Engage and Persist

Motivating and Instilling Passion – In order for me to be motivated and passionate about a piece of work I need an interest, a connection to what I am doing.  About a year and a half ago my husband, being the generous man that he is, offered my painting services to an acquaintance of his.  He presented me with a large circular saw blade and a photo of the man’s hunting cabin and excitedly told me that the poor man had been looking for forever to get someone to paint the hunting cabin scene onto the saw blade.  Augh, inwardly I cringed, never having been a big fan of the painted saw blade.  I tried to explain to my spouse that it just wasn’t my particular expertise, but eventually I gave in and agreed to do what I could.  That saw blade remains in my garage, untouched, I have NO passion, no desire to ever begin that piece.

So, what do I do to keep from presenting my own students with ‘saw blades’? Hetland suggests presenting assignments that are ‘deeply engaging’. I try to make topics relevant and meaningful. So far this year, we have explored identity, celebrations and place.  We engage in much conversation and brainstorming prior to the start of a project.

Cultivating Sustained Attention – As a rule, once I get started on a piece, I have no problem sustaining attention.  I experience greater difficulty disengaging from my work, I am driven to complete as much as I can in whatever time I have available. I don’t know that this is the best way to work, the results aren’t always wonderful, but it seems to be the way I am wired.

As far as my students go, I travel table to table, admonishing students to stay on task. I remind them of how much time remains on a project. Occasionally I will take away the privilege to talk and ask students to focus all of their attention on their work.

Combating Frustration – When I experience frustration I generally take a break from what I am doing.  I like to walk completely away. I review rough drafts and make new sketches.

With my students I don’t have the luxury of allowing them the opportunity to take much of a break as far as walking away. I encourage them to experiment with ideas in draft form.  I empathize with them, telling them I KNOW that the work is hard.  I let them know that some things we do are difficult for me too.

Working Hard to Meet a Deadline – Having selected clay tiles for my studio piece, I am very well aware of deadlines! I have constructed a rough timeline for my project.  Clay tiles need to dry slowly so they do not warp; carving works best on leather-hard clay.  I had to really think through the entire process of what needed to be done, by when.

In the classroom I try to give my students an idea of how long we will work on a project and offer suggestions on how they need to budget their time.  I tell them what point I expect them to be at the end of a class period.  I tell them not to rush their work, and remind them to do their best. I provide opportunities for them to come in before or after school, or during their recess time.

Developing the Ability to Delay Gratification – For me, and this sounds silly to put into writing, I give myself little pep-talks.  I have kind of a running monologue, sometimes out loud, sometimes to myself, describing what I see and how I think it looks and what I need to do in order to complete the piece. I tell myself to “Just keep going” or “Leave that the way it is for now and move on to the next part”. This is probably one of the reasons I like to work alone!

For my little ‘Instant Gratification is my middle name’ students I do pretty much the same.  If we are working on a piece that takes multiple time periods I tell them not to focus on the end piece, but to do the best that they can on it every time they work.