Anxiety

Tomorrow three of my students are going to the state level of the Governor's Honor Program interview. For those of you unfamiliar, the Governor's Honor Program (GHP) is a highly competitive summer program for high school sophomores and juniors. Students are nominated in different subject areas and interview at the school, county, and then state level before being selected to participate in the 6 week summer program at Valdosta State. As such, it is a very prestigious honor to be selected. Art students have to not only interview well, but also submit a portfolio and take a written exam as well.

I nominated four junior girls this year and all four went on from their school interviews to the county level. From there, three girls continued and are interviewing tomorrow morning at Pebblebrook High School. They have been working very hard outside of class assignments to build their portfolio and have stayed after school one day each week since the end of November to review material and fine tune art pieces.

I know they are prepared well. I know they will do great, but I am still very anxious about their interviews. Even though they are the ones interviewing, I guess I feel like their performance is a reflection on my teaching capabilities. I mean .... it is. So I'm anxious.

Since I'm the only art teacher at my school and I don't get to really meet with the other high school teachers in my county, I sometimes feel like I'm in a vacuum. I think my students' work is good, maybe even really good-- but compared to who? So I have been trying to enter them in a series of student shows.... expose them to other high school artists. The Scholastic Arts Show was this fall and I had one student win a certificate of merit-- which sounds like a participation award, but not everyone who entered got one, so it's still kind of a big deal. I had another student (one of my GHP girls) win a certificate of merit and a Silver Key award. It was a good start.... tomorrow is the Paulding County Fine Arts Association Art Show. I have a handful of stuff I'm going to take down there and I'm hoping that my GHP girls will be done with their interviews in time to submit a piece as well. Another thing I am anxious about-- how well will my students do compared to other Paulding Co. students? Oh well.... it will be over-ish tomorrow.

In the mean time.... this is a painting one of my GHP girls did and while it took her a long time to conceptualize, create, and eventually like it-- which she still waffles on, I really like it. The complementary colors are great, the subtle circles behind the angular branches creates an interesting contrast. I don't know... I just really like it. What do you think?