At the end of three weeks of distance learning I’ve produced and posted in Seesaw 19 art activities with a variety of focus and products to be produced at home by the children. Although, like most of us, I was never trained or prepared to deliver instruction to an audience over the internet, never prepared to deliver art over 5 Grade levels, 3 classes each, Grades 1 thru 5, to approximately 250 children learning from home.
The learning curve was a morning to night, day after day, no real weekends to talk about, exhausting affair. The production and delivery, while attempting to keep as close as possible to the art curriculum, was only half the battle, the other half was about devoting time in the busy planning and production schedule to provide some form of meaningful feedback to each child who posted an art product.
At the end of the first 3 weeks, with just over 600 pieces of art products posted by the children, I had responded to each one with a 1-3 sentence typed reply giving praise and encouragement. One of the rewards, is now knowing that the kids are indeed able to follow what I’ve provided them and complete a variety of tasks spanning all stages of the art creation process and show pride in their work. The REAL reward, and most significant of ALL the rewards, will be to one day, hug every single child walking back into that Art Room and cherish every single smile face to face!
William ‘Chip’ Doehring,
Elementary Art Teacher
