Weeks 12&13: Twisting, Measuring, Tying, and Trying to Make Time.

This was the week of my birthday! And of the start of hunting season.. and of the start of the play! There is truly no rest anywhere to be found for Ms. Kanak. Except.. that's not entirely true. We actually had the whole week for Thanksgiving as off time. Merciful scheduling gods at the district.. thank you.

Monday: In Ceramics we were working on finishing up vases and brainstorming on what the twisted vessels *could* be. Soap dispensers? Vases? Containers? Could we combine them into larger objects or sculptures? I wanted students to run with this project because, honestly, there were very few requirements for it. I wanted to see what they would come up with and how they would explore the media. More on that later.

In drawing class students were finishing up their printmaking projects and I was in an uphill battle with a couple of them trying to get their prints DONE. There something to be said about striving for perfection... but when you are wasting your work time and in turn wasting my teaching time, we are going to have words. Mr. Keller and I both wanted this group of students to be moving on to the next project, which we were going to team teach! So we pushed the students to finish their prints, fill out their rubrics, and be ready for the next art problem to solve.

In art survey the 7th graders were working on their stencil designs and drawings. We reviewed positive and negative space and I was yet again encountered by the question.. did I give them a sample that was too complicated to model? The answer.... yes. I removed that sample and put up something more simple and straightforward, but by then the damage was done. Students were over designing their stencils and creating really complicated - albeit awesome - drawings. I worked with them to edit down the details and re-explained to them the process of the project. We thickened lines, completely redrew some stencils, went over positive and negative space use, and even did a walkabout critique. Students gathered some ideas from their peers but they mostly stuck to what they started with, and that's fine too.

fantasy cars, basketball, xbox.. yeah, a glimpse into the mind of a 7th grader for sure

explaining how to simplify this design OR how to keep the complexity of it..
she would have to write her text on top of the finished project

this table was a challenge.. students that work quickly
vs. students that overwork their projects

In addition to reviewing techniques for designing the stencils, we went over our Xacto knife procedures, expectations, and contracts. I distributed pieces of cardboard to each of the students and they were required to write their name, draw a circle, and draw a square. After that they could experiment with the tool and get comfortable with using it. Most of them got it right away!

Practice practice...

this student was struggling with figuring out what to draw -
he ended up making a deer stand and practiced cutting it out for his stencil!

this student did NOT want to be in class, but once he realized he could do basically whatever he wanted
he hunkered down and started to draw and doodle his ideas

"stay strog?" GIRL, slow down and take your time!

fourth of july fireworks :)
student with special needs

camping and hiking -
this student decided to draw the flames of the campfire with s'mores!

thanksgiving dinner - the smells. seriously.

and for good measure...

At the elementary school I was working with 4th grade on mixing colors. Same procedures as all the grades preceding 4th but man... you have to be on your toes with this group! The majority of them did a really good job following along with the color mixing but it when it came time to do their mixing colors painting.. things got a little messy at some tables. I realized quickly that I had forgotten to make the seating chart changes Mr. Keller and I discussed previously and that really did a number on some of the kids and their work. We do not grade on behavior - we grade on product. But when the behavior affects the project to the point of it being a mess... you see my problems here.

just a couple of finger painted scribble messes - not too bad!

this student wanted to be my twin. Good try, Wes.

"Ms. Mechanic! Can we use words? Like.. happy birthday?"

During the end of the day announcements the principal let slip that Tuesday was my birthday... so from the minute that announcement ended to the end of my day students were yelling "Happy Birthday TOMORROW".... It was pretty cute. I got lots of high fives and hugs.

Tuesday: In ceramics students were starting to add lids and embellishments to their twisted vessels. In the meantime, while those set up and dried, they were getting glazing done and decorating their other pieces.  
This project really sat in the best possible position for students to accomplish other work while their clay set and also let them experiment with the new technique. I always posted the expectations and requirements for the assignment on the board so students knew what was expected of them. 

In drawing we moved EVERYONE on to the new project, Altered Environments. Students were watching a movie today on perspective angles and relationships. The main goal of the day was to have students comfortable using the perspective tools and we also introduced the new project. I drew upon (sorry, art pun) my own example from high school to teach the students about the use of perspective, detail, and incorporating fantasy elements into the final composition. Students had to complete a drawing exercise in their sketchbooks and then we went out into the hallway to observe possible places students could draw/draw from.

