Lesson 3 Recap

Our third Saturday School class on February 25 went pretty well. We were hoping that the students would finish their cardboard projects, but we only had two students who actually did. They all seem pretty interested and invested in their projects, which is great, but it is taking much longer than we had expected! We have decided that we will add a cardboard station as another studio center in addition to the printmaking station. This way, students will be able to work on either their prints or their constructions when they get to class earlier or have free time during class. Fast workers, like Gracie N., may also utilize these stations when they complete a project.

For me, this Saturday’s class got off to a rough start. I had a little incident with some ice, so started off the day a bit pre-occupied while trying to figure out what to do with my car. However, I realized that incidents like this are bound to happen while I am teaching and that I could not let this affect my teaching. I tried my best to put my worries aside and take care of what I needed in a separate area than where the students were working. I really think I was more shaken up than anything, so I had a hard time focusing despite my efforts. Fortunately, Jeff stayed attuned to and interactive with the students enough for both of us! I think it was a great learning experience for the both of us and I am really grateful Jeff could take care of his parts while picking up my slack. Thanks, Jeff and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

After last weeks lesson, I was nervous for class this week. Last week I felt as though the kids seemed to struggle a great deal with the project. This week they were going to be continuing the projects, so I was interested to see how they would handle the second go round. To try and deal with some of the problems as well as prevent more, we started with a discussion. The students seem to nervous talk about their struggles or problems. After some prompting though, they were able to open up a bit more. I think this session went well, as it was quick and let the students address their own needs. Some of which they might share with other students.

To my surprise they seem to work much faster and confident this week. Some of them even said that things seem a lot easier this week. Though I could still some of them struggle, it was pretty amazing to see how quick some of the other students were taking to it. A few students finished but they were working so hard that we are going to keep it around as a workstation for the upcoming weeks.

I think for myself, I felt much more comfortable this week. I finally am starting to get to know my students and it has created more comfort. I am pretty shy, but this week I was able open up more and have a pretty good week. The students also seem much more responsive and into the class this week. I think they were very excited to have a day for just work. There weren’t really problems with any students this week.

One student seems to have trouble interacting with others. He seems to have trouble knowing what to say around others. Does anyone know how to try and better this situation?

Also we will be having stations starting next class. What is a good one to introduce them and his idea?

Installation Stations! Lesson #3

Installation Stations!

This Saturday, our kids were very surprised with the objects that they found.  Again, we set up the classroom in a U shape that was slightly separated so that there were distinct working groups.  Like last week's lesson, this lesson was difficult to manage because of the materials that we used, but we had some very pleasant surprises.

I think that teaching requires taking risks.  Dana and I took a huge leap of faith this Saturday and placed our "worst" behaved students in the same group.  We had no idea what to expect, but it was an absolute success!  David and Griffin have a lot of common interests, and we found that particularly with this project, that was the key element that made it work.  Because the project was to create found object sculptures based on their own "re" words, they could easily find something that they both enjoyed and worked in a similar fashion.  They were the best behaved working group in the class!

Another interesting approach to working that I discovered was Milo, Sequoia and Martin's group.  They did not have much in common at first, so I suggested to them that they do not have to come up with a "re" word first, but can see how the sculpture evolves.  They found that this approach worked very well for them, and constructed a very successful sculpture with the materials that they found.  I knew that there are different angles at which to solve a problem, but in working with this particular group, it really demonstrated to me that whether its top down or bottom up processing, both are great if students can reach the same goal and discover new things along the way.

Because there were a lot of objects scattered about the room, management became very difficult.  There were more "distractors" in the room that kept the students less focused on the lesson and more fixed on the found objects themselves.  I like that they got to interact with the found objects before they got started on their projects, but one thing that I noticed while Dana was addressing the guiding questions was that as she was passing around examples of found objects, they were paying less attention to her and the questions and more attention to the objects themselves.  One thing that I would have done differently is worked on the flow of the lesson and the transitions.  During awkward moments when the teachers don't know what comes next I found that there is room for management and behavioral issues.  I felt as though Dana and I were working against each other instead of working as a team.  When we plan our lessons, we have teacher actions for both of us, but I think that they need to be more specific and we need to follow through on our designated roles.  Otherwise, one of us is telling the students one thing, when the other teacher is expecting to tell them something completely different.

