Week Five: Part 2 Ceramics Shoes

         This past week went much better than last. Jeff and I re-did our demonstrations in a much more organized, step by step presentation. We felt more prepared going into class and were able to improve upon the mistakes we had made last week. One of the best parts of our lesson, I think, was the demonstration. We decided to split the coil building and slab building demonstrations. Jeff had the parts of a slab-built shoe already made and I had a coil structure completed. Jeff showed how he arranged the parts and how to attach them with slip. I cut apart my coil structure to show the students what it looks like after being completed. I then demonstrated how to begin and complete carving into the shoe sole, as well as tracing the shoes onto the slab for the sole. We made the demo’s very structured but very brief, so that students could see and understand what we meant for them to without getting bored.

          After the demonstration, students were able to complete the shoe structures or begin their slab soles if they had already completed the shoes. We told the students how much time they had to work on everything and that the shoes had to be completed by the end of the class. Jeff said that I did a good job “managing” the class by keeping track and reminding students of the time, but I thought he did just as well with giving individual instruction. Jeff, Natalia, and I were all constantly helping students, but not in the frantic way we felt we had been in last week. By the end of the class, only a few students did not actually finish their shoes, which we decided to allow them to before class next week. Overall, I think that we realized we messed up on last week was greatly improved upon this week. We felt more in control and we could tell the students had a better understanding of the lesson and their work as well.

            In this week’s lesson we continued to work with the students on their clay shoes. Last week they had some struggles with the building process. I think we assume that they had worked with clay a lot more than they truly had. Because of these issues, we thought it would be best to start this week with a recap. Also after the new demos introduced this week, we revisited last week’s demos and expanded on them. These second round of demos seem to be a lot more helpful for the students and in turn for Katie and I. We tried to be more through with these demos so the students had more to work with. I think we could have added a bit more still but I believe it was a step in the right direction.

            As class went it on, it seemed to go a little smoother even though there were still some struggles. The students seem to begin to understand the processes better. Though class was stronger this week, I still felt as though I had some troubles this week. I think it was due impart to my inexperience with clay. I feel as though I should have practiced more with the material and process. I think I need to have more of mastery with it, so that my comfort level is higher. Katie had a much stronger weak and I think that has to do with here experience in teaching ceramics classes prior to this. I think she was able to help me a great deal and I should have taken advantage of that more before this class.

            All in all though, I think the week was a step forward. The kids seem to enjoy this project even through the difficulties. I think this would have been more successful, if there was more scaffolding done before hand. Ceramics is a tough media to work with, especially having little experience like some of the kids seem to have. I think when the shoes come out of the kiln though it will have been worth it.

Flying Sculptures

This week, we decided to once again expand on our theme, “A Moving Experience” and began to think of objects or animals that can move by flying. Our students listened to a book called Leonardo and the Flying Boy to initiate our conversation about flying objects. 

 

Students then participated in a warm-up performance art activity where we asked them to find a partner, as a pair they thought of something that flies, and then they each came up in front of the class to act out that particular thing. A lot of performances revolved around birds flying. Our favorite performance was when Ellie acted out a rocket ship exploding into space. We then had the students sketch different ideas of different flying objects on cloud paper we hung throughout the room. 

 

Next we started the day’s activity by reading a short story about Alexander Calder titled Sandy’s Circus. After the story we explained to them that we would be making sculptures that fly or move in the air similar to a mobile and much like Alexander Calder’s artwork. We connected Sandy’s Circus to our lesson by talking about how Sandy used objects he found on the street to make his art and then discussed how we would be using our own found objects. We showed them examples of his work and then showed them our example project that we made out of our own found materials, dowel rods, popsicle sticks, wire and tape.  We spent five minutes demonstrating how to loop the wire around a popsicle stick and add tape to it in order to connect them. We gave each student a popsicle stick and piece of wire and had them practice on their own for the next ten minutes.  The remaining part of the class was spent working on their flying sculptures inspired by Alexander Calder, which to our surprise will need to be completed next week.

