First Blog

The name of my blog is a nod to my favorite t.v. show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Into every generation a Slayer is born...) hehe. Ah, on to the purpose of this blog. As for my experiences in high school, I probably wasn't an average student. My freshman and sophomore years were pretty much just me learning to exist in high school and not blend into the wall. My Junior and Senior years however were spent working on different projects. I was the only photographer for the yearbook for quite a while, so much of those two years were spent in the darkroom or at school events . It was nice to feel like I had a purpose those last two years. I went to Kirkwood Community College my senior year too so I was pretty busy. It was nice to feel important even if it was just for the yearbook and newspaper. I feel like most high school students now feel like they want a purpose too. Just going to classes and doing what you're told kind of gets boring at that age. To have an additional responsibility or something to work on (art for example) really helps keep the creative juices flowing and it doesn't feel like just creating artwork because its required.
I worry that I will end up talking "down" to the high school students, even when I know I don't want to. I know students are smarter than most people give them credit for. My personal goal is to talk to these students as if they were legitimate artists (which they are). I want to be straightforward and discuss things with them as if they were an adult. If you think about it high school is just practicing to go out into the real world, so I think practicing acting like an artist would be beneficial to their development.
I have a feeling I will learn to let the students go at their own pace. I keep thinking I want to steer them towards being great artists, but I don't want to push too hard and have them end up disliking art. So I guess I will go for a gentle nudge of art appreciation.
I am most excited about seeing what kind of art students are doing these days. I haven't had high school art classes for close to eight years now, so I'm wondering what has changed, if anything. I'm also excited to get used to talking about art to students, if the student is eager then it will be easier, but we will see...
The above photograph is one of my photos from when I went to the Professional Photography program at Hawkeye.
One more thing. Does anyone remember "Bob Lawblaw's Law Blog" from Arrested Development? Making this blog reminded me of it, haha.