The Final Lesson: [Re] Produce

The final lesson for Saturday School was printmaking, specifically focusing on collagraph prints.  Although printmaking can be quite a process, collagraph allows students to learn the basic steps that are universal to printmaking, while using a technique that is extremely accessible.  Students used cardboard as a plate, various textures from fabrics, plant material, and dried food goods, modge podge and heavy bodied acrylic as ink.
In class, when we had spoken about chaos in the classroom, I think that could have applied to this past Saturday.  Although Dana and I were extremely organized with our materials and room set up, the process was still very foreign to our students.  In setting up this lesson, I anticipated that students would have lots of questions about this new idea so I made worksheets so that they could follow the process step by step.  The students still came running up to Dana and I after each step to ask what came next!
I'm glad that we broke the project down into steps so that the whole class was on the same page.  This made it easy on Dana and I when it came to keeping track of the materials.  The negative side to this organizational device was that students who were flying through the steps could have had more time to print.  I knew that time would be extremely crucial for this project and I am still glad that Dana and I went with the collagraph process instead of using foam for a relief print because we wanted them to think outside of drawing to make an image.  Although a lot of students could have worked longer on their prints, I think the turn out of the project was really great.  A lot of students really understood the process and produced beautiful prints.  Other students (who I noticed were not paying attention during the demos and the introduction) struggled with the steps, even though there was a worksheet detailing the process.  I'm wondering how as teachers we can alleviate this problem without losing our minds!
So one of the main points of our lesson was to get students to think about how to reproduce an image, not by drawing, but by using a collagraph relief print to create an image.  As a teacher, I should have been more assertive about an issue that I knew would come up with my class-- my students all love drawing!  And their drawings are extremely detailed.  A lot of my students would think of an image and get stuck on creating the details instead of the overall picture.  Because they were wrapped up in the detail, they would get behind during the process.  In a lesson like this, it is very important to keep track of time, stay as organized as possible, and provide the students with a timeline as well.  If I had to do this lesson over again, I would change a lot of things.  One of the most important changes would be to provide a timeline for the students at the front of the classroom detailing each time that students should move on to another step so they can finish their project.
Dana and I experienced some pleasant surprises with this lesson.  Either the students followed the steps to a tee and produced beautiful and well thought out designs, or they went in the completely opposite direction and really experimented.  We talk about Griffin a lot in this blog, but this kid was an experimenter and we loved it!  He really embraced this project and made it his own by inventing his own printing techniques and style.
Although I am glad to have my weekends back, Saturday School was a great experience in that Dana and I had a lot of roadblocks along the way.  One of our biggest challenges at the beginning of the semester, the classroom environment, turned about to be one of our greatest wins.  After looking back at all the lessons that we have taught over the course of eight weeks, I am really amazed at what we have accomplished!

lesson 8- reflection on students progress

The last day of Saturday school was very different than the first day. The last class, Maddie and I decided to have the students finish projects that they thought were unfinished, and experiment with the materials they were already familiar with. It was very exciting to see students eagerly working on one project after the next! I also was very interested in seeing what materials they choose to use and the stories behind each new discovery. Some of the girls were making their own type various tones of colored paint in cups with water, glitter, glue, sand, gold leaf, food color, and putting it by the other paints in case other students wanted to use their mixture. Another two girls decided to use pieces of cardboard to make a plane and a rocket ship that hangs from the ceiling.

During the second half of the class, Maddie took students to the Palmer museum who were interested in going. I stayed in the classroom with the rest of the students who wanted to stay and keep making art. Both groups were happy with their choices but I wish more students wanted to go to the Palmer because it may have given them some fresh ideas and inspiration.

Many times during this class, we heard students say that this was their favorite class because they got to do what they wanted to. When we asked what projects they liked from previous classes, they said tea staining, geode making, and Lorax trees. They liked making art with tea and geode ingredients because they never thought about making art with materials like that before. Students liked the Lorax trees because they could be creative with the meaning behind their tree.