 

Last, we introduced our students to our new class pet! We first asked students again, “What flies?” For a perfect introduction one student responded by saying that butterflies fly. We introduced the students to the caterpillars and asked them what they know about caterpillars. A couple students went on to tell us how the caterpillars turn into chrysalis and then into butterflies. Everyone was so excited about our new class pets!

 

What We Learned:

1. Summarizing Before Sending Them Off- Although we spend a good deal of time explaining parts of our lesson and including different activities to get them thinking more about it, we realized this week that it might be a better idea if we summarized more when transitioning between activities and sending them off to work.

2. Stop Saying “Okay?” and “Guys”- We both noticed that after we explain something to the class we say “Okay?” We should not be asking the students if it is okay, what if one day they say “NO!?” We also have both gotten in the habit of addressing our class as “guys.” We need to find another way to address the entire class. (Maybe use the word artists?)

3. Snack Time- Usually we set aside a designated time for the students to eat snack together as a group. This week we planned on having the students decide on their own when they wanted snack so they could have more time to work on the activity, however, we noticed even before we could start our activity, students were already telling us they were hungry. We decided to give them snack during our second book. However, because some of the students have trouble putting their straws in their juice boxes, had to get up to throw away their garbage, and were constantly saying they were “still thirsty” or “still hungry,” it caused more disruption during the story until they were finished eating and could focus on the book more.  Also, the fact that we had prepared the snack and placed it right next to our “Story Center,” we think the students were even more distracted and hungry just by seeing it sit there.


What Worked:

1. Lights Off!- Normally when we would like our students to stop their activity and look up at us and listen to the next directions, we say “freeze!” and everyone stops to listen to us.  This week we turned the lights off even before saying “freeze” and the students stopped even more quickly than usual.  

2. Note Taking- This week, we decided to take more notes on what we noticed the students saying and doing as they were working.  We found this to be extremely beneficial to our own learning and teaching experience.

• Emerson has shown us how much thought goes into our students’ creation process  She told Katie “this is my house floating under a harbor and the docks.” 

• Gabe showed us the importance of experimentation. He drew numerous helicopters as he experimented with how to represent a helicopter. His drawings transformed from small circle with lines extending out to a huge aircraft with windows and stairs for the people on the helicopter. 

This is his first interpretation of a helicopter.

Notice the last version of a helicopter drawn in green.

• When Ella was asked what she learned today, she pointed to her drawing and said “This!” She then went on to explain how her drawing was a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. 

 

In conclusion, one of our favorite parts of the day was when we saw Kate acting like the "teacher" by reading to some of her peers. It was so interesting how she not only was making up her own version to the story but her peers were so intrigued by her story.
 

 

Lesson 5!

Maddie's Thoughts on Lesson 5!

I am really proud of how Katie lead the lesson this week!  In general, the whole class went smoothly and the students were engaged for the entirety of it. Great job Katie H! 

Successes:
Katie was personable with the students- the kids approached Katie with questions and exciting discoveries

Katie was well prepared-her powerpoint provided impactful images as inspiration.  Her demo seem pre-planned because her instructions were fluid

Students were excited to add colored sand and gold-leaf into their works as an added bonus element

Students engaged in the painting process for the entire allotted time

Because Katie did a great job keeping the students engaged, the students took it upon themselves to maintain the materials and not abuse them.


Suggestions for improvement:
It was interesting being the documentor this week because I got the chance to sit back and observe aspects of the class that are sometimes easy to miss while in the moment of teaching.  There was one situation that I noticed that I feel could be improved the next time Katie facilitates a lesson:
 I noticed that having a powerpoint presentation/discussion during snack time created some distracting factors.  It was not a complete disaster by any means, however, I could see some children loosing focus and walk around the room to throw out trash.  Having a discussion/powerpoint presentation may work out during snack time if a couple changes were made.  Maybe having the students sit together in a semi-circle on the floor facing the screen could allow Katie to keep a close eye on all the students at once.  Also, instructing students to keep all trash by their side until after to discussion/presentation would prevent them from walking around the room causing distractions.

Also, in the future, if there is more time than just 2 hours and if the weather outside was better, the students could look at nature with a magnify glass or take their own macro pictures with a zoomed in lens to paint from.  The students were very engaged in the images that Katie provided, but allowing them to create their own compositions may be a nice touch to add to the lesson :)

 ___________________________ Class Works ______________________________________
The students created beautiful work and had many stories to share that related to the image they were painting!!

