Rachael - Week 5

                 I went for the regular two days again this week and had a great time watching the kids finish up their paper-ripping portraits.  They have been working on them for a while and since Mrs. Stanzione teaches so many 1^st grades and Kindergartens I feel like all we have done all day every day is rip paper.  They all have had really great results though and I can understand how much easier it would be to do the same project with K and 1 since she teaches so many classes.  Fourth grade at Centerville finished up their full-body portraits Thursday with a watercolor wash over the oil pastel.  The results were really neat.

                I taught me first lesson of the semester on Friday at Homeland Park.  We read a book about Johnny Appleseed and then learned how to draw him from the word “boy”. This is a lesson that Mrs. Stanzione usually does each year and she let me figure out a new way to do it and introduce texture to the students.  I felt like my lesson was pretty chaotic because I had a lot going on and it was a busy 1^st grade class but the results were good and we got exactly to the point I wanted to be.  We read the book, I drew the demo of the face on the board, and then we talked about types of texture (implied and actual) while gluing burlap and fabric to the body.  Then we drew hands and bare feet and made a pot for his head from tin foil.  This next week we will finish that all up.

                I didn’t realize how hard it is to manage a classroom of 1^st graders.  I have babysit for ten years but it is completely different.  I have a tendency to be too lenient and that isn’t going to work in my favor as a new teacher.  Mrs. Stanzione runs a tight shift so I will have to work so I have a teacher face like she does!

Isabel, Week 5

This past week I only went to Wright Elementary on Friday. I stayed for the majority of the day and I finished up both of my Very Hungry Caterpillar  lessons for 1st grade and Kindergarten. Both lessons went extremely well! I reviewed with the students what we did last week and then they started to continue to draw different organic food items. The students were very creative with their foods; they drew things all the way from cupcakes to juice boxes with straws. After they cut their foods out I went around and punched wholes in each of the drawings so that it resembled the book and where the caterpillar ate through all the food.

The other lessons we did Friday were interesting too. Ms. Ervin had and handout that had a bold, black swirl on it. The students traced their hand on the paper and then they colored the inside of their hand with only warm colors, while the outside was only to be colored with cool colors. The 2nd graders also finished another lesson up where they painted over their self portraits where they had already colored the details with crayons. Because most of the classes were finishing lessons they had time to free draw at the end of class. The students always love to free draw and it's always interesting to see what they come up with. Several of the students drew a picture for me and were so proud to give it to me.

Both the teachers and Ms. Ervin loved the caterpillars so much we hung the art pieces up in the hall. Ms. Ervin and I also made a little sign that said, "Two Very Hungry Caterpillars". After all this was finished it was already 4 o'clock. That was my first of MANY "late" school days!

LeeAnna, Week 5

This week I have been swamped with homework so I was only able to go for about two hours on Friday. I was there for Mr. Stanzione’s Art 2 class. The students were at a point where they were working independently on their stippling projects. Their projects are coming along great! I walked around the class and spoke to students, helping them when I was needed. The students in this class are really good about doing their work. I wish I could have stayed for his next class to see how the Art 3/4 students were doing but I couldn’t.

Emily Week 4

During my fourth week I was able to go on Monday and Friday. Monday mainly consisted of continuing with projects. We worked on superhero designs with 3rd grade and self-portraits with 4th grade. It is a pretty slow process with both because it requires a lot of time going around to each student to talk about their projects and check on their progress. Also on Monday I stayed afterschool to help with dismissal which went really smoothly. Cody and the other teachers have a system planned out that help the process go really quickly. School dismisses at 2:30 and we were back in the classroom at 3. After dismissal Cody and I talked about the lesson that was planned for my to teach on Friday and prepared the materials I would need. After that I prepared to teach Friday, it was an add-on to the first lesson I taught so it was simple to write the lesson plan. I thought that this lesson went a lot smoother than the first one. My classroom management improved drastically which surprised me, but I think the kids really got use to me teaching which helped a lot. I was happy with how everything turned out and I got good feedback which made me feel good about the day.

