Student Teaching: It has BEGUN: September 1 - 3

If I only had one word to describe life right now... it would be challenging.  But if any of you know anything about me... you know I love and live for challenges.  I have only been 'officially' student teaching for a week and a day, but let me tell you...  we teachers have to sit through a lot of "don't do this!" "these are your data reports" and "WASH YOUR HANDS 98 TIMES A DAY" before we even see the whites of a kid's eyes. Not to mention the intensive amount of schooling and projects and presentations and observations and and and before that! Needless to say I was grateful to step through the doors last week and see a bunch of student faces staring back at me, not hoping to see my test scores from last year or my PLO PLC SLO ABCDEFG... you get the idea.

I am so grateful to my cooperating teacher for guiding me through the ins-and-outs of our in-service days which included intervention training (does not sound as criminal-related as it sounds), CPS reporting, staff meetings (complete with staff feedback loops) and everything under the sun you could possibly relate to education as a system. I have an entire binder filled with staff manuals, student handbooks, school calendars, and contact information. I have an SLO (Student learning objective) project to complete with my co-teacher which will show student growth and understanding. I have lockdown procedures memorized and logged in my brain forever. But the really great thing about all that is....

I also have two classrooms to work and learn and play in. I have fully stocked paint cabinets and clay buckets and a functioning SMARTboard in both rooms to experiment and master in my teaching plans. I haven't seen ANY GLITTER... which is a happy thing. I have advanced students who push me to be a better and more involved educator to build their studio habits and will to create new. I have students who want to work and are wiggly to start their projects and I have students who every day I have seen them they have challenged the project at hand or said "I Can't, Ms. Kanak." I have everything I need and more to succeed and grow as a teacher and learner. And I have learned a LOT already... these are some highlights..

For starters... the way I was introduced to the MS/HS students was a little unorthodox. We all had an assembly in the gymnasium and were called one by one to stand in the middle of the gym floor as our names were announced and I am, still, the one and only student teacher at the school. Talk about pressure! But it gets better. 

So then we were asked to take our places on the sidelines and listen to the assembly... and here's where it gets ridiculous. Students were divided up by grade level and asked to stand on opposite sides of the gym - on the sidelines. No big. Well uhh.. their next task was to reach the opposite end (the other grade's) side making sure to touch any of the court lines to accomplish this feat. Ha! Haha... haaaaaaaa

There are some BIG 8th graders, folks. And when it came time for faculty to take their place on the sidelines up against the seniors.. I thought I found the main defense of the football team. Of course, faculty won because we are all... smart? And could avoid being stomped on haha But it was a great way to get the students pumped up to meet new staff and be energized for the day.

My HS/MS Art Classroom. Droooooool 

One of the first lessons my co-teacher wanted me to check out was this one - Kaleidoscope drawings. The main idea behind this project is to teach students a transfer technique with oil pastel and to teach them radial symmetry as it occurs through pattern and in nature. I worked on my teacher's sample during one of the in-service days.

mine says Ms. Kanak

This project was for our Art Survey (Art 1) kids who are all 7th graders. Students needed to fill one 'slice' with their name entirely. Do you even understand how hard it is for some kids to take up that little amount of space?! I mean.. sometimes I struggle to fill a sketchbook page but come on..

More on this lesson later.

One BIG issue the students have at the middle/high school level is cell phones. I will admit, I have quite the twitchy fingers with mine but I am learning the beauty of AIRPLANE MODE and just not.. touching my phone till lunch time when there are no littles around. I had a great idea when I was at the elementary school in-service sessions. Old teachers had left a bunch of unused items from their classrooms for anyone to take. Anyone including the one and only student teacher at the school, yes. So I snatched up this red..shoe rack thing.. and repurposed it immediately. I call it: The Phone Hotel

