Some people think I shouldn't be going back to teaching. When I came to ArtCenter, like many others, I wanted to be this whole new persona, to switch career paths, etc. But sometimes, one has to embrace his/her background, to make something new/different. Mine was teaching. More recently, I teach art at a charter school one day a week. It feels good to be wanted and to be appreciated.
"I like your hair."
"I like your watch...how much is it?"
"I like your shoes."
Wow, I have never had so many likes in person. Two nights prior to teaching, I spent some time preparing the play dough for the kids, molding them into spheres, triangular prism, pyramids, etc. It is a labor of love. My friend who is also an artist-teacher said this, "for every hour of teaching art, there are two hours of prep." He can not be more correct.
I made all the solids for the students, because I wanted them to get right into modeling for 3D printing. In the program, TinkerCad, students could drag different solids onto the canvas to create. However, with art, I think things needs to be tactile. Students can create more, collaborate more by talking to each other, see things in real life/time. So I want them to make things with their hands first.
Below are the steps that I intended to use to guide the lesson. As always, things didn't always happen as expected in a good way. I love the time when I gave the students free choice. They created things that was unexpected. One boy added texture/face to his figure. Another girl combine her play dough together to make really cool color palettes!
The Steps
1. Identify each solid
2. Group all solids by colors
3. Group solids by names of solids
4. Make a creature/animal with solids. Try not to blend the solids
5. Make a creature/animal with solids. This time it's freestyle.
6. Have a museum/ walk around to see show. (Silent tour.)
- model how to act surprised silently.
- keep things an arms length as though it's a real museum.
Next Steps
I want to introduce the kids to 3D scanning. With kindergarteners, it might be difficult to introduce 3D modeling with them. However, with 3D scanning, it would be possible to allow them to freely create without the confines of making things in solid.
The sand sculpture on the below is created by Larry Dudock. The sculptures are not meant to last forever, which makes them all the more beautiful due to the transient nature. However, with 3D scanning, he is able to preserve and recreate what he has done in nature.
My teacher Bob, shared the story of a former student who now works at Disney Imagineer. Recently, they did a 3D scan the head of Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean. The scan was so true to life that one can see down to the details of a hair sticking out. However, the size of the file was so gigantic that all of Disney did not have enough space to store it! They had to find an outside source to store the data.