Art I Connections: Meditating for Creativity
November 1st marks Art I's third consecutive week of Workshop Wednesday themed meditations. Students have been enjoying 35 minutes to creatively reflect, relax, and breathe through their stresses, accomplishments, and to-do lists (For our seniors, that list keeps growing).
Our first week, we began with a look at commitment. Yes Prep students and, consequently Brays Oaks students, are constantly pushed to commit to their education, after all the Yes Prep mission is:
I believe that in order to truly commit to such a huge expectation, a college-ready skill our student's must perceive before leaving us for their college careers, is the ability to self-regulate, self-meditate, relieve stress in a healthy and creative way. Studies over the past ten years have shown that my investment in meditation as a college-ready skill are not off base either; in fact, they're crucial to lowering stress, heightening testing potential, and confronting misbehavior or distractions for struggling teenagers. At the base, we're just trying to get our students to the point where they're comfortable expressing themselves in an applied and creative way.
As we all know, one of the most marketable skills for those about to apply for college and eventually join the workforce, regardless of occupation, is a creative mind. Understandably, this is why for our second week of meditation, our theme was creativity and problem solving. A lot of the time, students who come into Art I aren't completely sold on the purpose of my class, or art education. Making the connections for students who have rarely had exposure to art makership can be a pretty deep challenge; joining my class and the problem solving aspect of creating, taking the time to reflect on how we're thinking instead of constantly cranking out a new painting or drawing, often fills those voids in understanding why "art matters". It also makes for better work on the next project.
"You feel more relaxed and ready for your day...it opens your creativity. I go to my next class more focused," says Luis,11th grade, after his second meditation class.
Even with one week left in our Workshop Wednesday Meditation series, I am feeling at least a little change within my students. First of all, when they come into class and see the yoga mats out, they're so pumped (only time will tell if it's because lying down in class means, as my high school self would likely agree, siesta time!). Usually they're excited to keep learning, but switching up the class structure has been of huge benefit to myself and my students. Second of all, our current unit--Value--has been a still life drawing study of charcoal, graphite, and student choice of cross-hatching or stippling. For anyone who spends several days drawing anything, especially in a classical fashion, you can vouch that it is exhausting and at some points, extremely frustrating! Put simply, non-drawing days during our Value unit are our snow days! Variation is the key to engaging and encouraging students throughout any unit, and though our projects are not quite finished (they're due Thursday for critique), these are some killer products! Like I feel like the best art teacher for all these successful pieces...at the same time, I have to give due credit to our Meditation series for creating such fabulous investment.
This third week of our meditation series, we will be engaging in a Mind-full Mindfulness Meditation, no less with a little Halloween candy involved. Stay tuned to see what the results are!