Too Cool For School (Ta Moko Tattoo Designs)
Sometime you get a group of kids that are just too cool for school. They think that they've reached a certain age and that they have nothing left to learn. Have you ever taught a group like this? In middle school, I have found that this attitude tends to happen once students become the "big fish" in a little pond as they first become eighth graders. They aren't quite ready for high school yet but are feeling super confident that they've made it this far, and, as a "special-area teacher," no matter what you do to try to engage their apathy, some are just plain hard to motivate. I have found that I must try my best to appeal to their interests while knowing full well that there will still be kids in my class who HATE art. Sigh.
But, I have learned that I need to try to teach TO things that interest them and to play up their strengths. I had my EXTREMELY mobile eighth grade students learning about the Maori tribal people of New Zealand whose Ta Moko, or facial tattoos, were meant as symbols of their genealogy and of their social status. The tattoos were carved into the faces of the warriors since the head was considered the most sacred part of the body. Research them! They are very interesting!
Since I have a testosterone-filled group, I decided learning about this combatant culture might appeal to them. We are doing this project in a 2D and 3D version. We used different graphite pencils to draw ten symbols that represent aspects of their identities, and they were to include 5 traditional Maori symbols in their designs They then recreated their design on a plaster sleeve to recreate that tattoo-like effect in a 3D way.
