I participated in the Dirty Pictures Workshop as well. I have been waiting till it got warmer to take my students outside to do a similar project!
Your portrait is more then impressive! how long did it take you?
Saturday, March 15, 2014
week 8- reply to Erika
I love this concept and you executed it beautifully. I hope to be more like your fly next year with my jr high students.
Week 8 Blog 8
I think this portrait represents my teaching life perfectly. I am all over the place, crazy chaos!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Week 7 Blog 7
Playing, Creativity, Possibility!
Olivia Gude always makes me feel "I can do it! I can be the best art teacher for my students!" When reading Anxiety I immediately thought this is me. I have been the student's position as well as the teacher's. I want to do so much as a teacher but I get so overwhelmed. I often picture how a lesson will work and sometime it doesn't turn out as I picture it. Sometimes I can tell my students (mostly 8th grade) aren't excited about a project. They groin and wine, but then once they have gotten into it they are like "ok I guess this is cool". I also have those students who never seem to "get it". I have put it off that their background in art limits them, but I'm realizing that there will always be those students who never "get it".
Reading Resistance made me think of two example of this that happened this week. One was in my 8th grade exploratory class. We have started talking about illusions and I was sharing a youtube video of Julian Beever (one of my favs). Two students keep making comments like "that guy has too much time on his hands" my reply was this is his career, he is an artist. They laughed at that! These are two boys who will most likely follow in their fathers' foot steps of becoming a farmer/construction worker. I do not want to sound like I'm putting down those career choices, I just hate the idea that if you work in manual labor you can't be creative or expressive as well. These two students have made it plan many times that they see art, music, reading, basically any education is a waste of their time. How can I push through those ideas? Are these two boys a lost cause? What is really sad is one is fairly talented at drawing, but always throws away his artwork when I sent it home with him. :( The other example was a 6th grader who told me he hate cities (weird comment I know). Is he scared? Unsure of the big and new? This comment has helped me see he is resistant to change and art is change. How can I push past this?
I try to make a community in my room. I try to have discussions with my students allowing them to share. But I saw the full benefits of letting them work together to problem solve and create on their own and to see their work in full glory. First semester was a struggle with 3rd grade. Big group, lots of boys, lots of attention problems. I was really worried about my TRYPS project I knew I was going to do with them. (TRYPS is a children's theater group in Columbia, the past two years I have collaborated with them, having my 3rd graders create public works of art as props in their plays.) This year it is Willy Wonka. This year"s 3rd graders had amazing ideas, and equally amazing solutions to problems. Yesterday the owner/director of TRYPS came to speak to my 3rd graders... I have never seen them so quiet! They where in awe that their artwork will be part of a real play! I can't wait to see their faces when we go see the play next month! They have been so well behaved for me since this project, I am so proud of these kids!!!
I have not given up on my horrible 8th graders! It could be like my 3rd graders. I am going to try to letting them work in groups (of their own choice) and come up with their own ideas. The project will involve recycled plastic, but its still in the works so I will let you know how it goes.
Olivia Gude always makes me feel "I can do it! I can be the best art teacher for my students!" When reading Anxiety I immediately thought this is me. I have been the student's position as well as the teacher's. I want to do so much as a teacher but I get so overwhelmed. I often picture how a lesson will work and sometime it doesn't turn out as I picture it. Sometimes I can tell my students (mostly 8th grade) aren't excited about a project. They groin and wine, but then once they have gotten into it they are like "ok I guess this is cool". I also have those students who never seem to "get it". I have put it off that their background in art limits them, but I'm realizing that there will always be those students who never "get it".
Reading Resistance made me think of two example of this that happened this week. One was in my 8th grade exploratory class. We have started talking about illusions and I was sharing a youtube video of Julian Beever (one of my favs). Two students keep making comments like "that guy has too much time on his hands" my reply was this is his career, he is an artist. They laughed at that! These are two boys who will most likely follow in their fathers' foot steps of becoming a farmer/construction worker. I do not want to sound like I'm putting down those career choices, I just hate the idea that if you work in manual labor you can't be creative or expressive as well. These two students have made it plan many times that they see art, music, reading, basically any education is a waste of their time. How can I push through those ideas? Are these two boys a lost cause? What is really sad is one is fairly talented at drawing, but always throws away his artwork when I sent it home with him. :( The other example was a 6th grader who told me he hate cities (weird comment I know). Is he scared? Unsure of the big and new? This comment has helped me see he is resistant to change and art is change. How can I push past this?
I try to make a community in my room. I try to have discussions with my students allowing them to share. But I saw the full benefits of letting them work together to problem solve and create on their own and to see their work in full glory. First semester was a struggle with 3rd grade. Big group, lots of boys, lots of attention problems. I was really worried about my TRYPS project I knew I was going to do with them. (TRYPS is a children's theater group in Columbia, the past two years I have collaborated with them, having my 3rd graders create public works of art as props in their plays.) This year it is Willy Wonka. This year"s 3rd graders had amazing ideas, and equally amazing solutions to problems. Yesterday the owner/director of TRYPS came to speak to my 3rd graders... I have never seen them so quiet! They where in awe that their artwork will be part of a real play! I can't wait to see their faces when we go see the play next month! They have been so well behaved for me since this project, I am so proud of these kids!!!
week7 - reply to Burnt Toast
I hear what you are saying about "unconsciously tend to give up on those students." I have some of those. The one I am thinking of is also in 5th grade, he too is sloppy and lazy (his teacher tells me he is the same in most every subject). I have tried talking to him outside of class casual at lunch, but I can't seem to get him interested.
