Week 9: Linoleum Cooking, Giant Pigs, and Halloween

I’m not gonna lie…. Life has been rather insane as of late. I took on a role in a local theater production, I have been keeping up with my homework assignments and observations, I’m making time to visit friends and talk with family… I pride myself in my ability to balance all of my activities and hobbies. Though I will say being in a play is a much larger commitment than I initially thought. Woooowwww… okay, back to school!

Monday: Advanced students were moving forward on their projects – allll of them. The variety and quality of their work just keeps getting better every week. One of my advanced painters, bless her, I see a lot of my own perfectionist qualities in her. She put sticky notes ALL OVER HER PAINTING. Areas of need, things to add to, things to change – I commended her on her fastidiousness because wow- the whole painting was covered! Talk about self assessment.

Details, details! Look at the FUR.

Macro painting of a flower - coming along nicely :)

full shelf of glaze ware from the advanced students!

7^th graders were finishing up their prints. This kid… thought he was being funny, quoting Queen, like he’s the only one who knows Flash. Silly child. I shared my knowledge with him in the best way I know how – humor.  He seemed to appreciate it.

In Drawing, students were looking at linoleum carvings and prints of animals. Lesson Objectives: Utilizing Linoleum block printmaking technique, students will create carvings of animals, real or imagined, into a printing plate. The images will feature animals in implied motion. Students will learn different carving techniques, patterns, and effects to apply to their prints to create the appearance of motion with their animals. Students must complete 5 well-executed prints, creating an edition of original work. I had the students look at original photographs as well as print designs for inspiration. Everyone was drawing and working the whole time.

At the elementary school I had some time to prep for 4^th grade, my project group. We were working on Art History at the Zoo. 

This group of kiddos has some unique behavior issues – kids growling, kids arguing, kids scribbling on tables.. yeah. I had a bit of a battle with this group. I thought I was being the good teacher by giving them access to the SMARTboard to find reference images. It worked.. okay.. for awhile. What I realized was that I needed more structure in that activity.. more on that later. 

The hardest thing about elementary school for me is management of behaviors. I have the content and the lessons are interesting, but you can never predict what kids are going to say or do in class. That goes for any grade, really, but when its 5 or 6 kids all acting up at the same time, you really need to learn to pick your battles before their behaviors take over your class time. 

Tuesday was a fairly low-key day. Students were drawing, sculpting, painting, doodling, and planning. In Drawing class I was preparing to help students transfer drawings onto their linoleum pieces. So..fun fact.. that stuff makes you feel really OLD. I had to look all over the school for it and we ended up asking the elementary secretary’s husband, who was out of area, to buy some for us. YOU try explaining what carbon paper is to children and watch their faces distort in confusion. They just don’t know how lucky they have it.

I did not have any lessons to teach at the elementary school so I spent the day doing some planning of my own! I put together a 7^th grade ceramics lesson to replace the character pumpkins. Ceramic wind bells – lesson plan coming soon! 

I also prettied up my teacher’s samples for Art History at the Zoo with some color and details. 

You know those days where you feel on top of your teaching and lessons just go like clockwork and the art is good and it’s just… an all around wonderful experience? 

That was Wednesday with 4^th grade. This group of kiddos was really into their work. Some of them wanted to do a second one! They started asking for their reference photos by title and artist and drew the whole period. I also figured out how to streamline the use of images on the SMARTboard. I created a timer and set the ground rules – each image had a duration of 3 minutes and students had to wait for the timer to go off to switch the image. I had the images on the board so they would have a color image of their painting. It worked out really well! Even the fidgety kids waited their turn to switch the images and draw.

Mona Lisa with snakes!

Starry Night

Persistence of Memory with giraffes!

The Great Wave at Kanagawa

Girl with a Pearl Earring... crow!

American Gothic with slugs!

Great Wave at Kanagawa with sea monsters!

Thursday was a productive day for Drawing class – and a block day! Students were starting to transfer their drawings onto the linoleum. I did a demonstration of how the carving tools are used SAFELY. Funny enough, earlier that morning I was demonstrating how to use the tools with my co-teacher and I managed to slice my finger open. That. Is. Skill. And then there was another problem to be solved.. the lino sheets we had were a little… old. Like 15 or more years old. Bad amount of years in lino years, for sure. My co-teacher and I started brainstorming on ways to reactivate the linoleum for carving. To the internet!

