Realizations as I Take on More Classes

This week I took over one of the Art Fundamentals classes in a lesson on using colored pencils to create texture of an animal. I introduced/reviewed the color wheel with the students and I had so many hands up (and not the same ones every time!) to answer questions about primary, secondary, and complimentary colors. They were really receptive to my lesson. I wrote on the board, explained, and showed them a color wheel. I had them copy the information in their sketchbook to be able to use it as reference while they work on blending and layering colors. I had them get out of their seats to come up and take a closer look at student examples. I feel I had plenty of variety in my instruction for this lesson and it was effective.

I based the lesson on a lesson my CT presents because I really like how each of her lessons builds on the skills the students have been learning in all their projects. This particular lesson they are able to choose an animal to draw using their skills of mapping out their compositions on the page and seeing and applying value to the page to create an illusion of 3D and depth. I made sure to create a sample piece to demonstrate the methods they would use and one that I would also keep building on to show them how to achieve "texture" and "saturated tone". I kept my demonstration short this time to allow them to explore the media more. In regards to my Ceramics lesson from last week, I felt that by giving the students a more thorough demo, I am seeing that they are making their slab pieces exactly like I showed them, instead of manipulating the clay in a more creative way. I don't want to limit their exploration, but I do want to give them enough of a demo to work off and understand what they need to do.

I believe it's a good practice to have an in-progress piece to use for the students to see and understand the process. I also did this for Ceramics. I believe it's only fair to the students for myself to have worked on the projects I am expecting them to take part in. I also need to start collecting and making samples now so I can use them in the future for examples to show classes.

Fibers Class Finished Coil Baskets

These are a couple of the student's finished coil baskets.

Fibers Class Dyed Scarves

Photo Texture Assignment

I took the students outside to take a roll of photographs for their texture project.

Whirlwind

The weeks seem to be flying. I've already been at the high school a month. In that time I feel I'm making really strong connections with the students. The ones that were apprehensive to me in the beginning are now loosening up to me. They're coming to me with great questions about their artwork. It's such a great feeling. I was even told by my CT that the Principal's son (who I have in the Ceramics class) told him that I'm really fun. So that was incredibly nice to hear. Makes me feel like I'm doing something right and that the kids don't hate me or think I'm boring. :) Nothing's worse than a boring teacher. But I still want to challenge their thinking and I think I'm finding ways to get their gears going little by little.

I notice more and more students coming in to work in the art room during their study halls and homeroom times. Many are in my Ceramics class and I'm really glad to see students putting in the extra work to do well. I've even let students come in during our prep time and they've been really good either working on homework or experimenting with new art materials. I love that the art room is this "safe place" for students to get away from loud study halls and lunchrooms. This is something I hope I can do in my future art room.

This week there's been a lot of school rumors going around and things brought to the teacher's attention regarding other teachers actions in their classrooms, etc. My CT likes to let the kids vent, but also tells them that they need to go to administration to let them know about things. My CT and I realized it was serious when students that don't even have classes together complain about the same type of things with this teacher. This teacher was ultimately saying things that were not professional. I told them how important it is for the students to tell administration, even writing them an email or letter to remain anonymous if they don't want to talk face to face with administration. I did something similar in college regarding an instructor and the dean of the school took care of it right away. That instructor never found out that it was from me but results happened. From what I understand in this high school, the principal is very good about confidentiality and the students should have nothing to worry about. My CT made sure that the students were aware of this and they seemed a little more at ease about making the next step.

The end of the week proved interesting when there was an emergency faculty meeting regarding something that happened the week prior. They could not give us specifics, but in the art classes there were students talking about the incident that happened. One student even showed us the front page of the news' website so we knew it was something major that had happened. The principal informed the faculty to not talk to the press (who were conveniently outside the school all day Friday). Luckily, no one followed me to my car on the way out. What a week! Still experiencing tons!

Dealing with Hot Tempers

This week I had to handle some conflict resolution with one of my ELL students in Ceramics. We are working on clay coil pots and she had spent a few days working hard on her piece. This particular day my teacher was out at meetings off campus and I was working with an art sub for the day. This student got her work out at the beginning of work time and found that her piece had collapsed and broke in several pieces. She was livid. She called me over, swearing up a storm, complaining about how she won’t start over because she worked so hard on that piece. I took a look at it and determined it couldn’t be mended, unfortunately, because it didn’t appear that she had scored her coils enough to make them strong enough to not fall apart. Her tablemates sat in silence as she and I worked out this dilemma. I told her that I understood why she was upset because she had worked really hard on it and that I knew she spent a lot of time on it. Since I couldn’t convince her to start over, even though there were three full class periods left to work on it, I realized that she was supposed to be in the advanced ceramics class, but needed to be switched into it by the guidance office because of an error. Advanced ceramics can do mostly wheel work if they choose. My thoughts were that she could get a piece tall enough for the objective requirements and embellish the piece with coils, which might be quicker for her to accomplish. She still didn’t want to hear it, continuing to swear and complain. I let her decide what she wanted to do and left her to figure things out on her own.