In art survey, everyone was abuzz with activity - drawing, planning, cutting out stencils.. Lots of work was being done. I was walking around the room, checking progress and bounding off ideas with students.

drawing pixelated Link! so precise.. so much planning..

I think I took a picture of this because this student never stops talking EVER
and I was proud of him for getting something done

this one had lots of cool, connecting details in it

The next two pictures were some snaps I took of the advanced students' pieces. Their projects, if you remember, were centered around music or musicians as inspiration. I was really impressed with these two...

Back at the elementary we were exploring brush strokes with 1st grade....aaaand I kind of missed the mark. Behavior-wise students were okay - some loud talkers and voice level reinforcement. But objective-wise, I goofed them up. I started focusing on color mixing instead of brush strokes! It was a long day, people.. gimme a break. Coming back together with Mr. Keller we reviewed what went wrong.. because I went way beyond their objectives! So I needed to focus on ONLY brush strokes, teaching students to paint nicely instead of mopping the paper with their brushes - how to hold brushes, and then to ultimately focus on the mark making. Thick lines, thin lines, dots, big and little shapes and lines... yeah, Ms. Kanak got a little carried away with her painting. Lesson learned: Slow down and stay on target.

Wednesday: Ceramics students were cranking away on their twisted vessels. I could not believe the variety of ideas that was popping up across the classroom! This is an introductory clay class and the skills some of these students were displaying were really impressive. Though they have had a great teacher throughout their entire academic life - I hope to one day make that kind of impact on my own students. 

love the surface quality of this piece

simple yet refined :)

In art survey students were starting to prepare to cut out their stencils.. and some of them were already on to the step of gluing down paper! Yeesh.. this group of kids kept me on my toes and running all over the room! So many different ability levels... so little time..

a beautiful dreamcatcher.. and yes, she did cut out all the little spaces

Link was coming along nicely!

Okay... student story time. The student featured below is a fast worker. I mean... she is super quick. Can crank out a project in a day's time and then is waiting, not so patiently, to start a new one. When she "Doesn't have anything to do" she acts up, bothers other students, literally flops around.. it's a mess for my classroom management and keeping other students focused. I know she wants attention, but she doesn't know how to ask for it in a polite or productive way. A lot of this has to do with her maturity level - she is a little behind her classmates in that area - but a lot of it is how she has been educated to gain attention and learn.

This student tends to rush through her work..
but she took her time with her Xacto practice and did a good job

After the Xacto demo time and all the time I had given her to create a stencil, I was not really satisfied with something so simple - I knew she could do more... so I pushed. I took a close look at the drawing and asked her what she would do differently. We talked about the theme of her project and she became upset - she was creating a tribute piece of art for her pets. She was getting more upset as we talked more, which was understandable - she has a very big heart and a lot of emotions all the time. I gave her some space and time to think about other ways she could commemorate or honor her pets that she lost. I gave her a new sheet of paper and waited. She raised her hand after awhile and had a new design to show me - the one on the left. It had a drawing of her dog, large letters to connect to the outer frame, a drawing of her turtle - much more detailed and interesting than what she had before. We talked about symbolism in art and how her gravestone drawing was a symbol, and a viable one at that, but I had seen her other drawings and I wanted her to try and expand upon it. She did not disappoint. There were some tears and a little bit of fighting back on her part "It's too hard. I can't do it!" but eventually she took the time to think and I think she realized she wasn't doing her friends any justice through her original drawing. I spent some more time brainstorming with her on making sure all her details would show up and how they connected to the frame and then let her work independently.

The student below has a talking problem. Like.. a 7th grader running their mouth constantly and not getting work done talking problem. He's got a lot of potential! And he's fun to have in class! But his work suffers for his lack of focus. This project was no exception.. he made these beautiful fireworks and then proceeded to cut. them. all. out. What. Excuse me.. what?! 

