Two new after-school classes have been
created in hopes of expanding students’
opportunities to discover subjects they find
intriguing. It also allows students a preview
of some future course offerings.
Photography
The after-school photography program is offered to all middle school students. The program is led by Caberbe Joseph, who typically teaches Photo 1, 2 and AP to high school students.
“(It’s) a good opportunity to give them a new class that they never tried before.” Joseph said.
Since it is not an official elective photography class, many students use their phone cameras. The focus of the class is not about high-tech usage but about the composure of objects.
“They are learning simple angles, how to take a photo and then how to get closer and pay attention to a little bit of detail,” Joseph said.
For many middle school students, this is the first time they are thinking about the deeper concepts of photography and learning the fundamental skills.
“I like the editing app he taught us,” eighth grader Charlotte Roemer said. “It was really cool to understand it, and I like that we can partner up and take creative pictures.”
The program also introduces middle school students to high school electives, allowing them them to have a unique experience that they typically have to wait until high school to have.
“The excitement that they had with it,” Joseph said. “They get to come to this room for the first time, sitting in front of a Mac with computers, and then they get to interact, and then they get to see the photo on a larger scale versus (how) they see it on the phone.”
Students are able to see their end result after they have gone through the whole process of photography.
“They’re very excited when … I print the photos, and they get to see it (actually) come to life,” Joseph said.
The after-school program also allows for students to be introduced to high school electives that they might want to take later on.
“I think it’s a good way to see if you want to do it in high school or not,” Roemer said. “I think it’s fun if you want to learn more about it. I think it would be a good course to take in high school, especially if me and my friends do it, I think it would be really fun.”
Zentangles
Zentangles is a type of art that is considered mindful doodling. The goal of Zentangles is to relax the brain and not put the typical pressure of art onto participants. Unlike most high-level art, Zentangles can be enjoyed by artists of any skill level. Zentangles is being incorporated into campus life by Fine Arts Teacher Irina Ashcraft, and she hopes it will become an after-school program after she hosts workshops, so
students can learn more about it. The goal of the after-school program is to give students a designated time to calm their brains and make creative art in the process.
Not only is Zentangles calming to students, but it is also easy to get the hang of, which helps eliminate the stress that can occur with learning new art techniques.
“It’s like an abstract design, so to speak,” Ashcraft said. “(The technique is) called step out, so you can look up Zentangle directions,
and for each of these tangles, it will tell you step out or step-by-step directions. They don’t have words, so language is not a barrier.”
Zentangles allows each student to put their own touch on the abstract piece, depending on how they interpret each mark.
“The cool thing is when you do something that is similar, everybody comes out with a slightly different outcome,” Ashcraft said. “It’s kind of like everybody (having) their own handwriting.”
Zentangles is also about uniting artistic differences and their various techniques. At the end of the process, students put all of their pieces together to form one big mosaic.
“Somebody has a heavier hand, somebody shades more, somebody adds smaller parts, like size, shapes,” Ashcraft said. “So it just sort of becomes really cool to see how it comes together.”