Noella: Noella painted a frog because she said that she wanted to paint an animal.  She offered prior knowledge that she had about canie toads in a side discussion with some classmates.  She noted that if someone or another animal ate or squeezed a canie toad, they would die because the toad has poison!

Marisa: Marisa decided to create a cat with a spiral body because she wanted to create something unique and imaginative.  She said that she "didn't want to do anything regular".

 

Susie: Susie chose her image because her 1st and 2nd favorite colors were in the picture, which are yellow and orange.  She also liked all the details in the image

(side view of image: bottom is on the left side)

Kaitlyn: When I asked Kaitlyn why she chose the photo she did, she told me that the image looked like a challenge and she thought that it was a great chance to improve her drawing skills!  This is a great example of intrinsic motivation of learning! She also took it upon herself to make the aesthetic decision to alter the color, since she felt the photograph was too bright.

 Lena: Lena thought that the photograph she chose was interesting because of the contrast between the blurry background and detailed foreground.  She also made a observation that the background is black, yet its refection is green.  She thought that was weird!

Ez: Ez thought that the crab in the image looked like a King Crab.  When he was in Cape May, he saw a horse crab on the beach, which is why he wanted to paint this image.  He decided to depict the arm as if it were bigger and closer than in the original photograph. 

(side view of image: bottom is on the left side)

Ben: Ben also painted the crab image like Ez.  He was joking around that the photograph of the claw was pinching him.  This was a great sense of play in my opinion.  Throughout the past weeks, Myoungsun, Katie and I all noticed that Ben tends to follow what Ez does.  In our future lessons, we need to figure out a way to get Ben to be a little more original and trust his own ideas.

(side view of image: bottom is on the left side)

Joey:  Joey created his own image from his imagination.  He painted a tree from his old house that is his favorite tree.  He couldn't believe that he still even remembers the tree because it was 4 years ago and he was only 4 when he would climb it.

(side view of image: bottom is on the left side)

Krista: Krista said that she enjoyed mixing the greens and blues with black.  She felt that the dragonfly had shadows that went well with the background.  The furry flower in the image reminded her of the flowers she tickles her sister with at home.  this is a great example of bringing personal experience into the work.

 

Garrison:  Garrison decided to add sand to his image because the thought the texture would look nice on the front.  He never saw a Venus fly trap in person, but he was familiar with what it was.  He picked the image because he was attracted to its colors.

Genevieve: Genevieve told me that she chose her image because she likes ladybugs.  I was concerned about her because compared to previous weeks, she seemed a little down.   She is normally always very talkative, but I couldn't seem to get too much info out of her as to how she related to her image.  She said that she was feeling fine when I asked, so maybe she was just tired.  Next weekend will be her birthday though, so hopefully she will be more upbeat then!

  

Anna:  Anna made the decision to add more leave to her painting so that she could add more color.  She really liked the way she painted her edges because she purposely matched them to the reds, pinks, and purples in the image.  

 

Rouwa:  Rouwa's explanation for chosing the image she did was so creative!  The spiral of the plant reminded her of the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas because it resembled the curly cliff that Jack walks on.  She explained that she created shadows by mixing green and black.  I was able to explain what a monochromatic color scheme is because this is what she did!

 

 Briana: Briana painted a geico.  She said that is lives in the rainforest and it is very special because it is talented and can perform flips

 

Emily: Oh no! I don't have anything written for Emily about how she relates to her painting :( I feel awful!  She did such a meticulous job painting though and was very eager to show her mother and adorable sister at the end of class.

 

Recycle

This week our [re] word was [Re]cycle. The students made sculptures inspired by the artist Dale Chihuly out of recycled plastic bottles. This week we continued with the “center” concept, as they moved freely between plastic bottle manipulation stations: melting (using hair dryers and a toaster oven), cutting, and painting. Students used these stations to manipulate the bottles using the idea of upcycling.

