Week # 8: The Elementary Finale'

Monday
another snow day.

Tuesday
After yet another snow day, today was a reorganize and re group day. I have started handing classes back over to my teacher - she took the Kindergarteners and pre - K, though I was still assisting. We did two lessons based on the work of Wassily Kandinsky (sp.?) - the Kindergarteners studied the concentric circle paintings (using pattern, shape and color mixing) and the pre-K did drawing lines to music (which have water-color shapes added to them next week). I continued my lessons with the 1st through 3rd graders that we had, getting to the almost last parts of each of them - unfortunately due to snow days, I will not get to see the end of them with any classes. I'm glad that my next placement is just down the street, so maybe I can check back in on her on the final products (plus over the past 8 weeks, she has not only become a mentor but a great friend).
I am still making revisions to many of lessons:
The first graders have changed - for time sake - from using paint to color their seasonal lanscapes (studying monochromatic, tint, and shade) to using a crayon resist. I tried having them color parts of their landscape today using crayon, but unfortunately regular crayons don't blend for tints and shades so much. My teacher suggested changing to oil pastels instead so they could use blending of black and white in their landscapes. Also they will just color the tree (trunk, brances, leaves, etc.) and not the ground or sky - those things will be watercolored in the next class period.
The second graders will do their patterns (skipping pencil) in sharpie, again for time's sake. I know this means they could possibly make mistakes, but in Ancient Egypt they used stone and couldn't erase that either. This will allow them to finish their patterns and glue tracing in one class period, so that the lesson can continue to progress. There are many other things that I would change in this lesson given more time and materials.
The third graders needed more clarification on the idea of creating an outline for their letter, so I'm going to try a different approach tomorrow - maybe delving into the idea of block letters and bubble letters and how those are the outline of the actual letter. Also, in looking through my favorite graphic design book today, my teacher and I came across an image of illuminated letter - the outside done in orange and the inside done in blue - making a very striking picture with complementary colors. I think when they start coloring their letters, I will have them consider that as an option. I'll finish my sample tomorrow morning during planning so that I can figure out what works best and so they have a reference.
I have definitely learned the value of doing a project all the way through before actually teaching it, it helps eliminate process gliches before you drag the class down a wrong path. I also feel like its o-k to make mistakes teaching a lesson, kids are very forgiving - especially the little ones.

Wednesday

The 2nd to last day of my elementary experience - how has it gone so fast. Today was another day full of adjustments. Our normal planning period in first period in the morning was switched to tomorrow morning and we had the Thurs. morning 4th grade class today (they have a field trip tomorrow). They finished their collages and started brainstorming/sketching for their next project. Since my teacher and I still can't get the monoprinting to a successful stage - something with the acetate/tempra paint/paper combination just does not transfer as clearly as we would like - so we are exploring other options for the background to the linocut reduction prints of aboriginal animals. The students were however, able to sketch out a possible pattern to use for the monoprint/background and animals they would want to use for their linocut.

The first grade lesson went much better today using the oil pastels, though the class I had was struggling with listening and some of them colored more than they were suppose to ... but i guess that is a frequent occurrance with the younger students?

The kindergarteners finished their Matisse pictures - and unfortunately I had forgotten to prep the 8.5x11 sheets of construction paper before class, so I gave them each 11x17 sheets instead - this ended up as a happy accident - they had a lot more room to include their person and all the shapes. I can't wait to hang them up in the hallway tomorrow morning!

I was observed today for my 2nd grade lesson and had to use some serious classroom management to keep them on task - at the end of my lesson my teacher asked the students how they felt when they tried to talk to an adult and that person wouldn't listen - their response was frustrated. She then asked them to think about how their talking made me feel today - it was like boom, they got it AND apologized. I'm going to keep that speech in mind for my classroom management. One of the keys to reaching a class that is loosing focus/being disrespectful is finding a way to relate to them/get them to relate to you!

My third grade lesson was interrupted by a fire drill today, which was unfortunate because they were not able to get as far on their illuminated letters. On the upside though, since I was finishing with my supervisor, going over my final observation - I got to see my teacher introduce the lesson and see how she would approach it. She mentioned the opening scene of Shrek to make the students think back to where they may have seen illuminated letters before - it really clicked with them.

