History

A Curiously COVID Opportunity

In the summer of 2020, our school scrambled to add classes to be in compliance with COVID Healthy at School protocols. At that time, students had to sit 6 feet apart and our class sizes had to be reduced significantly. Eminence negotiated 2020-21, in part, by adding electives the school had never offered before. In the summer, we were asked to build an elective for middle school students. We would each teach 3 sections and the class would meet twice a week for 90 minute classes. We knew we had to implement social distancing and should be prepared for potential weeks of remote learning.

Robotics couldn't work.

Design challenges that required teamwork and close quarters couldn't work.

We felt stuck.

We wanted to offer kids an opportunity to be creative and have agency over their products. We wanted to incorporate technology at a high level. We wanted the class to be rigorous, engaging, and not a total drag.

So - what about Graphic Design?

Eminence is blessed to have a number of high quality, professional printers. It has long been a dream to get more student work printed physically in high quality. Furthermore, Eminence has a subscription to Adobe products that would allow us to install professional grade software on each student device.

So - why not Graphic Design?

After several weeks of planning, Jen and Kendra decided to embark on a middle school Graphic Design Elective. We collaborated with our art teacher to use consistent visual art terminology. We easily made connections between our course and Kentucky Technology Standards. We researched curriculum developed by others in depth and narrowed goals down to four general quarter units:

• Fundamentals of Graphic Design

• Adobe Photoshop

• Adobe Illustrator

• Printing Production & Student Choice Challenges

Now, all we had to do was learn literally everything.

Syllabus