Friday, March 10, 2023

Art: What's Happening? by Kaitlyn Tran

 Please enjoy this article from DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" Class!

        Art is normally a way to easily calm the mind and soothe the soul. However, to do this it may be required for some people to have a quiet place and a peaceful environment. Period 3 Art class is loud and causes headaches, say many of the students there. However, does this really bother the ones trying to create?

Period 3 starts around 10:51am and ends at 12:06pm, which is a little more than an hour. An hour of art and creating for those in art class. However, this class also happens to be the one that has the most amount of people gathered in one area. With only one teacher and a room full of friends that love to chitter chatter, it’s bound to be a loud and rowdy place. 

Constantly being interrupted while giving a lesson causes the short lecture to drag on for multiple minutes. No matter what the lesson is about, whether it be from giving simple instructions to showing people how to shade, it always drags on for longer than it should be. 

“I find it difficult sometimes, but there are good days,” the art teacher, Jessica Perry says. “I have been teaching for 18 years and I get tired! Ha! Well, that may be part of it but I do feel it is too long for a middle school class. It is not practical for where most students are developmentally. High school classes need more studio time and middle school less.” 

The art class for middle school is around an hour long. While it’s intentional for art, most of the people in period three tend to just be there to talk to their friends. The result of this is a loud classroom environment, which not only distracts some of the other students there but also takes away the peaceful chill that a class should be. Jessica (known as Jess) also adds that, “I also find that students repeat my class not always because they love art, but because they want to be with friends.” 

While being with friends is certainly a way to get your spirits up quickly, too many of them in one place with a bunch of energy isn’t exactly the best thing for a place where you’re supposed to be working. 

“I honestly love the class in general but not the students since they tend to be interruptive,” says Ezrie Warner, a student in period three.

Some even wish that they could change the class in total. 

“If I could change anything about the class I would make it shorter and smaller.” says Jess, “I have the biggest class during that block of time than any other teacher. This is something I will be communicating more as we plan for next year.”

Ezrie also adds to that by saying, “Um, I’d say the students to be more calm and serene, more focused on the art and not on friends.”

However, even through all of the talking, students still have the freedom to do as they wish. Some of the things students like to do between art projects is to sketch on their own and look up more ideas for future projects. Some students even decide to do work for other classes. 

Period three, no matter how loud and rowdy it seems, still has its shares of learning and productivity. Adding to that, people’s friends are there and students are able to enjoy themselves while doing art. Though, maybe next time, it’ll be better if the class is smaller. 


Kaitlyn Tran is an 8th grader at DMHS. She loves to write horror and fantasy stories and hopes to get one published someday.

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