Week 8…holy what?! Week 8! Uhhh that’s halfway through my
student teaching placement… a moment of silence for weeks gone by that have
absolutely flown. I’m not gonna lie – I’m writing this post nearly three weeks
AFTER week 8 and I am in shock that I only have a month left. It’s a sad and
exhilarating feeling.. hard to pin down.
Monday: started off great! I was able to get my hands on
a Macbook for one of my advanced drawing students. My goal for him is to teach
him the basics of Photoshop so he can expand his skills into digital
illustration. He’s huge into Anime and Manga and that’s really… all he is
willing to produce art-wise. I figure I should bring him into the 21st
century with his abilities and give him the tools of the trade if he really
wants to be an illustrator.
I am putting out my feelers for all the tutorials I
can find and any tips or tricks to help him along. We will be scanning his
drawings into digital files and then, ideally, taking them in to Photoshop for
further finishing and editing. This student’s challenge is his priorities – he would
rather buy a custom video game controller than shell out cash for a drawing
tablet… my life as a high school teacher vs. the almighty console.
In Drawing we were learning allll about printmaking. How
to, how to set up, how to CLEAN up.. these kids are great. They created some
really nice prints and learned quickly the process overall! I think it is
important for them to learn a process like printmaking… teaches them delayed
gratification. Something a lot of kids do NOT understand nowadays. You have to
work for the end results and work hard to produce good results – such a foreign
concept to students who are all “Well, I will draw this thing and then this
thing will be done and I will get a grade and I will move on!” Not so with
printmaking. I received a, probably, sick amount of joy watching them toil over
their prints and try to make them look good every time…I’m evil like that. How
dare I have them create something that takes more than three steps?!
Today also marked the time
when my 7th graders were ‘given back’ to Mr. Keller. I was a little
sad… but they weren’t physically GOING anywhere. They were just learning a
ceramics lesson he wanted to share with them. I never thought I would be so
attached to a group of sassy middle schoolers. But there it is.
Students were being given
their next project, character pumpkins. I thought it was a good way to teach
them about clay, pinch pot construction, and scoring and slipping! The kids
were excited about it and I was kind of left in the dust to be like… heeey..a
couple of you still need to do your priiints. So it goes..
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| Excellent. |
At the elementary school it
was a liiiiitttle nuts. A little. Not too nuts but a little nuts.
I was working with 1st
grade to draw animals with textures and patterns. As per usual, the first run
of the lesson was not perfect in any way shape or form. I’ll just leave you
with the image of my co teacher’s notes to guide your reasoning… some
reflections on the lesson overall: I talk too much.
STILL. I have the tendency to over explain concepts to students because I see
them as little tinies and that means they need lots of information to make
things connect in their brains. Wrong. So wrong. They want to be WORKING sooner
than later so the quicker I can show them what the expectations and goals are,
they quicker they are being good little littles.
Tuesday was super productive. Advanced
students were cranking out their handbuilding pieces and getting them ready for
firing.
The drawing students learned today just how nitpicky the printmaking
world really is when we discussed.. creating a clean edition. I think at this
point they all wanted to smush my face into the inked plates but they
persevered and created some really high quality prints! I was running out of
space for them so they found a temporary home in the hallway while they set and
dried. I was really proud of the kids for taking their time and making the most
of the process – even when it probably wasn’t their most favorite thing to do
and RE-Do ever...
Back in Art Survey I had some of my students
finishing up their prints. The sassy pictures show little resemblance to the
fun they were having in the classroom! And I think they were happy with the
results.
At the elementary school I had nearly a full
day of teaching! I was working with 4th grade on Art History at the Zoo (which
I believed I posted the lesson for some time ago… anyway! The kids were loving
it and having a lot of fun making creative parodies of the great masterpieces.
