Poster-ing

Prints.  Or You, Me and Codie’s Wrapped Truck.

Yesterday, I was reading a post in the Canadian PLP forum.  There’s been loads of discussion around students creating/understanding their digital footprints.  Well, that got my wheels turning.  

About eight weeks ago in Visual Art, while my students were discovering installation art, as well as looking at how place effects both how and why we learn, the students studied the work of Christo and Jean Claude.  (The Running Fence makes my list of top ten favorite art pieces, but only if I’m not including art created by my daughter or by my students.)  After we had played with the notion of wrapping entire trees, skyscrapers and islands, some of my grade 12s wanted to wrap their friend, Codie’s, truck.  I felt that was an idea oozing potential.  So, this week, as we were launching a brief powers-that-be-imposed-mini-project, I took the opportunity to further the students’ understanding of sketchbook-brain-work, Vis Art style. 

Our first and easiest connection, a dictionary and a look at the phrase “wrapping Codie’s truck.”  45 minutes later the kids filled three side-by-side white boards with little help from me.  Before them was the answer to the jumping off point, how to visually represent “wrapping Codie’s truck.”  The kids were freak out, disturbed, rejuvenated, exhausted, and ready to begin the brainwork for the (cough, cough) poster project looming before them…

Day two:  I offered the jumping off phrase for the next project, but the word ‘poster’ seemed to stump them.  2D.  Flat.  Rectangle.  Oh, and some dull, un-visual dictionary definitions were added. 

I offered, Cori (me). 

 “What, you’re not a poster.”

 Hmm, “Really?” 

 Then, like a delicious mystery, things really began to get sticky.  The list of Whats & Hows oozed out: “Identity, Facebook, blogs, cell conversations, texts, oh, and tweets.  Ok, we are walking talking posters.  Even our choice not to talk is poster.”

So, how and why do you ‘poster?’