Recently, an online conversation took a surprising turn when I commented that teacher experience was one thing that would tend to improve the quality of student work. A new teacher got offended and thought I was making a blanket statement, that I was saying experience is always the key. She pointed out that many older teachers do NOT get high quality work from their students, and she was right.
However, I am a big believer in experience being the best teacher, for us as well as the students.
How else do you get better at anything except by practicing?
Some lessons I teach every year, to every grade level, such as linear perspective, observational drawing skills (still-life), painting skills, etc. The more I teach these lessons, the more I am able to scaffold instruction and understand how to reach the students. I also teach portrait drawing every year to 8th graders. Most of my lessons are not done annually, though, I don't want to get bored! I do like to mix it up and try new things along with practicing my skills at teaching traditional portraits, landscapes, and still life compositions.
Above is one small example of how much my teaching has improved over the years (although I know I have a lot left to learn!) The painting on the left is the "best" landscape painting done by a 7th grader during my first year, 2004 - 2005. That year I didn't know I needed to show the kids step by step how to neutralize their colors to make them look more natural, how to draw and paint trees, how to use an old brush to tap texture onto trees to give the appearance of leaves, etc. I didn't realize the kids needed more instruction! I really thought they could just "look" at a tree and understand how to paint it.
The painting on the right is the "best" 7th grade landscape from this year, 2016 - 2017. This student wanted to make a realistic landscape, but wasn't satisfied with the lonely mountain and reflection. After I had a conversation with this student ("What do you like about your painting? Is there anything you would do differently if you had it to do over? Could you add more detail in the foreground, etc."), he wound up overlapping some imaginary trees in the foreground and loved the result! He, along with the other students, received explicit instruction from me about how to paint a basic landscape and then was set free to "problem solve" his own painted landscapes. This student in 2016 understood how to paint detailed trees, how to make the clouds look soft and fluffy, how to create clean, sharp outlines in the mountains, how to do the leaf texture, etc.
To see more 7th and 8th grade landscapes from this year, check out our classroom Facebook page. Also, here is our classroom blog where I uploaded the lesson: "Landscape Painting Basics."
One more example of my growth in teaching portrait drawing over the years:
Working on an article about how to increase the quality of student work has taken months, and I have a feeling it will be edited even more as I revisit this idea. I love teaching - there is always something to learn! There will never be a time that I feel like I actually have it figured out, once and for all. I do recognize growth in my teaching practice over the last 13 years, however, and I hope I will continue to grow.
Picasso once said, "I am always doing that which I cannot do in order that I may learn how to do it!"
No comments:
Post a Comment