Imagination At Work

The Eighth-Grade Creative Explorations Class Delves into Different Art Genres

Walk into your Middle Schooler’s bedroom any given evening and there is a pretty good chance you’ll be greeted by the top of their head, bent over a device. So, in a world crowded with iPhones and iPads, how do you get them to “see” more than just a screen?

Such was the dilemma that Mrs. Catherine Jones wanted to tackle. The Middle School Dean of Studies and English teacher built her eighth-grade Creative Explorations class around the idea of the value of “seeing” and “noticing.” “I was worried about a world in which cell phones are in kids’ hands at about the age 10 or 11, and I wanted to emphasize to them the importance of noticing the world around them instead of just looking at a screen,” she said.

Mrs. Jones started the year talking about the importance of artists in every sense—writers, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, poets, and more—and opened a conversation about how each is just giving us a new way of looking at the world. She took the idea of subjective and objective learning, something she learned about while working at the New York City Museum School in Manhattan, and asked students to use that framework when looking at everything—art, writing, artifacts.

From there, they learned about different genres of art, including writing (poetry, short story, narrative, non-fiction), paint (watercolor), and maker projects. Students created based on the techniques that they learned in each genre. “Sometimes I gave them examples of great artists who work in each genre, sometimes I gave them a prompt, but I always asked them to create from what they care about—to focus on showing or creating something that they know and want to share with others,” Jones said.

“I love watching students discover the power of creativity.” Jones finished. “How a poem can move you to tears, how the arrangement of line and color can open your eyes to something new, how a story or a film can bring you joy or comfort or even startle you. For Middle School students, it is such a gift to find confidence and a voice through the art that they create.”

A unit on pen and ink sketching focused on architecture, both local and iconic. Danny Krug ’25 was inspired by an article shared by Mrs. Jones of the 50 most iconic buildings from around the world and loved the angles and design of the Lotus Temple. He first created it in pen and ink, then brought the piece to life in the ThinkTank, using the CNC machine.

David Griffing ’25 found himself writing poetry about his favorite pursuits—sports!

Sunsets

Sun sets down into the night Colors fill and blend throughout the sky Making art until it’s dark

Reflection

Reflected beauty of the sky On the surface of the calm water

Mirroring the sky’s perfect picture

Both poems based on this painting. All three by Olivia Long ’25.