I tried to give limited examples so they wouldn’t just copy something another
artist did. I was NOT disappointed. I only had a few behavior issues with these
guys – I think I may have accidentally on purpose mentioned that they are the
most difficult grade level in the elementary school right now. I love working
with them. I think they’re fearless and hilarious and creative. I value that in
people and in students – I make sure to remind them of my behavioral
expectations but they generally just get right to work and do great things. My
co teacher and I were talking and he thinks it would be a good idea to adapt
this lesson for 5th grade – which was my original plan but I didn’t have them
to teach so I improvised! We were discussing using tracing paper and crayon
instead of oil pastels. I remember doing the project with tracing paper and
colored pencil but we don’t have those so you make do with what is there and hopefully
the results are wonderful! Right? Yes.
The last class of my day was 6th grade. This
class had their meeting cancelled the week before for a field trip so my goal
was to catch them up with the other half on their weaving. This class got it
RIGHT AWAY. Mercifully, all of their looms were warped and ready to go for the
next step. They were ready to add weft during our next class time, which would
be later in the week! Madness, I tell you. They’re a fun group of kids.
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| teacher's sample - Napoleon riding a T-rex. Because duh. |
Wednesday started with a double-long period of ceramics
and time for me to work with my advanced students. I will never forget how
important it is to have one-on-one time with studio artists after this
placement. Some students need all the motivation in the WORLD, and others just
want you to back off and let them create their art. The main takeaway is they
want you to care about what they’re doing and take the time – even if they act
like you’re a nuisance – it’s a big part of their development of style and
working habits. I try to meet with each of them even if just as a walkabout
informal critique so they know I am interested in what they’re doing. Rarely do
I have to tell them to focus on their art anymore – some are still distracted
by other people but generally it’s a quick reminder and they’re back to work.
Wednesday also means Art Survey block day! So I was back
on the kids about finishing their prints.. because that was my job this week.
My co teacher was having all the fun teaching them clay techniques and textures
and I was over on the other side of the room cracking the whip. Typical. But again!
The results were really good and the kids were surprised at how much detail
they were able to accomplish.
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| some framed prints by the 7th graders :) |
At the elementary school I had another chance to tangle
with the first graders. We were going to draw some animals with texture and pattern
if I died trying! This class went much smoother than the first, as per the
routine. I know I have probably said it 50 times by now but I am SO GLAD I have
the chance to work with one half of a grade level at a time. I don’t know if
that will be the case where I end up working but I will do my darndest to
reflect thoroughly on my teaching as much as possible – especially if I have to
do it all in one shot. Phew. 
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| my personal favorite - the eyes... THE EYES |
This group of littles has a particularly challenging
student behavior-wise. Luckily I was otherwise blessed with diligent littles
everywhere else in the classroom so this student and I could work together on
the project. He really wanted to scribble. All. Over. Everything. I walked over
to him, “P—what are you doing?”
“I want to draw a truck!”
“We are working on textures and patterns today, remember?
You did a really good job following along earlier.. how could we add texture or
pattern to your drawing?”
The student thought for a minute and his eyes lit up. “I’ll
draw a truck!”
Now…. If you ever worked with this student you would know
how much of a challenge it is to get him to do ANYTHING. I was happy to see him
working and not impaling the marker box with a pencil, so I played along.
“P, I will make a deal with you. You can draw a truck IF
you add textures and patterns.”
And just like that, he drew a beautifully detailed
6-year-old version of a truck. No disciplinary issues, no yelling, no temper
tantrums. Just a colorful and patterned truck. I congratulated him on a great
day in art and was even able to give him a ‘roller rock’ behavioral incentive.
That was the best part of my day this week – getting him to draw and sit in art
the whole time… more on that later.
After 1st grade we went up a few years to 3rd
and I was working on the sea animal collage. This group of 3rd
graders is stellar. Like.. they work super hard and do really awesome art and
are fairly well behaved and challenge me to challenge them. Can you tell I enjoy
teaching this group?! The kids got right to work on adding details to their
animals and creatures. And then… there was an issue. One student was working
happily away on his project and then something snapped. In my short amount of
time teaching littles I have realized some important things... one is you will
have students who want you nowhere near them while they work because it freaks
them out. Another is you will have students who require your every minute of attention
and time and will not rest until they have dominated your life. These are not
the two golden rules because there is definitely middle ground but… what
happened with this student was an example of the latter lesson.
