This year the Art Club hosted an art contest. The theme of the show was "Multiple Perspectives" Anna Perl was awarded Best of Show for her mixed media drawing and Dove Jimenez was awarded an Honorable Mention for the digital work of art. 
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The students submitted great works of art you can check them out in the slideshow below. 

Special thanks to our Judges Art Educator, Laura Johnson and UX Designer Keith March Mistler.

The Students for Asian Cultural Awareness club took on a wonderful community service project this year.

After discussing how they wanted and need more Asian American content and their curriculum that decided to create book packs of Asian American children's books and donate them to each elementary school.

The students went to Barnes and Noble and read through many books! They looked for stories that they felt were accurate and represented them.

​Here is the list of books and reviews of the books that they picked.

"I think it's important to represent everyone in school Our predominately white curriculum makes many feel outcast in a school and in our country. It puts into our heads that white is the "norm" and can cause many to dislike the minorities because they are different. In a way the erasure contributes to the massive issue of racism" Grade 10 student

"the under representation affects the way non-Asian American children view their Asian American peers. Sometimes in a derogatory and ignorant lens. That lens will most likely cause the sense of low self confidence, poor self image, and trauma. History tends to be "white- washed" in the curriculum, taking away from the true concepts that should be taken from historical context. " Grade 10 student

The Design Challenge for the Web Design students was to create an app that is helpful with solving a problem. The students spent lots of time learning and applying Design Thinking skills.
Before designing the app the students had to write a problem statement, create an empathy map, a user journey and persona for the user. They then sketched ideas for their app design and then created a prototype of the app using Adobe XD.

​Check out these great student app designs:

Celeste created an app to help students manage their time efficiently.

Emelie created an app  titled "Study Session"

Logan and Akshay worked together to create a Sign Language App. You can check out their app on Logan's Website

​Quarter 1 is done and behind us! The Architecture students did a wonderful job exploring and creating. Students started out the year with explorations and design challenges.

Students answered the question " What is Architecture" 

Anthony wrote:
   "I guess to me, architecture is more than just the design of a building, or structure in an urban or specific area. To me, architecture is more about the freedom to express oneself through design, skill, technique, and the passion for it. Art has no set definition, rules, or purpose, and architecture is just another form of that in my opinion. One should not be locked with a set of rules and regulations pertaining to design and creativity. Architecture may have a purpose specifically towards designing structures, but in our world around us, there is even architecture in nature. Architecture is not always accepted in our society though, as not all designs actually get used. Architecture is also very professional, and sometimes even more restrictive than art such as a sculpture, or drawing. In the end however, architecture is really how one looks at it as there is no set definition of what architecture really is."

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The first design challenge of the year was to create a sculpture using just white paper and scissors and not adhesives.

Another intro assignment for the students was to use craypas to explore color and shapes in abstract ways. This was a great warm up drawing assignment.

When the weather was nice and warm we went outside and created Andy Goldsworthy style Art Installations.

We also spent time outside drawing the school and studying perspective. The students worked intensely on these drawings!

The last design challenge was to create a Cardboard Relief Sculpture. Students studied architectural styles and took elements from different styles and combined them with Principles of Art to create these abstract works. 

Web Design is off to a great start this year. The students are active and engaged learners in the art and design process of learning about Web Design.

The goal at the beginning of the year is to give them a foundation of art elements, principles and vocabulary and to get all students comfortable with working on the computer and understand the internet and history of the internet.

Here are a few of the projects that the students worked on:

Students studied the Elements and Principles of Design and created these drawings. Even though it is a computer class the students enjoyed working on paper and learning art terms. The many of the students have not taken an art course before and this was a great way to introduce art terms to them and practice design and layout.

Students created their own blogs and started blogging. They also started a portfolio section which will grow through out the year. Check out Emelie's Blog 

In small groups students worked collaboratively to create presentations on the History of the Internet and how the internet works. The students taught each other the content and information. Students have also researched web design as a career path and the salary and job prospectus.

Students used Adobe Photoshop to create caricatures of themselves. It was a fun project to get them using some new tools and techniques. 

Each student has an Adobe Creative Cloud account. This allows students to be able to create art in school and at home on their own devices and school ipads. 
As part of the subscription students had access to the Adobe Max Conference. Students got to attend virtually and watch presentations on technique as well as creativity and featured artists.

Here is a quote from Luke who learned about artist Tom Hegen
"Tom Hegen wants his photographs to encourage people to think about a sustainable future and to value the resources we take for granted. What I learned from this is how different types of sustainable agriculture work, and that if you make a hard topic more presentable than more people will be drawn to that issue and talk about it."

The Students for Asian Cultural Awareness hosted a virtual author book talk with guest Maggie Chang. 

Maggie is the author of the children's book Geraldine Pu. Geraldine is a spunky Asian American girl who encounters a bully. The story unfolds and shows how Geraldine handles bias. 

The students loved Maggie's book and learned about her writing and art making process. Maggie shared about her personal life and journey and how she published her book.

The students asked Maggie questions about her inspiration for her book and if the character was based on her life. She shared about her life and upbringing and was a great role model for the students.

Special thanks to BHS Librarian Callie Graham for funding this great author talk. 

This year as my professional practice goal with my art department we have set this as our mission statement. I have created a new section of my website devoted to building resources and revising my lessons you can find under the DEI section.

Art Program Mission Regarding Diversity, Equity, and Race
In alignment with Burlington High School’s core values and learning expectations for students, the BHS (BPS) Art Program will 

• Examine and revise the BHS curriculum to include equitable and authentic representation and highlight the indispensable contributions that people of color have made to the world; 
• Identify our practices and programming that maintain systemic inequity and take the steps necessary to enact change;
• Engage administration, faculty, and staff in ongoing professional development that ensures educators understand and implement equitable classroom practices that promote justice for all;
• Create actively antiracist educational spaces that prioritize student voice;
• Develop and communicate a clear protocol for addressing race-related issues that impact BHS community members;
• Empower ourselves and our students to communicate and collaborate in ways that work toward solutions to the continued problems of inequity in the world; 
• Model respect, empathy, and responsibility in our classrooms and develop meaningful opportunities for students to learn the power of these values

First Steps:

• Commit to explore/read many of the resources in this document; take notes; gather ideas.
• Develop a limited (well-curated, not overwhelming) list of references and resources to share with art students at each grade level.
• Full-hour department meetings in new school year, with first portion devoted to equity issues

The school year is off to a great start! This year I am teaching Drawing and Painting I, Drawing and Painting II, Architecture I and II, and Web Design.

We started with light fun ice breakers, getting used to the new rotation block schedule and helping students who were fully remote transition back to school. The first day I have students work on the Sumi Ink Club. Check out my Art of Education article about it here.

Creating a welcoming and relaxed environment that is comfortable for all students is the foundation of my classroom. When students are relaxed they will learn more, create more and feel more comfortable expressing themselves through their art. 

Here are a few of the works of art that my students created for  intro assignments. Enjoy!

'Name design for the cover of their folders. This helps me get to know the student names and helps us get used to the organization system and clean up process. 

After studying contour line we created a collage of the drawings and students added an art element. This great lesson is from Mrs. Moen in IG @artofteaching. She is an uber talented educator with fantastic lessons. 

Phil Hansen's Ted Talk " Embrace the Shake" is helping me reframe the challenges of this school year. I am seeking to "seize the limitations". Here's to a new school year filled with new discoveries and brand new Art!