Our last day of school was on Friday, March 13. At the time, we thought we were going to be out of school two weeks before Spring Break, and returning in early April. Students were excited to have the extra free time and I sent limited supplies home to keep motivated students working during our time off. I felt uneasy leaving my classroom that day. The idea of a global pandemic felt very surreal; although no one understood the full impact of what was to come. In the days and weeks that followed, the news was filled with talk of “social distancing”, coronavirus, quarantine and self isolation. Businesses were closed, spring break plans were cancelled, travel bans were in place and citizens were ordered to stay safe at home in an effort to “Flatten the Curve of Covid19”.
Fast forward to April 7, when JCPS introduced NTI, Non Traditional Instruction for students, using Google Classroom. The district completed the seemingly impossible (and AMAZING!) task of getting wi-fi hotspots out to students who lacked internet access at home, distributed 25,000 Chromebooks to students who needed them, and developed an online platform that was accessible to students, parents and teachers.
Although I’ve had many years of experience teaching using an online platform as a graphic design teacher, switching my thinking about how I teach visual art to online instruction was daunting. Things happened so quickly the last week of school, that we had little time to prepare students for what was to come. How could I teach students who may not have art supplies at home? How would I be able to find lessons that students could adapt to fit their supplies at home while keeping them engaged? How would I keep things simple and flexible so students could use art assignments to release stress and anxiety, instead of causing stress over deadlines?
Although I was pretty worried over all this in the beginning of NTI, I’m happy to report that my students are amazing (I already knew that!) and they continue to surprise and delight me with the artwork they have created during this time.
Check out some of their creations during the first week of NTI…enjoy!
PRP Visual Art + Design / Ms. Webb 