1st Grade Final Georges Braque Projects

Today was a great day, because I was able to collect and display the student artwork in the room on the bulletin board that was provided for the students to display their work.  It was very rewarding to see that most of the students truly understood and applied the concepts of cubism.  The students learned a brief history of Georges  Braque, and his influence on Cubism.  Student additionally learned vocabulary words relating to cubist theory, such as planes, shading, geometric, abstract and many more.  In general this assignment was a good introductory project for students to use the medium of charcoal, and to see how shading applies to other types of art making.  I am hopeful that the students will retain, and talk about this assignment for a long time to come.  Ultimately I am very proud of how well the assignment was delivered and received.  I found that I really only began to thrive and feel comfortable in the classroom when the Cooperating teacher allowed me to have more freedom to manage the classroom.  I definitely see the importance of establishing ground rules for a class, well before any problems arise.  I am grateful for the additional classroom experience and will use this to better understand how I can alter  my teaching strategies in order to better communicate with my students.

My first Day of My Georges Braque Project...

Today I am eager to see how well I planned my lesson on cubism.  I have spent a good amount of time preparing the lesson in hope that it will be both educational and fun for my students.  I arrived and began to set up the classroom for the day.  My first class of the day is first grade, of which there are four classes.  This is the only class that my lesson plan is for, however I stay for half a day just to continue to gain classroom experience.  I have about an hour of prep time before my first student arrive so I use this time to arrange the room, distribute folders, materials, and tools to each students seat.  I am careful not to completely change the classroom dynamic that the students are already familiar, choosing instead to use the model of my cooperating teacher.

As the students came in I was at the door to greet them, ask how they are doing, and see if they are excited to see what I would be teaching.  They of course were quite excited, and eager to get started.  I began by seeing who was absent, and by making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be.  By this time most of the students have gotten to know me and have become comfortable around me so it would prove to be a fun day.  I first showed the students a Georges Braque image, on the interactive whiteboard.  I then asked them to raise their hands and tell me if they could identify any shapes, or outlines of an object within Braque's very cubist work.  As I am showing the image, I am also being sure to discuss the history of cubism, and the people who made it work.   I have the students repeat terms, and names several times so that they get comfortable with the vocabulary.  The students surprisingly only saw simple shapes such as triangles and squares at first, but as I drew an outline around the hidden objects a bottle was revealed.  The students truly enjoyed seeing the shape emerge.

After completing the history, and building background knowledge and working to establish vocabulary words, they were ready to begin the creative process of replicating cubist style and design.  Each student was asked to pic from several printed shapes.  The shapes included, grapes, apples, bottles,  guitars, etc.  I then asked the students to use the ruler in front of them, to make lines across the outline of their shape.  This was as far as the students were able to get today, as we slowly ran out of time.  They all seem very eager to come back to finish their project.  One especially high point for me was one of the students who really engaged the project was a student with special needs.  He enjoyed and contributed so much that his para comment at my ability to get him to interact with the project, and the other students.  Honestly, I don't intentionally do things like that, but am always happy when a student begins to develop a new skill.  It just so happened that this child had a special need.

Entry 7

I am looking forward to meeting and teaching in my first class.  I believe that it will be quite challenging and even intimidating at first, however I am very confident.  My love for the arts and for passing on knowledge and techniques will certainly carry me through.  As my training continues, my confidence also grows.  By modeling and practicing being a reflective practitioner, I hope to not only inspire but to instill an ongoing passion for the arts in my students.

I just completed a lesson plan using Jim Dine as a reference source for the idea.  I was thinking it would make for an interesting experience for my students around valentines day.  In addition I considered using this as an assessment tool from earlier grades on up to 5th grade to mark improvement over several years.  It would give me a good baseline to be able to know how students are developing both cognitively and in their ability to use and control different media.

I will include a photo of my project, and model of Jim Dine so that you can get a sense of my motivation behind this project.  I hope you enjoy, and feel free to use any and all of my posts and ideas in your own classroom or at home projects.

1st and 4th Grade Art Class

Today's class has been very enjoyable.   I pride myself at trying to be ahead of what the Cooperating teacher might need, so I began the day by setting up for her class before she asked.  The fifth grade classes completed their paper plaiting projects and hung them for display.  I worked with students to keep them motivated to finish the project strong.  It is always exciting when students complete a project.  Working with the students directly continually reminds me of the true reason for my venture into the teaching profession.  Though many are quick to add discouraging sentiment about the current state of affairs facing educators, I still truly believe in the power to influence young people to create positive change.  In addition to the fifth graders, I worked with the first grade classes, to complete their straw weaving projects.  Some of the student were considerably behind on this project, so I created a challenge for the the students to try to keep up with my example.  This was highly effective.  Some students even started a second project.

Here is a Mattise Project that was replaced
with the completed Plaiting project

This experience has allowed me the necessary experiences in classroom management, and also practice teaching and using the principles found in the love and logic model.  There are several cases where I was able to help empower the student who was facing difficulty, or being a distraction to other students.  For me this is one of the best parts about teaching.  Being able to empower students to solve their own problems, without the need for teacher intervention.

Thursday will be the day in which I, will teach a lesson on cubist drawing.  The goal of this is to help the students better understand how to use charcoal, as well as working with the students to learn the basics of shading.  I am looking forward to this experience, as is my Cooperative teacher.