snazzy

 Students should not have their phones AT ALL during school hours but the previous solution to enforcing this practice was to confiscate phones and put them... in a box. I understand the logic of this method but uhh.. a box? I don't know about you all but I like to know where my phone is even when I'm not physically touching it or using it. Kids are the same way! I figured they would feel better about giving over their phones if they could a. See them, b. Label them, and c. be trusted to not abuse them being in the classroom. We created a color-coded system for each class hour and students put their phones in the corresponding row with a color card, sign their name, and sit down to work. If they do not follow this procedure and abuse the privilege of having the phone in the room we have to confiscate it - but that is a last resort.
My co-teacher had the awesome idea to reward the kids who followed this procedure with sawbucks - the school's equivalent of a good deed ticket - which can add up to rewards and prizes for individuals and grades. We have had absolutely zero phone incidents since the first day of classes. And today I actually had a student come up and try to check her tablet in to the hotel! Too funny. It wouldn't fit so I kept it behind the desk and she didn't ask about it all period - sawbuck for her for sure!

 The first week of classes was only 3 daayyyssss so you can imagine the wiggles we had to deal with. We took advantage of the regular-length classes to teach rules, procedures, expectations, and objectives we hope they can reach and learn. My schedule is kind of a crazy mixed-up nuthouse, but I am slowly learning it. The first three classes of the day are at the MS/HS... on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays have extended 'block' schedules for rotating class periods. YOU FOLLOW THIS?! I am TRYING.... I am getting it - it's fine. One of the most rewarding things about working at this school is my co-teacher has decided to let me mentor and direct all of his advanced students. All 15 of them. ALL OF THEM. Throughout the day! Every day! SO many projects! I was given free reign over their curriculum, project planning, and instruction. I could not be happier! I have Advanced painting, drawing, and ceramics students and nearly all of them are working on different projects. What's really cool is the overlap in subject matter and interests - I could definitely pair them up to work on collaborative projects if I wanted to be sneaky and evil like that.. haven't decided yet. To sum up, most of the Adv. ceramics kids are hand building slab bird houses which have to be funky-looking and have lots of details and features and thingy things. So far I haven't had time to take pictures because the first hour of the day has the most advanced students to work with one-on-one. My first challenge (yay!) with all the advanced students was to figure out... what inspired them. I was able to meet with each of them individually and discuss inspirations, favorite media, favorite paintings or drawings or sculptures etc etc, and goals they want to accomplish for the semester. They each had different answers and unique ones at that! Every single student gave me a good jumping off point to provide them with artist lists, inspiration sources, and the golden rule - ALWAYS provide your OWN source images for reference. Rules rules rules... let's switch gears.

We're going to see the littles!
The custodians painted and restored this desk so I had somewhere to work :)

 Okay.. so you know how I said my schedule at the MS/HS was crazy? Uuummm... elementary school is its own thing altogether. For one, they do not have 'periods.' They have 'specials' scheduled separately (music, art, PE, band). So we as the specials teachers have to learn their schedules and the students are rotated... daily. YEP, DAILY. ABCDEF days. As in Every single Flipper-flippin day is different with different students coming in on designated 'letter' days. You know what else? We also have 'push-ins' which are these super fun arts integration projects where we are given a time slot to visit a classroom and do an art project or teach an art lesson that lines up with their core curriculum. STEAM hard at work in this tiny town :)

The elementary school is giving me the opportunity to do something I have not done before - work and teach from an art textbook series. My co-teacher works from the Davis "Adventures in Art" series for his k-6th graders and so far the lessons we have taught are direct from the teacher's editions. The first lesson was 1st and 2nd grade - we learned about lines (thick lines, skinny lines, lines that climb on rocks - you get the picture). We then used the lines to make trees! The great thing about elementary is their willingness to try and make something great every time they have a chance. And! There are no wrong answers - one sassy 3rd grader today pointed out my contradictory statement: "There is no wrong way to do the assignment. The only wrong way to do it is to do nothing!" to which he replied, "That's a bit contradictory, Ms. Kanak. Think about it!"

