Authors Night with TMALS

One of my favorite parts of teaching art is working with a school for more than a year. I get to see the children grow and as they develop I get  to witness the influence that teaching them about art has on their lives as students. 
I have been working with Thurgood Marshall lower academy for 4 or 5 years now and most of the students I currently teach I have known since Kindergarten (two of them I knew in pre-k because I had taught at Mary Walton Early Childhood Center and they now attend TMALS). 

I am so proud of all of my students and hope they know throughout their lives I will always remember the time we spent and cherish the art and memories we made together. 
This collection of photos is from their recent culmination event the school holds every year called, Authos Night. 

All of the classes pick an author and/or an illustrator to feature and display their research, art and ideas. This year I displayed the magazines that the students developed with me during the 8 weeks. 

During the 8 weeks we looked at the Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art exhibit at the Studio Museum in Harlem and I broke down the three weeks into 7 lessons that encouraged discussion around magazines (the 8th week was used to complete, fix and/or edit their magazines). 

We discussed the use of magazines, their covers, content and images. We talked about how contemporary artists use magazines for art, how politicians use magazines for political advertisements and marketers develop product advertisements. We discussed articles and the differences between fact and fiction. We did research on famous African Americans, wrote brief bios and designed fashion and advertising ads. 

At the end, every student had their very own magazine to reflect upon filled with information, facts, opinions, ideas and art. I always am very excited and happy to see them open their magazines and remember the work that they made. It was a great school year!