We had to mend his cuts in the paper so he would have the proper stencil but he basically completely blindsided the steps of the project and in effect ruined his drawing... ayiyi. It was a salvageable offense, though. We luckily had not moved on to the tar paper stencil portion and so I explained to him that he had choices.. he could redo his drawing and start over. Or he could use the tar paper to fix what he had messed up on.. he chose the latter. And did it wrong AGAIN.. He cut Out the fireworks instead of leaving them as the black figure and I am getting frustrated just typing this.. bleh. 

fireworks problems

These two students were well into being finished with the project already! I tried my best to pace them along with their classmates, but they forged on ahead and were getting done much quicker than anticipated. The solution? Do and re-do. Check details, add more details, spot checking, quality control.. you name it, they were doing it. Their projects were really nice but the time was not being spent on making the final product refined or clean. So... we cleaned them up as we worked. We were teaching classmates how to make glue and clean up spaces, we were doing critiques. Anything to slow down the ever-growing pace of these rushers! Ahh!

campfire coming along nicely

thanksgiving smells filling the air!

These students were working away on their stencils. The student on the left was struggling with making clean lines and SLOWING DOWN. Seriously.. kids these days.. what is the rush? The project will be done when it's done and no sooner! The student on the right was struggling with keeping on task and.. positive and negative space. He kept forgetting to connect his 'figure' shapes to his frame - or to each other - and many times we went over positive and negative space relationships. Listening is a skill... this student had to be reminded and had instructions repeated many times before they 'stuck.' It also didn't help that he was sitting next to Mr. Chatty and those two... yeah, I made some seating arrangements.

One of the best things about block days is the study hall or "STAT" hour that comes before we go down to the elementary :) Students come in from all of our high school - and sometimes our middle school - classes and work on all different projects. The advanced students keep up with their projects by coming in during this period and then we can often have more one-on-one time with the kids who really need our help or guidance. Fortunately for me.. this is also when I can chow down for lunch and visit with kids about non-school stuff, too. That's one of the most fun parts of teaching - getting to know your students, how their minds work, what's important to them.. but I digress.

Mr. Keller and I developed a lesson for the advanced ceramics students about "opposites." The idea being.. create two or more pieces that display or interpret the idea of two opposing concepts, words, thoughts etc. This student..... is awesome. He made DARTH VADER. Um. YEAH. When asked what the opposite would be he faltered a bit.. would he make Yoda? R2D2? Luke? Unfortunately, I will be gone before he makes that decision but the Vader helmet is a pretty awesome start.

Seriously. The most awesome ceramic piece.

This student was getting his feet wet with Photoshop. He was my main learner for the semester - I wanted him to be able to scan images, edit images, and ultimately (maybe even) publish a webcomic. Or at least have the skeleton of one to upload later. He was reading the tutorial and manual cover to cover and following along with exercises, experimentation with the tools, and how-to. I helped him scan a drawing into Photoshop for him to play with and he was learning line thicknesses/diameter of tools and how to select lines to recolor them. He draws EVERYTHING in pencil and did not want to do any raw 'inking' or drawing over his existing lines with pen and marker because he was convinced that his lines were not clean or straight enough. Photoshop was helping him get more comfortable with tracing the lines and editing his work.

Back at the elementary school 2nd grade was working on finishing up Underneath the Earth - kind of a funny sentence. I did not snap any pictures of their drawings but this group was the first to start the project. Mr. Keller sat at a table with some of them and worked on his, too, which helped the students come up with ideas, lines, textures, and patterns. I need to work on being more thorough with my examples so students spend more time thinking about their projects and the objectives. As I have said before, I get carried away with how fun the project is and sometimes let the objectives fall to the wayside - but the first step to solving you problem is admitting you have one, right?!

6^th grade were working on their weavings and made me lots of really sweet little birthday cards and presents. I got some yarn 'poof balls' and some bracelets, too. They were really good today and most of them got quite a bit of their weavings done. 

In the midst of all of my teaching and coteaching and working and running around like a crazy person I also managed to be roped into a local play! Here's a gratuitous selfie from one of my costumes and rehearsals. I was supposed to look 'conservative' in this costume.. yeah, the puffy sleeves definitely do a lot.

On this blessedly shorter week, Thursday was the last day of classes. There are some perks to living in the middle of nowhere! Hunting season merits a day off. Too funny. 

