Art Camp

So I've been hired to teach Foundations of Art at Logan High starting in the fall. I get art. I have studied art and art history. I've always thought I would be a decent artist, sort of like writing before I had actually ever written, if I ever took the time to master the craft. Starting in the fall either I am an artist or a faker, so I'm choosing to be an artist.

Last week I spent 5 days in a intensive prep class for art teachers. As part of the experience I had to teach a 20 minute lesson. The challenge of this was hugely intriguing because I haven't actually ever had an art (how to draw, paint, sculpt) class and all of my peers (fun to have artistic peers) had art degrees and have been teaching art for some time.

My goal was to figure out a way to teach a highly complex skill in a way that none of them had ever thought of and in a way that got everyone out of their seats and having a great time. In short I pulled it off.

From my lesson plan:

THE ABSOLUTE BEST AND WORST LESSON PLAN

OF MY LONG AND DISTINGUISHED ART TEACHING CAREER
DEDICATED FOREVER TO ZAN BURNINGHAM AND MONICA BRIGHT,

THE QUEENS OF SEQUENTIAL LEARNING

lesson goal:

1. within 20 minutes teach students to reduce complex compositions featuring multiple figures to simple stick-figure line drawings. the desired outcome is that they will be able to do so by deconstructing works of the masters and by drawing from live model compositions. they will then be able to reconstruct their renderings using simple shapes and forms.

2. focus on hip position and linking head to the hips.

3. prepare students to complete a class portrait.

4. break bad hand habits and achieve more fluid and intuitive drawing techniques.

5. continue progress in mastering knowledge of the masters - neo-classicism

By the end of class I had 11 teachers operating as a human machine and the other 11 completing a rough sketch of the whole composition in less than 3 minutes. Am I boasting... A little bit I guess. But the beauty of it was when I asked Zan, who is a phenomenal artist and who has been teaching art for 19 years if she had ever been taught or actually taught to draw using my method. She hadn't. And then followed up with, "As you were teaching what you were teaching, Monica and I were sitting in the back of the room saying to each other, 'This would really work.' I'm going to use it from now on when I teach gesture drawing."