Week Seven

After talking to my high school student who aides at the middle school, I wanted to try not being constantly on the students to be quiet. I introduced what we were doing in class, asked if any of the students wanted the radio on once it was quiet (about three fourths of the students did) and then I let them go off to work and then only gave minimal reminders to be respectful to others and be quiet during the class period. The students were working on glazing their clay projects, so they were working in larger groups of four. The students were not able to listen to the radio, the noise level was way too loud, and the students did not work as quickly and their work was in general more sloppy than it could have been. The following day I explained to the students that I tried to give them more freedom and to not constantly be quieting them down, but the work and pace was not up to par. The students need to be respectful to those who need a more quiet classroom environment.

Fifth grade is working on their Romare Bearden musical instrument collages. This is a difficult project for them, because it is not a cookie cutter, step by step process. The students need to be innovative and think individually to create their collage that shows unity by using repetition and patterns. First we drew quick instrument sketches, then enlarged, cut out the enlarged instrument, and then continued on to trace that onto more special or colorful paper. Next the students began designing their background with all sorts of paper scraps, puzzle pieces, sheet music, etc. Some students struggle working quick enough to lay out, work on their background, and then get the okay to move on and glue. I did not let the students glue until they showed understanding of pattern, unity, repetition, and that they had a plan for their composition. At a certain point it they are struggling though I have them glue, and then glue the instrument on top, and then add more to the composition and background. The students also had their fish dishes completed, I graded them, and then when things are quiet in fifth grade I get to hand back the student's fish and their assessment sheet. I call up the students who are working hard and individually go over their fish, how they felt about it, how successful it was, and why they received the grade that they did. The students are very excited about seeing their dishes, so this is an incentive towards working and being on task. When students are constantly asking questions, not working independently, or not following directions, I do not have the opportunity to hand back the fish dishes.

 I assigned artist statements to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade a week in advance and told them that I can grade them and turn them back with suggestions for edits if they did not get a full grade. The student can rework their artist statement and turn it back in to be graded again. I also learned how to load, unload and run the kiln for the sixth though eighth grade clay projects.

Sixth grade glazed their clay rattles and once finished continued taping their aluminum masks to the leather and embellishing with raffia, beads, and leather. During this lesson I realized that I really need to make sure to set criteria, be clear on instructions, and go over every single step in the lesson. Many of the students really struggled, because I just showed some options of what they could do, and did not show each step of tying things on, etc. The following day i needed to reroute and review what the criteria is for the embellishments and that everything needs to still be symmetrical and add, not detract to the success of the piece.

Seventh and eighth grade are working on glazing their clay buildings and clay shoes. If they did not finish they needed to come in during resource time and/or recess to finish glazing. The pent ends next Wednesday, so there are only three days left of class and all of the work needs to be glazed and assessed by then. All of the students also need to finish up their still lifes with either the marker designs for eighth and the multi media value for seventh. In eighth grade I had to send home my first behavior sheet for the parents to sign. I brought the student out into the hallway to talk about why the student's behavior was disrespectful and not allowing her to work up to her potential and also making it difficult for others to focus in the classroom as well. After the talk, there was less disrespectful disruptive behavior.

To work on:

• Managing noise level 
• Establishing criteria
• Going over every single step of the process/assume each needs to be explained in depth

Week Six

This was my first week at 100%.

My biggest challenge began with 5^th grade. Since this class is so huge, 27 students, and there are so many students on IEP’s and that need modifications, I cam constantly running and classroom management is very difficult. At the beginning of the week we worked on glazing their fish plates, and then putting the clear glaze on top. The students needed to leave some white space on their fish and also need to apply the three colors of glaze that they chose in a pattern. Many of the students did not listen to directions on criteria so even when I went over them again and they all could repeat them; the directions were often not followed. I could have asked the students to look at their work and ask, “Is there any white space open?” “What should you do next?” “How can your fish be improved?” After this project I gave the students a rubric to fill out on behavior and time management to assess how they have been doing in class. They were to write a personal goal on the bottom of the paper. Many of the students did not take this seriously or apply it to themselves. I went over the answers and handed them back to students giving them the opportunity to go over their answers one more time and reflect on where they really are in class. After this I gave a presentation on Romare Bearden that went very well and pushed students to look at art relating to their own lives. After this presentation the students worked very hard and were actually quiet enough to be able to put the radio on for the rest of class while they sketched instruments for their Romare Bearden collage. I went through all of the behavior rubrics and assessed where each student is on the rubric behavior wise and gave them a goal or two to work on for class time.

Sixth grade was very focused last week and began working on their Multi Media Metal Tooled Masks. The students began by brainstorming twelve symmetrical mask ideas. They reviewed it with me to make sure all were symmetrical, then the students continued to enlarge it onto tracing paper folded in half to make the large areas perfectly symmetrical, then added at least five patterns to the area. The students then received a piece of aluminum, taped the tracing paper design onto the aluminum and then etched it on. After making sure the patterns and textures stood out enough, the students covered the mask with India ink, picked out a piece of leather to mount it on for next week, and will continue by scratching off the extra ink with steel wool and cutting out the mask.

