Alright second video! I choose to video my 5th grade class again. This worked out nicely because they just completed (expect for a few stragglers) their ceramic pop art food. This week was short and next week the same and then come the craziness of map testing! I wanted to start a unit that would be easy to come back to after Easter break. I choose Zentangles. I am also making print outs of the step by step guides and some drawing paper for them to take with them to use between tests during map testing to relax them. They are creating Zentangle hands with colored zentangles in the background.
I start off by asking if anyone knows what Zen means. We then talked about ways to relax and why it is important to relax. This starts a nice conversation and they even bring up map testing (love it when they get it). Once we start creating things go south. Like I feared some are not relaxed by Zentangles just confused. I tell them it is like learning anything new it takes time. I start them off with pencil but let them know them need to try to turn their mistakes into something else. I think I should have just made them use pen. They keep saying they messed up and erasing and turning over the paper and starting again. I only have one 5th grade class but it is a large class. I look like a chicken with its head cut off. I think next class I will play calming music and try to stay clam myself. But with it all at the end of class several students tell me they liked Zentangles. At lunch I had several tell/show me they had been practicing on their own.
One other thing of note I have been trying to tone down on my sarcasm after the first video. Now I have had students ask if I'm in a bad mood. Maybe they know me better then I give them credit for. They may not get the sarcasm but they seem to get that is how I express myself. I love my students!
You know, your students probably do know you better than you think. One of my goals for this class was to figure out how to be more like "myself" when teaching rather than feeling like I'm getting into character. It really feels wrong to me to do the "teacher-talk" as I call it. You hear these little catch phrases and patterns of speech in so many classrooms and sometimes I pick up on them just from observing teachers I admire. But it's really important for me to find a way to be natural with my students. When I reflect on the educational lineage I made at the beginning of the semester, the one thing all the teachers on it had in common was that their distinct and authentic personalities were evident and present. Their teaching styles were VASTLY different. I don't know if this is right or not, but I would say, reflect on how and when and with whom you use sarcasm. Ask yourself if you know when and how to be sincere as well. And don't be a two dimensional cut-out of yourself because your students DO know you, or at least, I think they want to. To me - and this is just me - teachers with distinct personalities have been more important than those who do everything "right".
ReplyDeleteOk, I feel like a failure as an art teacher but I had to look up what Zentangles were. I've seen them, but I didn't know the name. Thank you for teaching me something new! :) Did any of your students know what they were?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, that it may have been helpful to make them use pen. Next time, you could maybe have them practice on a small sheet with pencil and then use pen on their actual project.
Side note: I usually have my students start with pencil in case they mess up, but they still beg me to let them have a new sheet, because "It doesn't erase everything. You can still see my mistake." Do you ever have this problem? Any suggestions for me?
I also have very large 5th grade classes (26 in each). On top of their vast numbers, they are a particularly challenging bunch (have been since Kindergarten, I am told). I am constantly struggling and altering my approach. Here are a couple things you could try that have worked for me for a little while.
1. Table points: When I noticed everyone at a table following the expectations, I gave them a tally, and the winning table got candy at the end.
2. Strike 3 = silent art: when they get too loud, I put up a strike. After 3 strikes, we go to silent art and I turn on music. I used to play Vitamin String Quarter, but they would continue to talk. Now, I play songs with words like: Let it Go from Frozen, Happy by Pharrell Williams, Everything is Awesome from the Lego Movie, Shine Your Way from Croods, etc. I found that playing music they enjoy really persuades them to remain quiet. However, this is beginning to lose its appeal as well.
Do you have any strategies I could try out?
Don't feel like that, there are so many art forms I don't know about. That's the fun of teaching you don't have to know everything. Find something new teach it to your self, I do that all the time and then I teach I teach it the students and they figure out a way of doing it I didn't even think of.
DeleteI'm lucky my 5th graders are a really good group, but 8th grade and 3rd grade are just like your 5th grade. Another strategy you could try is if your in the middle of a lesson, they are working independently try read to them. Pick a good short age appropriate novel I like Mary Downing Hahn. Try "Wait Till Helen Comes" it's a ghost story they will like it. Or if you don't like to read try an audiobook or a movie. Some projects need other distractions. I know I work best when I listen to my favorite audiobook or movie playing in the background.
Adair- Reading your post seems timely because I too have been trying to "tone down" my true self- to no avail.:) Yesterday, I did a guided meditation through which had an "ah-ha" moment. The message was basically that we should not stifle who we are or "hold back" because only we can offer to the world what is within us. Also, holding back blocks our creative flow. If sarcasm is your expression of humor, embrace it. (Your students seem to be missing it.) Somehow, sarcasm has been villainized as a way to belittle others, but it is simply the use of irony in communication...and can be quite entertaining. Of course we know not to use it to make our students feel small, but instead to illustrate our point of view. Be you. You will be the best version of yourself when you are able to express yourself freely. (Now, I'm going to reread that last sentence to myself ten times in a effort to encourage me as well!)
ReplyDeleteExcellent advice Ginia!!! I wholeheartedly agree!!!!!
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