that. I saw the passion for what he was doing rise in him. I saw a smile, and a light in his face when we talked about ceramics and his work. I am so glad that he decided to sign up for beginning ceramics. If only he found it before his senior year.

2. RESTORATIVE DISCIPLINE: Our school started to implement a new behavior management system. It is called restorative discipline, and for the most part, it is meant to be proactive instead of reactive. It is not something that the entire campus learns at one time. It is done in stages. I know that seems odd, but after learning about it, it makes sense. I was lucky enough to have been asked to be in cohort #2, which began it’s training 2 weeks before school ended. It is so much about community and building relationships…which is right up my alley, and why I was asked to be in the 2nd cohort. I personally think it was cool to be asked knowing why they asked me. (Some were asked because they thought that teacher was lacking in that area.) Anyway, so far, so good.

But, more than being part of the next cohort, I did participate in a couple of tier 2 circles this year…these are reactive, but they can make such a difference. I had one student who I kept butted heads with, and if she kept it up, we knew she was headed to our alternative center. We circled up and we both spoke our piece and listened to the other person. We made a contract and tried to implement it. We hit a bump and had to re-circle. But, that time worked. We now have an amazing relationship, and don’t tell her, but I will miss having her in class next year.

1. NO MORE THEMES: This year I dropped the themes for my art 1 and art 2 classes. I instead went with artistic behaviors for major units. We worked our way through: artists solve problems, artists communicate, artists, observe, artists steal, artists represent, artists abstract/don’t represent, and artists work in a series. This was a major step forward for me and my students in our TAB studio. I think it really was more meaningful to them to really understand what artists do. It really made a huge difference, the switch that is. I could see it in their work; I could see it in their exploration; I could see it in their understanding of art making; and I could see it in their growth. And, at the end of the year, I had the least amount of work left behind I have had since making the leap to TAB.

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It has been a very interesting decade of art teaching for me. I have changed so much. My teaching has changed so much. I like to think it’s all for the better. I keep learning new things, about art, about teaching, about students, and most importantly, about myself. I often wonder what is going to happen next, which is something that keeps me interested and wanting to go to work every day. What obstacles will I face and will I overcome them? What new things will I learn? What new things can I teach someone? What new relationships will I make? What new surprises will I find? I think it’s this last one that I really enjoy because I love being surprised by what my students do and learn and create and tell me. It is what makes it all worth it.

Sep20

Artists Observe

Posted on September 20, 2016 by missjaybar

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This will be the first in a series of several posts about the units and activities my art 1 students are participating in to get a good grasp on the artistic behaviors. Last year my art 1 students went through an “artistic behaviors bootcamp“. After going back and looking at what we had done, I felt it was too fast and there wasn’t enough depth to each behavior. We spent a day or two on each behavior, but it was like we just glossed over the behaviors and my students never really understood them.

This year, I am spending a week or more on each behavior. We are doing activities that focus on the behavior, while building skills in various media and techniques. I think this will be a better solution. The students may not be making as many finished artworks at the moment, but that will come when second semester rolls around and the studio is really much more open.

Our first behavior that we focused on was “Artists Observe”. I found a powerpoint at Ian Sands’ Art of South B page that was perfect for what I wanted students to do. The week was split into 3 activites. First students created mindmaps/had class discussions of what they like to observe and what kinds of things artists would look at when observing something. They then moved onto a 3-day sketching activity, where they learned sketching techniques and sketched from life.

Our second activity included learning to shade and a group activity, originating from Melissa Purtee, where students would get into groups of 3-4 and together create a large shaded sphere. It was very cool to watch the students work together, within the time frame, and figure out how to make values darker and to replicate the sphere I demo’d for them.

Our final activity brought the students in the world of 3-D. We spent our final day doing the Tantamounter. Faculty lent items that the students replicated in an artful way. They had to make decisions, work in small groups, and create a copy of the original item. They had a 30 minute time limit to complete their piece.

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After the weekend, students came back on Monday and spent the day reflecting on our unit. We went into the hallway and discussed the spheres they had created, looking critically at the spheres and trying to take non-objective judgement out. They added tiles to their BlendSpace lessons, reflecting on what artists observe means and how the activities we did correlate to the unit idea. They also reflected on what they learned from our unit activities.

The rest of the week will be spent on building some color drawing skills before we move on to another artistic behavior unit.