Amanda - Week 2

     The week of 9/4 and 9/6, Mr. Powell moved into his first unit of the specific elements of design.  He started with line by introducing the students to contour line drawing.  He didn't take the time to go through blind and sighted contour because he said he was only concerned with teaching them how to "see." (Just like foundations!) I really took note of his process in this unit because I found it really interesting.  
     He started with photocopies of a line drawing by Picasso for the students to redraw without tracing.  This helped them understand what contour line drawing is and where contour lines are.  However, he had the students turn the image upside down so they would look more at the lines than the figure as they drew.  The next day I was there, Mr. Powell had them practice drawing contour lines from life.  He brought some tools from home, enough to put 3 or 4 on each table, and had the students fold their 12"x18" paper into fourths to create 4 compositions.  He gave them 10 minutes for each life-size drawing of a different tool, and structured the drawings for showing progression of their skill.  During the first, he didn't offer any help or feedback as they worked, but afterward he walked around to see how they did.  Then he showed some tips about how to go about drawing from life and addressed some common mistakes using his ELMO projector.  For the second drawing, he walked around and offered some feedback, and then focused on the third drawing for really helping them get it right.  He wanted the fourth to be all on their own again, so they could apply what he coached them on.  His goal was for the end of the practice to show progress in their drawing skills as encouragement for the students. 
     This was the first week I started walking around and helping the students as they worked, and it was good to start getting to know them.  I also found it really challenging to help them learn to draw.  What do you tell them?  How do you show them how to see and draw just what they see?  What do you choose to critique first when there are so many things going wrong in a drawing?  How do you spread yourself equally between the students?  It was a little overwhelming and frustrating, honestly, so I'm glad I wasn't teaching at that point.  I'm glad I had this experience now though, it has opened my eyes to another type of challenge I'll face as an art teacher.  I can't get inside their heads and show them from exactly their perspective, and tips that helped me learn to draw don't work for every student.  It's kind of a trial and error process.  Needless to say, it is stretching me and I'm learning a lot as I go. 

Rachael - Week 4

I went to Centerville again on Thursday.  I am starting to recognize some of the kids and trying to learn names but there are a lot of them! 

Fourth Grade was working on their self-portraits still. There were three extra kids because the librarian was absent and Mrs. Stanzione gave them paper to try and catch up as best they could. The rest of the class added background and details with oil pastel in preparation for painting them next week.  Mrs. Stanzione was very clear that they should not color in large areas as it will ruin the “surprise” when they paint. Some kids still didn’t listen and ended up coloring in their whole backgrounds of hair.  In the end, they ended up with really nice pieces that I am excited to see the finished results of next week. 

Kindergarten had six extra kids and we had just enough chairs for them all.  Instead of continuing their portraits, Mrs. Stanzione taught them how to draw trees that were not just sticks.    She talked with them about fall colors and warm colors and let them rip up paper to glue on the tree and on piles on the ground.  I was impressed that she came up with this last minute.

First grade continued their paper portraits by ripping up more paper for eyebrows and hair.  Mrs. Stanzione had glued white eye-shapes on over the weekend for them and then they stamped the irises.  Mrs. Stanzione very cleverly has the kids use wine corks to stamp a perfect circle in the center from a plate of paint. I think that is such a good idea and will certainly file it away!  It is also a good intro to printmaking for them.

On Friday at Homeland Park, the first grades were finishing up their portraits by ripping paper for lips (girls got to pick pink or red, and the boys could pick one of those colors or a skin tone.  They also finished their borders around the heads as well as shirts and accessories.  Several of the boys asked if they could make ties and hats, which I thought was creative.   I had fun helping them since I’ll be teaching their class this coming week.

Kindergarten was working on another project that they had begun a few weeks ago.  They had fun drawing family portraits and coloring them in.

I feel like I am getting better at knowing what Mrs. Stanzione expects from the kids and what they can get done in a class.  Like I said, I am starting to learn a few names as well.

Today at church I was volunteering with the kids and a little boy came up and gave me a hug and said “Hey, Miss Budd”.  Made me smile to see the kids out and about too.

Isabel, Week 4

On Monday I went back to Honea Path where I had to jump right into special education. This week they were coloring sharks that Ms. Ervin had made out of construction paper. They were coloring them blue and once they were finished we would all go around and help the students glue a shark fin on top. The kids loved their sharks and were really into coloring them. After special ed we have 3rd grade. This class has several difficult students but overall they are a fun class. There was one student who kept on tattling on other students to Ms. Ervin and I noticed sometimes she ignored the tattles while other times she does something about it, like moving a student away from the other. I asked her how she decides to handle tattlers and she told me that you learn when it is worth acting on or just ignoring them. She said that she is usually annoyed by it but she really appreciates it when a student lets her know when somebody is destroying her supplies, like pulling the markers out of the plastic.