1st and 4th Grade Art Class

In this days class, the fourth grade continued to create rain sticks from cardboard tubes and toothpicks, and the 1st grade was completely a tissue paper painting, with an animal silhouette.  The cooperating teacher was back in class, and instructed the students to begin their work nearly immediately.  I found myself very comfortable instructing and assisting the students with their various work processes.  It was clear that the students were similarly becoming comfortable with me and my instructional style.

It was an exciting day to see the first grade projects take shape, as they removed their animal stencil from the tissue paper painted background.  Comments like, "Wow, Awesome, Cool" were the standard in the room as their work was finally realized.  I found myself equally excited for them, and the work that each of them put forth.  A couple of the students struggled a bit to create a reasonable contour drawing of an animal, therefore I helped them by giving these students a vague dot pattern to follow.  The students used their abilities to then create the image that they so desired.  Upon completing this exercise with the students, I learned that they had learning challenges.  The Cooperating teacher was impressed at my ability to get them to work the problem out, and how I was able to challenge them to work toward their goal.  I honestly didn't know that the problems that these students were facing was due to a learning challenge, but it was good to know that I was prepared to respond accordingly.

In thinking of questions to ask the cooperating teacher, I decided that I would ask her about some of the challenges of working in a small district.  Her response was somewhat expected, as she told me that there is a great deal of bureaucracy, drama, and political positioning that tend to muddy the educational process.  Though this was understandable, what was significant is that she reiterated that the primary reason that she does what she does, is because of her love of the students, and the power of education.

2nd and 5th Grade Art Class

Today was a bit different than expected.  I arrived well before class so that I could assist in arranging and organizing the materials for the day, but was surprised that there was a substitute teacher filling in.  I introduced myself and why I would be working with her and asked her about her experiences as a substitute teacher.  Mrs. Logge, told me that she was actually an english teacher and had worked briefly as a teacher, but that as her children got older, she decided that she wanted to be more actively present in their lives.  Thusly, she opted to teach on a substitute basis.  I learned that she has been substitute teaching for my Cooperating Teacher for over 8 years.

Aside from the initial surprise of the substitute teacher, I was eager to get working with the second grade students on their projects, and fortunately Mrs. Logge didn't completely understand the projects, therefore I was able to teach the class, based on my previous experiences.  We worked on a straw weaving project, that was very similar to a technique I had learned in Belize Central America.  The children found this information fascinating and it became a teachable moment.  While the students worked I explained the reasons for different cultures to create weaved containers.

In addition to contributing to the three second grade classes, I was similarly able to help the fifth grade on their plating projects.  This project was similar in that it involved weaving patterns in paper, so many of the same lessons applied.  As the students worked, many of them experienced difficulty remembering how the project was intended to come together.  So I asked a student who clearly was understanding the project, to give a class demonstration for everyone who was having difficulty.  This was a good choice, as it uplifted the student who was excelling, and those who truly needed a nudge in the right direction.

This classroom experience was enjoyable, and challenging because of the unexpected substitute, and the lessons themselves.  I was satisfied with my response to these challenges.  It was good to know that I was truly prepared to handle the unexpected, and that I was flexible under pressure.

1st and 4th Grade Art Class

Today I was privileged to work with an experienced Art Educator Mrs. Donna Zyrgibel, who is nearing her retirement.  Her knowledge and ideas are wonderful.  An example of this can be seen in the two types of projects that were worked on today.  We began by teaching four 1st grade classes, about colors that mix, using tissue paper to dye paper as the background for a silhouette painting that will be accomplished over a 3 week period.  Additionally, we worked with the 4th grade to make rain sticks, using recycled cardboard tubing, and toothpicks.  These will eventually be covered in plaster, painted and adorned with various decoration.

I began each of the classes organizing materials and by sharing an introductory PowerPoint in which I shared photos of my family, my humanitarian aid work, and my artwork.  I also shared with the students the reason for wanting to teach.  This was kept intentionally short, as I didn't want to take too much time from their work time.

When I asked my cooperating teacher why she began teaching she said because she loved the students, and that it was a very stable position.  She said what I have heard by many an art education student, "She loved art, and loved children."  This is her initial reason for beginning to teach, she said that although that is still very much a real reason to teaching that it has become more of a way to connect the community, and to see life through the child's perspective.  She says that it keeps her young.

In terms of the Classroom environment, it is very much different than other classrooms that I have been a part of because, it is much smaller, and there is only one small window to the outside.  It is literally attached to the cafeteria which at lunch time becomes noisy and distracting to the students.  It seems as though the music and art classrooms which are the only two rooms in this location, were an afterthought and not a priority of the school system.  This could of course be a very bias judgement on my part, but as a first impression it certainly seems as though this is the case.  The cooperating teacher does a great deal with the space that she has been given and overcomes proximity to the cafeteria with well disciplined classroom management.  This class was the quietest class that I have ever heard.  When students enter the classroom there is already calming music playing.  The cooperating teacher only raised her voice at the beginning of the class to instruct the students as to what was going to be accomplished during the class period.  The rest of the time it was quiet close interactions with the students, literally at not much more than a whisper.

In summary, the experience was positive.  I look forward to teaching the 2nd and 5th graders next Tuesday, and learning from the students as well as my cooperating teacher.  I appreciate the experience and classroom management practice that I am receiving and will continue to apply myself to all aspects of the teaching process.