Engage & Persist

This week's SHoM centered around qualities of motivation and perseverance, so Wolfston felt it was an appropriate time to present her students with more challenging material. The class spent the first half of the period discovering Impressionism and the reviewing the life and work of the troubled Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. Following the lesson, students employed principles of color theory and composition, including the "rule of thirds"—in which the subject of an image is positioned at or along the intersections of guidelines, rather than centering the subject—to recreate Van Gogh's works. While difficult, the assignment pushed students to overcome frustrations and produce a finished piece of art.