10/10/2013

Beginning at the high school we did studio visits with the entire class, checking where they were and what was to come next with their work.  I was very impressed at some of the progress I saw just a week later from the students.  Most of them had another whole piece done by they time we were critiquing their work.

            Next we headed over to the middle school where we worked with the fifth graders who were beginning to work on their metal masks.  They were either still pushing their already drawn out pattern into the metal or putting the ink on it to later be rubbed off to show their pattern more.

            The sixth graders on Picasso paintings where they drew self-portraits of themselves in a cubism/Picasso style.  They made their own color wheel starting with the primary colors, red, blue and yellow, and then mixed their secondary colors to make green, purple, and orange.  They continued to color in separate areas of the piece with each of these colors and once the paint dried they outlined each shape of color with Sharpie markers.  I was incredibly impressed with this project and many others of Mrs. L.’s because she really puts a lot of learning and different segments together for one project, which really makes a successful and full learning experience for the students.

            Seventh graders were working on drawing still lives of various scenes throughout the classroom.  Mrs. L. had many set up and they got to choose which still life they wanted to draw.  The students will fill them in with colored pencil or oil pastels using neutral, cold, or warm colors.  Eighth graders worked on their still lives as well, however they were filling in their pieces with elements of design using various lines to fill in with markers later.

            On this day we asked Mrs. L. a couple questions regarding her teaching practice, beginning with why she chose art teaching as her profession.  Her response was that when she went to school there were not a lot of choices for women.  Her options were basically to be a nurse or a teacher.  The impression I got was that if she would be going through school now, she would have chosen something else.  She is an incredibly intelligent woman and has three children going through college now.  She is really pushing them to do what they want through their variety of interests and talents.  Mrs. L. decided that she wanted to be an art teacher when she was in high school, however realized later how difficult it was to be a mother and a professional.  From my experience with her, I am sure she was very successful at multitasking and doing both of these full time jobs together, however I can imagine it was very stressful at the time.  She also hinted that she wishes that she would have gone into something relating to biology or the sciences, but loves being an art teacher because it allows her to be creative.

            Mrs. L. says she defines her rules on the syllabus and essential learning sheet, however she doesn’t make her students go home with this sheet and make the parents sign it like most classes do.  She simply tells the students to go home and talk to their parents to tell them that they began art class.  She finds that the parents and child will have more of a conversation about it this way.  She has the basic rules hanging on the walls in each of her classrooms.  Besides having just the syllabus, she has a separate piece of paper that really highlights what she wants out of the students simply and in bold.  She has the students read this and sign it.  She has five basic rules: 1. Safety, 2. Follow directions, 3. No physical or verbal abuse, 4. Be timely, and 5.  Work hard.  If directions aren’t followed the child needs to tell their parents and have them sign a discipline sheet, which solves over half of the discipline problems in her classroom.  She begins with a verbal warning, then a change of seating, and lastly will send the student to the office if there are discipline issues, however if there is any abuse issue the student is sent directly to the office.  I really like her no-nonsense policy on rules and she really makes her students listen and be respectful due to them.