He was working on his project but reluctantly, whining
every few minutes about how it was too hard or he couldn’t cut this or couldn’t
glue that.. a very textbook case of defiance. I helped him plan out his project
and gave him the steps to making his giant paper whale a reality. But that was
not enough.. he needed more attention. My co teacher was working with him to
keep him on task but that wasn’t enough either. So he started to wander.. and
bang his hands on tables.. and whine.. and bother other students. His project
was finished but he was not. At clean up time he seemed to be doing okay and
set his project on the back table with the others.. but then he started hitting
the tables again, this time with projects on it. My co teacher thought it would
be a good idea to remove him from the classroom while I worked with the other
students – something I would have to learn to wrangle in my own classroom by
myself, obviously. But for that day I was grateful he was there to tackle the
issue.
The kids had cleaned up early so I put on a clip from
Finding Nemo and we talked about the food chain in the ocean. The kids really
liked that! The exception was the student in the hallway… he was not having a
good time at all. From what I could hear, over his yelling and tantrum, was
that the student threw his scissors at the ground and then walked away. The office
was called and took care of it but my other 3rd graders were
blissfully unaware of the chaos outside and were enjoying Marlin and Dory’s
adventures. Talk about classroom management… I felt bad for the student but he
was out of control. The rest of the day was peppered with visits from the
special education teachers, classroom teacher, and then on top of that we wrote
behavioral tracking forms… tis the life of an elementary school teacher.
The best part of the day, on top of all the craziness and
behaviors and messes to clean up was sharing with the elementary staff that
that 1st grade student was an awesome artist. The secretary seemed
surprised and said, “Well good for you! He spent the rest of the day in the
office with me!” It’s always little victories that seize the day when it comes to
kids like that.
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| some advanced handbuilding work - super nice! |
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| my resident anime artist.. |
Thursday was the double block for Drawing..What they didn’t
expect was my sneaky plan for a critique. I scattered their finished prints all
around the room at different seats and set a sticky note under each print. The directions
were: Write one thing that you like about the print, Write one thing that you
recognize, If you also used that symbol, write your initials on the note. I
wanted to keep things as loose as possible but still make them think about the
aspects of their designs they had in common. I think I said before this group
is kind of cliquey so it is important to me to start chipping away at those
walls and show them common ground. Art is a super good way to do that with kids
– that’s why I love it so much.
After the stickies were filled up I had the students read
the comments wherever they were. The idea being not to read their own comments.
There were some laughs and nods of agreement, some jokes and some genuine
questions. I was pleased with their interactions with each other’s work and in
general! After that the kids were ready to get started with their printmaking –
ready to be done, I think.. They set everything up, cleaned up after their
projects were done, and helped each other out to create clean pulls and clean
surfaces. There are some really tricky cases in this class but the fun thing is
seeing them open up through their art processes. They act like they don’t want
to be there but the reality is they are able to make work about what they care
about. I want them to enjoy what they make and so I push that pretty hard. It’s
amazing what students can show you with just a pencil and some time to think…
rant over :)
At the elementary school I was back with the 6th
graders working on weaving. The challenge here being… yarn. Distributing yarn
is a lot easier in a craft cabin where kids can just wander to wherever the big
box of yarn is and do what they need to. In a classroom, it comes down to
science. I came up with a method for measuring their yarn pieces, which was
entertaining as well. I had them pulling yarn from a box, putting the end of
the yarn on their nose and then dragging it down to their toes to cut it. Nose
to toes, kids. It’s a living! That worked fairly well and then I had to teach
them how to actually WEAVE. The cool thing was they knew exactly what to do
because they had done the people weaving! I only had to remind them of the
patterning after they reached the end of the loom.. I quickly saw that a lot of
them were pulling really tightly on the yarn so I had to correct that, but
really this group was doing pretty well with the process. One thing I learned,
though? KIDS CANNOT TIE KNOTS. Like. AT ALL. I had to teach how to tie a double
(square) knot. Really. REALLY. The age of Velcro has ruined our youth. So sad.
