The First Year

I began teaching art like I had when I was in Elementary School. Where the teacher shows you how to do something, and you do it, just like hers. I've heard it called cookie cutter art...which is fitting. I did have some successes along the way. But I still felt like they weren't thinking for themselves most of the time. Here are some of the examples from a unit I did on color, these of course are the most creative in the bunch.


I did have a few that put some thought into their artwork. This is an example of a project where they picked a colored dot and then had to create something out of it and write about it. I wish I had a picture of some of the others I had as well. I had one that was a comet shooting through space that was incredible.















I trudged on through the year...thoroughly enjoying my job, but wondering if that's all I could really do. I didn't really know where or how to look for help. I didn't even know what questions to ask anyway. I just didn't know what I was looking for, but I was looking. I ended the year dejected, knowing that I loved teaching but that something had to change.