This week was a mish mash of structure and chaos and
projects and rubrics and ohhhh man was it busy! This week was also homecoming
for the high school so each day was themed! Monday was ‘dress-down day’…. So I
became Ms. Pizza. Nice to meet you!
I walked around to see the work of my advanced
handbuilding and painting students. Their projects were coming along very
nicely. Remind me to write up a blog about my individual students! They’re all
doing very different things and work in so many different styles – it’s a lot
of fun for me to challenge them with projects and research on contemporary
artists.
 |
| Lake working on her funky two-story bird house |
 |
| Tyler's original character painting |
 |
| Kenzy's wolf battle painting - so good! |
 |
| Rachel's BIG flower - ala O'Keeffe |
 |
| Emma's painting of... Emma! |
 |
| AJ - cranking away on a seaside landscape |
 |
| Sam's portrait in the style of Kehinde Wiley |
My 7th graders were developing their stencils further and
adding more details as they worked...
At the elementary school I was working with the 4th
graders on their Zones of Regulation collage faces. They completed them today!
The hard thing with the elementary school is keeping track of timing for
push-ins (when we visit a classroom or take half of a grade into the art room
for a project) and pacing the lessons accordingly. The students were excited to
work on their collages again and made some really great pieces!
 |
| My wedged clay looks like Princess Leia... |
Tuesday rolled around – Tuesday was grey day for faculty.
For students, each grade level had to wear a different color head to ankle.
Basically I walked in to school and crossed paths with a handful of completely
orange students, lots of red students.. it was a rainbow!
I spent the majority of my day when I was not teaching on
Monday prepping for that assignment.
My 7th graders were getting far enough along in
their drawings that I was able to demonstrate transferring the drawing to the
printing plate. Script: “Today we will learn how to transfer our designs onto
our printing surface. Use a ballpoint pen and apply even pressure on your
existing drawn lines. You should HEAR the Styrofoam giving way under your pen
tip and SEE lines pushed into the surface. This should be done slowly and
carefully. Try to only draw in one direction to create clean lines and, just
like with our xacto knives, only create lines you are comfortable finishing.”
After 7th grade I worked on prepping the
ceramics lesson, caught up on grading and rubrics, and assisted Mr. Keller with
supplies and things at the elementary. I also started putting together some AWESOME teachers samples for the printmaking lesson.
Wednesday was good! I introduced the handbuilding
students to the twisty box project and was met with less confusion than
expected! They are the ceramics experts in the room after all. The majority of
them were still working on finishing touches for their bird houses (more on
that later) and were in no hurry to tackle a new project. I require them to
complete drawings and plans for all of their art, though, and so some of them
got a jump on that.
One bird house......
Two bird houses!
7th grade was continuing to work on their
drawings and print plates. One big thing I have noticed with this group:
differentiation is a huge factor. I find myself wanting, badly, to work at my
own pace but that’s the great and sometimes frustrating thing about teaching:
you are there for the learner, they are not there for you. I was starting to
panic a bit when some of the students were finishing up transferring their
drawings way ahead of the rest of the class. Did I make the lesson too easy?
Too uninteresting? Too fast-paced? Nope! These were my aces – my students that
work so quickly I think they often forget to breathe. Solution? Provide them
with a mandatory second printing plate! They had another piece of paper handed
to them and were given the opportunity to draw WHATEVER they wanted. No skulls
required ;) they jumped at the chance to expand the lesson! Phew – one less
boredom-induced problem to weed out. I also used their work time to make sure
all the students were caught up on their ‘paperwork’ for me (worksheets,
rubrics, Xacto contracts). And I had students who had a. finished early and b.
finished their stained glass projects start to write statements about their
work. It probably felt a little bit like busy work to them, but I want to
introduce them to the idea of explaining and in effect defending their art work
as early as possible. No time like 7th grade!
Elementary was a little more lax – no teaching until the
end of the day. But uhh. I was set to teach kindergarten.. The kindergarteners
this year are apparently the best. I believe that! They are very polite, and
well-behaved, and patient, and of course cute. But Ms. Kanak was not prepared
for her lesson well enough and felt like she let the kindergarteners down.
