A great lesson for me

It was so inspiring to see you guys outside of the classrooms in a complete different mode, you made my day when i saw you talking to everyone, when you were sharing your talents, when you took some of your time to make an amazing day for these guys recovering from drug addiction.

I got a great lesson, as at times you get on my nerves, this time all of you were incredibly generous from your heart. Thank you for making the last day of class such an amazing day. MUCH RESPECT

Happy Holidays

In our last episode of this semester, we learned about pop art sculpture and with it, we designed Christmas decoration for our classroom , KIDROBOT templates, an amazing art expression that started up in NYC with small scale dolls or models that are basically plain canvases in 3d.

Understanding NOT memorizing

 Measuring and using rulers or "primitive" tools as students see them, is not the best and most exciting thing for them to do. Adding numbers or operations makes them feel like they are actually going into a math or geometry class, but when it comes to drive the activity as "puzzle" or as a connecting lines through following points, the calculations and measurements become a quick common sense conclusion.
And that's the idea, THE UNDERSTANDING, NOT THE MEMORIZING OR THE SYSTEMATICAL WAY OF LEARNING.

More than just a doddle

 As we develop creative projects and we deal with materials and techniques, we also support our learning process with history. Students have a hard time to place timelines and coexisting historical figures. Imagery helps them to analyze objects and clothes even tools or materials and it makes it easy for them to set time and space.

 It's not about tracing sugar skulls or celebrating Dia de Muertos, it's more than that. It is actually digging into the roots of those events that we collaborate with a creative proposal.

 Being a high school student and never ever been introduce to basic culture, can have repercussions in the near future. Knowing even just the surface of certain topics can build criteria and personality.

It's pretty great when they recognize things that they always saw but they never analyzed. Quite fascinating when even those who seem to be less oriented or focus, they can also give or find their own perspective.

Emotional Intelligence

This is an important part of this dynamic, subject, workshop, experiment, what ever you want to call it. Teenage is a rough phase, introverts, extroverts, dominants, or timid personalities find hard to get along with each other.
In this case, Jorge is a quiet dedicated students and Obed is an explosive quite hyperactive dude, however discovering talents and skills makes them unite, and the recognition from each other gives them a breaking walls to share feedback and criticism.

Composition

Composition is a complicated topic, and generating an illustration with elements that can create contrast and being inspired by an actual event, such as the Mexican earthquake or the massacre in Vegas at the Country Music concert, can also make students to connect reality and portray it with a series of elements and forms.



Sarcasm, it's a an essential element for political cartoons or satirical illustrations however there must be a line of respect and sympathy. This exercises can also bring awareness of either positive or negative in events of the every day life.

Two Point Perspective

 As predictable as it could be,  the two point perspective has to be a second part of a perspective drawing.

 The understanding  of a VANISHING POINT function, and then  the possibility of projecting from two of them adds up a challenge and an accomplishment.

High school students play video games and they like animations where perspective drawings are often seen in any of these two platforms. For them to understand and perceive the concepts makes them be more critical and more analytical.

One point perspective

One point perspective drawing, it's a basic observation activity that makes them understand concepts of depth and dimension.

 

 Even Typography can also be projected from a VANISHING POINT from
where the lines reach the edges or corners of the flat figure making it look like a dynamic projected 3 D version of it.

 For near future subjects such as geometry or even a way to develop graphics or volume polygons, this activity can enrich their process of understanding thru images and diagrams.

Typography

 Young students, love to doddle, or just to write their names everywhere they can. This generation has seen graffiti art as a "fine art" expression, and the hip hop culture plus the urban art in every corner, gives them identity.


But they need to know a bit more than just what it's on the surface, typography as an art of arranging type to make written language legible.

Typography designers in not only graffiti art but in general they get sources of inspiration from their surroundings,  nature, science, religion etc.

Students are invited to develop their own way, plus this time will deal with decision taking such as color selection and the word they want to develop as a project.

Vivir TV

  

Students love TV, and giving them the chance to be in front of a camera as well as  be part of a back stage staff, space and role for the  the shy ones to take action in an interactive activity.

As we know, in any group we can always notice the extroverts, the introverts, the intellectuals, the environmental  and the sporty ones. The diversity is what makes groups rich and dynamic. This activity was perfect for all kind of personalities.

Vivir News, was a verbal project that allowed them to speak English and being able to collaborate and take responsibility in the recording process. Creating a background and supportive images to make it look as real deal as possible, students reacted positively and enjoyed the 

Generation Z , it's a  COPY, PASTE, PRINT Generation, the organic side of creating and being able to develop ways of solving problems and reproduce images with out a printer, by their own hands can bring them the satisfaction of taking a whole credit of a small product.

Besides working on individual projects, the collective activities gives them a sense of community and makes them be part of something.

Day of the Dead Vivir

DAY OF THE DEAD, one of the most colorful and quite interesting holidays that we celebrate in Mexico has become a worldwide phenomenon in the past 5 years, the Ofrenda was built by 9th graders under the coordination of Humerto (FV teacher) who let us participate decorating with a sugar skull tile.

We also collaborate with  one of the videos projected as a multimedia introduction for the audience to understand who was the person we were dedicating this altar.

Cartoon Project

 

Anatomical Diagrams will always help to develop better and accurate products, further than animating a stick figure or a muscle diagram, this exercise will allow them to explore and learn body parts with out a tedious and long memorizing process. 

  

The materials that we use in class, are basic affordable types. Markers, card boards and easy to carry and hand. Assignments get publish on an algebraix platform so the parents can always have access to it, and to make it easy, materials are being posted graphically to avoid confusion and missuderstandings. 

 

 Students from 7th, 8th and 9th graders can have different perspectives and different interests, However what they have in common, is sharing generational figures in all fields:  political, educational, entertainment and even as a part of their generation, the new public figures such as YouTubers, bloggers, and online gamers, and art producers that were portrayed in this exercise.

For them to never been in art programs or specifically in the habit of drawing and painting, this black and white illustrations were a success, students themselves were proud and it was hard to believe that they were the authors and creators of  this art work.

With this type of exercises, we can explore what's in their mind and the conflicts that affect them or topics that they get interested in.