my sometimes day job

I have been working though out the school year on a really fun project involving printmaking, middle schoolers and my favorite art teacher Kristen Andersen.  Kristen and I collaborated together on the Alphabet Project.  The goal of this project was to have each student contribute 2 letters to our alphabet. As part of an ongoing effort to improve the vocabulary of our students, Principle Maria Libby and Literacy Coach Michelle Gabrielsen have been working to introduce grade academic vocabulary (GAV) throughout the year.  In a spring celebration at the school, we will be using the letters created in our yearlong project to highlight as many of the words as possible in a temporary installation in the school’s main corridor. 

Students learned various methods of printmaking throughout the year.  We covered gelatin prints, linoleum prints, collographs and monotypes with collage.  The students learned about illuminated manuscripts, transferring their images in reverse, the use of printing tools and a printing press, positive and negative space, color theory and texture.  For a student exhibit this week at the CMCA, we chose to spell out words inspired by the creativity we see in the students everyday in the classroom.

The Alphabet Project was funded through a grant from Youth Arts, a non-profit organization I am involved with here in Maine.