Central Schools welcomed Ashley Williams to the Middle/High School Art room in the 2020-2021 school year. Ashley has been a breath of fresh air and instrumental in securing the ongoing underpass mural community project with the City of NYA. Ms. Williams has been teaching for a year and a half coming to us from Shakopee High School where she was a long term substitute teaching ceramics and design fundamentals.
Ms. Williams favorite part about teaching art is seeing students creative ideas! "I leave room for lots of student choice in my curriculum so seeing students express themselves through their art always amazes me! This also allows me to get to know my students better and find out what their interests and passions are."
"I try to incorporate as much ‘TAB” centered projects and units as I can. In the future I would like to incorporate even more into the curriculum. “TAB” stands for “teaching artistic behaviors.” It is one of the newest forms of art based instructions that is being used across the country. The TAB art education concept allows students opportunities to take ownership of their art experiences from idea generation to completion with the teacher acting as a classroom manager, environmental designer, art expert, facilitator, and student mentor. The tab concept leads to higher student engagement, creative ideas, and problem solving. Which is beneficial for students in all future career paths and endeavors!"
In addition to teaching high school art, Ms. Williams also teaches middle school art classes. The ultimate goal for middle school art classes is for students to feel more creative and confident in their art making abilities. We do a wide variety of projects that allow students to explore different mediums and learn to creatively problem solve as they navigate through each project and material. I am a firm believer that the process of creating is just as important as the final product.
- 6th graders are working on a loom knitting unit, each student created their own loom out of a toilet paper roll and we use yarn to create knitted chains.
- 7th grade students are currently working on chalk landscape drawings- for the project students use dyed black glue to outline the drawing to create a resist/border to hold the chalk colors in place.
- 8th grade students are finishing up a string art project where they created their own parabolic design and use embroidery string to thread the design.
Upcoming middle school art projects:
- 6th grade will be starting clay soon- which is usually student’s favorite unit of the year! They will be making animal pinch pots!
- 7th graders will be working on a Zentangle unit, which is one of my favorite projects to teach. We marble paper for the background and student’s are always amazed by the process and outcome!
- 8th grade is starting grid drawing and with this project I usually see the most “Aha” moments from students. I have them take a step back and really look at their drawing and analyze how far their skills have progressed over the years
