School Projects for Mesa Linda Middle School:

Sadly, I hadn’t thought to take photos of a lot of student art work this year due to the level of disciplinary issues we have had. Quite a bit of work fell victim to graffiti and student sabotage, or was torn off the walls occasionally. Quite a bit of work had a penis crudely drawn on it, or had curse words or the “N” word drawn and scrawled on it.

Quite a bit of student art work was simply thrown away upon students receiving their work back. I did have engaging lessons involving pencils, colored pencils, crayons, paints, and once clay. Sadly all the clay was stolen within two days and students were throwing it at each other in the school yard or filling the classroom locks with clay as a prank. I had to stop that immediately.

Students have had extensive lessons in pencil drawing, with hatching and cross-hatching being taught, various methods of blending and using colored pencils. Students have learned some watercolor and acrylic tempura painting skills. Students briefly had a lesson in using clay, again, before all the clay was stolen mid week.

Students have learned rudimentary perspective drawing skills, the basics of the elements of art, and some principles of design. Classroom rules and basic being decent humans skills were emphasized on an almost weekly basis, with some manners and life skills thrown in, as students learned to initially clean up after themselves, push in their chairs, and watch their language.

Sadly, Seasonal Art Work done by the students, and put up for display, was often torn down either by students, or later the janitorial staff. I often got an earful from the janitorial staff because I left artwork up, “Beyond the day of the event” and they threw out the artwork.

We had a nice Black History Month display which was promptly taken down because the “N” word was scrawled over a bit of it and the janitors took it down and threw it out. I got an earful from them to take my work down after the day of the event…considering that it is Black History Month, and not Day…