Friday was when I taught my first lesson for Ms. Hansen. We were learning about Eric Carle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We also were learning the difference between organic and geometric shapes. Before Ms. Hansen arrived I taught the same lesson to 1st grade before I did it under observation for Kindergarten. Unfortunately Ms. Ervin was absent and there was a substitute there. She was helpful at times but a lot of the time I wished I was doing it by myself. The 1st graders were really loud and rowdy buy nobody was misbehaving. At one point the class had gotten really loud and instead of giving them warnings, like we usually do, the substitute told them no talking for the rest of class. We still had about 20 minutes so that was pretty painful for everyone. Also, I even noticed her cutting out circles for several of the students; which one thing I am against is doing the work for the students.  The overall lesson went will for 1st grade but one thing I forgot to mention was to remind the students that when they were drawing their food items to draw the objects as big as their paper. I noticed there were lots of microscopic drawings of food.

I remembered to tell the Kindergartners to draw their food items as big as they can and not to waste any paper. There was a big improvement! The Kindergartners were very well behaved and much more quit than the previous class, which made it much easier to teach to. This lesson went extremely well and it definitely helped doing it with the previous class. One critique Ms. Hansen had was that I take up all the materials the students will not be using for certain steps. This meant passing out scissors after they colored their circles, taking the scissors up when they're done, and then pass them out and take them back up again when they need them for cutting out their food objects. In other words I need to work a little bit more on micromanaging. Next week I will finish the lesson up with both classes.

LeeAnna, Week 4

Today at Westside, I observed Mr. Stanzione’s Art 2 and Art 3/4 classes.

In Art 2 the students were beginning their stippling part of their projects. The projects are on a large piece of “fancy” construction paper which will be broken down into four sections. The first part is stippling then cross hatching, then negative and positive space and finally they will use india ink to show different values.

In Mr. Stanzione’s Art 3/4 class the students were all working on their individual projects, most of the students were painting. I always have a lot of fun on A-Days because there is so much “magic” (as Mr. Stanzione would say) that goes on in the students’ work in one class period.

I sat down with Mr. Stanzione today and we discussed my lesson plans and my unit work sample. He also gave me some advice on my resume which he looked at for me. I also had my mock interview today with the vice principal which was VERY informative.

Emily Week 3

For my third week I was able to observe on Friday and Monday. On Friday, I was able to teach the first class of the day which was a kindergarten class. It was intimidating at first to do a lesson for a kindergarten class because I had never taught one before. Mr. Watson was really helpful though, he had planned on doing a cut and paste lesson about shapes and color with this class originally so he just went through how he would normally do the lesson and allowed me to do the lesson for my observation day. It seems like a really simple lesson, and it is, but for this class he mentioned that in order to have them understand the correct techniques it was important to really simplify the lesson. He also mentioned that since we only have 45 minute classes this one lesson would probably be spread out over three classes. I prepared well for my lesson and got there early, surprisingly I wasn't nervous at all. Mrs. Hansen arrived and gave me some encouragement and then the kids came in and the class was all mine to teach. The lesson went really well, I thought that overall the kids were able to grasp what we were doing and they handled the materials really well. The only thing that we all said I could work on was my classroom management. I think that Mr. Watson has a lot of good techniques that I am still learning about and plan to use for my next lesson. When I returned to class on Monday I mainly just observed the second part of many of the lessons that he started on last Monday. The students seemed to be more comfortable asking me for help so I was able to get a little more hands-on with these classes. It was a great week and I look forward to finishing up my lesson with my kindergarten class.

Rachael - Week 3

                I was only able to go to placement one day this week as I was feeling under-the-weather, so after sniffling my way through Thursday we agreed that Friday could wait.  I was able to observe Mrs. Stanzione’s fourth grade class as well as Kindergarten and first grade. 

Fourth grade began with a seating chart to eliminate some of the issues that occurred last week with talking and off-task behavior.  They started to draw self-portraits after their “practice” the week before drawing their classmates.  As they worked on their projects, I thought it was helpful that Mrs. Stanzione had a list on the board of what steps they needed to do. It was something simple that helped students stay on task. I was surprised how fast some students were finished with their drawing, even outlining it in sharpie so they could paint it next class, and others were stuck on the head.  There was a wide range.

