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.