Resurecting this Blog with an assignment

Today in my Advanced Studio class I got a bit frustrated with both my students, who were idly chatting, and myself, who has been stuck in neutral in the studio for the past few weeks. My students are currently working on this incredibly difficult assignment in which they have to sample master artists in a 2"x 2" format (100 of them) and display them in a manner of their choosing (style samples only, no replications allowed). I was thinking about this assignment and how lucky they are to be given 5 weeks to complete it. If it were given in art school they would have 4 days tops. They are all seniors, all headed to art school too. I see my main responsibility as being one that encourages them to be ready to accept and excel at those types of challenges.

Today was a different story however, the students who were excited last week by this challenge, were seemingly falling apart today with the monotony. I have to keep reminding myself that this was part of the exercise that I wanted them to experience the most, as it encourages perseverance and reinforces discipline. Yet today, I was on edge because the work ethic that has been so strong in this class disolved into a gossippy teen soup. I started to reflect on my own studio practice, especially when one utterence was in reference to that quote "those who can't, teach..." (I often think that this was a cop-out statement that some person originally made out of jealousy eons ago and they obviously knew nothing about good teaching practices). So in a quick instance of thinking on my feet I found myself assigning another assignment to the group. I can hear the groans from the audience as I write this. You are thinking "that's just like a teacher, pile on more work as punishment?" Thier assignment was that they had to come up with an assignment for me to complete. They will review each proposal as a class tomorrow and then vote on it. They will then come up with the criteria, the resources I need to gather information from, and the rubric. They will also give me a due date that I have to present my work by.

I have resurrected this blog so that the process can be followed. So tune in often and wish me luck!