Jun5

Top 9: 2015-16 Year in Review

Posted on June 5, 2016 by missjaybar

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It’s been a week since the 2015-16 school year ended. I have taken a week off from doing any work, but it is now time to take a moment to reflect on the year. And, what better way to do that than to do a top 10, well, a top 9…close enough. Normally, a top 10 would only be the best things, but I thought I would add some of the not-so-good as well. I mean, we all like things to be puppies and rainbows all the time, but let’s get real folks…it ain’t.

9. New Ceramics Curriculum…or should I say lack there of. I decided to go balls to the wall and go full-on TAB with my ceramics students. This is the last year I will have had any students that were part of my sculpture program–from before I made the switch to “all clay, all day”. And, if you were to walk into that intermediate/advanced class, you could tell which kids those were. But, I digress. For the most part, for my intermediate and my advanced students, they were given complete freedom. They were allowed to work on what they wanted, in the time frame they needed. I did have some themes with guiding questions to help them if they were stumped, but they were in no way “forced” to follow those themes. If you are wondering how to do a single-media TAB class….read this!

The Ceramics Graveyard and Senior Totems Sculpture Garden at THS

I think this was a great decision. It allowed the students to move at their pace and do what interested them. Are there some kinks to work out concerning the structure of the class? Of course. I plan on doing a “Technique Tuesday” type of thing. I will have a demo day once a week to show different things they could use in their work, like sprigs and molds and glazing techniques. I also am revamping their technical reader and going to incorporate that more into the class.

8. Braeden, The Beginning Ceramics Student Who Learned More Than Me. I was fortunate enough to have that student this year that many teachers dream of having. That student who falls in love with your subject matter so much, that he or she just becomes a sponge and soaks up everything. Who during their free time spends it watching videos and reading about the subject. Who is in your room working and learning and creating at all times of the day. I had that student this year, and his name is Braeden. I had Braeden in art 1 his freshman year, but for some reason, he decided to stop taking art for 2 years and finally returned to me his senior year for art 2: beginning ceramics. I often wonder where he would be if he hadn’t taken that time off. He started off as a normal ceramics student, doing the required beginning projects. Then all of the sudden, he changed. He found a passion. He found what he wanted to do with his life. He would come in whenever he could to practice throwing. He learned to make his own clay. He learned about glazes and different types of firing and their temperatures. He attempted to make his own wood ash glaze. It was amazing to watch his lust for learning about all things clay. I eventually had to tell him to stop learning because he knew more than I did. Of course this became a running joke, and I love it when he teaches me new things. I loved being able to have those conversations about ceramics with him. I will miss that next year.

7. Starting Over, again, and again… Sometimes you think you have a great plan. And sometimes that plan, no matter how awesome YOU think it is, sucks. This was the case with my art 2: painting/drawing class this year. I won’t go into too much detail, as I wrote about having to start over with this class here. But, I will say I learned a lot from that class. It is okay to stop and rewind. You HAVE to do what is best for your students, and if that means if what you are doing isn’t working, then try something else. However, if you are going to “start again”, you have to keep your students informed about what you are doing and why. I had that tough conversation with them. I told them I wasn’t feeling it, and that I thought they weren’t where I had thought they should be. That we needed a new direction, and this is what we were going to try. They looked at me with puzzled looks, but they were willing to try. I think in the end we started over twice. But, they say third time’s a charm for a reason. By the third start, we figured it out. We figured what worked for them, what they needed to grow and be successful.

Like my ceramics classes, I do have some things to tweak, like the timeline for the artistic behavior units, the digging deeper sections, and how we get to full choice by the second semester. I wish I could open the studio to full choice sooner, but seeing as my co-worker isn’t TAB, and my art 2 classes are a combo of his and my students…I have to do a little work to make sure all students understand the TAB studio. It’s all good though….my kids could probably use a refresher anyway.

6. Two Wonderful Opportunities. I work hard, both at my job and as an advocate for TAB. So, it is nice when someone else recognizes what I am doing. This year, not one, but two different people recognized this. First I was asked by my friend, Betsy Murphy, to come and speak about TAB at the T(exas)AEA High School Division meeting at the 2015 conference. I was honored that Betsy, once my mentor, now my friend, thought of me in this way–that I had something important to share with my colleagues. Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 10.37.47 AM

Second, I was asked to present at the AOE Winter 2016 Online Conference. I presented about the assessment model I was working on. It, again, was an honor to think that something I was doing would be of interest to other teachers. I hope that it helped people make a connection between assessment and grades.

