Walk Around the World

The lesson Jeff and I put together this week was called “Walk Around the World.” We came up with the idea of making a clay shoe with a personalized sole and decoration that would reflect the student’s culture through the choice of shoe and the motifs that add to the sole and upper. We were under the impression that most students had had plenty of experience working with clay because of how big ceramics is the State College Area School District. However, I think our assumptions were not entirely accurate and that we should have been better prepared for the lack of experience the majority of the kids seemed to have had. 

I think Jeff and I both agree that this week got off to a pretty rocky start. We spent a lot of time preparing and editing our lesson plan, but I know I definitely still felt rushed and like we were working up to the last minute- even when it got to 9:00 on Saturday! We usually have some time to sit down and go over our lesson (especially our discussions) one last time before class starts, but this week we didn’t get a chance.

Our discussion was sort of unorganized since we didn’t get to go over it, and it did not help that our students came in seeming uninterested and bored. We realized our discussion was not really getting anywhere, so we moved on to our demo. I thought we both did a great job taking turns demonstrating coil and slab building, but I still think we could have done more. We were trying so hard to make our demo quick and concise that I think we looked over some key components to building. Our students also had an attitude that they all knew what they were doing, which made us hurry through a little more. If I were to do the lesson over again, I would definitely have done more during the demo and gone into more depth about how to work with slabs and had a more detailed sample of coil building. I also would have gone over building techniques and how to make the bottom of the structure more supportive for the top part. However, after we concluded the demo, the students seemed to take on the project with interest and enthusiasm. Even though they ended up needing much more help than we had expected, most of the students got a pretty good amount of work done (we wanted them all to have the entire building of the shoe done, but only 3 were actually finished). 

Next week, we decided to put together a few more samples and demonstration pieces in hopes that they will help our students with the rest of their constructions and with the decoration of their pieces. They will all need to be extremely focused and finish their work since the clay will be sure to dry out.

This week’s lesson was focused on clay building. The students were making clay shoes to represent their heritage and culture. Katie came up the basis of the idea and I thought it was a really good one. We definitely spent a lot of time planning, maybe even too much at some points. I think we assumed a few things. We knew our lesson so well that I think it lead us to think everyone would get it. This cause some road bumps along the way with the lesson plan and the beginning of the class. 

The students seem to be very uninterested when they got there even before class started. There seems to be some students that kind of help control the classes’ mood. As in if they are interested, everyone is. If they are not no one is. I think this week was the latter situation. Seeing the disinterest we jump in the demos, where the studios seem just as disinterested. We asked who had done this before and everyone except one said they had. This made me think that the demos were boring them because they already knew what they were doing. I think we made another assumption here. 

So we decided to just let them start and it was clear pretty fast they did not know as much as we thought. Though the start was rocky it seemed to pick up. The students began to work better and really get into it. But we still have the problem of some students just not wanting to work and it rubbing off on others. I think with some more structure we can improve this. I think like most of our lessons it may have been a step above some of them and has proven very challenging. 

Though I think this upcoming week with a little more preemptive planning we can get more accomplished and the students can be a lot more productive. I think time management is going to be very important this upcoming week. And I think both Katie and I are on the same page and have already been working on maximizing the time in this week’s lesson plan.