We found that you can do several treatments to the lino to reactivate it… none of them seemed particularly appealing. Microwaving, heat gun, hair dryer.. yeaaaah. Getting 9^th graders to comply with such a daunting task as preparing a surface to carve is not really a good plan. Mr. Keller was loading the kiln and had the idea to put the plates into the kiln. GENIUS! We set up the kiln and started a test plate. It worked Perfectly! Then we just had to figure out a schedule for heating plates and firing work.  

I used my prep period to photograph some more of the advanced students' work - so good!

HUGE painting of dancers in regalia - in the planning stages

wrestlers painting in the style of Richard Slone

At the elementary school big things were happening... big painting-related things. We were once again working with 1^st grade and once again sat with the truck drawing enthusiast. We worked in the front of the room and the goal for the period was to paint a rainbow. This would teach the students color mixing as well as offer a small foray into brushstrokes and line. Parker patiently waited for instructions and even asked me to help him instead of charging ahead and getting frustrated. We painted our rainbows together without incident and even cleaned up the painting supplies. It was a good day in art class – and a good way to start my day at the elementary. Mr. Keller did all the teaching and I did all the fun painting – not a bad deal at all. 

Third grade was a little more hectic. I was working on sea animal collages and this particular group of littles is full of personalities. I could have benefited from more planning with this group – and more simple steps. 

One of my main goals for elementary is simplifying the work into achievable and easily understandable objectives for students. Also, I need to maintain more control than I have at the moment. I tend to want to give students choices and this age group is not capable of having open-ended problems yet… So more structure and assigning jobs to students could have improved the effectiveness of this project and the results. I had one student be in charge of distributing string for the mobile, another student was in charge of collecting supplies.. I think it was structured chaos for the most part. The problem being students who need quiet and calm to get work done or who are distracted by noises and activity were really struggling to work. We did finish the mobile today and then the problem was… what next? My co-teacher suggested having them draw their animal in the environment or to draw someone else’s animal. I gave them paper to draw on and received some Ms. Kanak fan art – never a bad thing.

Friday was a lot like homecoming in that… the school atmosphere was really loose and active at the same time. Students were really excited for Halloween and so were a bit distracted. 

Also, fun fact, no one in the high school faculty roster dressed up for Halloween… except for me. AND we had a staff meeting that morning. AND I was dressed as a dragon. The students didn’t know what to say when Ms. Kanak walked into class as a dragon. I wasn’t about to change into formal wear! No one told me I couldn’t dress up and if anyone asked I could play the dumb student teacher card. No shame in being a dragon. 

I took the opportunity to document some of the advanced students’ in-progress artwork and, as always, was impressed by what they were coming up with for fairly open-ended projects. I require planning sketches and drawings before construction or execution and I think that has improved their processes and results immensely. 

Almost done!

she carved song lyrics into the base

ceramic response to music - rock and roll teapot

Twisted vessels ready for firing

funky bird house glazed and ready for firing

working in to the grass

beautiful textures and color relationships

close up of dancers

Finished! and upside down in storage..

Drawing students came in ready to roll and started working on their animal drawings. Some of them transferred their images to their plates and started carving today, too! Mr. Keller and I had to be on our toes and have the kiln ready to pre-treat the linoleum for carving. That became my task before long – setting the kiln, arranging the plates, making sure none of them melted… I have only the most fun jobs, guys.

At the elementary it was all about Halloween – as in NO CLASSES WHATSOEVER. We went down the hill to do our prep work and relax a bit before festivities started.. and man, were those fun! All the teachers at the elementary school dressed as superheroes – my co-teacher and I were Batman and Batgirl – NOT PRE-PLANNED. We are both just that awesome, and the kids loved it! Almost all the students were dressed for Halloween, and those who did not have a costume had costumes made available to them through the office supply. Because what school doesn’t have a costume closet for Halloween?

The plan for the day was to do a parade. Through the school. Through every classroom grade environment. With parents and teachers. For CANDY and SNACKS. Sign. Me. Up. My one qualm was students dressed as clowns. I am not at all okay with that. 

But overall the day was really fun! The kids were excited to show off their costumes and most of the teachers decorated their rooms in some festive way for Halloween. It created a really positive feeling throughout the school and parents were then able to take their kids home to go trick-or-treating before it got dark out. A good end to a very busy week. 

Until next time - 
Ms. Kanak