5. Speaking of AOE…Blog Finalist Here. That’s right, Me, Jean Barnett, author of Art
Class by Mrs B, was a finalist in RisingStarFinalistHI the Art of Education, Blog of the Year, Rising Start category. I didn’t win, but I think it is pretty cool that I made the list. I even got a nifty badge to display on the blog. Oh yeah! I write my blog with the hopes of not only documenting my journey, but also of helping another art teacher by sharing with I have learned along the way.

4. Art Club I have been at my school for 9 years. For 8 of those years, my co-worker “ran” the art club. Well, I wouldn’t really call it running an art club. I’m not really sure what it was. This year I took over art club. I can’t remember the exact reason why he was willing to give it up, but he did, and finally it was mine. When we started, the club had no money (in fact the account had been closed due to inactivity), and they hadn’t done anything in years. I advertised the club. We met every Friday morning during tutorials. We elected a president, a vice-president, a secretary, and a treasurer. We sold popcorn, made Duck Art t-shirts and sold them, and even held a painting party. Was it the best art club? No. Did we do a whole lot? No. But we did paint a mural in our computer lab, and I am glad to say that we did have a few hundred dollars in the art club account by the end of the year. Furthermore, we still had members returning to meetings at the end of the year. So, I call it a win! Small steps people! I am so proud of the kids. Next year will be even better. I know it.

3. I am Not Invincible, But At Least My Admin Believes in Me. I like to think that I am invincible. That nothing is going to bring me down, except for maybe myself. And, that was definitely the case this year. I won’t go into details, but I did have an incident this year that caused me to pause. I can’t change what happened, but I can say that students can be unpredictable and retaliate in damaging ways. Luckily for me, I have some students that know who I am, what I stand for, and what my students mean to me. They were honest and I commend them for that. I also learned that I have an administration that believes in me and what I do in my classroom. My principal understands the climate of the art room, and how it differs from an academic class. We had a long talk about it, and when I left his office, I knew that finally, I had an administrator that finally understood.

2. School Art vs. Authentic School Art vs. What the Student Really Wants to Make Art This was something that I had not had a ton of thoughts about until I attended a session by Justin Clumpner at NAEA16 in Chicago. He was talking about an AP student he had who wasn’t making the work or getting anything done. Then one day he saw her sketchbook and asked her why she wasn’t creating works like her sketches. Her reply, “I didn’t think I could. I didn’t think this was ‘school art’.” I thought that was an interesting concept…school art. In TAB, we talk a lot about “authentic art”, and what our students are making is authentic art. And, I thought that I encouraged authentic art and that my kids were making what THEY wanted to make.

That was until the end of April this year. I happened to come across a tweet by one of my art 1 students of a painting she had just finished at her house. I tweeted back to her that I thought she should do that in class. When I talked with her about it the next school day, I asked her why she didn’t do this stuff in class. She said she couldn’t figure out how to work it into the themes we were doing. That’s when the lightbulb went off. As much as I thought I was empowering my students to bring their own life into their artwork, and as much as I encourage authentic art…maybe I wasn’t doing all that I could. I don’t have an answer yet as to how to really encourage it more, but I have an idea to work through over the summer.

The Twitter Painting

The Final Artwork

And, just as an aside, while this girl in particular worked hard all year, I never saw her work like the way she did on that final painting. She learned so much and was so proud, and I could tell she was a little sad (but still proud) when I said I wanted to keep it to display in August when we returned to school.

1. Knowing You’re on the Right Track Deep down in my heart, I know that TAB is what is best for my students. It keeps them engaged. It really helps them to grow artistically. And, it makes them think and reflect. My years of running a TAB studio have been my favorite years of teaching. But, sometimes, it is hard. Sometimes you feel like the kids just aren’t getting it. You feel like maybe the “others” are right, and you aren’t really teaching them anything. You doubt yourself and your program.

But, then something happens. You assign a completely open final artwork for your art 1 students. You see 90% engagement. You see growth at its peak. You see that they have been paying attention all year. You see the research and the planning, the trials and errors, the experimentation, and the pushing forward all come out of the students. Yes, I was physically exhausted for the last 2.5 weeks of school. Yes, my room was a constant mess, for which I apologized to Connie, my custodian, on a daily basis. But, I was happy. I was proud. I knew I didn’t need to doubt. I hope to remember this next year when I will more than likely doubt myself again. I can’t wait to display all this wonderful art in August. I did include a few pieces from my art 2 class’ final work, Artists Work in a Series, in the slide show.