Thursday - the final day.
My last day was like any other day, busy and full of many different tasks. During our first planning period, my teacher and I went over paperwork, lesson plan adjustments, and any other final items that needed to be addressed. I then proceeded to teach all of the classes - except for our SPED (team taught) and 5th grade (my teacher taught). There was an added challenge to the day though - as the art teacher, my teacher had been asked to assist in the school plate fundraiser by having each class paint a plate - so we had to call the students during class back one by one to use their finger/thumb prints to make a design on the plates. My teacher and I had spent some of our planning time coming up with themes for the plates of each grade and testing out the finger/thumb printing method need to create everything from birds to seahorses. Unfortunately, next week when she continues doing the plates with each class, my teacher will have to stop instruction of the lessons to do so because there won't be an extra person in the classroom teaching - major bummer.
Also, throughout this past week I had several students make me works of art as going away presents, which was very thoughtful - I also got many good-bye hugs as well. However, there were students who I think were happy to see me go - those were the students that had not behaved in my class and had to "managed" - though I even had one of those students give me a good-bye hug. Its those small gestures of thanks, watching a student finally getting a concept, the final product of a successful project - those things make teaching really valuable.
I really enjoyed this placement, which surprised me because I always thought that the elementary level wouldn't so much be my thing. That age group is really incredible because they are like little sponges, eager to please and succeed more often than not, and especially in the earlier grades, extremely creative because it has not been stiffled by a variety of influences. (For example, Kindergarteners creating portraits with blue hair!). With just some instruction and guidance, every student is able to create something totally unique and have experiences that are not found in the classrooms as much these days due to SOLs restricting creative time to focus on content.
After this 8 weeks, as fragmented as it was from snow days, I feel I will go into my next placement with more ease - although I will have to change my mindset - phrases like "freeze please" as classroom management may not go over as well! haha.
Middle school begins Monday ...

Week #7: Back to school, back to school ...

Monday
Today was intense and felt very discombobulated. After only teaching one day last week - a week ago, I feel like my lessons are becoming very disjointed and I'm loosing my momentum. With only 8 days left in this placement, all the lessons that I have planned and started teaching will not be finished before I leave - while the days off have been nice, the situation the weather has presented is not optimal. My teacher will now actually have to finish most of my lessons, at least the ones that I started two weeks ago - craziness.
I think the lessons today went well enough, all of the Monday classes are on day two of my new lessons, except for 4th grade who is just starting a new project. Unfortunately, because we were out for so long, I was somewhat disconnected from my lessons and did not feel as prepared as I had preffered. Also, the students were celebrating Valentines Day today - so they were a little hopped up on sugar and massively chatty/unfocused on school. Special.
I will be making several changes to my lessons, in their seond part - especially the kindergarten lesson. I really struggle to work with the lower elementary grade levels. I have a hard time slowing down and at the same time going fast enough to keep their short attention spans.

Tuesday
The classes of Tuesday are so special ... especially my 2nd graders. I was amazingly frustrated after leaving school today as I felt I had a hard time keeping my students focused and myself organized. I made the adjustments to my lessons that my teacher and I discussed yesterday - which helped a lot. For my kindergarten Matisse paper cutting lesson, each student only got one color (a half sheet at that) to create the shapes so that they would use all of the paper on their projects (just like Matisse did). Unfortunately, something that I can't seem to master is getting them to use less glue! In my first grade class, I had them redo their trees using the letter V and then monitored their progress during the copying portion more closely. I feel that I really struggle to teach one student in my first grade class, he has special needs, but since my school encourages inclusion - they don't tell us which students are special needs, and instead we get to figure out ourselves. I try to help him and give him a little extra attention - but its such conflict to help one student or the whole class - I really struggle with it. With my 3rd grade class, I tried a different approach to explaining the letter forms they were to explore for their illuminated letters. Instead of explaining the letters forms with positive and negative space, I demonstrated how to form the outline of a letter so there would be space to add their illuminations inside their letter and outside - the newspaper collage backgrounds look great though!
The pre-K lesson today went really well though - a little wild and messy (we definitely should have put them in smocks), but the end product looked fantastic. We discussed circles and what objects were circles and then did found object prints with just black and white paint on their tissue paper collages.
I can't believe that I only have seven days left in my elementary placement - I keep wondering if I could have done something differently with my lesson plans to make them more easily modified for school cancellations - such is life. Of course now I start coming up with all these lessons for elementary that I could have explored too ...