The introduction was watching two videos first a water bottle recycle organization that creates sculptures with just water bottles and the second was a Dale Chihuly video. The students were extremely into both videos even though we had doubts if they would stay interested in both. Some students liked the water bottle video more then the Dale and vise versa. This led to a really great discussion about both topics because students were interested in both. Also, one of the students Rachel talked about how she is actually making blown glass bowls for arts fest with her mom and sister. Rachel doesn't usually talk so we were very excited to here from her.

The demo Larissa and I decided went a little long. We noticed that the kids lost interest after the first few minutes or didn't really pay attention at all. This could be because we had a long introduction or because many of them couldn't see the demo.  We decided that we will not do as long of a demo in the next weeks again and/or do a long introduction.

The students really enjoyed working on the manipulation of the water bottles. They always surprise us with their artistic talents. Many of them came up with new ways that we did not have examples of to manipulate their bottles. For instance, Bram started poring the neon paint into the water bottles and shook up different colors to get almost a tie die effect. This was not an example but a very interesting way to use the paint that he came up with all on his own.

One of the main issues we had during class was that one of the kids David gets really worked up over using hazardous materials, such as hot glue guns and today he had a huge problem with the melting of the water bottles. He first refused to melt his bottles, which was fine and we told him he could manipulate them in other ways and then he decided that he would not participate in the project all together because it could be possibly toxic. I gave him a face mask to where inside the class room no where near the melting area outside and he finished two bottles and said he would not do anymore. I told him that if he didn't want to do anymore bottles then that was fine but I showed him the images we had of the final products on the wall and said I want you to know that when we piece them all together that you will only have two bottles to contribute and I don't want to see you upset when everyone else has many more in the sculptures. He said that he wouldn't be upset so we let him sketch for the remainder of the time.

Other then Davids little meltdown "literally" the class went smoothly. Except for we decided that we needed to limit the painting center for next week to only puff paint, which was their favorite to use, because it was extremely messy and created a lot of chaos and was a lot to clean up.

lesson 5

Unit Title: Exploring Nature's Elements Through Art
Lesson Title: up close and earthy
Grade Level/Ages: Late Elementary/Ages 8-9	Instructors: Katie Hopkins & Maddie Tyska
Day /Date of lesson: March 23, 2012	Room No: 204	No of Students: 22

REFLECTION BEOFRE LESSON:

I got to bed early and I feel awake and ready to teach this lesson. I am wearing a silk Indian style shirt that is loose and comfortable and blue slacks. I am at Saints café with jeff and I like having this extra time in the morning.

Today I want to show my personality in today’s lesson and have a sense of humor during my discussion. This class should be fun for the kids. I feel comfortable with teaching painting and macro photography because I know a lot about it.

REFLECTION AFTER LESSON:

I felt good during the lesson and the kids were very excited when they saw the macro images in the presentation. I am glad I used the projector because the students were really engaged by the clear images. It was a little distracting that they were eating their snack at this time because they kept getting up to throw away their trash. They really grasped the definition of macro photography with the foreground having more detail and the background having less detail. They were a little more confused about the definition of composition, but they were trying to understand. I should have drawn a grid on the board to show them how good compositions fit with in the intersecting points on a grid. I was glad Ez didn’t let me move on until he could comprehend the definitions.

I am glad I had the sand and gold leaf for them to add to their paintings because it added another step incase the painting was not enough for them. They also had the option of not using the sand and gold. I really tried to encourage the students to cover their whole canvas with paint and not leave the white gesso showing. I could have gone into more detail about how the canvas is made but that would have taken up more time away from painting. I talked to a couple students about how a canvas is made and they explained to me the canvas is pulled tight with staples.

I am glad I had the students think about the edges of their canvas because that is something the viewer will see and should be thought about. The students really caught on to why we did pencil sketches from the images because they saw that they were transforming it into their own style. At the end of the lesson the students kept saying how much fun they had because they got to draw and paint. The macro photography concepts really made sense to them because it was not overwhelming to focus on the subject and to blur the background. The students were really engaged with the demo and followed me around the room, and Myoungsun said that meant the kids were really interested.

This is a lesson I can see myself teaching again, but next time I would plan on talking about composition and would have a clearer definition.

