Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Ch-Ch-Changes!

This post should signify a new beginning for negativespace.   The thought occurred to me to start a new blog with a focus on the teaching of art.  

I decided to visit the old blogspot today to do that very thing.  I could not readily locate the old dashboard so I clicked on "Design".  My world instantly changed.  I changed my template to this nifty "flipcard".  Now all you have to do is click on the picture and you'll find any one of my fascinating old posts!  How cool is that?

I've decided not to start a new blog.  I will just "change direction" a bit.  So here it goes...

I do want to write about my day time job.  Yes.  For anyone who is new to the blog, I am a secondary public school art teacher.  As a secondary, public school art teacher I have much to post about.  There are lessons that I want to share with other teachers.  There are my thoughts concerning teaching and curriculum that I would love to discuss.  It might come as a surprise to some of you that public education is a very politically charged issue in this country at the moment.   I have a lot of thoughts on that.  I want to share some of the wonderful work that my students are creating.  I shared one at the end of last school year.  I will be sharing more. 

For the record, my schedule this year includes the following classes:

Art One - A year long class with a focus on basic observational drawing skills.  The foundation class of our Fine Art program for students who are seriously considering a career in art.

Cultural Art One - A semester long class for the student who is not seriously considering a career in art but is trying to fulfill the Arts/Humanities requirement.  I designed the curriculum with lessons that explore folk art from people of  many diverse cultures.   I am hoping to help the students build tolerance and appreciation for different cultures through the making of art.

Cultural Art Two - A semester long class which resembles an Art History class.  We start with Cave Art and work our way up to the Early Renaissance.  The students create a number of projects in addition to learning quite a bit about Art History. 

Three Dimensional Design, Sculpture and Ceramics -  I changed the name of our Ceramics class to make this class more interesting.  This year we started with paper low relief sculpture.

Fine Art Digital Photography I & 2.  I used to teach Black and White film photography.  Without a darkroom, I am now teaching digital.  

PDD Class (Autistic Spectrum Students) and MDS (Students with Multiple Disabilities)

I have a lot of things to say about all of these classes and I'd appreciate any and all feedback.  I do still plan to post some of my own art as well as random rants and commentary.  I do hope that having a bit more focus will help me get back to blogging a bit more. 

2 comments:

dive said...

Holy frijole, neetzy, you scared the crap out of me.
Once I'd calmed down, however, I took a look around and the new design loos great. I can't wait to hear more about the art classes.

neetzy said...

Thanks Dive. Just had to try something new. I'll see where this goes...I can only rant about the tea party so much.