I too hate to be interrupted when working, this is why I struggle with my short classes. I tend not to eat lunch, because I'm working on one thing or another. I do sometimes work along side my 7th and 6th grades but my other classes are too large or too needy.
I too hate to be interrupted when working, this is why I struggle with my short classes. I tend not to eat lunch, because I'm working on one thing or another. I do sometimes work along side my 7th and 6th grades but my other classes are too large or too needy.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Week 4 Blog 4 - Revised
Amy suggested I share my original metaphor. Like I said in my first post this was hard assignment. I am my own worst critic, I thought this metaphor was cheesy, but Amy likes it. So here we go...
I started with watercolor paints symbolizing my classroom. I have 6 table in my room and above each are hand made colored collage fish. Six table = six colors. I then started thinking of connections; between myself and all my students, between students and each other, students and families, students and other teachers. My school is part of a very small community. It seems like everyone knows everything about each other. At the beginning of the year I felt like an outside, try to introduce something completely unfamiliar to them. My student past experience with art at Hatton has not been up to my standards of art education. It consisted of coloring pages, crafts, no technology, and very little 3D projects. I want to use the connections in this small community to help change the view of art education at Hatton and my school district. I have already had students, parents, and administrators excited with the changes I have introduced. This is due to the small community, connections, and communication. Butterflies symbolize new life, so in this visual metaphor each butterfly is a student at one of my classroom tables and they are starting their new lives in art education. The background is made up of my student's artwork.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Week 6 Blog 6
Alright let me start off by saying I really dislike watching myself on camera, Eeeeckk! The lesson I decide to reflect on is part of a 5th grade unit on Pop art. I have 5th grade for 30 minutes two times a week. Whenever I introduce a unit I start with a powerpoint discussion, VTS discussion or a related activity. Which ever introduction I choose always has student involvement, I never just lecture. My Pop art unit is a long one, with two big art projects (print making & ceramic food). After introducing 5th grade to pop art I assigned homework... to THINK! We had compared popular culture of the 50's to today. Their homework was to think about what popular culture is and how it changes. the next class period we researched images of popular culture. Each student had to choose a popular recognizable icon of today's popular culture. I got lots of different aspects of Minecraft, One Direction, Underarmour, etc.
This gets us to the lesson I am reflecting on; I am demonstrating how to carve into Styrofoam with a pencil and how to create a print. The first thing I can see wrong is how flustered I get when explaining about positive/negative space. Ok to be completely honest I hate the stupid elements and principals of art. I understand them and the relevance of them in a work of art, but when I or any artist is creating are we are not really thinking "I'm focusing on the negative space in this work" that is just a cop out to explain a piece of art afterword. Ok now let me get off my soapbox. I just don't know how to explain how the positive space of the drawing will become the negative space of the print to 5th graders without confessing them. Should I just not even try? The second thing I notice is I am too sarcastic! This is difficult for me because I teach K-8 and I can be more sarcastic with my Jr high students but I can see even my 5th graders look a little lost.
I have another aspects of my teaching that I would really like to change. Because I see elementary students for 30 minutes twice a week my units are generally longer. I have my Intro and artwork but I don't feel I review enough though out the time it takes to finish a project, but how can I add into a unit? Assessment is also an area of my concern. I WANT to know if my all students are retaining what I teach them, but I don't like to always do writing reflections (not everyone is the best at expressing themselves that way). And when I ask the whole class questions about the unit I can't determine if everyone knows the information. Should I try actual "tests" I really don't like that idea, but how can I know for sure? Their artwork and their attitudes tell me if the like what we are doing, but.... ????
This gets us to the lesson I am reflecting on; I am demonstrating how to carve into Styrofoam with a pencil and how to create a print. The first thing I can see wrong is how flustered I get when explaining about positive/negative space. Ok to be completely honest I hate the stupid elements and principals of art. I understand them and the relevance of them in a work of art, but when I or any artist is creating are we are not really thinking "I'm focusing on the negative space in this work" that is just a cop out to explain a piece of art afterword. Ok now let me get off my soapbox. I just don't know how to explain how the positive space of the drawing will become the negative space of the print to 5th graders without confessing them. Should I just not even try? The second thing I notice is I am too sarcastic! This is difficult for me because I teach K-8 and I can be more sarcastic with my Jr high students but I can see even my 5th graders look a little lost.
I have another aspects of my teaching that I would really like to change. Because I see elementary students for 30 minutes twice a week my units are generally longer. I have my Intro and artwork but I don't feel I review enough though out the time it takes to finish a project, but how can I add into a unit? Assessment is also an area of my concern. I WANT to know if my all students are retaining what I teach them, but I don't like to always do writing reflections (not everyone is the best at expressing themselves that way). And when I ask the whole class questions about the unit I can't determine if everyone knows the information. Should I try actual "tests" I really don't like that idea, but how can I know for sure? Their artwork and their attitudes tell me if the like what we are doing, but.... ????
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