I want our classroom to be a community in which our students take ownership within that community.  Dana and I agreed that there needed to be more structure to behavior in our classroom.  We started the class with a discussion on classroom expectations.  We didn't want to write our own classroom rules because we thought that if they made them up they would be more likely to follow through with them.  I felt as though that approach wasn't very successful because there weren't any consequences for not obeying their expectations.  One downfall about Saturday School that I've mentioned is that because it is not a "real school" setting, we don't know how to approach discipline.  This is something that I would like to further address during class.

lesson 3 reflection: Katie and Maddie

Unit Title: Exploring Nature's Elements Through Art
Lesson Title: In Nature: Collaging With Textures, Colors, and Shapes
Grade Level/Ages: Late Elementary/Ages 8-9	Instructors: Katie Hopkins & Maddie Tyska
Day /Date of lesson: Saturday, 02, 25, 2012	Room No: 204	No of Students: 22

About:

-The lesson "In Nature: Collaging with Textures, Colors, and Shapes" is meant to give students the opportunity to reflect on memories while engaging in a collage process. Students will be asked to recall the imagery, senses, and emotions that they see or feel while in their favorite nature environment.

What We Would Change:

- Shorter discussion because students were losing interests a little bit.

- We would have done a more “random” or “abstract” demo because most of the students started to copy the colors and shapes used in demo.

What Worked:

- The students were very interested in geodes from last class, and they ended up working out better than we thought they would!

- Students knew where to get sketchbook materials and respected materials.

- We arranged the tables in three clusters and had one station for tea staining. The tea staining station did not have chairs, because we did not have enough, but it worked out better because students worked better standing.

- The students understood when we told them we couldn’t find their first tea staining projects, and were not upset.

- The students were engaged in discussion and every student had a collage idea after they shut their eyes and imagined a scene in their minds.

- We saw students’ projects looking very similar, so we scaffold them to go in a more unique direction, and to remember to include earth, wind, fire, and water elements.

- When students were stuck they looked at collaged illustration books in the reading station and were inspired again.

- When a group of male students were finished with their collages, on their own, they started working on a collaborative collage of a beach scene, and are excited to complete it next class.

- The group of boys were really involved this class and did the tea staining project again. They also had more discussions with the girls compared to last class. We think this is because of the new table arrangement. For the last project, we had the tables set up in a horseshoe shape and it was not effective because students were shouting across the room to each other.

- All of the students helped clean up! We gave each of them a small job, for example, collecting scissors or putting paint brushes in sink.

- Our wrap up discussion went well because all of the students finished their projects and enjoyed the process.

- For our wrap up, we had students say a positive point about their peers’ projects. The students were very mature during this conversation.

Teacher Improvements:

- We had a time schedule written on a white board, which kept us on time and on the same page the whole class.

- We made more effective classroom visuals.

- Our overhead projector worked for the PowerPoint.

- We choreographed who was going to say what, who was going to document, and who was going to do them demo.

- Our transitions were more organized because we planned out what we would have the students do during each transition.

Jordan and Katie Week 3 (Dale Chihuly)

What We Saw

This week, we introduced blown glass artist Dale Chihuly. We first discussed the shapes, colors, size, patterns and designs that he includes in his work. Our first activity focused on the shapes that blown glass can be. We had the students experiment with model magic (extending from our clay theme from last week) and make their own sculptures based off of examples we showed them of Chihuly’s work. Most kids took time recreating shapes similar to Chihuly (natural forms, sea forms, flowers), while others wanted to see how many colors they could get in their clay ball. We allowed them to walk around and choose their clay colors.






The dynamic relationship between Jack and Max this week really emerged. While they choose to sit at a table by themselves this week, they also worked very well off of each other’s ideas. They seemed to turn our activity into a game by focusing on the amount of clay and colors that they could add to their big ball sculpture. We also noticed how they really stem off of each other’s ideas, which can be a great learning experience for them.




After the Chihuly sculpture activity, we took a trip to the Palmer Museum of art to see a real Dale Chihuly blown glass sculpture. We found that we were more excited about showing the artwork to the students. The new surroundings of the museum seemed to excite and took their focus off of the Chihuly artwork.