This class seemed more chaotic than any of our other classes but it worked because the students were familiar with the classroom and expectations, and also respected us, each other and the materials. The whole time we felt that students were positive and enthusiastic about what they were making and were eager to show us each progression. From the first class to the last class I saw a dramatic increase in confidence in each student, because I saw students taking chances and tackling ambitious ideas. We had one student work on a watercolor pencil drawing that was 24''18'' and she even took on the suggestion to add an extended piece of paper in order to complete her drawing.

Maddie and I received a lot of feedback from the students by observing their decisions and talking with them about their thought process. We saw that after students are comfortable working with a material they want to make conceptual decisions on their own, and we need to foster that enthusiasm for self-discovery learning.

Exhibition Preparation: Week 8

This weeks lesson played out differently than we had planned. Katie and I had to make fast decisions to alter the lesson on the spot.  We had originally planned to let all the students finish up past work for the first hour, then take them to the Palmer in the second half of the lesson.  As the second hour approached, Katie and I noticed that the kids were hyped up on creating art and trying to get them to finish up was next to impossible.  The way we reacted to this situation was to take a vote on whether they wanted to either continue working or visit the Palmer.  Since six students wanted to visit the Palmer, and the others wanted to continue working, Katie stayed in the classroom and Myoungsun and I took a few students to the Palmer.  At the Palmer, the agenda was to focus on how artwork was displayed.  I asked them questions such as "how are the works organized? why are certain paintings placed next to each other?"  Joey thought that all the works were put together because they have similar styles, particularly abstraction.  The students were SOO excited in the museum that the majority of the trip seemed to be them running around in amazement and pointing out all their favorite pieces.  Many of them went up really close to the labels and copied down the artist's name and title in their sketchbooks, which was so exciting for me to see :)  I wish that we could have had more time in the museum because I felt horrible rushing them back to the classroom after 10 minutes because I knew they wanted to stay longer. 
After we returned to the classroom, the original plan was for the students to create a group exhibition of with the pieces that they want to include in the final art show.  They were supposed to also write down titles to their pieces, a blurb about the work and/or answer a few questions about their experiences in the class.  This was meant to be feedback for Katie and I and also documentation of their reflective thinking.  Since the students were so engaged in their art, it was extremely difficult to get them to clean up.  The students kept wanting to finish one last thing. By the time we finished clearing off the tables, there was no time for student to create an exhibit and write all their reflections.  Katie and I had to make the executive decision to cut the exhibit part out of our lesson.  This was disappointing because it was originally the main part of our lesson, but looking back, I am happy we gave the students the opportunity to make art longer than planned because it allowed students to have some freedom of how they want to spend their time.  By the end of the class, the students chose about 4 pieces they wanted in the show and wrote beautiful reflections.  Some reflections that particularly stand out to me are:

"I learned to use my imagination and that you can make art out of nature" --Krista

"My favorite part of the art classes is drawing the two headed dragon. (crubb 5 and bad crubb 6)." --Lukeria

"I experienced so much.  But most of all I experienced true ar and true amaginashon (imagination)"--Kaitlyn

"I learned no matter what others think, you can do anything. I <3 art" --Susie

Overall, my Saturday School experience has been so fun!  I genuinely formed great relationships with the students and could appreciate all their individual personalities.  I cannot wait to see them at the show!!

Lesson 8: Insoluble Paintings

What we did this week:

This week we wanted to expand off of the line drawing, watercolor painting techniques and processes we introduced the previous week. To expand off of this, we decided to make an insoluble painting. We first showed them our example project and demonstrated the process of making an insoluble painting. We had them draw objects that dealt with our theme of movement onto foam paper and then cut them out (they would be putting them inside a clear laminate pouch). We introduced the scientific idea about why oil and water don’t mix together and instead repel each other. The students helped us as we put an oil paint mixture and watered down watercolor paint into a laminated pouch which we then ironed together.  Through this, we wanted the students to understand our theme and really emphasize the idea of movement in art making by creating a piece of artwork that will always be moveable, flowing, and continually responsive to their touch. 

We also introduced two other centers in the classroom. One was a tissue paper center where the students could practice cutting out folded tissue paper to make chains. It was so interesting to observe how the students approached this center. Ava loved experimenting with the different types of chains that could be created with scissors. She also taught the other students how to do it. Connor was really struggling with cutting the paper correctly in order to make a chain. Ava taught him how to do it and by the end of the day Connor’s favorite actvity was the tissue paper center.

