When the decision was made in March to switch to virtual learning, art teacher Jeremy McDonald instantly started brainstorming ways to teach visual art over the internet, while keeping the expectations of the class the same.

“I didn’t want to just do art history and add more to their academic workload,” he said. “Feedback from a lot of students is that art class is one of the highlights of their day, so I wanted to come up with open-ended projects that we hadn’t done before.”

Because the students had been in class since the beginning of the year, they all had prior knowledge to reference when starting new projects at home. Students in Art I and Art II had more structure, while students in Advanced Art or AP Art were set up for independent study, choosing projects that interest them. 

When the closure started, Mr. McDonald was conscious that some students were in quarantine or staying with host families, and may only have a pencil, eraser, and paper at their disposal. 

Mr. McDonald purchased a clamp for his iPhone that attached to his desk allowing him to record tutorials and walk students through the process. He worked in two-week increments, first introducing students to a project and providing examples. By Friday of the first week the students had to take a photo of their work in progress to send to him. Over the weekend, Mr. McDonald would email feedback to each student, and then by the end of the second week they had to turn in their finished piece. 

After it was announced that students would remain in online learning for the remainder of the school year, Mr. McDonald assigned students a flower project.

“I wanted them to realize that even though the world is gloomy, there’s still beauty, so get outside and draw it,” he said.

Watch one of Mr. McDonald’s timelapse art tutorials: