Quality vs Quantity

I am starting to get a little flustered by how much and how faced paced the art classes go here. I was a little frustrated this afternoon because Year 8 is continuing to work on their Mombassa pieces and Tarryn is trying to cram in an aboriginal unit before she leaves at the end of next week. So she rushed my Year 8 students to finish up their Mombassa pieces, not allowing me the opportunity to demonstrate how to transfer their sketches to ink drawings, so those turned out horribly. I don't blame Tarryn, she has been planning this very cool unit on aboriginal art and since she's a casual she hasn't had the time to do it, but I definitely was not happy that the students were rushed. We've worked out a plan so that she can do her unit, but I definitely am having my students scratch those ink drawings and start over properly tomorrow.

The HSE Markers arrived today to mark year 12's portfolios. I was super impressed by the depth and quality of one student's work. I've included his artist statement along with his work below. It was fascinating.

I had the opportunity to talk to a few year 9 students as they burnished their pots. The conversation ranged from politics in America and Australia, to rednecks and bogans, university in Australia compared to America, Trump, gun laws, etc. I was most interested in their opinions on the uni experience here versus the US. They say that you go to uni to get your degree and there's not really the college experience like in the US.