I redid my curriculum last year and find myself already back at the drawing board (no pun intended) as I project myself into next year. When I first took the job the default class was Studio Art I and II. Unfortunately, no one ever seemed to progress to Studio Art II.

Now, I teach four classes: Ceramics, Intro to Painting, Drawing from Observation and Art & Design Technology. However, as it stands now, I’m really considering collapsing the first three into the traditional Art I, Art II, Art III and Art IV (AP?) structure.

I broke the skills out after believing I’d get students with a more clear perspective on what they would be learning and that would help focus them on learning-specific skills towards a more specific goal (vs. the generalized goals in a survey course). Well, I’m not so sure that was a wise move after having interacted with my urban student population (who exhibit little to no prior knowledge with art) during these past few years.

I’ll lay out a few ideas in the coming posts; however, in the interim, I would love to hear how some other art teachers implement their programs. What do you cover in Art I, II and III? What do you call those types of classes at your school?

So, until next time.