Day one of my practicum experience
was very exciting and nerve racking.
Teri and I navigated through the high school and found the art
room. Our cooperating teacher, Mrs.
L., gave us a tour of their art rooms and of the supplies and kiln room
that is available to them.
The first class was a studio art class. There were seven or eight students total, two
of which were taking this class as an AP Studio Art class. Each student had their own studio space
including their own desk and wall space to be able to hang up inspiration, past
work, and they also had the ability to leave their work and tools out just like
any other art studio generally works.
The students were all working on their own projects, while Mrs. L.
helped them find inspiration and pushed them in the direction that suited their
style and abilities. Teri and I walked
around the classroom giving advice. I
was happy that I was able to give them some names of artists to look up to find
inspiration or see possibilities for where they can go with their style.
In class we did a critique of what
they had been working on thus far in class.
They had their next piece due the following week so they we talked about
ideas if the student wasn’t working on something and talk about ideas for the
current pieces they were working on.
The
afternoon we headed over to the middle school where we worked with 5th,
6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Each class had a different project going on
and we walked around the room helping the students with their pieces. The seventh and eighth graders were working
on still lives. Mrs. L. had five
differently themed still life setups around the room that the students could
pick from. She did a demo for them and
then let the students choose their spots.
The sixth
graders were finishing up a piece focused on the elements of design and
creating patterns that filled an animal that they chose to draw.
Fifth
graders were finishing up a Picasso inspired piece in which they drew an
abstract person and filled it with different sections of colors.
Mrs. L.
showed us her class list, which had the students that had special needs
highlighted. About one third of each
class from the middle school had special needs, and there was only one aide in
one of the classes. It was very
difficult engaging some of these kids and she was very frustrated since these
kids seemed to just get thrown into art classes if they are new students.
