Been invited to talk to some highschool art classes

[Masato]

Hey guys, through various contacts I've recently been asked to come participate in some kind of event where different artists come and give talks/presentations to highschool art classes.

I've been scheduled to talk with Grade 10/11/12 Photography students and 'art' students (whatever that means).

I've never done any sort of public speaking before. I asked what topics or themes they wanted me to discuss, they said it was open. I am guessing the idea is to inspire arts-minded students to have confidence that they can follow it and continue developing their skills, but there is so much more to being an artist imo than this...

What should I talk about?

I have a few ideas, but wanted to know if anyone here had some ideas too, maybe a fresh angle on things. I always really see good education of children and young people to be an invaluable part of society... I have a chance to get some ideas into some heads, and I don't take such an opportunity lightly.

Mostly, I think I just need to be talked out of using this opportunity to start laying down conspiracy lore to them, lol. Watch me get escorted by the cops :)

[Masato]

OK I'm back.

did 3 classes, all the same teacher (media arts/computer arts)

That school was AWESOME, man.. The room I was in had a full computer lab with new Mac computers, all the kids knew how to photoshop etc. The school had a whole art 'wing', with kilns and ceramics studios, woodworking studios, they even had a stop-motion studio.

Amazingly, according to the teacher and my own quick perceptions, only about 20% of them gave a fuck. Fascinating.

The first 2 classes were grades 11/12, so I put together a little slide show talking about things I've learned going to art school and trying to make a living off it, the things I've seen my ex-classmates do since college etc - try to find some inspiring words, you know my ideas about creativity

The last class was a Grade 10 class, and the teacher thought my speech might be a bit above them. So we brainstormed what we could do and I did...

you guessed it -

A SHOOP CLASS!! lolol

I introduced the concept of it and explained how easy it is to do. I even showed them some 'Shoop that incredulous Cormier' gifs, lol.

SOME of the kids were into it. I would say there were 3 that really got on the idea and could see the potential for fun and creativity. These 3 wanted to attempt a GIF, which I was not sure was gonna work, lol

My plan was to wait until the last 20 minutes, and then whatever they had I would show them how to collapse the frames and export as a GIF.

Then I discovered they were all using Photoshop ELEMENTS, and not straight Photoshop.

All the features you need to make GIFS are not part of the software.

SHit. :D

But the kids oddly did not seem down about it, they started coming up with other ideas of how they could export the frames. The teacher and I thought for those kids that were really making something it could be a challenge to figure out, try to learn how to make a GIF themselves, we just got them started.

A good 30% of the kids just didn't give a shit and were playing video games etc. This could be my inability to give attention and help each one, but its weird they just kind of disappear and I figured 'let's focus on the ones who are getting it'. Not sure if this is right or not. I only had an hour, but it brings up lots of questions of how to be a teacher, what's the best way to think of it?

These kids have access to so much great stuff, but most just see it as another grade they have to chase. I am also of the understanding that not enough attention/funds is given to hire the right teachers to make USE of all the infrastructure. The teacher I was working with is a great teacher but put in charge of things she admitted was not her field. Apparently they had a great computer arts teacher but he was fired because of 'low numbers' in his classes.

I'm telling you, with the right expert teachers that high school could compete with any art college, those kids would be in such an awesome environment. And they don't see it, they don't understand how privileged they are :(

Teaching is a tough job to do really well I think.

Interesting experience for sure.

[Edge Guerrero]

- I worked(for free, how they call still work?) helping at the school more than a decade ago, it's was very cool.
But i wond't doo that today, look like today kids(here), have diferent education(or lack thereof).

Very cool of you'r part Masato.

And yes teaching it's a tough job, and some kid's only see this as another class, they don't see how lucky they are for having acess to art classes.
It's the old saying, we only give valor to something whem we lost that thing.