On this day, I did not have my CT to confer with over this situation right away. The sub tried to step in, agreeing with my suggestions for the student. The sub empathized with her as well which seemed to calm the student down. Soon, I noticed that the student started to roll out coils and start over. She seemed to have gotten her temper under control. I didn’t give her a writing assignment consequence for swearing in class because I felt that would have only escalated the problem instead of calming her down. This probably wasn’t proper protocol to not give her a consequence for swearing. I also feel that the students are finally beginning to test the waters to see what they can get away with when I’m their teacher. I addressed this in class Friday saying that this was their only warning and just because their normal teacher isn’t around to enforce rules, I will start to. I told them that I respect them by filtering my language and I expect that same respect from them.

The Artroom

In Progress: Fabric Coil Basket

A Couple Projects

These are some of the projects I jotted down in my sketchbook that are going on this week.

This is a fabric coil pot the Fibers class is working on. It's yarn wrapped around paper core. I started working on my own, I'll have some in progress pictures in a later post.

This is the first Art Fundamentals project the students are working on. They're using charcoal on 18 X 24 inch paper and drawing boxes. They are exploring using value and perspective to create a convincing still life.

Layout of the Art Room

Every Morning

Reputations

This week I learned a lot about teacher reputations. My CT shares nearly everything with me. Probably even things I shouldn't know. But in reality, it sounds like every school is like this. It depends on who administration is and how well they work with their teachers to creating respectable work environments. There seems to be a lot of rumor mills at the high school, but few teachers approach administration about their concerns unless it's a legal matter. It seems a lot of the comments begin with the students complaining to other teachers and teachers spreading what the students are saying. It makes me wonder about reputations in the schools and how colleagues and the students perceive teachers. There comes a point where one should be able to distinguish hearsay and not judge people by what they've heard. It goes the same way for teachers towards students. I understand it can be difficult to not have preconceived judgments about students before they even walk through our door, but hearing all the gossip this week at the high school makes me think twice about speaking my mind on things especially to other teachers. I want to approach my students and colleagues with an open mind, because I may be the one who can see someone in a new light.

My CT treats the art room as a safe place. That is something I want to emulate. It can be nice for students to know they can vent to another teacher about issues, and even other teachers, knowing that what they say won't leave the art room. Kids have bad days. Releasing all their anger, frustration, and annoyances can help them feel better. Just as long as what they say doesn't leave the room (unless it's a serious legal issue, of course). I don't want to be the one that has the reputation of being the, *gasp*, Gossip Queen. :)

Taking over Ceramics

This week I took over the Ceramics class. I felt that it went pretty smooth. My pacing was right on time with what I had planned, and I was able to keep the student’s attention and not lose them when I was giving my brief history of pottery and ceramics. They responded to my questions and I felt that I got them thinking about things before I showed them what they were going to be doing with coils. When things were unclear to them, they asked clarifying questions which allowed me to better explain what they were to do.

My only concern is the disconnect the students have with the objectives being given to them right out the gate before they even know what’s going on. Before every new assignment, my CT writes the Objectives on the board and they copy them into their sketchbook/journal. She usually does not talk about them right away, but comes back to them after she explains the project. I do feel that they get boxed in before they even know what they’re going to be doing and this seems to limit their ideas. I don’t really understand why she doesn’t give them the objectives when she’s talking about them. Unfortunately, I planned my Coil Pot lesson this way, just because the students are used to it and my CT seemed hesitant to let me try a new timeline in giving the lesson. I was planning on using this more as a test to see what kind of projects/ideas I get from the students. My Powerpoint had a wide variety of coil pot ideas, and I noticed in the student sketches that the students took a lot of different ideas from the images they were shown which I was pleased to see. They did a great job at not just copying the images, instead taking elements from what they saw and incorporating it into their design.

I do feel I need to slow down a little bit. I had everything I needed to cover in notes I had prepared, but found myself skipping things anyways. I did make sure to come back to them during the student’s work time when I realized what I had forgotten to go over. My CT also suggested I leave a little more time in between questions I ask the students because it takes them longer to process things sometimes. I may have moved on a little too quick. I also noticed my CT doesn’t randomly call out on students to answer questions, she waits for volunteers. I know the students feel safe in this kind of learning environment, but I also see that the same few students answer questions all the time. She assumes the whole class knows the material, but then wonders when they don’t apply what she thought they all knew. I’m going to think about how I am going to approach this to make sure everyone is on the same page when I teach my lessons.

Mindmapping

Each class' weekly journal assignment was on "Frustration". They learned about mind-mapping and were shown this website. While they were silently working on their journals in their sketchbook, I took the time to create my own mind-map.

A Busy First Week

My first full week at the high school was full of classes, meetings, and extracurricular activities. My CT dedicates a tremendous amount of extra time outside of the average school day and I did my best to partake in everything on my CT’s agenda. I was able to get a sense of what a normal week looks like for my CT, which could be a similar schedule that I could take on as an art educator. My schedule at the high school has been where I arrive at school at 7am every morning and staying after the school day until either 4pm or 5pm.