Article Review 12

Monster Mash: Learning Real-World Skills in a Creature-Creating Art Class

Article Review:

This was a really fun and entertaining article about a high school art class that has been changed into a special effects warehouse. The article tells the story of Mr.Bycznski’s art class at Berea High School in Berea, Ohio. Students who are enrolled in the class are given complete freedom over the projects they wish to pursue, and with each subsequent year that the student is part of the class, the requirements for their work are raised. Oftentimes, the work that the students are doing in the class has them interacting with businessmen and women in the local community - supplying them with everything from hand-sculpted statues to the graphic design layout of their business logo. As the instructor points out to the students on their first in class, the purpose of the class is not so much to teach the students about art as it is about teaching them to be problem solvers. The students’ response to the class has been overwhelmingly positive, and many of the students interviewed talk about their appreciation for the freedom involved with the class and the creativity that is expected of them.

Response to Article:

I found this article to be very inspiring. All too often, I think it is easy to be coaxed into the idea that our classrooms must be like everyone else's. I'm scared to think that I may fall into modeling my class after every other biology class I've ever taken - with the teacher lecturing every day and the students taking notes intently. This article is a prime example of a teacher bringing the outside world into the classroom in order to make the material relevant and entertaining. As a future biology teacher, I hope that I might be able to do the same thing with certain projects in my own class. For example, having the students help the city with a wetland renewal project or having them help the local university take a species inventory of the local arboretum could be invaluable learning experiences for the student. High school teachers, like most other instructors, have a tendency to think that their academic lessons must exist separate from the real world. In order to have students remember the lessons they have learned, teachers need to make them relevant to the real world and to the students’ lives.