Week#3: Beginning to take over ...

Monday
SNOW DAY! My district cancelled school early Sunday night due to the rural population that would be affected by snowy backroads. I spent the day doing some research and brainstorming for lessons to teach over the next several weeks.

Tuesday
Today was like a Monday x2! I have got to start getting more sleep because my body is wearing down or I'm getting sick? Either way it was another busy day of elementary school with a little too much excitement. We had a very rowdy pre-k class this morning that took my cooperating teacher, an assistant and myself to control/focus them. Luckily we had a long break after that with planning time, lunch and set-up time. During out planning time today my teacher and I discussed possible lesson plans for various grades for the next several weeks and specifically for pre-k this week. I'll be creating a lesson based on Andy Warhol's works with the ideas of color and pattern. I'll be working on refining this lesson plan tonight and writing up the personal collage plan for the second part of the 4th grade's wire portrait lesson. I taught my 3rd grade Frida Kahlo portrait lesson again and still have room for improvement. During our last block of planning my teacher and I discussed what I could do better next time as we worked on some sets for another elementary school's musical. Tomorrow when I teach my lesson I will do a full overview of the whole lesson, showing them an example of a portrait I created. I will also talk more about Frida Kahlo and explain why she would have used proportion and exaggeration. My teacher did commend me for my control over the classroom - which I partially credit to the classroom management course I took last semester. Tomorrow I will also start teaching the first graders one of my teacher's portrait lessons on Modigliani and will take over control of that grade fully next week.

Wednesday
Today I taught two classes - the first grade Modigliani portraits and my third grade Frida Kahlo portrait lesson. Yesterday I had started to feel a little bit insecure about my abilities to teach at the elementary level - being able to successfully communicate ideas and creative opportunities that will have meaning to them. Both portriat lessons that I am teaching are initially both very technical and so have to be taught very - well almost cautiously to encourage students to create an image under guidance that is still their own. It is quite a challenge to show them the way in a fashion that still encourages personal creativity. I guess that's the amazing thing about the elementary age group, while they want to make something that looks good, they still put their own flair of beautiful imperfections in each peice - as my teacher calls it - creative liscence.
In the lessons that I taught today I realize that there are many things I need to change/improve through my own critique and the suggestions of my teacher/suporvisor. I know I need to not only guide during drawing the portraits, but circulate to check in with my students more. I would also like to add more of a personal segment to my self-portrait lesson because right now I feel it lacks that. I want the students to really connect to the idea of creating their own image and what that image can say about them. I hope that will come out more with the start of exaggerating a facial feature ... I guess we'll find out about that tomorrow!

Thursday
Today we had the 4th graders first thing in the morning - they were finishing their wire portraits and then starting on their collages, which will be the background for their wire portraits(my portion of the lesson). I introduced collages to them today, but it was a little shakey - I need to emphasize that their personal collages not only need to be about things they like but color, texture, text and composition. Tonight I think I will spend a little time coming up with a brainstorm sheet for them to fill out or maybe tomorrow when I teach it I will provide them with boxes of magazine pages, fabrics, etc. instead of just magazines so they will look beyond just images of their favorite animals. And even though I provided them with good examples of other artists making collages - I think I still need to start making my own collage to show them how the two parts are going to fit together and what I expect of them.
As far as the second part of my Frida portrait lesson - I need to do a couple things differently. Since the students are using oil pastels, I need to do a demonstration for them on how to blend them and color realistically. I also need to keep a working copy of a self portriat so I can show them how finish their self portriats with details, erasing and redrawing an exaggerated feature, and creating a background (plus coloring). I really like this lesson as it kinda grows and morphs because I think it takes drawing portriats proportionally to a more creative level - allowing them to learn about personal expression through exaggeration.
I also got to watch my teacher work through a new lesson on gridded self-portraits, it was really helpful to watch her work through the same steps that I've been doing with developing and troubleshooting new lessonsl

Friday
Today I taught the fourth grade collage lesson and I think there were some improvements made and some things that were lost. I feel like I conveyed to the students the concept of representational self-portraiture better today because they were cutting out magazine pieces that were something beyond favorite animals and cars. They were cutting and tearing out patterns and colors and words - it was awesome! My teacher and I also found some of those scissors that cut patterned edges and let the students use them and really enjoyed it. For next class, I think I am going to make boxes of materials to sift through - fabrics, wall paper, lace, and tissue paper - talking about textures and layers. They can add those materials to the other things in their envelopes - then they can start to work on the compositions and putting together their representational collages. I think the images that I chose to let the students explore so they could understand collage was really successful - they could see both layers, actually images, and textures in the works by Picasso and Schwitters. The students really responded to the questions I was asking them. I still need to work on circulating around the classroom to help the students while they are working (and minitor).
I had some behavioral issues today today too - running with scissors and a back talking 5th grader. I think I handled the situations very well - quietly, calmly and personally with the students and they controlled themselves the rest of class.