Kindergarten started their paper portraits today and Mrs. Stanzione, the aide (Mrs. Moore), and I had to help them all trace head stencils on colored paper and most of them needed help cutting them out as well.  Then we went around and glued the heads on the papers for them since too much glue ruins the paper they were using.  While they waited we gave them paper to free draw on.  Instead of letting the students pick their color background, Mrs. Stanzione gave students the paper that was the same color as their table (each table is assigned a color for organization purposes).  This will help in passing them back out next week. First grade was cut short by a fire drill (boy, was it weird to be on the official side of one of those!) but they did the same thing as Kindergarten.  They got only a little bit further because our time was cut short.

We discussed some of my upcoming lessons, so I am excited for that!

LeeAnna, Week 3

Friday, September 14, I taught my first lesson at Westside High school. I was in an Art 1 class and the lesson was about Pattern & Rhythm. I started my lesson with a PowerPoint presentation about Patterns and how the students could create different types of rhythm in their patterns. (Next time I teach this lesson or any other lesson I need to create an outline for the students to write on so that I know they were paying attention) I think it is a pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to High school students to have an outline for them to follow with the PowerPoint (Lesson learned). After the PowerPoint I went over the expectations of the project and gave them their first step in the project. This is a two day lesson so most of the students only got about half way done with their first drafts of their patterns. I really enjoyed seeing how creative the students were getting with their patterns. Some of their patterns were extremely detailed. I had to have a chat with one of my students about having a good attitude and I told him that 40% of his grade was his attitude and effort. He still didn’t have to best attitude but that did make him try a little bit harder. I think I handled the classroom management pretty well but I need to work on keeping their attention when I am going over the information on the PowerPoint. I learned a lot in one lesson about some dos and don’ts but overall I had a great time. I love teaching art.

Isabel, Week 3

This week I went to Honea Path Elementary for the first time since we have started pre-clinicals. It has been about a year since my last visit when I had to go to observe for Elementary Art Methods, but the classroom has not changed a bit. As soon I as I got there I ran into  Ms. Ervin, my CT, in the hall. She was in the middle of teaching the special ed class and was on her way to her classroom to get some more materials. I walked with her back to the special ed room where I jumped right into the organized chaos. Ms. Ervin always teaches art in their resource room so that she does not have to worry about their safety in her classroom and also she  doesn't want them to tear her room up. Having the special ed students stay in their usual classroom works better because they don't have to adjust to a new environment. There were several teachers and helpers in the room; there were at least 6, including Ms. Ervin and myself. There were students of all different disabilities in the room. Some students had learning disabilities while one was crippled and in a wheelchair. The teachers had special crayons that were really fat so that all the students could color with them.

The students were working on coloring a handout that had an elephant on it. The elephant  comes from the book Elmer: The Story of a Patchwork Elephant. The students had heard the story in their class and were focusing on the letter "E" that day. After the students colored their elephant to the best of their ability Ms. Ervin had them write the letter "E" on the back. When it was time to go several of the students came running up to give me a hug even though we only knew each other for about 15 minutes.

After the special ed class it was time for 3rd grade. As soon as the students were seated one of the boys told me that he felt like he had seen me before. I told him that I may had taught him for one lesson last year and he not only remembered my name but he remember what our lesson was that we did a year ago. I thought it was really special that the lesson made a lasting, good impression on the boy.

Today I went to my other school, Wright Elementary. We did watercolor paint with the 1st graders and  it was crazy! They loved it and did a really good job with the whole process. Before they started painting Ms. Ervin gave them a pep talk on how to treat her brushes. She told them they they better now give them a bad hair day by pushing straight down on them. The students thought that was hilarious. Other than painting we did not start any new lessons today. All of the classes were successful and fun!

