How 'bout that first week of school, eh?

Just a small check in after finishing my first whole week of school. Granted, I'm half a week late doing this but there was that whole Hurricane Irene thing (y'know?) that kept me out of the classroom because of a serious power outage this side the power grid since, oh... last Friday-ish?

Anyway, things have gotten of to a pretty decent start. The 2D classes are working on their first project doing Name Tangles on Scratch-Art board and though they have hemmed and hawed about the many steps I am requiring them to take before they get to their final scratch board phase. Since this project requires working knowledge and understanding of negative space, contrast, emphasis, balance, and composition within non-objective art, it's kind of advanced for them as an initial project. The way I see though, what better way to learn something than to just jump right in with all of it. The students are quickly learning the creative side of the planning process as well as building greater respect for the creation of art on the whole.

The above pics are just quick snaps of some student WiPs taken with my phone (I upgraded from my blackberry and this phone has a much better camera on board so now I don't feel so bad about not wanting to lug my big camera in every time I need to take a picture. I WILL use it for the final student work pictures though for when I do the lesson idea blog postings.)

Anyway, right now I'm working on getting my presentation ready for Back-to-school night tomorrow night and though I wish we could postpone it a little bit so I would have some more time with the students to share with the parents who will be visiting my classroom, I'm pretty ready for the most part. I'm just revising some powerpoint items and then I'll be set for tomorrow! *Phew!* Cannot believe the school year is officially here. The summer just went by WAY too fast!