Mallory & Jen Week 5: House Junk

House Junk

Saturday March 24th, 2012

 This week our lesson was framed around House Junk, where students brought to class some junk from home.  We gave parents a request for this at the end of the previous class, and about half of the class brought junk, and awesome junk at that!  We continued to further their understanding of what junk is, and how complex it can be, but most importantly, we reviewed why it was important that we use junk, and in this case, junk that you can find in your own home.  When we asked them why it is important to use junk for new things, they responded exactly how we hoped they would: "Landfills are getting to big, so we have to make new landfills, and eventually, there will be way to many landfills to fit on the Earth!"  Another student answered, "Because it keeps the Earth healthy!"  Another response was, "We need to use junk because it helps keep the Earth alive, because if we don't then it will die!" and "We can make cool things out of junk!"  Even though our unit on Junk culture is not framed around planting trees or using leaves in their artwork, they continue to make the important real-world connections between using junk to make their art, and how and why they do it!  Our process focuses on why we do things, not what projects we get to take home at the end of class, but important values that they take with them.  Our main activity was making junk robots out of house junk, and we also discussed how junk is cleaned up, where it goes, etc.  The focus is not on the robots themselves, but the concepts which fuel the activities.  The things that they make are simply a means for facilitating and understanding a larger concept, which they can connect to their own lives.  

When the students entered the classroom, they brought their junk over to the corner of the room, where we helped them sort their objects into different bins, based on shape, size, and material.  They were allowed to keep one object from home that they liked and wanted to save for their robot.  Everything else was combined in the bins and shared with the rest of the class.  We thought they would be more attached to their own objects, but they were more than willing to give it up for class use, and one student didn't even want to keep an item for himself, because everything he brought was already junk in his eyes, so why would he need to keep it if someone else thought it was great? 

 

This photo shows Kate sorting her junk in some of the bins.

The robots were constructed at two centers, but some worked on the floor in the center of the room which is kept open for ease of movement.  As usual, we never force students to make something that they don't want to make, so not everyone made a robot, which is fine with us! Below are photos of robot construction and a final robot!

 We also had our other centers where students may work.  Some students will stay at one center for the entire class, and others will move around every few minutes, and either way works! We had very little behavioral issues this week like most weeks, and we feel this is because students are for the most part always engaged in something they really want to be doing, not just doing something because we tell them they have to.  Kids are people too, and they should have a voice in the classroom and be given choice!

We continued the miniature photos this week because it was such a hit last week.  Instead of using junk food, they used House Junk, and we got some great photos this week as well!

Our class straw light is always a nice activity that students can collect themselves at if needed, or be a part of a more quiet and relaxed activity, because only two friends can work on the light at one time.  Below are two students working on the light!

Trash can painting is also something that is always a center, and Sophie, who's trash can you can see below, loves to paint on it with paint markers, and this week she spent the entire time drawing elaborate designs on her trash can.  She didn't even want to take a break and eat snack because she wanted to keep working!  Talk about being engaged!

We added a mobile center after their class made their individual mobiles a few weeks ago, so we decided to hang a large one at a center so students can come and go to the mobile, adding objects as they wish.  Some students make little sculptures with the junk and hang those from the mobile!  Here a student attaches an object to keep the mobile balanced!

This week was the easiest of all days, simply because we are getting used to how this classroom works, and so are the students.  They are respecting that we give them lots of choice and freedom, which in turn makes them respect us when we do need to give them boundaries or structure.  It has also become popular during snack, or at any random moment, for a student or group of students to dance in the big open space in the middle of the room.  Merrick, a very intelligent and articulate young student, started free style dancing all by himself during class, saying to Mallory and I, "The 70's are back! Wanna know why?  Cause it's FUNKY!"  Two other students joined Merrick in the dance party for about three solid minutes, then returned to their work on their own.  We like to embrace this kind of exploration and excitement!  If you need to dance, go for it! Everybody can use a little funk in their lives!

All in all, this week was great.  Things are getting easier for us, we're spending the majority of our time talking to the students about their processes, helping them with small tasks, and not spending much time needing to discipline.  It's all making more and more sense as each week passes, and we're thrilled that our students are engaged and more importantly, free and able to make decisions on their own.