Emily Week 1 & Week 2

I was really happy about where my placement was going to be because I had heard a lot of good things about Mr. Watson from LeeAnna and Isabel. I e-mailed him to introduce myself and he responded really quickly and we set up to meet the Friday before Labor Day. I was a little nervous but I went to bed early and had everything set out the night before so I would not be late. As I was getting ready the next morning I overheard my dad calling the school to get directions for me :) Even though I already knew where I was going, but it was very thoughtful of him. He even helped me pack my lunch. I got there on time and when I walked in Cody introduced himself and we chatted for a minute. He asked me about how many hours I needed and other things like that. After we got down the basic information he had his first class which was Special Education. I really enjoyed being able to see this class because I have never observed one like this before. They were really attentive and really excited about what Mr. Watson was teaching which was really surprising to me. Overall, the first day went really well and I was excited for my second visit.
My second week of placement, I was only able to go on Friday, Sept 7th, because everyone was out for Labor Day. This time I was there for the fully day of classes. His first class starts at 8:50 and the last ends at 2:30. All of his classes were fun to observe and I got to help the kids because they were comfortable raising there hand and asking me questions. I am always pleasantly surprised by how loving elementary students are. We had Kindergarten, 3rd, 4th, Special Ed, and 2nd grade and I think I got at least ten hugs by the end of the day. I was helping this one little 2nd grade girl zip up her jacket and she asked me if I had any kids, so I said "No I sure don't." Then she asked me if I ever wanted any kids and I said, "Not right now I'm only 21" and of course she replied by saying "Gah thats old." It was a really fun day though and so far I'm enjoying getting to know the kids.

Rachael - Week 1 & 2

I was relieved when I got a new placement two weeks ago and I was even more relieved when my Cooperating Teacher responded to my e-mail within an hour.  We set up Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. to meet so we could talk before her classes began.  I was a good responsible adult and set my phone alarm for plenty early, laid out my clothes, and printed out directions.  Next thing I know I am waking up to my roommate’s alarm at 7:22 a.m. with a dead phone battery.  After standing outside of Boulevard Suites with my roommate’s phone (we don’t get service in our rooms) in my pajamas for several minutes I finally got a hold of Mrs. Stanzione (yes, she is married to LeeAnna’s CT) at Homeland Park Primary. We were eventually able to figure out the best time for me to try and come again.  I was mortified that this was my first interaction with her and I have now learned to double check the battery and the alarm.

Week Two went much more smoothly.  Mrs. Stanzione teaches at Centerville Elementary on Thursdays and at Homeland Park Primary Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  She kept apologizing that I would have to travel to two different places every week but then amended that realistically this is something I might have to do someday. So on Thursday I went to Centerville from 11:45 until the end of the day.  Mrs. Stanzione used to have to teach from a supply cart she pushed through the halls but she has finally been given her own room, and while it has minimal storage, she is happy to have it.  I observed a fourth grade class, a Kindergarten class, and a first grade class.  I also stayed for bus-duty afterwards.  Ms. Stanzione has all of her classes working on portraits or self-portraits, which I think is a good way to stay organized instead of shifting from one subject to a completely different one.  The fourth-graders were drawing each other and I was impressed with the results. She made them really look at each other if they had questions about how to draw something.

Friday morning went much more smoothly the second time around and I made to Homeland park for first thing in the morning.  Mrs. Stanzione’s art room is like a dream come true.  She has an ELMO, SMARTboard, white boards, three sinks, a kiln with its own closet/room, a giant closet to keep things in, TONS of hallway space, lots of drying racks, and big tables for the kids to work at.  It is bright and colorful and cheery. I was able to observe two first grades, Kindergarten, and second grade while I was there. Because she has so many kinds coming in and out, Ms. Stanzione is super organized and has a system for everything.  I think I will really enjoy working with her especially because of that.  She felt bad that I had to observe Friday in particular because the school is doing some testing and so various classes, instead of being sent to Computer, are being split and divided between Music and Art. This not only makes the room more hectic but throws off Ms. Stanzione’s lesson plans. One first grade had nine extra kids and Kindergarten totaled twenty-nine kids by the time both classes were accounted for.  It was indeed hectic, but it was also an incredibly likely and realistic situation.  The lessons were one-day projects for these grades with extra classes and it was neat to see her come up with these project (or remember them) at the last minute. 

Ms. Stanzione’s classroom management is certainly very strict but the kids respect her and seem to enjoy the class.  She also knows when to have fun and throws in some funny little sayings here and there to make the environment fun.  For instance, she reminded students to be gentle with their brushes so they don’t have “pineapple hair” and she told them not to use orange and yellow for skin-tones because they were “not pumpkins”. 

