Experimental Earthly Creations

Traditional Sustainable Art Supplies

Description/Analysis:

Overall this lesson was a lot of fun and very successful. I soloed with the lesson towards the end of my soloing weeks. I had taught a few lessons prior and felt comfortable with the students I was addressing. I also had the privilege to teach this lesson to a new group of 8th graders after my soloing period was over. My mentor teach wanted as many 8th grade groups to be exposed to sustainable art as possible. The support and feedback from my mentor teacher made me confident and excited to teach this lesson to many classes. With each class I taught, I was able to learn and make proper modifications.

The students learned a lot about sustainability and the importance of making sustainable art. This lesson was experimental and students were given room to explore. For example, one student even looked into making his own glazes out of grinded up colored glass, after exploring with different color slips. With experimentation often comes a mess, especially when students are trying to make their own paint. I loved watching how excited the students were to be exposed to something completely new. Some students were more engaged than others, but the majority were making truly unique projects. The students had a lot of freedom with this TAB lesson plan, and some definitely needed a little more direction to get motivated. It was amazing to see the students understand that limitations can spark creativity and that in today’s society we need to start limiting our resources and move towards creating sustainable art.

The idea for this lesson plan came from students throwing away an excess amount of paint in the sink. The waste that was being produced from our art classes was constantly on my mind and students were not changing their actions after several conversations about proper clean up. The idea for making traditional sustainable supplies blossomed from that frustration. I announced to the class that no student can paint, unless they made the paint themselves. Once I had the students make their own paint, it only seemed logical that they had to make their own slips for clay instead of using the manufactured glazes. I then provided the option for students to use charcoal and taught the students the process of making charcoal. I wish we could make our own charcoal in school, but I was not allowed to burn willow branches in school. The students responded to this with excited and fed off my passion for eco art. This was one of the most successful lesson I taught throughout my student teaching.

Reflection/ Modifications:

Creating this lesson made me reconnect with my own love for art. It made me realize why I love creating art and the endless possibilities that an artist has. Art has an amazing ability to communicate universally. I wanted to teach my students that art can be an avenue to start a public conversation, whether that is regarding environmental conservation, social justice, etc. My students at the end of this lesson were bragging about making their own paints and slips to other students, which caused other students who were not in this class to be interested in sustainable art. The new found interest in sustainability throughout the school reminded me of the power art has and excited me for potential change that could benefit our community.

The lesson itself was so much fun to teach because the students were having fun making. Although there were some minor hiccups in the lesson that I would modify. Since the students were making the materials they were working with, the lesson involved a lot of instructions and listening. I realized that the directions were complicated and visual aids were needed after demoing and introducing each station. In the future, I would make a poster for making pigments, making slips, and making charcoal before I introduce anything so the students have visual instructions to follow. I made the poster for pigments a couple days late, but it still ending up being valuable for the students. I realized I could not be a gofer for everything all the time and that the more support and resources the students had for directions the less I had to run around explaining everything. The power of repetition when instructing middle school students proves to be a powerful tool.  

Additionally, I wish the students were more self sufficient when cleaning up the pigment table. There was often cracked eggs and berries scattered around the table. Although they were instructed to clean up, they often got carried away with making paints and lost track of time. It should have been my job to be on their backs about when to clean up so they would not be late to their next class. Although this lesson was particularly difficult to manage due to the amount of materials.  Besides cleaning up and repeating directions this lesson went smoothly and the students learned new skills and concepts. Even weeks after this lesson was taught, students were still talking about.