The lesson I was working on with them was called Animal
Collages – sounds straightforward, right? Let me tell you, if you think you are
being straightforward enough with kindergarten you probably need to walk out
and try again!
 |
| Ms. Kanak... we're making houses! Auugghh noooooooo |
Here’s my funny for the day:
The lesson started off well enough; we were looking at
images of animals from the farm and the zoo and talking about them. We
identified shapes we saw in the animals (rectangles for legs, circles for bodies,
triangles for fins, etc) and circled them on the SMARTboard. We sat and did a
teacher’s sample with different paper scraps and made a rhino… but Ms. Kanak
missed one crucial detail. There were shapes pre-sorted into boxes that were
used on a previous shape project. In my defense, I wanted them to connect the
use of shape in that project to this one, but what happened next was just too
funny. The students were dismissed to get their supplies for the project and
they began to gather shapes in much the same way as the previous project –
limited amounts of paper scraps, certain numbers of each shape.. I should have
seen this coming!
 |
| animals made out of squares and triangles.... close enough? |
Instead of cutting into the squares and rectangles to
construct their animals, half the students made buildings. Houses, apartments,
sheds, garages. Houses are not the same as animals, children. Not. The. Same.
So I had quite a laugh when Mr. Keller returned to the room and saw houses
scattered around the tables. Silly Ms. Kanak had forgotten (FORGOTTEN) to tell
the students (even after showing and demonstrating and pointing and reminding)
that their primary goal was to make collage animals. So, lesson learned. As per
usual, the first go at a lesson does not go as planned and so I have another
chance on another day, mercifully, thankfully. No houses, ANIMALS.
 |
| Yes, that is a binder clip in my hair. |
The morning at the high school went off without a hitch
on Thursday, mainly because I was only working with my advanced students and
the second hour of the day was our double prep period for the block schedule.
So good. Got all caught up on reflections, lesson planning, grading, and even
emails. Fun fact: I get about 30 emails PER DAY from the two schools. It is
madness. Speaking of madness! Thursday was Hawaiian beach day. Ha HaHA. It was
40 degrees outside. Rude.
 |
| An Island Map in the making.... |
I was especially excited about teaching at the elementary
school because I was introducing a new lesson! Island Maps (lesson plan coming
soon). The
primary objectives of this lesson for the day were for students to learn some
geographical features, create and draw an imaginary island map, and create
identifying symbols for different geographical features.
This particular grade level is tricky.. so tricky. They are EXPERTS at bringing you off topic and asking random questions to throw you off. Whether they are aware of it or not (they are) they can totally wreck your game plan for a lesson faster than you can say “geographical feature.” So… I think you can see where this is going.
However! I thought that my anticipatory set was pretty fun. I put up a map of the United States and had students circle places they had been and explain the geographical features in that place. We had a work bank to choose from and I tried to provide examples for each word. It took awhile, but students were engaged and interested in what the lesson was about – maps and geography!
Then it was time to tie in the art.. I sat down to work on my teacher’s sample (Orca Island) and explain the process. Though my co-teacher made note of a simple mistake I had made: the definition and use of outline was very abstract and a bit foreign to these students. I had made an outline of my whale to create a border and starting-off point for my island. A few students started with a circle and then filled their island with ‘things’ instead of starting with an item-shaped island. These are the little boo boos I make that can cost me the class If I’m not careful… ya. One of the things I do differently than my teacher is voice level.. I talk.. a lot. And at a normal speaking volume. I want my students (my future students) to be able to talk to each other about what they are making, process, ideas, and problems they are trying to solve. That requires some noise.. but I made a mistake of trying to calm the class and redirect focus using the wrong voice.
Example: when we turn half the lights off in the art room
that means students need to be silent and have their heads down at their
chairs. They then wait for instructions.
I accidentally forgot to turn the lights back on and
students seemed confused when I asked them to return to work. Ooops.. and I
talk fast. I type fast so that must mean my fingers and brain connect to each
other fast and fast fast fast. Learning to slow down is hard when you hear the
clock ticking and see the kids fidgeting!
 |
| Here's a major planner at work! |
 |
| Volcano island! YESS! |
All in all, the 4th
graders did a really good job on the outlines and beginnings of their islands.