I am looking forward to this semester and certainly feeling much better about student teaching already.

Isabel Week 2

Today I went back to my school for the second time. I had all the same children today as I did last week. The majority of all the students were excited about coming back to art and to continue working on the projects they started last week. My CT had to do a lot of busy work, such as getting materials ready for each class and repairing shelves, so after she would get them started I would manage the class. There was more of a comfortable atmosphere today because the students already knew what was expected of them and they also felt like they already knew me better.

The only new lesson we started today was with Kindergarten. They were the ones who learned about the blue family last week. Today they were provided big sheets of white drawing paper with gold paint sprayed across the bottom of the paper. My CT told them that this was magic sand at the bottom of the ocean. Then the students used different fish templates to draw several fish on the paper. They learned that it's okay if the whole fish isn't in the picture and that it's good to just have parts of the fish leaving or coming into the picture. Then with crayons the colored the fish and made faces and designs on them. Next week they will take blue watercolors and paint over the fish and create the water in the background.

Once again there were no major problems throughout the entire day, except when I dropped some papers on the floor and all the kids started laughing at me! I just laughed with them and several students immediately jumped out of their seats and started helping me pick them up. It was a great day and once again I can't wait to go back and see them all over again.

LeeAnna, Week 2

Today when I was at Westside the students finally started to warm up to me and ask questions. I really enjoyed helping them with their individual projects. Mr. Stanzione’s Art 2 class was working on drawings of a shoe, the first drawing was suppose to be in black and white and the second was to be in color. He showed them how to shade with colored pencils and how using different layers of colored pencil can be useful when trying to match a color. I showed one student how to look at what she was drawing differently so that she did not see what she was drawing as a shoe but as lines so it was easier. I showed her that if she turned her paper and her picture upside down that she would not think about it the same way and it would be easier to draw. It was helpful for me to observe how Mr. Stanzione helped each individual student with the problems they faced. He has very high expectations for all of his students and he told me that when I make my lesson plans to make the assignment more challenging because “they can do it!”

In Mr. Stanzione’s second block class he had Art 3-4 and this is a class that I really enjoy being in. All of the students that I have observed at Westside thus far are very talented. This class is a blast to be in because there is such a variety of different styles and they can produce college level work. They are expected to have concepts for their projects and they bounce ideas off of one another. Some of the students were still in the brainstorming stage of their projects today but several of them had started painting on the final projects. One girl I helped today needed help mixing her paints and advice about how much water to add to it and I showed her several different ways she could do what she needed. I had a really good time today at Westside, I am so glad that the students are starting to warm up to me.

Amanda - Week 1

     I think I am going to really love working with Mr. Powell at Southwood, but I am going to be spoiled.  Southwood Academy of the Arts used to be Southwood Middle, but this is its second year as an arts magnet school.  Therefore, all the students have to apply to come, their parents must provide transportation to and from school, and if they have had any behavior problems at other schools, they are not accepted.  Mr. Powell said, "Yeah, you won't be ready for the real world, but maybe we can get you a job here."  He was joking, but really, so far I have seen no behavior issues that a little comment hasn't fixed.  Right now the school is only 6th-8th grades, but they are working toward making it a school that students can apply to stay and graduate from.  Already some high-schoolers from the district come to take additional arts classes.  Southwood offers more concentration in music, theater, and visual art.
     Mr. Powell teaches four 50-minute classes, two 6th grade and two 7th grade, and he has one advanced class in each grade.  Last week, I observed twice in his 7th grade basic art class (8/28, 8/30) and was able to see the end of his first unit with the students.  This is Mr. Powell's first year teaching at Southwood and he is starting with foundational information about the elements of design in all of his classes because he found that the students did not have a good understanding of them from previous art classes.  
     The first project was a group project as a review of the notes Mr. Powell gave the class on each element of design.  Each group was given one of the seven elements to create a poster about in order to re-teach and illustrate that element to the class in a presentation format.  I was present for the introduction of the poster project with their beginning rough draft work and for presentation day.  I liked how Mr. Powell thoroughly explained his grading rubric for this project in the introduction so the students knew up front what he expected.  At the same time, he left the assignment somewhat open-ended so that there was room for them to be creative.  He didn't show any examples of other projects because he wanted to see what they would come up with.  When the texture group asked if they could use some other materials to show different textures, he was excited to let them choose items from his supply closet.  As he walked by me with them he said, "Finally! Someone thinking outside the box!"  One thing that first impressed me about Mr. Powell is his high expectations for students.  He uses high school level projects and even ideas from projects he did during his years at Anderson for his middle school students because he believes they can do good work with the foundation of design elements and principles.  I like his philosophy and it will be interesting to see it play out this school year.  He told me to come up with BIG ideas for projects when I'm teaching, and I'm excited to be a part of what he's doing! 

