Austin Trip, Art Show and Group Projects.

Update on life...

1) Austin was great. I didn't have to send any kids home. By the end of the trip the kids started saying...

"I don't like that face your making."
"What face?" I asked.
"Your scary face."

Apparently up until this point I had never been truly scary. All I needed to be truly scary was a lack of sleep and spending more than an hour and a half with them, go figure. I enjoyed the effects of the scary face their eyes would get a little big and they would quickly say, "Yes ma'am."

We surprisingly had the most fun at the cemetery. It was due entirely to our tour guide Will. Will was hilarious and he knew the most gruesome stories which the kids ate up. For example, he told us about Josiah Wilbarger.

"In August 1833, Wilbarger was a member of a surveying party of four that was attacked by Comanche Native Americans about four miles east of the site of present Austin, Texas. Two of the men were killed and scalped by the Native Americans. The other two managed to flee. Wilbarger was scalped and the Indian left him for dead, but he was still living when he was found the next day by Reuben Hornsby and taken to the Hornsby home for treatment. Wilbarger managed to survive by crawling into a nearby stream to wash his wounds. According to legend, Wilbarger was thought to have been killed, but later that night Hornsby's wife saw Wilbarger in a dream sitting under a tree. She gave her husband a description of the tree and he was found there the next day. Wilbarger never completely recovered from his wound although he lived for 11 more years. He died at his home near Bastrop in 1845 after an accident in which he struck his head on a low support beam inside of his cotton gin. His exposed skull eventually became diseased, causing him to die."

Wilbarger post scalping.

Students reacting to Wilbarger's story.

2.) Art Show was AWESOME! 

I was so proud of my kiddos and enjoyed the time to talk to parents about what their students have been doing in class. It was also a really encouraging time. I received great feed back from parents about the program and was given more ideas for next year. I've posted some photos below. 

Final version of the Rauschenberg Project. Completed by an 11th grader.

Some elementary students discussing the Rapunzel project inspired by John Latham.

Lower School Gallery.

Second graders vase that she made on her own.

Second grader with his macaroni stegosaurus.

Tigers Curse, Latham project.

Close up (sorry for how dark the photos are...)

Food! So proud of myself for ordering "just enough."

9th grader with her paintings.

11th grader with her Big Ben print (which took second in the printmaking category at district.)

Some of my seniors looking at the print gallery.

3.) Group Projects. 

We are at the point in art where we have 2 weeks left in school and not enough time to start and finish a project. Enter group projects. There is this magical room at my school called the junk room. You can find anything at the junk room. Desks, trash cans, overhead projectors, cabinets etc. So I took two old cork boards and painted them white. 

The 8th graders made a grid with 8 squares. They then drew lines all over the board and were assigned a color. They painted the shapes inside in different shades of their assigned color. 
 

Students drawings lines (and making silly faces.)

Lines.

Painting in their assigned colors.

Students outlining their shapes.

Finished product.

 My freshmen were given a bit more freedom. I let them pick an image and figure out how they wanted to break it up. Many ideas were discussed, ranging from an octopus, to a stairway to heaven and a galaxy. I deemed the octopus to creepy for prospective parents checking out the school, stairway to heave idea was ruined by Led Zepplin, leaving the galaxy. They decided to break it up by painting different sections of the color wheel letting all of the colors fade into each other.

Sketching out the galaxy and gridding out the colors.

In progress.

 

Finished product.

I am super pleased with how both of these turned out. They will be hung in the hallway hopefully by the end of the week. :)

I am truly blessed to be at my school and work with these kids.