I had lots of original ideas and great attention to detail. Students did not
want to leave for their next class either! That was a nice and warm/fuzzy
feeling – teaching a lesson that students do not want to walk away from. It’s
always the little things – and then it’s the reflections about the little
things that make me into a more effective and patient educator.
Friday was a huge pile of crazy.
 |
| My drive to school.... |
 |
| just some good old fashioned fun |
First of all, it was
Rebel/Roller day, meaning we were all supposed to wear our school spirit gear
or T-shirts or sweaters etc. Mr. Keller lent me a sweater so I wouldn’t feel
left out in the purple, black, and grey fray J. Our first half of the day at the high
school was basically just.. parade floats. We were in charge of keeping
students on campus and monitoring progress on floats, ceiling tiles, and other
projects for homecoming. This was an entirely new experience for me! My high
school did not do anything even close to this big of an event. They essentially
close down the school to create class floats for a parade, paint ceiling tiles
with inspirational and colorful designs, and get pumped up for the game and
dance. The students get a real feeling of community and belonging when they
come together to work on the projects and faculty/staff have the opportunity to
connect with the kids and inspire ideas for their work. Or, conversely, watch
while the whole thing goes absolutely off the charts into disaster territory. It
was a fun experience to walk around and talk with the kids, sharing ideas and
jokes. I will have some of them next quarter as new students so I tried to
spend more time with those groups than others – but it was fun to be called out
on ‘playing favorites’ and ‘Ms. Kanak are you a judge for these!?’ |
| Seniors working on their boat float |
 |
The answer is yes. Now behave yourselves. |
 |
| 7th grade working on their float |
 |
| toilet puns.... yes. |
Back at the elementary school the spirit was in full
force. We had 1st graders and halfway through their lesson we had to
pack them all up and line them up on the curb outside to watch the seniors
parade in front of the school. Too. Cool. So many of the littles have siblings
and cousins who are at the high school now and it was fun to watch them connect
and get happy high fives from football and volleyball athletes. I would have to
say the 1st graders were the best-behaved class out on that curb. They even asked me why everyone was so ‘loud’ and ‘yelly’. 
 |
| highlight of the day at the elementary school |
 |
| All the important things are present.... |
After the assembly
it was time to crack down, get serious, and work on brain machines with 3rd
grade. Brain machines is an original lesson I designed
because.. frankly.. my brain works in compartments and pieces. I wanted to do a
more fun lesson that incorporated lots of different ideas into one. Mr. Keller
and I set up lamps to point at the open wall and tacked up paper.. to trace
silhouettes. Can I just say something? There is a LARGE variety of sizes when
it comes to 3rd graders. We had to readjust the lamp constantly to
accommodate for the tall kids, the short kids, and the fidgety ones. But in the
end it all worked out and the 3rd graders cranked out some pretty
cool sketches for their brain machines. I put together a fun presentation of
brain machine images ( silhouettes of heads with different compartments,
factories, symbols, and designs inside where the brains should be). I really
liked this lesson a lot and the kids did, too. It was fun to see their brain
machines running all over class and we even got to walk around and see the
different machine designs and drawings.
The week was topped off by starting a new job:
waitressing! I am waiting tables at two different restaurant/bar/theater/gallery
locations in town. It was so fun to meet some new people and learn new skills
(like the different types of wine glasses you are supposed to use for special
kinds of wine). It’s nice to rechannel my seemingly boundless energy into a new
place and job. I worked all weekend long and met lots of interesting and
friendly people – ate some delicious food – and somehow also got work done in
the process! The owners are great and kind people and I am lucky to have them
as bosses and friends. AND… I was asked to bring in my artwork from ArtPrize
for display at the brunch restaurant. My art already has a new place to visit!
Too good.
Signing off for now.. I can’t even believe how quickly
time is flying and how busy my brain is all the time. ProTip: Play lots of Scrabble.
Keeps your wits and your vocabulary sharp – and winning is fun.
Until next time,
Ms. Kanak
No comments:
Post a Comment