Following the museum, we then discussed with the students the variety of shapes, lines and designs that Chihuly includes in his blown glass. After we learned how to manipulate shapes with the Model Magic, we wanted to bring the focus to a more detailed aspect of the art. Students were able to decorate designs on transparent plastic and Shrinky Dink Paper. Next week students will be able to finish decorating and then will see the process of heating the plastic and watch it move and take a new shape.


What We Learned

1. Present More Challenges (Figure out how to challenge the older students more. Behavior was a bigger issue this week and we think it stems from not having enough challenges to focus their attention or energy on. Specific students repeatedly asked to go to the bathroom as well when they had only gone a short time ago.)
2. Parents! (Going along with the bathroom issue, one girl kept asking to use the bathroom because her mom was sitting right outside the classroom. We have found that the parents seem to be more of a distractor rather than a consoler.)
3. Stop Ripping OUR PAPER ☺ (This week students, surprisingly the quietest students, discovered that they could rip the paper off of the tables. They also got a kick out of eating the paper. Jordan repeatedly asked two students to not rip the paper but students continued anyways. The two students together thought it was funny to keep doing it. Finally she had to ask one of the students to move to another table and then the behavior stopped. We learned that we should not be afraid of being stern with the students if they are not following directions.)
4. PowerPoints (In the first two weeks powerpoints were very successful but this week students seemed very bored and more interested in their peers this week. Since they have a shorter attention span, we need to find new ways to convey our information about our lesson. YouTube videos have really worked in the past, students seem to really enjoy them and actually learn

Jen & Mallory Week 3

Hanging Junk!

Starting each class with sketchbook time allows the students to draw and color as well as explore some of their ideas on paper.  We spent a few minutes looking at some of the works, and one student's sketchbook, Christina, really caught our eye. Her skills in drawing seem far past her age, and her ideas about her drawings were even more impressive.  Her abilities are amazing, and her hot glue gun fascination is also interesting.  She loves hot gluing bottle caps to the mosaic, she is very patient and determined, and focuses a lot on what she is doing.  She is a great example of how important it is to never underestimate a child and his or her abilities.  On the left in Christina's sketchbook is her "Princess Celle," and on the right are her unicorns and other figures.

We began this weeks lesson on hanging junk by showing the students a PowerPoint presentation on ways to reuse old news in new ways.  The way that they transformed toy-like objects into art was via hanging them - a mobile!  We showed them a short video clip of Beach Plastic, where Richard and Judith Lang show their plastic mobile hangings.  We had a variety of objects for the students to choose from, as well as yarn, wire, shoe laces, pipe cleaners and clips for them to attach their objects to their mobiles, which we prepared for them the night before.  We explained to them how they can attach their objects to the mobile, and they got started.  

As they began working within the first five minutes, a hand was raised... and a statement was made by one of the students. "I DON"T KNOW HOW TO TIE A KNOT."  It was the first time we really felt like this was an "OH. NO." moment.  I thought to myself, this is going to crash and burn.  We completely did not think about the fact that many 6 year olds cannot tie their shoes, let alone tie a tight knot with yarn!  We spent the class helping the students tie their objects and putting holes in things that didn't already have a hole for stringing through.  We knew that the students loved the idea of these mobiles, but it was hard for them because many were frustrated because nothing was staying put due to their lack of tying skills!  When they finished their mobiles, one by one they would bring it over to us, when we were still trying to help other students attach and tie, and tell us they were finished, so we had to frantically stop helping those that needed help and write names on each mobile and hang them off to the side.  This was very difficult because we needed to continue to try and help tie, but then direct students to other stations when they finished.  Below is a photo of all of their finished mobiles hanging together on a wood piece suspended on top of the cabinets.

