Having been both a recent student, and now a teacher candidate, it has come to my attention so clearly now that in this time of teaching, engagement is hard. From the rise of technology-dependence to Covid-19 creating literal and social distance, it's been difficult to get students excited about learning as well as creating.

What do we do?

The images below are all from a project I worked on with Gifted and Talented students from the Brunswick Junior High School in Brunswick, Maine. The project was called Adventures in Art, and myself and a colleague created a collaborative, multi-media art experience for the students using coffee, ink, and charcoal. The students learned about the materials they were using, the basic definition(s) of abstract expressionism, and how to create collaborative work. I felt confident in our idea because I knew materials like these were naturally messy, chaotic and unpredictable at best--and the students loved using that to their advantage. In this case, the teacher standards content knowledge and planning for instruction were necessary for this lesson to work. I knew the materials and the ideas they were referencing well enough to structure the project with my partner, and I scaffolded the lesson along the way with a material-play worksheet, the introduction of new tools (bigger brushes, bamboo pens) and conversational feedback throughout the making. Everyone knew they could ask me for more or different materials, and I could tell the difference between students who were contemplating further moves versus ones who felt finished.