Getting Settled In
There’s a bit of schedule and student shuffling during the first weeks of school but, for the most part, I’ve met the 140-150 faces that I will see three times a week in my classroom. I know the students are ready to get used to their new routine as well. I’ve started easing them into the meat of the class.
My middle school classes are learning or reviewing the 3 functions of art — that is, the general reasons people create art. Art can be practical like clothing, a vase, or a bridge. Art can also be cultural like a quinceañera dress, a religious painting, or a mural with a school’s mascot. Finally, art can be personal, which, simply put, is work that expresses an artist’s own feelings and/or ideas. My MS Art 1 class created a shoe design that incorporated all of these functions. The shoe is naturally practical so my students had to figure out how to tie in their cultural ties and their personality.
My high school class was working on a different assignment: creating personal logos. I asked them to name popular logos that could easily be identifiable in any country. Most common answers were McDonald’s, Nike, and Apple. I asked them to consider what they all had in common. They are strong, bold, simple marks. They kept this in mind while designing a logo to represent themselves.
It’s been fun to watch their wheels turn as I guided them through imagining their logos on a billboard or on the back of a shoe. Most of my high school students have never taken an art class but they dived right into it. I look forward to the end results!