Seventh grade finished up their clay slab houses, which ended up being a very successful project. They will be glazing them next week. I was observed by my supervisor on Wednesday when I gave a demonstration on adding value to their still life compositions using either warm or cool colors using a mixture of oil pastels, colored pencils, and/or water colors. I had to redirect a couple of times and explain some blending tips using black and white oil pastels. Overall this lesson went very well and the students continued to work on the piece the rest of the week and will continue into next week. My observation went even better than next time, and I was told that my next thing to focus on is in my lesson plan; making sure to put down all of the criteria for the project in it. Although I told all of the students everything they needed with the project, I need to have it written down in my lesson plan. My lessons are very in depth, but I do not show all of the depth in my lesson plans.

Eighth grade finished up their clay slab shoes this week. The students who added a lot of extra details or made their own template really took a lot of time to make the project theirs. I found that these last couple of projects was really successful because the students took so much time to make them their own; they are not just standard stock art projects. Eighth grade continued on this week with their still life adding at least six designs from their expressive/constructive line worksheets that they were completing in their free time. The students added these designs with pencil and then outlined them with sharpie. Next week the students will color in these designs using six colors of their choice.

Thursday night was parent teacher conferences at the middle school. Conferences lasted for four hours, and sadly we did not get to talk to as many parents as we would have liked, because since art is on the pent schedule and not the quarter schedule like the rest of the school, it was not listed with the rest of the grades that the students were receiving. Students had the opportunity to show their parents some of their artwork hung all around the school. It was kind of a shame that the conferences took place in the gym and not the classroom, because then the parents would have the opportunity to see the environment that the students are working in and what they are working on currently. However, it was a good opportunity for me to socialize with some of the other teachers seated around me. All in all it went well and I had the opportunity of learning how conferences work from a teacher’s perspective.

Goals:

• Work on project criteria being stated in lesson plans
•  Find a happy medium of noise in the room

Week Five

This week I am teaching at 75%. I am now teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade lessons. All three classes are working with clay, and it was quite the process.

5th grade is currently working on Autumn Radial Design Cutouts. The students were told to fold each square piece of paper three times. Many of the students had to learn the hard way when they did not follow directions and only folded the paper once and cut a design. The student then made a symmetrical design, but did have radial symmetry. The students then had to rip it off and redo the process. The students got to learn which colors went together well and how to create a successful design. As an adaptation two students worked with scissors, cutting out just symmetrical shapes and gluing them on construction paper similar to a Matisse. Next the students continued to use stencils to draw shapes on the construction paper. Many of the students who finished their projects early came over to help these two or three students who had very adapted projects which created much more motivation. All of the students were interacting and it was really inclusion at its best. All of the students were learning.

Sixth grade created clay rattles. I demonstrated the project and the students brainstormed afterwards. The students were very excited for the project. Students were also asking questions and enjoying the demo, which I found very exciting. The sixth graders are much easier to entertain and motivate than the older ages, however I knew that I would not really actually know what they got out of it and what they remembered until the following day when they began constructing the rattles. I began the next day by having the students come up row by row and show me their brainstorm sketch to go over how they are going to create their piece. We talked about what will work and what needs to change. Next the students began. I realized many of them did not remember exactly so I went over step by step how to begin the process while asking students to help explain with me as a collaborative review. This helped a lot. The following day the students wrapped up their project, added details, and when they completed they helped their partners, worked on free drawing, or I gave them some options to help clean up the sinks and the paint from their last Picasso project.

Clay Rattle

Seventh grade is making clay slab buildings. I demonstrated the construction of the building and then the students began brainstorming. The next day I begin with handing clay out to the students. I was frustrated with myself because I did not think out or plan a way to hand out these clay slabs well. I should have had the students wrap the armature in newspaper the day before, but instead I had the students wrap the armature, and once that was complete they came up and got clay. It could have gone better, but I learned some good strategies without making a huge mistake or screw up. Next the students began creating their pieces. I realized that I needed to go step by step through the process so I walked them through similarly to how I did with the sixth grade and went through step by step what needed to get done as review. The following day I demonstrated adding details to the building. I reviewed where we were at and what had to be done. I gave mini demonstrations around the classroom for small things that students wanted to do with their piece. Overall it went very well and the students are getting a lot done.

Slab Building

Eighth grade is working on slab shoes. I demonstrated the process and the students brainstormed the first day. The second day the students began working. This was a big day. Many of the students decided to create their own template as enrichment. These templates were very good, but it is a lot more work. There were some problems where it worked better for students to just redo the step, but it went much faster the second time. On the third day I demonstrated adding detail. I also had to give a talk on clean up and making sure to get things done. If the classroom is not clean yet, they cannot leave. The next day the room was much better.

Slab Shoe

To work on:

• Being okay with a little bit of noise as students are talking to desk partners (finding a good noise level for work time)
• I need to work on being more concise with my directions when I ask for students to stop doing something
• Work on putting instructions and steps on the board