Technolandy

I’ve never been the best at teaching art. My claims to fame are limited. Our exploration of art and recreating styles of via keynote/PowerPoint went well – especially a Jackson Pollock exploration! But for the most part it can be summed up by a pair of grade 4 students who asked “can we lead the class in an art activity” – not as an insult, but taking an idea to actualization.

So this time of year has never been my forte – except for my “following eyes” project (good at Halloween, better if there’s a Santa theme in the class/school (below)

So today I was offered a challenge – a Star Wars snowflake. I groaned and moaned knowing that this is neither something I am good at nor enjoy (because it is challenging). But the student had a similar task (learning page rather than art) so we both grumbled and got to work.

I hate fine motor skill manipulation.

I don’t like my work going on display (yeah yeah public blog blah blah)

But I took the time to do some modelling (as I continuously rant to the ether about reading writing math and cell phones: if we want to see positives, we gotta show positives) and was moderately successful.

But no, no photos of me skating with students at our “Winter Wonderland” – I used to tell my students that their PE mark was based on them outperforming me in either skating or cross country skiing. In both cases there was an increase in anxiety… until they saw me… I did not make the same requirement when we did downhill skiing (I’m decent+ at that – or was…) but again, good to model things we aren’t great at… and sometimes we get better!

Then I thought I would share one of my usual “eyeball art” based on background perspective seeming to move

Wouldn’t normally do these during “reading season” (Learning Updates are in from teachers) but it was a great teachable moment to model that we don’t always have to like what we are learning, but we can go through it – I know that the snowflake is good for my fine motor skills… and I like that snowflakes are nicely seasonal without a bias hidden in them – except Star Wars vs Star Trek debates… unlike my “creepy eyes” which mindfully models how easily it is for systemic discrimination to hide in plain sight under the guise of “fun”…!