INTRODUCTION
Our school is renovating and adding on starting this summer. We have been excited, worried, packing, teaching, sweating and laughing, but there can be moments of YIKES! I never look at my husbands school calendar because his last day is earlier than mine and I have a hard time looking at our calendar because its practically July 4th.
I realized my issue with this must be Transition. Witnessing at times students struggle with transition, I understand. They are engaged, focused, exploring, playing and having to stop is well…annoying! So if I know it’s coming, maybe I could make part of it enjoyable. So I looked.
There are 15 days left in the studio and I have been in that room for 15 years! Ahhhhh……a system within the transition! Now, I can be excited to close the amazing experience and shed my old habits. Each day, for this mini documentation, 15 great things about studio will be selected and taken to the trailer to celebrate the 15 years. Hope the trailer has good lighting for its first art show!
DAY 1 June 3rd: LOCATION
Having a studio classroom in Washington DC has led us to great places of learning and being part of a larger art community. One Million Bones will be on the Smithsonian Mall June 8th. We are proud to have helped fire the Washington DC bones!Day 2 June 4th: SKETCHBOOKS
Sketchbooks for each grade level has been fantastic for practice and discovery. This was the first year I used sketchbooks with Kindergarten. I learned they really love paper in any shape and form, love to take their drawings home and struggled with managing the pages to last til June. So we will make our own and make mini-masterpieces from small paper basket. Sketchbooks will carry over for 1-5!
Day 3 June 5th: ARTIST LIBRARY
This artist library has been so useful for visual imagery, reading to them while working, learning about an artist and option to use when work is complete. I hope to update this library by labeling shelves and grouping the books in the new studio.
Day 4 June 6th: SPACE
The studio is 726 square feet and I finally simplified furniture and storage so that projects could be set up as needed & the school play back drop could be painted inside. The trailer will be 600 square feet, so I will hope to become even more skilled at editing, but not too much~we do some great work!
Day 5 June 7th: MOVEABLE
The ability to move the furniture around to accommodate a variety of projects!
Day 6 June 10th MATERIALS
The storage to house materials and create fun creatures!
Day 7 June 11th STAYING CURRENT
Showing students Contemporary art this past six weeks has been fantastic. Our new studio will honestly have better technology, but I have managed to find a way to deep our students current! This beautiful painting by Kerry James Marshall updated our visual memory of history painting. I’ll share the 2nd grade responses and ability to interpret imagery in upcoming post!
Day 8 June 12th STORAGE
These awesome grade level storage shelves will be missed but replaced!
Day 9 June 13th MEMORIES!
This sweet note from one of our ESL students was in my box this morning! He knew little English, but his Visual Language is amazing. His great memory of this studio is total sunshine!
Day 10 June 14th OPENING MESSAGE
Referring to questions rather than steps has been a real boost for students. It allows them to continue, push, reflect rather than see last step and say “I’m done!”
Paige P. Byrne 