 All in all, the mobiles looked great, the students enjoyed the project minus the struggles with attaching objects, and there are several things that we would have done differently and think about for next time:

• SCAFFOLDING:  This was something that was done perfectly for the mosaic, but not for this project.  We should have showed them how to attach objects, and thought about better ways to do so, such as making four strands of objects and then later attaching each strand to the top piece, as well as focused more on balance, by hanging the main piece so that they could attach objects as it was hanging, rather than trying to do it on a flat surface, then lifting it up and realizing it was unbalanced. 
• DEMO:  We should have done a demo on how to attach!
• TEACHER EXAMPLE:  Mallory made a beautiful teaching example, but something that we missed was looking at how she made her mobile - NO STRING!  She basically only used wire, which would have worked better for the students considering many of them could not tie.  We did not even think about this when the example was being made.  We thought - "String will be good for 6 and 7 year olds, wire may be too dangerous." Next time we will be much more aware of how we are actually making the examples, so that we know what works for us and the students.   

Cultural Landscapes Prt 2

This week we talked to the students about the physical landscapes that make up cultures. The students were instructed to choose a part of a landscape geological or industrial. From then they would proceed to recreate it using cardboard and a layering process.

 I thought this week went very well. We were able to try and cut down the presentation and make it briefer in order to provide maxim working time. The students seem to take the project fast which was exciting, though after they seem to struggle some with cutting the cardboard. I feel as though it has been tough for me to put myself in the position of the student. I forget how difficult things can be at that age because of the potential lack of experience with the material. I was very pleased to see some students take to it though and really start to take to the material.

This week was definitely a good learning process for me. I think Katie did a good job putting up with me as well. I think I was a little too ahead of myself with this one.

On a side note there were not really any issues except for a older girl bringing up an inappropriate comment about drug use, but I feel we handled it well and it was quick to pass.

Some questions I am left with after this week:

I do not want to do some much for them in preparation that it becomes too easy and boring but I do not want to make it too hard. What is a good way to think about student’s development level?

Also to get a better idea of the skill level of Katie and I’s age group (12-16), could people post maybe one or a few things they learned around that age?

 I did not take my high school art classes so if anyone can share experiences please do.

Cultural Landscapes

This week started out a little differently than Jeff and I had planned. We would have liked to get right into our cardboard constructions, but it seemed as though it would be better to spend some time working on our lino-cuts after talking to Natalia. I am glad that she brought that idea up, though, because it seemed like the students appreciated the extra work time. It would not have been fair to cut them off from their work from last week that they had grown attached to.

After spending the first half hour on printmaking, we moved on to the main lesson of the day. The project for this week was a great idea and I think the students were really interested in it. The PowerPoint that Jeff put together with the cardboard artists really caught the students’ attention and got them involved in the idea of using cardboard as a medium. Once again, the students actively participated in the group discussion. Though their ideas for “cultural monuments and landscapes” were not exactly what we had had in mind, their ideas were thoughtful and creative. Some students stuck to the idea of monuments, while others chose features from video games or more personal settings.

Although Jeff was concerned about giving a demonstration that the students would understand, I thought he did a great job instructing everyone on the proper way to use the exact-o knives and how to construct their pieces. Some of the students had a hard time cutting through the cardboard with the knives, so we provided scissors instead. Other students just had a hard time listening to instructions. Jazelle, for instance was having a difficult time using the knife. Once Jeff gave her an individual demonstration, she caught on and did great! Gracie, on the other hand, decided that “stabbing” the cardboard was easier. Jeff and I approached Gracie at separate times asking her to try the correct way of cutting, but she seemed a bit stuck in her ways. After class, Natalia suggested that next time we explain the correct way to use the tool and wait to see her try it herself.

Aside from the actual lesson, we came away from Saturday having learned some other lessons ourselves. I think we realized that, especially for this age group, we have to stop worrying about the lessons being completed in one week. It has yet to happen, but the students do not seem to mind. We have decided that this coming Saturday will be a day to “catch-up” on the two projects we have begun. I also ran into some issues with name-calling and, what I believe is, unintentional bullying. One of the students made a comment calling someone a “Jew” and called another student’s glasses “nerdy”. At the end of class, we discussed some ways to handle these situations. In regards to the “Jew” comment, I responded by saying “you mean he is Jewish?” and to the “nerdy glasses” comment with “I love her glasses! I used to have similar ones.” We discussed subtly ignoring the comments not to fuel a fire and/or pulling a Billy Madison: “it’s cool to pee your pants” approach were the best ways to handle this particular situation.