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Hope your year was as good as mine. After I finish recharging over the summer, I will look forward to implementing what I learned from this year. And I do want to take this opportunity to say thanks to my tribe for helping me and encouraging me along the way.

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Jan15

A New Exploration Activity

Posted on January 15, 2016 by missjaybar

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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.

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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.

Feb24

Let There Be Light?

Posted on February 24, 2015 by missjaybar

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Light:

the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.
understanding of a problem or mystery; enlightenment.
(of a color) pale.
of little weight; easy to lift.
gentle or delicate.
(of entertainment) requiring little mental effort; not profound or serious.
(of persona) good; vs. evil (dark)

This was our theme. Seems like there could be a myriad of possibilities. I thought it would be “easier” that our previous theme of “Sound“. Unfortunately, it was much harder than I thought it would be for my students.

I don’t know if it was the theme or if it is just that time of year. (To be honest, I have hit that proverbial wall that often shows it face in February as we are just on the cusp of beginning the last 2 marking periods of the school year. But, I digress.) While a few knocked it out of the park and had some deep thinking and meaning to their artwork, many just went through the motions.

Not everything that came out of this unit was bad. It helped me to realize some things about my students, myself, and the atmosphere in the room. My students need a break from computers. Enter our next theme of surrealism where they will rely on their minds for ideas. I need a break. I know we just returned to school, but I feel like I am about to start up this huge mountain of responsibilities and I won’t get to the top until mid-April. And, finally, my room has become too comfortable. It’s a double-edged sword really. It’s what I wanted. I wanted my students to want to be here. I wanted my students to want to make art. I wanted my room to be a living thing. And it is all of these and it is not all these things. I don’t know how to explain it. I like the chaos of art making and several of my classes deliver. But what I don’t like is just general chaos–which other classes are becoming.

So, see, this unit has brought reflection and thought for me. This is a good thing.

Here are a few more good things that were brought about by this unit.

Feb16

Picturing Sound

Posted on February 16, 2015 by missjaybar

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Sound. Visualize it in your mind’s eye. It’s not easy is it? Well, that’s what my art 1 students were tasked with. They were asked to take something that is not concrete and turn it into something that is. And, they did just that. They picked images that remind you of certain sounds…tires screeching, wind chimes in the wind, the quietness of peace, speakers booming, the vibration of bass, the crack of a baseball bat or thunder.

In this unit I introduced block and collograph printing. Of course, tons of kids wanted to try block prints. I think they did well for their first try. It was difficult to get them to understand placement of the print on the paper, but luckily I had a template they could use to help them get it right.

I am so pleased with their solutions. There is so much thought put into these works. Check out their artist statements telling of their intent and processes. This is definitely a theme I will use again.

Jan7

A Great TASK to Help Start the New Year

Posted on January 7, 2015 by missjaybar

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Today was the start of a new semester at school. I thought we needed to start off with a great activity–one that would shake off the slumber of winter break and ring in creativity and imagination for a new year. And what better way to do so than have a day-long TASK party.

What is a TASK party you ask?

You can also find a previous post on TASK here.

I pulled out a bunch of supplies I had in my storage room: yarn, egg cartons, craft items, fabric, 12″ dowels, wooden hearts and starts, buttons. I plugged in all the hot glue guns we had. I grabbed the large rolls of colored paper from the faculty lounge. And, I started with a container full of tasks.

This party was to last all day. I have 7 classes. Once I started the party, I only broke for lunch, which consisted of writing more tasks. This was the only place the students faltered…well, and when it came to blindly picking a task. (Many wanted to pick and choose their task. It was hard to stop them.)

It really was a fun day. A few kids fought it at first, but ended up having a good time. I think they need that time to play. High school kids don’t often get that anymore. And bonus, no one was on their computer today. I wish I knew how many tasks were completed today…or at least attempted. It would be fun to figure it out. Perhaps next time.

By the end of the day, my feet were killing me and I was tired as all hell. But, I had a counter full of artifacts. I had a hopscotch board on my floor, and I had 2 body outlines–one in dry erase marker and one in tape. (Just an FYI–certain dry erase markers don’t come off the floor so easily.) I had a roll full of photos of the students making and laughing and creating and smiling. I had a heart full of memories. And, I think it set the tone that creativity is welcome here–and encouraged.

