Snakes

I love reptiles and amphibians. My students were excited, thinking I’d actually bring a snake to class. I wish!

The previous week, I had mentioned using digital programs to tweak one's art. One student had asked for more information about that, as she wasn't too familiar with digital programs. So this week I brought in my computer to demonstrate I decided to set up the TV for that, so I also used the TV for the rest of the lessons. 

I showed them some programs I use (Krita, Graphiter, BeFunky). Of course, my computer was being slow and didn't want to cooperate (one reason I'm glad I've made myself less dependent on technology for this class). Then we did our lesson on reptiles and amphibians, some time to draw, some time on the extra lesson, then break, and lesson on fish. We finished that second lesson by 7:10.

There was just no energy, no give and take, no responses to what I was saying, they didn't talk to each other. Like I said, I saw them writing things down, and occasionally someone asked a follow up, so I know they weren't just.....checked out. Plus I would hope an adult would just leave if they didn't want to be there. :)

So it's 7:10, and I'm like...........I can't do 35 minutes of quiet and periodically getting up to say "looking good!" In a class of 6-8, I spend a lot of time on feedback, but two is much trickier.

In Week 4, we actually have two extra lessons that can take up a lot of time. So I said, "hey, we have time, we can move one of those lessons to this week and that means when we meet back up in two weeks, we'll have more time for plants. What do you think?"

We did the lesson on composition, which is one of my favorites. We get to talk about paintings! It went so well when I had only two students attend that day in the previous day! But same as before. Just no interactions. Waaaay too much nervous laughter from me.

So for the last twenty minutes of class, I hunkered down and drew.