The other center expanded on our Dale Chihuly lesson from weeks 3 & 4. We showed them the chandelier that we put together with all of their melted plastic pieces that were inspired by Chihuly’s glass blown sculptures. Some students were inspired to make the chandelier bigger and spent a lot of time coloring more plastic for the chandelier.

At the end of class, we took the students outside to let our class butterflies fly away free into nature.


What worked:

1. Demonstration: When we first started the demonstration, we realized we started with the wrong step.  That made it confusing for the students in the beginning, however we definitely improved our demonstration as we realized what had gone wrong and how we should continue the demonstration. In the end the students could successfully tell us the steps in the process of making the insoluble painting which was key.

2. Timing: We finally budgeted our time well for the project and were able to stop with enough time to release our butterflies to nature.  However, we didn’t have as much time for a closure of the day’s lesson and of our entire unit.  Spending time outside took a lot longer then we had expected because the students were extremely excited about releasing the butterflies and we wanted to take a class photo outside after. Overall, we think the lesson went well time-wise with the exception not having enough time for closing remarks.



What We Learned:

1. Kids Love to Chase Butterflies: When we took the students outside to release the class butterflies we realized too late that we should have given them guidelines before we went outside. This was the first time taking them outside and we did it without thinking about how excited they would be to see the butterflies fly away (they ran across campus chasing them). Also, it was embarrassing that the parents were telling us what to do and how to manage our class.

2. The Sample Project: We should have had a different way for the kids to test out and feel the sample insoluble painting. We decided it would be best to show the students our sample before explaining and demonstrating how to make it so they would gain a better understanding of what it was.  However, they were all excited to see it and did not pay attention to anything else. Some of the students held onto it for a long time touching and moving it with their fingers, while the other kids were starting to become impatient and upset.  Maybe we could have called a few students up at a time to look at it.

3. Gum Chewing: After I (Katie) watched the video footage taken of us teaching while we were outside letting the butterflies go, I realized I was chewing gum the whole time.  It looked very unprofessional on camera and I found it to be very distracting to watch myself doing that. I wonder how distracting that may be for the students who are trying to learn from what I am saying. I probably won’t chew gum anymore while I am trying to teach a lesson.

4. Are Students Really Paying Attention? This week we really noticed that sometimes when you think students aren't paying attention they really are. During our demonstration, Emerson was turned around having her own side conversations while we were explaining the directions to the class. When students are not paying attention we sometimes call on them and ask them what we were discussing. When we called on her to repeat what we had just said, she repeated exactly what we had just said. We found that very surprising that she actually did hear what we were explaining to the class.

The Last Class

We cannot believe Saturday School classes are over! We had such a great time with our students this semester- it flew! We are happy to say that each student finished their wonderful projects and they all look great! For our last class, we thought it would be best to extend class until 12 so that everyone would be sure to have enough time to complete what they wanted to. We also felt it necessary to have a “wrap-up” discussion to conclude our semester together. This discussion went really well. We were able to hear about what everyone had learned over the semester and about their most meaningful experiences. We were happy to hear that a lot of our students learned what we had hoped they would from our unit; one student said that she learned “everyone has their unique talents, and no matter what happens you will always have your family, culture, and history behind you.” One student stated that she was happy to have made a new friend within the class while another noted that she got the chance to work with other people she probably never would have.

After our “meal,” we had the students bring their cardboard constructions together. It was really interesting to see what they came up with- it was nothing either of us had expected! The students seemed to have had a really fun day. It felt a bit more layed back than usual, even though some students had a lot to do. We were both really happy to have added on the extra hour; our students seemed to have appreciated it and were able to relax with the fun snacks we brought in!

We both had a lot of fun working with our students. Only eight classes really seemed to short, though. It seemed as though we were just getting to know them and now class is done! We both really feel as though we learned a lot about teaching, lesson writing, and working with students through Saturday School. The last class could not have gone better and was a great way to end the course!