LeeAnna, Week 1

I went to visit my school, Westside High school, twice last week and one time the week before last. There was a little bit of confusion before I went the first time because when I made contact with my CT he said that he taught some classes that were not art related. Luckily, Westside has two art teachers, Mr. Stanzione and Ms. Clark, and I am going to be working with both of them this year.

Ms. Clark teaches Art 1 and Ceramics classes; she has four Art 1 classes and two Ceramics classes. She gave me a copy of her Art 1 Syllabus that she sent home with all of the students for their parents to sign. This is very important because it explains to the parent what the rules of the class are and how the student will be graded. My first day at Westside I observed one of her Art 1 classes. It was the end of the first week of school and she started out the class with a discussion about inspiration. She asked the class “What inspires you?” and she had the class define what inspiration meant to them. The class discussed inspiration and expressing themselves. She also had the class define what art means. Then she gave them a definition of art on the board. My CT told the class that art can send a message, express emotions and can even include nudity at times. She spoke with the class about being mature and trying to see things differently.

My second day at Westside, I observed Ms. Clark’s Ceramics class. She taught them how to wedge the clay. She showed them several different videos about how to wedge clay and she explained the importance of wedging the clay. She did a demonstration for everyone to see and then she helped students individually. This was a very interesting class for me because I am taking my first ceramics class at AU and we had not learned how to wedge yet. The students wedged clay until there was twenty minutes left in the class, which was set aside for clean up. At the end of class, after everything was cleaned up she asked the students to write on a piece of paper, something they learned, liked, and disliked about clay.

In Mr. Stanzione’s Art 3-4 class it was very different from the Art 1 classes that I had observed. It was more like that of a college studio class. All of the students were working on their projects and they were all at different points. My CT started the class by briefly explaining what the students were suppose to be working on and he told them that they should be getting past the brainstorming phase and ready to start on their final pieces. The class worked the whole period on their projects randomly asking the teacher and I questions. Mr. Stanzione also has an Art History class that I was able to sit in on and I found it to be quite interesting. He presented a Power Point Presentation and then he had the students work together in groups. This is a great class because it helps the students understand new ways to look at art that they would not have known before.

I am really enjoying going to Westside so far. I feel that I am lucky to have two teachers because I get to see two different teaching styles and a variety of skill levels from the students. I am excited about this year and I cannot wait to return.

Isabel, Week 1

        I went to visit one of my schools for the first time on Friday. My cooperating teacher (CT) teaches at one school Monday through Thursday and at another school on Fridays. The school is so small that she teaches all the students just on Friday. It was incredibly beneficial for me to observe this day because it was my CT’s first day of class. She has been teaching for many many years so she knew how to introduce or reintroduce herself to the students. She also started Art by reminding all her students the number one rule to follow. The rule is to never talk while the teacher is talking. She also let all the students decide where they wanted to sit and then moved them if needed. I noticed that after calling a student down for talking or rowdiness several times she would move them away from the other students.

       I was there for the majority of the day and was able to help my CT with classroom management, passing out supplies, answering questions, and assisting students during class time. My CT taught a different lesson for each grade/class; which was great for me because I got to observe six different lessons all in one day. Two lessons that really stuck out to me were self portraits and learning color families. Second grade started their self portraits and were having a blast with it. They loved drawing themselves and to my surprise each portrait was unique. I thought that they may copy one another but instead they wanted to show off their individuality. Kindergarten learned about color families, specifically the blue family. They had to color a handout only using crayons that are found in the blue family. This was perfect for the first day of art for kindergarten. They were still learning while not being overwhelmed by being in a new and different classroom.

      I was amazed how there was never one particular student who was a serious problem. All the students were incredibly respectful to both my CT and myself. I can’t wait to go back!