Landscape, Art, and Ecology

Teaching Strategies

Reminders of procedures, routines, and safety habits can never be over-emphasized.  Everything that is to be done well and eventually expected of students, needs to be taught, modeled, and repeated.  All those procedures were once new to everyone.³⁰ We might forget it sometimes, but everything that we do was new to even the most accomplished teachers at one point. 

As with so many things in education, my first words of advice are not to get discouraged.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  Although my classes are used to some level of discussion at the beginning of every project and the beginning of most classes, I will be aiming to go a bit deeper into these discussions.  Even though every project has some element of other disciplines, I will be making an intentional effort to go even deeper into making a cross curricular connection through this unit. 

We all, at some level, resist changes to our routines and ways of thinking and adding another task, routine, or procedure to any practice can feel like a cumbersome uphill battle.  Coordinating and distributing the physical supplies of art making can alone become a major task and now we are adding yet another layer to the process.  I implore you not to get too stressed or entangled with the specifics and to let the class discussions steer your instruction within the framework of the unit.  Leaning into what my students are enthusiastic about has rarely ever led to anything other than a greater ‘buy in’ and excitement around the project.  I encourage experimentation but also suggest keeping to a schedule and working within the predetermined frame. 

If I am able to procure sketchbooks again, we will be using those for our daily documentation of progress.  This will include notes, drawings, and any other pertinent information and planning exercises.  The sketchbooks will be used as a tool for reference and not a finished product.  I always try to make sure that I am de-emphasizing that these need to be ‘pretty pictures’ or finished pieces.  I like to think of the act of keeping a sketchbook is just documentation of our research in a way that is easy to look back on and reference.  During regular warmups, I will remind students that this is similar to a musician warming up with scales or an athlete warming up before going into play.  What we do as a warmup or during discussion is not to be viewed, in any way, as a polished product for display, but rather as a reference and practice material for the bigger project.