The first week is in.

 And a new year begins!  

 

      So this is my first year in my 20 (gasp!) years of teaching in which I will be working with middle school students in addition to my elementary teaching load.   I know the students from the time they spent with me over in the Lenkerville artroom so that part of the first few days was not bad.  I didn't have to learn many new names and I knew the students but boy did they get taller!

      My biggest challenges this year are going to be age-appropriate lessons, and fitting in all I would usually work on in a year's worth of seeing each class once a week to working with 1/4 of the grade for only a quarter of the year, but seeing each section of them 3 times a week.  My planbook is a revolving door right now, and I expect it to be that way at least through the month of September!

Here's how we did so far..... 

I started with Notan Paper Cutting with all grades (6,7,8) just to get them and me warmed up with being in the middle school.    Nice results and I can see where they all are ability wise at this point.  Things I can ask myself are, do they see the positive/negative space relationships?   Can they see the reversals in shapes?  Plus I check basic things like fine-motor skills just as I would at the elementary level.  

On the second day I tossed each table of 8th grade a packet of post-its and told them to work together to make some art.    Good warm-up activity, got them thinking together and as a group.

7th grade started and completed a quick Keith Haring action figure lesson in the last 2 sessions with them.   We hung them on the wall outside the artroom.  (edited to add photo!)

My goal by the end of this week and the beginning of next is to set up a regular posting schedule.   Monday Motivations, Wednesday Works and Friday Photos.

Happy Tuesday!