Week # 2: Oh Middle Schoolers

Monday
It was an interesting day at school - there were a lot of kids absent due to either oversleeping (crazy daylight savings) or the latest bug going around. This meant classes were smaller, but somehow no less hectic. We had a transition day with both the 7th and 8th grade classes (it was an even day) - some people finishing one project and getting people started on the other. The 8th graders are moving on to creating different types of decorative paper, starting with paste paper, then later in the week marbled paper - these will be used in several different projects - creating a small sketch-type book, mixed paper collages, & etc. The 7th grade class was moving from drawing the stuffed animals to a brief drawing exercise for a science teacher to drawing trees (the next lesson). Both lessons went pretty well I think - though we did have our classes that are a little tamer (than the odd day classes). I actually ended up starting the paper lesson with the 2nd 8th grade class of the day - my teacher was helping students get going on finishing up their baskets, so I set up the materials and then just started instructing them - no sense in letting students waste class time waiting or sitting around (or misbehaving). I could immediately tell that my teacher was grateful/pleased that I stepped up and we decided afterwards that we would use the divide and conquer method with them again tomorrow. The only problem with the 8th grade lesson was the amount of clean-up that was left to the teacher & myself. My project for this week is to figure out how to minimize the amount of set up and clean up that we (the teachers) have to do and how to organize the project & the classroom so that students can take care of that part as well. I definitely want to train these kids to be more self- sufficient, hopefully in a calm manner ( haha, wishful thinking with this age group).
I found it interesting with the tree drawing lesson that my teacher started today that she used a similar method to the one I used when I was teaching trees to my first graders last 8 weeks. The idea of using a v to divide the tree branches apparently makes sense to all age groups and is something that they struggle with too. The way my teacher taught it was really encouraging to the students though - it let them realize that even if they didn't know how to draw them, they were going to learn - in a variety of different ways.
Now I need to go work on making lesson sheet templates and start on my Kandinsky lesson - its going to be a very busy week (including in school tornado drills, assemblies, and all sorts of other things)!
My teacher and I discussed with these new lessons the problem with excessive clean-up for us with the paper lesson.

Tuesday
I think I have discovered a possible solution to our excessive clean-up problem! During my last block today (which is our problem block) I had an idea to start a two person clean-up team, it would be a different two people every class. I told the students that in art class we're like a family, we do things together, we talk and share, we create a mess and then it needs to be cleaned up - and in a family, every member should help with chores - so each class two people (I would let them know) would be assisting with whatever clean-up we had. My teacher already has a set up plan (table bosses) who pass things out and sometimes gather things, but for more involved "teacher heavy" clean-up (aka the paper making) I think the "family style" clean-up plan may do the job. Another problem that my teacher and I realized, after having our back-to-back 8th grade classes, is with the intense clean-up at the end the students were having some down time that could be filled. So now we're trying to develop a lesson, based on a book that I have about colors (a kind of more grown up book with poetry about the personality of each color and great illustrations). Through some brainstorming tonight and some talking tomorrow, hopefully we'll be able to figure out a plan turning this into a filler activity that eventually turns into a project where the students create color personalities and illustrate them too!
Other than that, it was a busy odd day where I have started to establish myself more as an authority figure in the classroom - instead of just a passive observer. I have gotten to do a little bit of one-on-one instruction with some of the students during the lessons and some team teaching during the 8th grade lesson again today. Bit by bit I am getting more comfortable in the middle school setting/classroom - hopefully each day will be an improvement - it will definitely be interesting when I start teaching my lesson next week on drawing to music (focus on color and line) based on Kandinsky - I'm going to use some more modern music though (Sound Tribe Sector 9) and an experience of watching an artist paint to music at one of their concerts. I'm excited each day I work on it more - I'm hoping to have it all written up by tomorrow afternoon.
Also, we had a tornado drill during first block (3-d) art that took a fair chunk of time was a bit of a challenge since the school is currently under construction (and has been for the past 2 years!).

Wednesday
It's amazing that no matter how much you plan, there is always the unexpected or that last little detail. Today was a divide and conquer sort of day, full of lots of clean up! We learned from the day before and I took people who had been absent and needed to do paste paper and my teacher took the folks doing marbled paper. Then we floated around helping folks with each project and trying to keep the mess under control. During my first block class of 8th graders, where the girl who has kind of a personality conflict with me decided she was going to keep feeling me out some more and testing my limits - I think she's starting to see how I operate though. Although when I was helping her with her marbled paper, she informed me that I needed to loosen up, that I was very uptight. I responded that my teacher was stricter at the beginning of the year before she knew them and then she eased up - I operate the same way.

Thursday
crazy busy! lots of paper making & tree drawing, oh yeah and the 3-D class working on mosaics. We are having some personality conflicts in the 7th grade class, students asking to be moved around in seating and some butting of heads/tattling/fighting. My teacher finally put her foot down after rearranging the seating some, she stated that the behavior would not be acceptable in the art class. I think we'll still be dealing with some of it, but at a much lower level.

Friday
So school let out at 1:00 due to inclement weather - I forgot that we get snow in the middle of March! This adjusted the plans for the day ... and the attention spans of the students.