Anoka High School - Kevan Nitsberg | Art Teacher - 10 Hours
This week was my final week at Anoka High School. I got to see the start to some amazing concepts to the students emotive self-portraits. One girl had the idea of showing her feelings toward her twin sister, and portrayed this concept into the card of a queen. She would be connected to her sister and coloring it with colored pencil. I also had a conversation with two other girls in the classroom that wanted to use color to express different emotions. I told them my knowledge of ‘colorology’ and the different emotions each color can portray. I hope to go back and visit when they finish their emotive self-portraits to see the final outcome.
On Friday the thirteenth the Anoka High School had planned a field trip to the Walker Art Center. I was one of the chaperons and in addition I have been working with the Walker as a teaching artist student. Kevan has a student teacher, so her and I paired up with group four. The students were active in answering the questions on the tour and showed their knowledge about art history. After the tour, the students had time of their own to walk around and look at the rest of the museum. I had a conversation with an advanced level student who expressed to me their interest in Art History. I was surprised to hear that someone was interested in that area of study, I don’t hear it too often from high school students. I explained to her the program of the Art History minor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Then I told her my story of how struggled with history classes in high school and and found that as they incorporated art into an history aspect, It clicked right away. She agreed with me. I asked them if they knew Hitler was an artist and they replied with a no. I advised them to watch “The rape of Europa.” Its a great documentary explaining World War two and its involvement with art.
My experience at Anoka was great, I hope I have more opportunities to go back.