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Dec27

Ceramic Spheres

Posted on December 27, 2014 by missjaybar

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My beginning ceramics students are slowly learning the basics of hand-building in hopes that soon I can let them enter a more choice-based atmosphere. One of the basics we learned was the pinchpot. In Art 1, my students create pinchpot monsters. I wanted to do more than that in beginning ceramics class. I also wanted them to continue to practice carving, which we had done in the previous unit, carved slabs.

Students created 2 pinchpots and scored/slipped them together to form a sphere-like shape. After letting it firm up some, they were to carve, incise, and/or cut into their sphere.

Some kids spent a lot of time figuring out their designs. Other just went for it. Two kids added to their sphere. But, they all learned a lot about thinking in the round and time spent in the air. A couple commented that their carving got better, even though it was much harder to carve a round surface than it was the flat surface.

The last thing we did was glaze them. For this I had them choose from the test tiles they had created. They could choose from their samples or from any sample from the other students. Luckily they all took good notes.

Here are some of the results.

Dec27

Clay Slab Tiles

Posted on December 27, 2014 by missjaybar

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Beginning ceramic students learned all about rolling out slabs when making their clay boxes. So, I thought I would use the slab to let them experiment carving. They all rolled out and cut 6″X6″ tiles. From there they were given the “rules”. They needed to have a minimum of 4 levels. How that was achieved was up to them. They were shown this Pinterest board for some examples. They had to have a frame…again, they decided what constituted a frame. And, one element had to break said frame.

And go. As usual, I have a few kids that can just jump in and go for it…and get great results. Others carefully planned and revised their designs. I had one student wind up at our alternative center and had to work on her tile without help from me or others…she did a fabulous job.

Once they were finished, I had decided this was a great project to show them a non-glaze surface technique. I had seen pieces done on my Facebook Art Teachers group and thought the oil pastel tempera resist would be perfect for them. First they color the tiles with oil pastels. I tell them to color darkly, but not to color fully. Where ever there were holidays, the tempera would soak into the ceramic. Next they covered the entire piece with tempera. On my example I had watered it down. I didn’t have them do that, and they turned out just fine. After that they held the tiles under a running stream from the faucet. I reminded them just to let the water wash over it and not to scrub. The water would rinse away all the tempera where they had colored with the oil pastels. Many were nervous and seemed as if they didn’t believe me. I love their faces when they finally saw the amazing result. As a last step, I had them spray with a spray gloss to seal the piece.

They were super happy with their tiles. I don’t think they ever would have though to do anything like this. A few of them are in painting and drawing with the other art teacher and the connected what we did with the resist to a similar project they did on paper with tempera and ink. Love when they can do that.

Dec27

Ceramic Slab Boxes

Posted on December 27, 2014 by missjaybar

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Our first big unit in beginning ceramics class was to build a slab box that had texture, a lid, a handle, and a few added embellishments. A fellow ceramics teacher, Jen, was kind enough to share her lesson. I tried it out for the first time last year. I thought the kids did well, so I did it again this year. I think it is a good intro to the hand-building technique of the slab. Also, it brought in texture, a favorite aspect of mine, by use of texture rollers, adding a usable handle, and adding embellishments.

The students learned a lot about slabs. The state of leatherhard is one they all know now. Some really did understand the state, while other just never got there and didn’t heed advice to cover the slabs they weren’t working on at the moment, thus letting things dry out too much to use. A couple kids did find out that you can mist way too much.

But, I did hear good conversation about using the stilts (in our case made of paint stirrers) to help keep slabs even, how much pressure to use when using texture rollers, and reminders to put in reinforcing coils.

I am pleased with the results of the boxes, even though more than one handle was either not scored/slipped right or was too fragile and broke off–unfortunately, usually by me.

For the surface treatment, I wanted them to learn a technique that would enhance the texture created by the texture rollers. I asked them to choose 2 glaze colors–a dark and a light. They learned how to pour in a glaze and roll it around to cover the interior of the box. They did this with the dark. After that, they used the dark to brush into the texture. Once dry, they washed off the excess leaving the color in the recesses (and as a slight stain on the flat surfaces.) Then they brushed on the lighter color to the outside of the box, going over everything–including the dark in the texture. The theory is that the dark will show through the light, creating an interesting surface with a bit of depth.

Not everyone followed instructions, and that is okay. But, the ones that did created some wonderful looking boxes.