Portrait of the Teacher

                                                         Silva  2019                                  Lilah Fortin

                   

Let Me Introduce You...(ongoing series)

Let me introduce you to the newest member of the South County Middle School art department, Mr. Singh. When I visited his classroom last week I had the pleasure of observing him lead his students through an awesome mark making exercise that will build into to a mixed media exploration helping the students  contemplate the traits of their spirit animals. 

Mr. Singh paints daily and he shares his birthday with Bob Ross. Make sure you check out his Instagram @artoframan to enjoy his artwork!  The students at South County Middle are so lucky to have you on board this year!

September 21st...Museum Day 2019

Tomorrow is FREE museum day! Grab a friend and go enjoy some time in our treasured museums! There is no excuse... get out and savor some art and history. 

Let me Introduce You...(ongoing series)

Let me introduce you to the newest member of the Chantilly Knights art department, Ms. Choi! She

is a Disney girl at heart which would explain why she majored in Animation.

She was delighted to start her school year by teaching her students stop motion as their first lesson! And let me tell you, that classroom was abuzz with ideas. The digital art and design class is stacked, that means it is levels 1-4 in the same class at the same time.

So, she has scaffolded the inquiry to keep it accessible to all the students. Students had the choice of creating their happy place, a clever “how to” video or  a statement about a school wide social issue while exploring the challenges of making a stop motion artwork.

The students also had choices about which materials to use...air dry clay, construction paper, wire, stuffed animals...many options to ignite the imagination.

I hope to visit her again soon and see the finished works!

Recent Works 2019

Let me Introduce you....(ongoing series)

Please welcome Ms. Lawlor to Walt Whitman Middle School! Ms. Lawlor is an avid potter and looks forward to sharing her mad skills with her students!  

Her art classroom is a bustling hub of creativity! She has some great ideas for organizing her materials and making sure supplies are all put away!

 Just a quick glance will allow her to easily see what is missing or out of place!

Let me Introduce you...the first in a series

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see...

                                                                           Thoreau     

Visiting schools is such a joy! It is amazing to see the studio spaces and the way they are organized. It is equally stunning to see the keeper of the space...the teacher that that creates the tone of the room. Over the coming weeks I will be introducing you to some amazing new faces and their spaces!

Allow me to introduce you to Ms. Chung, the newest member of the Langley art department. She is teaching 3-D design as well as Digital Art and Design this year. Her school was recently renovated.   

She has cleverly created an efficient organization of her clay tools with a nice catch all parts bin. This allows for easy access for the students and they can easily see what is available to use.

While I was there I also noticed that she had a clever way to reuse all the cardboard that was in her storage room. Instead of ordering sketchbooks this year, she is having the students make their own! 

The first week of school the students are personalizing the covers with mixed media. They will be adding paper and rings to hold it together. This allows for flexibility in adding more paper later or removing it to matte or mount for exhibition. 

(It is awesome to pick up  helpful hints on organization and clever lessons when visiting schools!)