candy creations

   







Hello, my name is Bill Hower.  I am a graphics design teacher at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  I teach Visual Communications, Graphic Communications, and I am the advisor for our school's yearbook, The Lodstone.  This is my first web site and I thought I would create a site that demonstrates one of the popular projects my students love to do.  The web site is broken down into sections.  The first part of the web site is an article that I wrote for the Teap Journal.  You can click on any of the following headings to go right to that section: Introduction, Inspiration, Design, More Inspiration, Motivation, Public Relations Impact, Power Mechanics to Power Macs, or Conclusion.  The next section is the actual lesson plan I use for this project.  The last section are examples of my students' work and my work.  I hope you enjoy it!!

                        
The concept is so simple when you think about it.  Kids love candy, adults love candy, even teachers love candy.  This assignment had built in motivation for my students by the fact the real candy bar sat right in front of them as they worked on their assignments of creating  personalized candy bar wrappers for our school board directors.                  TOP OF PAGE

            


The idea for a classroom lesson began when I talked to a fellow teacher from Family and Consumer Science Department.  She had mentioned to me that she had paid a firm to create a special candy bar wrapper for her father's 75th birthday.  This gave me the inspiration, combined with already commercialized versions of Hershey's "It's a He/She" for newborns.  I thought it would be cool for my students to create personalized candy wrappers for themselves.                             TOP OF PAGE




I purchased enough standard size 1.55 ounce Hershey Bars for my entire class.  I made sure i had extra, just in case some were defective or one of my students needed to sample their work.  After introducing the assignment and showing my students basic examples, the students worked on their own wrappers using Macintosh G-4 computers and Adobe Photoshop 6.0 software.  The students worked at different paces but the majority of the students completed the assignment in a matter of three 80 minute class periods.  Students enjoyed working on this assignment so much they frequently came in during their lunch period or scheduled homeroom.  The finished wrappers were printed out on high gloss paper and sprayed with workable fixative to give them their quality appearance.                                                                 TOP OF PAGE


Fortunately for me, my principal had seen one of the student's completed handiworks as he was grabbing a quick sandwich from the deli line in the cafeteria.  Being a choc-a-holic, he inquired as to how the student got such a colorful and interesting candy wrapper.  The student was more than obliged to tell him, and my principal had an idea for an upcoming school board meeting.  My principal called me into his office and asked me if I would be willing to do another lesson, to custom design candy wrappers for each and every school board member.  He gave me a list of individual board members and their years of service.  I then assigned individual students to each board member.  We made wrappers for the superintendent of schools as well.                                                                                                          TOP OF PAGE




What made this assignment so effectively educational for the students was the built-in motivation.  They viewed themselves doing something for their school in a creative, positive, and fun manner.  Students who participated in this project received special recognition for their efforts by presenting each board member with their finished products at the next board meeting.  The board members ere estactic when they received their candy bars.  One member even stated that, "I won't eat this (candy bar), I am buying a frame and hanging it up, I love it!"                                                        TOP OF PAGE





As a relatively new teacher in the district that I graduated from, it gave me great pleasure to see my students excel from my classroom efforts.  The public relations factor from this assignment was greater then I had expected.  My Technology/Art Education curriculum gained positive momentum and recognition, not only from the school board members, but from fellow faculty and students.  They began to inquire as to what lesson my students were currently working on.         TOP OF PAGE




Our school is unique in design, in that it is comprised of three separate circular buildings.  One of its short-comings is the fact that rarely do other faculty ever know what is going on in another building.  Up to two years ago my current classroom housed the power mechanics element of our school since its 1969 inception.  All the oil caked engines and parts have since departed and have been replaced with 13 Macintosh G-4 computers, a 4 color screen printing press, and a combination hand press, but not everyone on our staff would know that.                                                           TOP OF PAGE





Since the custom candy creations lesson, more and more interest has been shown to me and my students.  This project combined school with community and the outside community more with the school.  It also connected the students more to active learning because they all witnessed first hand the positive benefits of quality work and the reactions of others, besides just their teacher.  What struck me most was that the grade I gave them seemed secondary to the rewards they were given from showing their work to others.                                                                                       TOP OF PAGE