A Hectic Week

Ten weeks of hard work is coming to a close. Classes are wrapping up and people are preparing for their finals. There is a different energy on campus these past couple of weeks. In the design labs kids scurry in and out of the print lab with worried faces because they wait until 15 minutes before class to print out their work for crit. I can be accused of doing the same. This year however, I gave myself plenty of time to finish my projects and I didn’t lose a wink of sleep. I find that when I start losing sleep I just don’t produce good work, my relationships suffer and my health goes downhill.

Getting an early start is valuable for a project because you give your ideas some time to sit in the back of your mind as you go about daily activities. Then out of the blue some magnificent associations pop into your head and you have a creative solution for your project. Similarly many people say that their best ideas come to them in the shower. Why is this? I think it is because you give your thoughts a rest and you push them to the back of your mind, you allow yourself to be in a relaxed state completely tuned out from the world. You may not dirrectly be thinking about a problem but all of a sudden a solution hits you. I love when that happens. I am curious to find out what the next step is for most people. Do they come up with the solution to a problem by experimenting? Or do they work it all out in their head before they get started. For this last assignment I tried to visualize the outcome in my mind while setting supplies and materials. I thought about every detail. In the end the final looked pretty clean but i did have some unexpected soltions that worked well.

So how does a teacher find creative solutions to difficult teaching situations? I have had some trouble with this question as I am a new teaching artist. Every situation seems like a blindfolded trial run. It is difficult to know how much I should prepare because in truth the students run the class. I respond to their wants and needs. If they are frustrated with certain tools in illustrator then we take the time to go over them. If the students are intrigued with a concept then we spend more time with it. This kind of teaching allows the lesson plan to suffer. Then I start to worry that I am not teaching to the state standards or upholding the mission of ArtsBridge.

Take for instance Ms. R’s class. There are about 20 eager ELL kids, most of whom are not so computer savvy. They ask questions and they have wonderful excited energy. They come into class and start our directed adobe illustrator lesson. As they get started they become confused about the difference between the black arrow and the white arrow. Instead of moving the box they draw more boxes over one another. Some of them get frustrated, but they are learning how to navigate through a complex program and I am so proud of them. I have been using illustrator for four years and it I still find it frustrating. But here is the main problem: linking our residency with Ms. R’s lesson plan. After a short debrief last Wednesday we realized that ms. R was frustrated because we have not been taking into account what these students need to be learning. So over break I am going to look over the 8th grade ELL book, High Point. This will give me some time to make creative solutions to the students’ learning material.

Here are two students’ work from wednesday: