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