Decisions... Say Yes to the Mess?

Oh my.  I've been struggling to decide what workshops to offer at my state conference, and submissions are due by the end of the month.  I put the question out here on the blog and also on Facebook, and most of the people who answered were not from NY state.  I hoped for opinions from people who would actually attend, but I appreciate anyone who expressed their thoughts!

So here's what I've decided so far:
I'm going to teach a Friday After Dark workshop on Sheetrock Carving - relief carving and intaglio.
I've done this successfully with my 6th graders for several years.  The only photos I can locate are of the cartouche carvings, but in other years we did African-inspired mask designs, layered landscapes, and more.

I'm teaching a hands-on Saturday workshop that I'm calling 'Oh What a Relief! Fabulous Tooling Foil!'  This is another material where I've been particularly proud of the work my students completed, and a couple of Facebook responders expressed interest in this. Again, we've used various design themes over the years to keep me from getting bored!

But, as crazy as I am, I want to teach one more, during the day on Friday.  After all, since I'm retired, I feel like it's time to 'give back'.  But this one won't be hands-on, since I already have the other two.  Several of you out-of-staters suggested perhaps papier-mache, but I taught two papier-mache workshops last year (one how-to, and the other hands-on), and thought maybe it deserved a break.

 

  So I've come up with a title idea, but am not sure where I am going with it.  

Here's the working title:   'Say Yes to the Mess'.  What do you think?  

 

  My idea is that some art teachers avoid working with certain materials due to fear of mess, especially if they work on a cart.  But I feel as though art teachers have a responsibility to offer the mess, the tactile experience, and there's ways of dealing with multiple materials and cleanup that make it not so difficult.  What do you readers think?  Is this a workshop that you think will be worth offering?  Any suggestions on what I should include?  I'd love your responses, no matter what part of the world you live in!

 

 

Thanks!

One Voice United Education Rally, Albany, NY

 

Today I was in Albany, NY, first for a meeting of the NYSATA (NY State Art Teachers Association) Board of Trustees, where I serve as Rep for my region.  We took an extended lunch break to walk up the hill to the the One Voice Education Rally on the plaza of the State Capitol, sponsored by NYSUT (NY State United Teachers), where thousands of teachers, parents, students, and interested people gathered.  One news report said there were over 10,000 people, and another report said 20,000!  Either way, it was a huge crowd, all concerned about the future of education in NY state.  One of the biggest issues is the increase in high stakes testing, that has stressed both kids and teachers, and dramatically cut into teaching time.  People are making decisions about education who have never spent a day in the classroom and don't seem to care about the negative impact of these decisions.  Excessive testing does not improve learning!  Anyhow, posted here are a sampling of signs carried at the rally.  I was proud to be a part of this event.   The people carrying signs in the 2 photos directly above are members of our Board of Trustees.  The person below is a middle school art teacher from the town where I live, and was my son's art teacher when he was in middle school. 

 

Here's a view of the crowd.  The odd-shaped building to the left is 'the Egg'.  This unusual sculptural building holds a fabulous performing arts venue.

 

 The T-shirts above say 'Rage Against the Testing Machine', and were designed by an 11th grade student as part of a group project in an AP English class. The quote on the back is by Nelson Mandela.  Their group is called 40 Strong.  We spoke for a while with these impressive kids (they actually videotaped a little interview with some of us!) from a high school in Syracuse.  I'll keep my eyes open to see where their project takes them! 

 

The sign above was written and carried by a couple of high school students, particularly interested in protecting their school music program, endangered by the excessive testing.  I love that students participated so actively in this rally!