Wednesday
Today was much better than yesterday! I came in and was able to prepare all of the needed materials for the day during our morning planning and experiment more with my mono-printing sample, it finally works! Our Weds. (and Thurs.) classes are about 2 weeks behind our other classes due to snow days - so I had to unfortunately try to speed up my lessons to get them a little further along. Most of the classes were able to work really well/focus and get through the material they needed to ... however, I had very difficult Kindergarten and 2nd grade classes today. In my Kindergarten class there are 3 very autistic students, one can be either just energetic or really disruptive, another talks constantly, and the third is quiet, but needs constan assistance. My teacher even said today that after I leave for my next placement, she is going to have to do some thinking on how to handle the class and the special needs of the students without someone else in the classroom. I really feel like I am improving my classroom management skills drastically though in these challenging situations - my teacher and I actually discussed that today during our second planning (after the Kindergarten class). After my day yesterday, I was feeling very insufficient in controlling the class - but she said she never felt like I wasn't in control and had handled all of the misbehaviour very well (which is why she hadn't stepped in at all, even yesterday when I almost had to send a student to the office after disrupting the class repeatedly and being asked to stop 3 times).
I've decided I really enjoy the upper level elementary more than the lower, especially 3rd graders - the class I had today followed directions, worked quietly (talking among their tables), and really enjoyed the projects. I also sat with the 5th graders today - moving from table to table, doing the project with them and chatting with them during class (my teacher doing the same). They are much more apt to just hang out and do work - glad to have the opportunity to socialize and be treated somwhat like they are grown-up. Unfortunately because of the snow days, I will not get to take over teaching the 5th graders at all - but my teacher and I are going to team teach the introduction to the Tona mask lesson.

Thursday
There is such a drastic difference from our Weds. schedule to our Thurs. schedule - we had 7 classes today, as opposed to 5 classes! However, I feel the day went very smoothly and I really am starting to feel at home being in charge of the classes - unfortunately next week I have to give them all back and move on to my next placement. I have come to realize that organization, preparation, planning, and the abilitiy to adapt/evolve lessons & plans are the keys to teaching elementary art. This morning when I came in I gathered and laid out all my materials for the day so when I had classes back to back, I wouldn't be scrambling to be prepared. The first class I had was 4th grade and I was actually able to almost completely catch them up to the other 4th grade classes. I think that I'm also improving my instructional skills - I can give directions in such a way so that they are followed better - part of the key is "what you will need to do," instead of "what I want you to do."
Currently I'm struggling with the execution of the lesson that the 4th graders are doing next - I want to do monoprinting of patterns to become the background of their aboriginal (austrialian style) animal art. However, they style of mono printing I want to do usually requires glass/plexiglass - which we don't have so we've been trying to use acetate in the trials/ samples with no luck so far. Its a huge challenge that the art teacher faces when trying to adapt lesson ideas to available materials, but I plan to keep working on it so I can do the printing lesson with the students next week before I leave. I'm really bummed that because of the adjusted schledule due to snow that I won't see my own lessons finish or see the ones my teacher is going to start after mine - they sound so cool! However, since my next placement is literally just down the street I'll definitely have to check back in with my teacher!

Week #6: The Week of Snow ...

Monday
Today was definitely a Monday, because after a day at school - I can't think straight. I used my morning planning period to prepare materials for the day, including the texture buckets for the 4th grade. The second part of my collage lesson, 4th grade (which I taught twice today) went very well I think. Many of the students actually finished their collages and mounted their wire portraits on top of them (with clear tape) - they look awesome. I think I really got across the concept of representational art and layers during this project! Each student got to use a variety of materials (fabric, feathers, tissue paper, etc.) - it worked really well to call them up by their duty shape and let them pick out 5 items to start with for their background of texture. I also had wallpaper books on each table to look through and tear out of for solid colors/textures. I really feel like I'm improving on instructing on the fly - for example when a student asks a question that addresses something I've forgotten in instruction or something that might help the rest of the class - I get the class's attention and bring up by saying so and so asked about this and its a good question, the answer is ... I've also started using more student examples during class if a student is doing something well and others are struggling - rather than just showing my own examples - like today when I was teaching winter trees to the first graders and they were having a rough time really grasping it. I showed them one of the students trees and then realized what I needed to do to really show the students how to draw the tree branches. I think the next time I teach trees I'm going to use the letter V instead of Y - like I did today.
I was also observed today and got some really great feedback from my supervisor. I tried the next class changing "I want/need you too ..." to " You should ..." and I think the students definitely respond better to a phrase that is more self-motivational.

Tues - Fri. were snow days. Mother nature is starting to frustrate me as I go into my 7th week of teaching and I have not had a full week with a full class load. Bummer.

Week #5: The Classes are Mine!

