As a major art project, the 8th graders made life-sized cutouts of themselves based on photos they took. And then, using magazines, they added color to those cutouts by tearing out color pictures they found in the magazines and glued them onto their cutouts. The cutouts were displayed at the Youth Art show that happened last weekend, and yesterday, the art teacher asked the students to spread their cutouts throughout campus in places they thought might look good.
Two students asked me if they could put their cutout in my room. They placed it in a colorless corner in my room, directly across from my desk, so when I look up I can see their little cardboard/magazine faces. It’s been making me smile all day, seeing them in my class again, seeing their hard work and their artistry so near. It’s SUCH a cool project, too. And it took the kids such a long time to make. I absolutely fell in love with the cutouts at the art show and was SO thrilled that some kids wanted to put it in my room.
And then another pair of kids came in looking to put their in my room. And then another. And then another. And then another. So now, in my room, I am surrounded by my kids and their art and it is the most amazing classroom. It makes me so happy to see their faces and it feels like they’re here with me. I just adore the 8th graders (and the 7th graders too, don’t worry, my dear students) and it feels so cool to have them kind of “here” with me still. I wish I could pack up these projects and take them with me to New York. I’ll try to take photos of these projects and put them up here so you can see what they look like and understand why I love them so much (the projects and the kids.)
