Day Twenty-eight

Feb. 26
It's interim grades week.

Oils- talk on not working. Mt gave the reason for having three options for assignments. It's so that if they get stuck they can work on the next! All will be due at the same time.

Draw I- really quiet and working. I gave individual goals (i.e. finish draft and transfer today) because they are at so many different levels of completion.

I had a big surprise from a student who didn't seem to draw well or work consistently. He is interested in baseball, and this is obvious in his drawing (he included a pitcher on a mound) and by the large equipment bag he carries. He needed something in the immediate foreground. I discussed this with him, and he decided that a large catchers mitt would suffice. I asked if he could bring one in to class (there has been some trouble with students wanting to trace and so I'll jump on any chance at observational drawing) and lo and behold he pulled one out of his bag! Later in the class I came back to check on him and was amazed! He is one of the students I am focusing on for using motivational techniques, and I think for him it was finding something he's interested in. I had totally underestimated his skill level as well, because his observational drawing of the mitt displays a great deal of detail and skill. He was quite precise, and included all the ties and overlapping mesh found in a mitt. He had even consistently worked without my constant checking up on him.

MT mentioned that even the highly motivated students can suffer burn-out (maybe even more rapidly here) because they often have a number of art classes back-to-back, usually two, but sometimes more. So, then the kids who aren't necessarily highly motivated can easily suffer from burn-out.

I graded tests in AP Art History during the lecture.