Some of you may have noticed that the number of blog posts dropped off towards the second part of this year. I do apologize for that. I meet every other week with 2 of my art teacher colleagues in a professional development group. We share student work, teaching strategies and design lessons and assessments together. This year we decided to work on printmaking. We all teach a bit of it, but not a ton of it. The kids really love using the equipment so we decided to try to learn more and expand their skills. Best practices in art education are to expose children to a wide range of materials and techniques- so we are trying to broaden our range. I wrote and was awarded a grant to take a printmaking course online through “The Art of Education” a group that designs PD especially for art teachers. I also wrote and received a grant to purchase non-consumable printmaking supplies for Hale Elementary. So we have some bench hooks, fish for gyotaku printing, gelli printing plates, burnishers and several other “non-consumable” pieces of equipment.

I have never been very good at printmaking, so I was excited to take this class and improve my skills! So, that is exactly what I have been doing in the evenings and weekends- learning new printmaking skills that hopefully will help me teach your children more types of printmaking next year!

I am almost done- we have 3 more weeks left of the class. I really have learned a lot! We have done Gelli Printing, Collagraph Printmaking, Linoleum block printmaking, and explored alternative processes. I am learning how to be a student again and I love it! I am definitely NOT an expert at printmaking! It is hard- there is a lot of backwards thinking because everything you do on a printing plate prints in reverse. It can also be very unpredictable because there are so many variables: type of ink, type of paper, how much ink you use, how wet/dry it is, how well you burnish to transfer the ink, how many layers, etc. it really is endless!

I just thought you might like to know that teachers really never are done learning! I hope to be able to take more classes like this in the future. It has been really fun to do something I am not very good at and be a student again! So if any of you were wondering why I have not kept up with the blog as frequently as last year- I really apologize. I have been doing my homework and trying to find a way to squeeze more minutes from the day!!

1 thought on “Katy’s Printmaking class

  1. Katy – this sounds wonderful! Thanks for going for a grant that will enhance your enjoyment and your teaching strategies!
    Cindy

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