Thank you, Grammar sass master.

 ANYWAY, all sass aside, the kids did a good job of demonstrating their understanding of lines in all of their many forms. And I think they were really just itching to do some coloring outside the lines. Some of these are really great! I especially like the one below...

 Kindergarteners worked on self portraits which I unfortunately did not have time to snap a picture of. Time gets away from you with that many littles in the vicinity! One thing I do pride myself in is getting those kids into line.. They were all being squirmy and kind of loud and rude so I got their attention and gave them a lesson in penguin etiquette.
Ms. Kanak: "Class, we all want to be good little penguins, don't we?"
Class: totally dumbfounded.
Ms. K: "Good little penguins stay in line, nicely, with their wings down at their sides. And they're quiet so they can follow directions from the other penguins, right?"
Class: giggles abound
These kiddos hadn't been given a line order yet but they got into a row, like all good little penguins do, and stuck their arms down at their sides. Some of them even waddled! Tooooooo funny.

From down the hall I heard their teacher, "What are you doing? Why are you walking so funny?!"
One of the girls: "We're being penguins! Ms. Kanak said so."
Teacher: "No, you're humans."

And that was the end of that lesson!

Fourth graders worked on imaginary fish. I like these book lessons quite a bit because they make kids really have to access their prior knowledge and usually they can break out of concrete thinking most adults have. My co-teacher put together a game slide where there are randomized combined fish and object choices which pop up when the student touches the SMARTboard. Their selected choice is what they have to draw. The cool thing about this lesson is that throughout their years at the k6 school they will, every year, create a different 'hybrid' or combined creature. More on that later.

Sunfish - the sun is its back fin. Use your imagination, jeeze haha

torpedofish - this little wasn't sure what a torpedo was, but we kind of explained it like a rocket...

sawfish - pretty close to the real thing! 

The kids really got into this after I hung up a poster with different species of fish on it. Some of them just couldn't remember what fins or tails looked like - their brains get so bogged down with numbers and letters... gotta remember fish sometimes!

5th graders worked on imaginary tools - same concept but the words become a little more complex. This lesson is also great because it teaches kids the importance of visual communication and translating words into visual language. So COOL.

sulky plow - LOOK AT HOW SAD IT IS

Pancake engine - I would like two.

alligator wrench. he started with the alligator as the main shape
til I politely reminded him of what a wrench looks like...

running light - hers transformed into something completely different by the end of the class

trip hammer - this kid.. drew a cartoon of someone tripping
and then drew a hammer next to that. HAAA

Not to totally throw you off - just to give you a glimpse into what my day is like, really - umm I also have two advanced students coming in to work on projects during the last hour of the day at the elementary school! The fun truly never stops. 

I was able to set the girls up at a vacant table with a still life project - each of them have their own sketchbooks and are required to draw before and during every project just like their other advanced student classmates. I wanted them to focus on the basic composition and forms - more on that later.

 3rd Graders worked on imaginary birds! Some of these I don't even remember what they are - but really that's half the fun. One of the fun things about working with every (and I mean every) grade level is you are able to see the progression of their learning, their technical skills, and their schemas. 3rd graders will usually not produce the same level of work as a kindergartener or vice versa, but you can hope that they will have more creativity as they learn more and experience more!

...no wrong answers but that is definitely a narwhal.

an easy one - cowbird! 

At the end of every school week we are supposed to submit carbon copies of our lesson plans for the week ahead. These were snapshots of my first, ever, submitted lesson planning pages. Such a proud moment... so many different colors of pen that no one will ever realize were used because carbon copies only transfer the pressure :P

By the end of the week I was completely exhausted. Eager to observe and learn and teach but mostly just wiped out... I spent the entire weekend planning and putting together ideas for lessons and projects. I was happy to find that I had many many more resources than I initially thought! So I have lots of good ideas for the coming weeks. Next post will be week 2. Madness how quickly the time is flying by...

Ms. Kanak