Goals

Recently, I posted some of my goals for the Byron Middle School Art program and my next assignment involves me sharing my progress, what steps I have taken, what steps I need to take, what barriers I expect to run into and how (if possible) will I overcome these barriers.

To recap, the three goals that I have set for myself are:

1. Initiate a BMS student art exhibit.

2. Begin an Art Club at the middle school level.

3. Host a summer Art Camp for students at the middle school level.

1. Middle School Art Exhibit: One barrier I continue to battle with in regards to coordinating a BMS student art exhibit is that I do not see all students at once.  It has been difficult to have an all-school art show, because I do not want to hold all of the artwork from hex (or quarter) one when there will not be a show until hex 5 (or quarter 4).  

I have begun showing student work within each hex - I currently have work displayed for all of the middle school classes I teach (one fifth grade class, one sixth grade class and one seventh grade class).  I would still like to find other ways to display student work, perhaps in conjunction with other programs in the school (our elementary art teacher shows student work during music concerts, for example).  The struggle with this, again, is that not all students will have work shown, and maybe that is okay...

I think my next step with this goal is to speak with other middle school art teachers and see what they have done in their schools - find out what has worked, or not worked so well for them.  Over the summer months I would like to have a more firm plan in mind as to what I would like to do for art shows.

2. Middle School Art Club: I have been doing some research online (art blogs!) which is what lead to create this goal for BMS.  I plan to continue this research and formulate a plan of what I want our own art club to look like.  My next step(s) will be to talk to our principal, possibly take it to the school board (if necessary), and create a schedule, sign-up sheet, permission slip, projects, etc.  

I think my biggest barrier with this goal is going to be time!  Coordinating my time availability with students may be difficult and then just making the time for the club on a weekly basis.  I think the demand will be there, I just have to put the pieces together to make it work the best for BMS.

3. Summer Art Camp: I feel that the barriers and steps for this goal are very similar to that of my previous goal.  My next step is definitely going to be to research and begin building a proposal for this to become an option for our students.  I have not looked into this one quite as much as the others, so I will have a lot of work to do. :-)

I am excited to see what will come of these fantastic art opportunities for our middle school students!!