Recycling/upcycling- week 6

Recycling Part Two: Upcycling

This Saturday, we decided to extend the lesson from last week and continue with work time on the plastic bottle sculptures.  Just as last week, this week we set the classroom up in centers for manipulation (puff paint, hot glue guns, and heat manipulation).  We decided that the acrylic paint was too messy and required a lot of set up/monitoring but we still included puff paint which the students really seemed to enjoy.  

Although we were pressed for time to finish the plastic bottle manipulations and move on to assembling the sculptures themselves, the students understood that we only had a limited amount of time to work at the stations so we could accomplish a lot within our 2 hour time restraint.  We announced at the beginning of class that we would only have 10 minutes of sketchbook time.  They understood and were very cooperative.  Only one student was unhappy about only having 10 minutes of sketchbook time... Milo.  Milo has a special visitor every Saturday that observes him and asks him questions about his sketches.  Milo loves that time and realizes that he receives positive attention every Saturday.  Although Milo is extremely respectful in class, I have found that he can sometimes act a little bit pretentious.  An example of this is that this past Saturday, Milo asked me if he could spend more time on his sketchbook than his other classmates instead of working on the project so that he could talk to his visitor more about his work and not work collaboratively with his classmates.  I understand that this has been a constant debate in our Saturday School class... should we allow our students to choose what they want to do?  Stray from our precisely crafted lesson plan?  I definitely think that it's a give and take kind of situation in our classroom.  We need to teach our students how to compromise and that begins with the decisions that we make while  we are teaching.  A lot of our students were absent this week so it cut back on a lot on foot traffic when we were doing the centers which helped make it easier to manage.  

After the students had about a half an hour to work on their own plastic bottles, we had our students form groups of 4 or 5 to assemble sculptures reminiscent of Dale Chihuly's blown glass sculptures.  Dana did a very short explanation of how to assemble the sculptures given the materials provided.  Instead of having the students gather around a demo table, Dana stood in the middle of the classroom while the students were at their desks so they could all equally see her as she explained.  Usually, we have the students all gather around a table to demo, but this worked really well so that everyone could see the steps.  In past weeks, when we've had this kind of demo it has been difficult for all of the students to see because they are crowded around the table.  Keeping it shorter was better too so that the kids could stay focused and had more time to work on their sculptures.  

Melt downs are scary when you have one.  When a student has one it's ten times worse!  I figured that out the hard way.  Tori is usually a calm and collected young lady.  She's focused and usually has a great time in class.  Little did I know that she is a perfectionist.  I'm sure that as an art teacher, we will all experience this kind of student. One little problem and her whole world comes crashing down.  My instinct to her melt down was to laugh because it was just ridiculous.  I know that sounds insensitive, but I really did have to keep myself from loosing it.  One thing that I did realize, is that I need to increase my sensitivity.  To Tori, a water bottle coming unglued was all it took for her to lose perspective of the entire project.  She was so focused on one accident that everything else was making her really upset.  I can completely relate to that situation (not the water bottle issue!), but a small bump in the road getting me all flustered and unfocused, it happens to everyone!  What I'm trying to say is that although our students problems may seem ridiculous to us, we can most likely relate on a different level.  We need to put ourselves in their shoes.  My solution to Tori's meltdown was to refocus her.  She was so angry that she was shaking.  I had to ask her to put her broken project aside so that she could refocus her attention more positively by first focusing on her deep breathing.  As her anger was increasing, her breathing became more and more shallow.  After she calmed down I told her that I could help her to fix her problem.  After I helped her fix it, she was happy as a clam!

After the students had an opportunity to put their collaborative sculptures together, we visited the Palmer to see Dale Chihuly's blown glass and they LOVED it.  It was the perfect ending to a whirlwind of a morning.  By the time we visited, they got most of their energy out, but still had just enough to focus on the questions that we asked them.  The students got the idea to look at his sculpture from multiple perspectives so they rushed upstairs to take a look--they were in love!