Thursday was also a block day so we had double drawing (9th grade) and double prep time. Thank goodness, cause we needed all the time we could get to set the students up in the hallways for drawing! I will spare you the images the students took from their hallway adventure, but basically we had them seeking out places in the hallway of school that they would want to draw images or objects into to alter and change them. After the students figured out what and where they wanted to draw, I asked them to take a picture from their viewpoint (sitting on the floor) of their composition/area of interest. There were a lot of different results, and it was cool to see how students were solving the visual and spatial problems they encountered while drawing in perspective.

a pair of students drawing two completely different scenes 

one of the most challenging positions to be in - at the top of the first level of stairs
way more detail on the second floor in the doorways!

see what I mean?!

There were only two students who chose to draw in the same area - the rest of them spread out up and down the hallway, in corridors, staircases, and doorways. Lots of variety for a brand new project and problem for students to solve. After we drew we took the boards back to class and did a walkabout critique. I wanted students to see that they were probably coming up with the same problems their classmates were having, and maybe some of them might have similar subjects they were drawing. I was right, and they spent a bit of time complimenting each other and asking each other questions on "how did you get those stairs to look SO Good?" or "I know where that is!" Drawing within the school also creates a personal connection to the students - these are the hallways they pass through every day - let's make them something we've never seen before.

Block periods mean extended class time and prep but they also mean STAT hour! The advanced students were working on some truly awesome projects and making a lot of headway with the extra time.

this painting is going to be HUGE and colorful 

Vader has a bit more work AHEAD. I'm sorry.

This student was working on a self portrait about
how the military has impacted her life. Pretty cool!

Back at the elementary school I was once again working with the 6th graders on their weavings. At this point... I think we all wanted to just be done! Some of them were and I was able to demonstrate the finishing touches and steps to completing the weavings. In the meantime, some students were adding really cool embellishments and even stitching designs into their work, like this one!

The M stands for madness. I think.

Not only did I have regular class time with 6th grade, but I also had push-in with them! All the better the opportunity to finish up these weavings, or at least get to a point where they could be finished up in the classroom. I think it would be going way WAY faster if I met with them daily instead of on a once-a-week basis!

interesting and striking color combinations

This kid drove me up an absolute wall and back
every day. But his weaving is really nice!

I love the colors in this one - super nice analogous color scheme and patterns

moving right along
AND fearlessly experimenting with techniques

all done! one tiny weaving, to go

lots of experimentation here - careful weaving

this student wasn't in class much,
so when I did meet with him I had to do double-time work.

So many beautiful weavings.. so little time! Seriously, if I was meeting with these students more than on a weekly basis their weavings could have been done within a week or two. Thus was the struggle of this project - timing and time needed. However, it was fun watching the kids play with their weaving, experiment with stitches and techniques, and share and even teach each other different ways of manipulating the yarn. When I could not get to someone in time, I would appoint helpers or 'master weavers' to wander around the room and help their classmates. It put some leadership and ownership in their hands and they did a really good job of answering questions and solving problems when Ms. Kanak was tied up - sometimes quite literally because yarn.

The week following (week 13) was, as mentioned before, a time of rest. Thank. Goodness. I spent some much needed time with family and friends and boyfriend. Down time became so very important  after the play. I needed to recover and put my feet up for just a second each day. Something I have learned from the many teachers I have observed and worked with - make time for yourself each day. I would like to think that blogging is that time, but I cannot get it done on the daily! So I made an effort to take more walks, read more, cook more, DO more. But I didn't feel so overwhelmed when I had things other than teaching and planning and (ahem) blogging to attend to. Sometimes I would feel guilty, but mostly I felt strong in my resolve to have a life outside of the many MANY demands of being a teacher. Anyway.. we have almost reached the end of my student teaching journey and I am getting a little sad. I am posting these blogs more than a few weeks after the fact because, well, life kind of does its own thing and I needed to graduate and work and a whole bunch of other events happened. Patience with myself... to get things done when they have time to be done.. not to rush or feel unsatisfied with my work because of last minute decisions to DO. There is more to come.. and there is always time to deliver it when you sit down and make it happen.

Ms. Kanak