Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Inspiring students the week before Christmas

Talk about an impossible task..., this morning it started to snow lightly and just that quickly the students talked about getting out of school. How dare we keep them here when there's a winter advisory going on out there! I calmed them down and told them "get used to living in Iowa, it snows here, we continue with life..."
As we try to finish up with projects and fulfill the semester requirements before Christmas, it seems there is pressure coming from all sides. Some students give up, some are struggling to keep their mind in the game and yes, a few are actually thriving. So amid grading and closing out the semester myself (I teach 5 new classes in January I've got to get ready for...) I've tried to do some of the projects this week, along with the students. One was created with random ink pad stamps (this takes some time, I started it last week), You let the repeated stamp help show values and contrast. For the mixed media assignment for my art 1 class, I did the ball gown hanging on a hanger with the angel wings in space behind. I had the idea of what to do and did the piece here and there during the day today!
The kids are proud of me finishing two projects with them, I can start a project, but rarely finish it. I usually just file it away for using as an example work in progress, another time...

2 comments:

Ronda said...

How true about the motivation level and snow! My students were the same. They kept asking, "Do you think we'll get out early?" "Use your powers, Stern, to get us out early!" I didn't know I HAD powers! :-) I told them we would go all day...and we did. They were sure we'd go late on Wednesday, we did not...I called that too! Maybe I do have powers! Funny that I told my students the same...We live in Iowa, it snows in Iowa, get used to it! I'm pretty sure I was the same as a student, though. Happy Snow!

Carol said...

I can relate! On Monday, it is a slow day....too tired from the weekend....some going to get out early to go to ball game, so no one else wants to work. Tuesday, tired from the late night game and travel. Wednesday, kids call it "hump day" and conjure up all kinds of things that might mean....Oh, and church night coming up. Thursday, one day before the weekend, and then, Friday, forget it....big game, weekend plans...and then, what if it snows 2 flakes, now that I have windows, they all have to discuss the amount of snow and that the principal should be letting them out early, so.....that's the week in a nutshell. LOL Carol

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails