Art has been one of the more affected classes by the pandemic and has readjusted back to a normal schedule like everyone else. Art has been like many of the CTE and the Fine Arts classes in how their work has been hard since most of the classes are more face-to-face focused rather than over a face camera. 

Sculpture has been hit hard due to their work revolving around such a hands-on activity like sculpting. Sculpture teacher Sharon Biemond, has worked to adapt with her classes. Biemond commented that she “gave art kits out when this year started, but not all students came to pick it up.” 

When Biemond was doing online classes, she found that her students were not as motivated along with the guidance of the lessons in comparison to if they were in person. Once in-person classes started though, it improved drastically, and she found that there was “more direct guidance, more motivation.” 

Biemond’s decision this year has also decided not to do the Giving Tree since it requires a hand model that the students shape around their own hands. Due to COVID-19, the students could not do the hand modeling for the Giving Trees this year and have decided to replace it with Kindness Rocks. When asked about who gave the idea for the rocks, Junior Delaney Duncan, commented that “our teacher came up with this idea actually.”  

Kindness Rocks have replaced the current idea of the Giving Trees. These rocks can be found around the campus in various locations and have a multitude of patterns with a variety of messages. When asked how they decided the general placement, Senior Audrey Hofstetter responded with “somewhere where people can find them and make someone’s day.” Their intended purpose is just to brighten anyone’s mood if they are found.

In the process of creating the rocks; Duncan’s experience was: “It was really fun; it was a creative thing that we all kind of did our thing on; we did not need a rubric for it and kind of did what we wanted to do for it.” The students in Sculpture One were required to do two rocks to spread around campus. Due to them being in Sculpture one, they had not experienced the creation of the Giving Tree.

Since they are involved with the creation of the Kindness Rocks, they were asked where each of their rocks was around the campus. Hofstetter placed her Kindness Rock by the F Building front entrance. Duncan placed her rock by the walkway in the middle of the campus. Though the Giving Tree may not have been done this year, the Kindness Rocks have been as good as Biemond’s Sculpture classes to replace the annual holiday decorations.