Week Six

This week was great. I substituted for Ponz Monday and then Tuesday morning. The classes went well. I helped the photo students develop some pictures. I hadn't done this since 2005, but it came back to me quickly. The middle school students worked on their photoshop assignment. That was a lot of fun because I love messing around with photoshop and illustrator. The assignment was to cut and paste their heads on an animal or creature, like Godzilla, create a background, and add people to create an interesting composition that shows action or tells a story. Some of their ideas were great. Most of the boys put their heads on monsters destroying a city.

The Chinese were touring the school most of the day. At the end of the day, all of us went into the auditorium for the program in honor of the Chinese visitors. Eight of Ponz's students demonstrated painting "scholar rocks" along the isles while the music and drama continued on stage. It was a fun experience.

Next week I will be doing a quick sculpture lesson with the sixth graders. Gary and I decided to do a figurative wire sculpture that involves proper proportions and action poses. The students will be able to take their line drawing knowledge and apply it to 3D wire. The idea of this project is to decide the best method of introduction and observe the effectiveness of the intro and instruction. I will keep the instruction as basic as possible, thinking of the teachers who may not know much about sculpture and its methods. This lesson should be able to be taught with basic knowledge on human proportions, simple tools (pliers, dykes), and line drawing. This will be interesting to see how the 6th graders work with the material.