For your viewing pleasure – and my memory of a year teaching art – and learning how to teach it – the spring art show – over 180 pieces of art – the silent auction is still going on.

The hallway in the electives wing seemed the best place for this – I wasn’t able to get more panels, since the ones I had were for the museum. Plus, I was thinking of ordering 15 panels – 5 more than the fall – and about 4 times the art.


The hallway probably isn’t the most optimal one, but we were able to have decent security, since the teachers were out in the hallway between classes. We have only had one piece written on, and the show has been up about 8 school days. Not as many adults see the show, but the kids are always stopping – biggest problem? “Don’t touch the art!”

The illuminated letters have been the hit of the show. Almost every student chose theirs to be on display. I just wasn’t able to get artist statements done from every student – which would have been a great addition, but I just didn’t have the time.

One of my seventh graders did a solo show – kids and teachers had trouble realizing he is not an adult artist – still a student. He did a great job, used a variety of media from class, and sould be absolutely amazing as an artist.

Then there were the color studies we did at the beginning of the semester – the kids voted on the ones they wanted that met the qualifications of the assignment.

The dream rooms – learning how to use perspective – was an extremely successful assignment – for some students it was the only assignment they completed.

The doodles were the very first assignment, and again the kids voted on the ones they wanted displayed.

We did a type of contour drawing that held the kids’ attention, except for those who couldn’t handle finishing all the details. Each piece started with two letters, two numbers, two shapes, and some object.

I’m really pleased with the mandalas, although there is less of a “personal” feel to these, as opposed to last semester. The kids really got into working with lines, so the work is just as good, just different.

The work on perspective and shading really paid off – in their final exam last week, the amount of drawings with shading and texture increased ten-fold.

And finally – additional pieces the kids wanted in….