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 ...
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