Week 8: Cardboard Mosaics

Kate stamping her canvas before she glues down her cardboard pieces

For the final week of class we really wanted to see what the students had learned over the past 8 weeks so we titled this lesson Re-visiting Junk.  During our discussion in the beginning of class we began by asking the students two questions:

1.    What is it like to see junk now?
2.    Do you think differently about junk now compared to how you used to?

Their answers proved as evidence that they indeed understood the purpose for using junk as art.

“If I see someone throwing out junk, like a broken toy, I tell them that they can make something new out of it!”
                -Almila

After the discussion questions we went back through each week and asked the students if they remembered what we did and what types of materials we used with each project.  Surprisingly one student remembered what we did the very first week of class.  As a teacher, being able to assess students on their learning and understanding is very important and I really think that Jen and I have been doing a really great job with this through our discussion with students as a class and individually.

While we were revisiting our past weeks, we also wanted to introduce something new.  The project this week was to create individual mosaics using rolled corrugated cardboard.  Using paint to cover the cardboard, students could also stamp impressions of the cardboard rolls onto their canvas and then proceed to glue the roll down.  It’s always exciting to see which students take really well to certain projects.  This week, Jeffrey sat for the entire two hours making multiple stamp and cardboard mosaics that were amazing.  He started with a small canvas and later asked for a larger one to continue with his work.  I sat for about 10 minutes just watching and video taping him work and the amount of attention he was giving to the project was far more than any other student.

Jeffery diligently working in both the top and bottom photo

Some of the final projects students created

Besides the newly introduced project, the students who missed class the week were encouraged to complete a monochromatic collage since they turned out to be a huge success.  The rest of the classroom was set up with centers for bottle cap towers, trashcan painting, and drawing.

Looking back on how far we have come I would say we learned a lot from the Saturday School teaching experience.  From classroom management techniques to material selection for younger students, we both failed and succeeded through trial and error.  Remembering our first day teaching I was so nervous that I didn’t think I was capable of being a successful teacher.  However, reflecting upon the final class everything went so smoothly and came so naturally that it was over before we knew it.  Eight weeks of teaching once a week is really not a long time but the amount that can be learned in this time is incredible and I think we used this to our advantage.

Cultural Dialogue

 This week’s lesson went really well, although it was a lot harder to prepare for. We had originally wanted to do water painting with the students but for various reason that did not work out. So we had to come up with a new lesson in just a few days, which seemed very tough to do. We had talk about implementing a lesson on collaborations the week before, so we decided to revisit that idea. So for this week’s project we focused on collaborations and had our students working together in groups.

                 To start the lesson we went to the sculpture area in visual arts to look at a few of the sculptures and the various materials that made up each one. In the back of the area we looked at a collaborative sculpture that I and another sculpture BFA had created. This began our discussion on collaborations. This week we wanted to get the kids out of the classroom for the lesson and discussion to change things up. The discussion went well and we concluded with talking about Agathe Snow, an artist who works with various materials and a lot of found objects.

                After the discussion the students were broken into groups and work on creating sculptures from a box of materials and wooden base they each were given. Each group had different materials but was only allowed to use what was in their own boxes to begin with. We discussed how sometimes you only have certain resources at your disposal to use when creating something. We compared the sculptures to a country or state and how each one comes to its own unique form because of the different resources each has. A little over half way through, though the students were allowed to trade and barter with other groups for their materials as well. This was to add another layer to the discussion of how resources can work.

                The sculptures turned out great and the kids seemed really excited when working on them. We did have some road bumps though. We were missing 6 kids this week, so instead of the groups of five like we planned, we had to go with groups of three. So we had to reconfigure the groups while the kids were getting their supplies. Two of the groups worked out great but the third had a little trouble. The two girls did not seem to get along with the boy so it took some time to get them interested. Though there sculpture turned out great it seemed a little more difficult to get them going.

                I had a lot of fun with this lesson. I think things were a little hectic with me leaving and being gone all day Friday. But Katie did a great job setting up and preparing the materials. Preparation was huge for this lesson like the clay shoes. The mornings definitely have gone smoother each lesson we’ve prepared extra for. All in all I think everyone had a lot of fun this week and the kids got to work together which was something they had not done before. It was suppose to be a day lesson but they seemed to really want to work on them more so they may get a little bit of time next week. I can’t believe it was already the seventh class. The class has been great so far and the students seem to be getting more and more involved each week.