Monday
Today was my last day of not having a full load of classes on my plate and I tried to milk it for all its worth (haha). I spent my planning period in the morning reviewing the lesson ideas that would start the next day with my teacher, making final adjustments and decisions and starting to gather materials. We then finished up the second day of our Monday classes lessons - which is class after class of very high energy students. I taught the collage lesson to our two fourth grade classes, and they finished up their wire sculptures and started scouring magazines for images that represented them. I think the 3rd and 4th round of teaching the personal collage lesson was the charm - the students have started looking for more than cars and their favorite animals; with a little encouragement they cut (and tear!) out words, colors and textures. I think it also helped while doing the introduction to collage to show them examples that my teacher and I had created - it let them see how their wire portriats would interact with a collage and what kinds of things they should put in their collage. As I was explaining the materials they would get to use in their collage, I was able to show them fabric, pictures, words, and colors that I thought described me and why. One girl even cut out a sunset because it reminded her of a special sunset in Florida during a family vacation - it was something that represented more that just a "like" to her! AWESOME!
I also taught the second part of my Frida Kahlo self-portrait lesson - this class was farther behind than my other classes because they had some major listening/behavioral problems last week. So I caught them up, monitoring their progress more closely this time and got everyone to a point that it would only take 10 min. at the beginning of their next class to finish adding color to their portraits. Once I got them to focus (and reminded them that art class is only once a week and only 45 min. - they needed to make the most of it!), the class really worked hard and I think the exaggerations of facial features they came up with are turning out great! After they finish them next class, I'll collect some to hang in the hallway!
Now to go prepare for the big day tomorrow ...

Tuesday
My teaher informed me today that you can often tell the weather by students behavior, its like they can sense a full moon or barametor changes or even snow and it comes through in lack of focus and too much energy. After today I believe her! I have rarely had problems controlling the classroom until today, part of that I think was finishing up projects and then transitioning to a new project ... the other part was them just bouncing off the walls!
Today was my first day of teaching all the classes in our schedule - I have officially taken over teaching pre-k through 4th grades. [The 5th grade is still working on a Chuck Close portrait lesson that will take will probably take one more class - so by the week after next, they will start a new lesson that my teacher and I will team teach (plaster masks - either carnaval or mexican style)]. It was a long long day ... I feel that tonight I'll be spending some time reworking parts of my lessons and thinking how I can teach certain things differently. The first class I had this morning was first grade and they are doing a lesson on seasonal landscapes. They had to finish their Modigliani portraits first - which took about 10-15 min., then as they were finishing my teacher let them freedraw until everyone was ready to start the new lesson together. It actually turned out to be a really great warm-up activity because she asked them to draw what they thought a landscape would look like - it really got them thinking about landscapes and gave me a good place to start talking them. I think the introduction to the lesson went really well; however, I'm going to do some research before tomorrow on different ways to teach drawing realistic trees to younger age groups. The Kindergarten lesson was an adventure - I must say their classroom teachers must be a special breed because I don't know how they do it all day! We did papercutting like Matisse - I need to figure out a faster way to go over the information so they can get to the doing more quickly - since they have so much energy and such short attention span. I need to work on showing my steps of doing things better and going mroe slowly so that the students don't get frustrated. My 2nd and 3rd grade lessons will also go through revisions as well - my teacher and I spent a little time critiquing during our last planning period. I need to reorder some things for tomorrow and learn to briefly explain the whole lesson and then explain other information as I go along so I don't loose their attention so quickly! Time to get to work and secretly cross my fingers for some snow (hehe).

Wednesday & Thursday
... were both snow days. I spent them catching up on things that needed to be taken care of in my personal life and working some more on my lessons. I had to reschedule both of my observations and will be observed by my assistant principal tomorrow and my supervisor on Monday. Tomorrow we have an hour delay, so I'll be interested to see how exactly they work the schedule. TGIF!

Friday
Today we had a 1hr. delay, which knocked out our first class (4th grade), so we actually only had 5 classes. The first graders finished up their modigliani paintings and then with the time left did a free drawing of what they thought a landscape was to brainstorm for the next project (seasonal landscape paintings). After that was tissue collages with the SPED pre-K class (only two boys today) - they explored colors and layering and shapes and of course glue everywhere. Next week they will print with found objects on top of the collage (exploring shoape once more - and repetition). Then I taught the two back to back second grade classes, getting observed by our assistant principal during the first class. When the students had finished their abstract portriats, they were asked to brainstorm - coming up with 3 things they already knew about Ancient Egypt and writing it down on their free-draw paper. Once all the students had finished, I started the lesson asking them about what they already knew - then I tied that discussion into a discussion about sarcophagi and the project. I got a great review from my assistant principal on the lesson and I think after teaching it 3 times, I really have a good idea of how to approach the first part of the lesson for the next 3 classes. That is one of my favorite things about elementary school - you get to teach the same lesson several times and find out the best way to do it! Unfortunately that means that the first class or two has to be the testers for the rest of the classes. I'll be teaching the same lessons and taking over all the classes this coming week - since we're now a week behind because of snow. I'll also be developing two new lessons - plaster masks based on the Mexican idea of tona (symbolic animals) for 5th grade (it will be team taught, but started by me) and a monoprinting lesson for 4th graders. I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left in this placement! And according to local weather we're suppose to get the biggest snow storm of the year this week - we'll see if this pushes my teaching back more?!