The last day of school before Holiday break is always a most exciting one. We usually have a host of activities for students to do as we celebrate the end of the calendar year and the promise of great things to come in the next. It is also one of my favorite times because it is the day the Scholastic Art Awards are announced for my region and I get to share with students which were selected and recognized by professionals in the field for Gold or Silver keys and Honorable Mentions. 

You see, the Scholastic Awards are unlike other programs out there. They are not a place where everyone gets a ribbon for just showing up. They are a competition where student work goes through a process of a blind jury and awarded based on skill, voice, and originality. The program also carries with it the prestige of past winners who have gone on to be movers and shakers in the industry (like Truman Capote (1932), Richard Avedon (1941), Andy Warhol (ca. 1945), Sylvia Plath (1947), Robert Redford (1954) and Zac Posen (1998)). 

So, it is kind of a big deal. 

I have submitted student work for the past 7 years and have been fortunate enough to spend each Friday before break sharing the exciting news of the selections with them. I feel like this year, though, I also have to include my PLN in the mix. Without their help, some of these entries would not have been possible. They helped push me as a teacher and spur ideas that inspired my students to go beyond the usual solutions and allow them to shine with award winning pieces. 

From Katherine Douglas' encouragement to put choice at the center of curriculum, the wacky and wonderful Photoshop ideas from the creative mind of Ian Sands, the captivating ways Tricia Fuglestad gets her kids to collaborate and tell stories with new media, to the traditional methods with a twist from Colleen Rose, there are countless ways these educators and many others through Facebook and Twitter have pushed me to push my students in new directions which has yielded award-winning results. 

I want to thank them for their help as I celebrate the winners from BCWMS. I hope they share in the success as much as we do when they look at the work below and find their influence: 

Life of a Fish, by Hallie Baker and Kiersten Woudstra

Rock, Paper, Scissors, by Cody Boogaart, Tyler Wall, and Tyler Toren

I am not an avid fan or regular watcher of the TV comedy skit series Portlandia. I am, however, a huge fan of the "Put a Bird on It" skit. When I first saw it earlier this summer, I laughed out loud at the repetitive suggestion that the simple placement of a bird would make anything into instantly whimsical or beautiful art. Maybe it was because I have seen this "birds on things" phenomena for years at craft shows and independent shops, or maybe it is because I have even resorted to similar solutions in my own work as an artist and teacher. 

Ever since the NAEA convention in March, I have been doing some major rethinking of how curriculum shapes what students learn and how I pretty much have complete power to turn that into anything I want it to be. If I wanted, I could instruct my students to put a bird on it and all of my students would put their birds on things in the same exact way. Now, as whimsical or beautiful as that might be to an outside observer, it really isn't what Art Education should be or should teach students that it is. The "artists" in the skit have great intentions with their placement of birds, but in the end it all goes terribly wrong; if I provide the art solutions to my students by using the same old symbols and methods, then I am taking away their ability to creatively solve it in their own way and making them rely on me for the answers to questions that have indeterminate solutions.

I also recently participated in a conversation on Twitter that led to this exchange that seems to reinforce the feelings I have been having towards teaching Art for a while:

It was once Ian Sands posted this article by Nan E. Hathaway  on Facebook, that I decided to write this post. This article is a good springboard to conversations that are really asking what Visual Arts classes have been teaching vs. what they should be teaching. I am still working my way through how to give my students instruction without overriding their own creative inclinations. I am working through how to provide quality production of works for competition, exhibitions, and displays that is student-centered, student-directed, and in the end looks "good." It is tough to give up control, but in many cases it was when I was willing to give students options that the best work was made. 

How do you structure your curriculum to avoid the "Put a Bird on It" solutions? How do you avoid the same old solutions and instead promote divergent thinking in the classroom? I am foraging for ideas and would be interested on how you address this in your classroom.

Today was the announcement of the West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing winners. I have been fortunate to teach art for the past 9 years and have been participating in this competition for the last 6. Each year, I pour over student work and try to think like the jury will before selecting the best 20 to be judged in a variety of categories. 

This year, I was a little worried about how we would do. We received 19/20 last year and I thought there was little to no chance of topping it. And of course, I am probably the only one who even cares about doing that. For my students, they don't care about what the art program has done in the past (nor should they), they only care about what is happening now and what I am doing to help them learn, grow, and achieve. 

And although we did not get 19 awards like last year (I am not sure we will ever do that well again), I was more excited about what was earned than any previous year. It might be because we achieved the first American Vision Award for our middle school, or the fact that there were a couple students who won multiple awards, but I am probably most excited because the work that won was truly unique pieces created by my students and not handed down from me. 

In each case, the work is purely the point of view of the student who created it. I may have showed them a technique, or introduced an influencing artist or movement along the way, but ultimately the students are the ones making the choices for how and what they want to say with their work. This is what I have found the most exciting take away from this year's competition. 

I don't want to knock what other art teachers do (because I do this, too), but I hope to push myself beyond a one size fits all product at the end and allow more choice and student voice in the process. I am trying to do that more and more with each lesson and not to the expense of Art History or technique. 

Just see for yourself by checking out our 2013 winners below: 

How do you handle choice in your classroom? Do you participate in the Art and Writing Awards? Post any links to student winners or lessons that relate.