The other half of third grade was working on their sea
animal collages and was ready to be DONE. Now.. student teaching is full of
lessons. This lesson was choose your battles.This class is a little.. tiny tad
bit disorganized. But they liked the project! Mostly! Today my goal was to
finish up their animals and get the mobile put together. And so we did! I explained
to them how to ‘feed’ their animals by gluing some fish into a stomach shape. After
that I walked around with string and cut lengths for the students to sandwich
between the animal and the stomach. The next step was to tie them on to the
mobile and listen to the oohs and aahs – they were pretty proud of their
handiwork. I gave them time for free drawing when they were done and by then it
was the end of the day!
Friday we were back to normal schedule and I was able to
wander around and admire the work the advanced kids were doing. I never tire of
watching their work progress and change and grow (sometimes literally) in the classroom.
So many of these kids are pushing their already strong skills into overdrive
and the results are so So GOOD.
In drawing class we were finishing like.. maybeeee two
prints and then I was able to hand out rubrics for self evaluations. I don’t
think these students had tried to reflect on their work in this format before
because they all seemed surprised I wanted to hear what they thought about the
project. Of COURSE I want that! If it sucked, I want to modify it or remove it
from my plans. If it was awesome I want to hear why. Duh. I was happy to see
some of the kids reflecting on what was IN their project as well. Some of them
talked about how they liked the process because they were able to draw things
they liked or cared about. Some of them were very honest with themselves about
their effort and abilities.. they all scored very highly in my book! After finishing
their rubrics I introduced them to the new lesson, Linoleum Carving Prints
(lesson coming soon!). They had the rest of the hour to research images of
their animals, resources, and reference images. I find it is better to give
students a more open-ended assignment after you have just finished one that is
more personal. They seemed interested in trying out a new printing process and
being able to work from different resources.
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| The LAST Art Survey Dia de los Muertos print. Phew. |
Today was a big day for me because ON TOP OF ALL THE
OTHER THINGS… I was also being observed at the elementary school. Because why
not!? In any case I treated it like a normal day and set to work teaching
weaving. Again, we took the nose to toes method to heart and students were
getting their yarn in an organized fashion in no time! My observing professor
was walking around the room, looking at the work students were doing and asking
them questions. I do not know if he ever introduced himself to him so I got a
lot of “Ms. Kanak.. who is that guy!?” in hushed tones. I could hear them
talking to him about how fun my lessons are and that they really liked weaving
a lot (Score!). Thanks kids, that helps immensely!
And I was even able to
access some of my observation feedback.. like this!:
“Breanne is confident
and has her own style of conducting the class. She is making it both fun and
productive to be in the class. Several students volunteered to me extremely
positive feedback on her as a teacher. Her ways of redirecting off task
behavior were very gentle and effective in keeping students attentive to her
while still building positive relations. She treats the class like fellow
artists, showing her authority as a resource of artistic knowledge that
deserves the respect she gracefully elicits through confident, natural, and
respectful guidance.”
“Her instructions were very clear and well stated, she is
relaxed, confident, and thorough. I especially enjoyed the sense of pacing; she
breaks instructions into small chunks so that students can get to the hands-on
learning without long periods of instruction, then short breaks to introduce
the next phase. Very effective methodology.”
ALL
good things :) It was a very productive
and learning-filled week over all. I could not even express how happy I was to
read such positive and encouraging comments. Sometimes school is really hard to
come back to – but knowing my students WANT to be there and learn with me – and
they tell other people that! – makes it a really fun way to make a career.
Ms. Kanak now has to go to wait all the tables.
Bye!
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