Day Five: Clay and Perspective

General Art:
These students were finishing etching into their clay slabs and moving on to cutting and constructing them into boxes. Mr. H demonstrated how to score and slip and the recommended process for building their containers. As class continued, Mr. H and I made rounds giving pointers to students or complimenting them on their progress and work. It's hoped that they will be able to finish these projects tomorrow.
These students are still generally a little standoffish, but there are a couple who don't seem uncomfortable with me around anymore. I'm finding that since I am there so seldom and don't have much contact time with each of them that they may be somewhat intimidated by me or anxious of me viewing their work. Some students are very self-conscious and may not enjoy having a stranger view and judge their work. Others may question my accountability and skill, thinking that I may not be qualified to give my opinion. One senior in particular avoids making eye-contact or entering into a conversation with me, I think she enjoys being an older more authoritative girl in her class than her peers and my presence may put a damper on that. I'm starting to really enjoy talking to a couple of the students in this class though, they have begun openly asking for my feedback and like to joke around with me throughout the hour. These seem like really good kids and there seems to be no struggle for power within the room.

Eight grade:
Yesterday, this class began a two-point perspective lesson; they were assigned nine boxes for the beginning of class today. As an extension of this lesson, students were asked to create a cityscape using the skills they learned yesterday. Mr. H drew an example on the board and showed student examples when finished. I really liked how Mr. H demonstrated how they should attempt and think about these drawings; he asked them what he should do and intentionally made mistakes during his demo, asking if it looked right. This immediately engaged his students, they were eager to correct and show their knowledge to the class. The students were then given paper and rulers to begin their own drawings. They obviously understood the basics of how two-point perspective worked, but struggled a little with putting boxes right next to each other or overlapping. Mr. H and I spent the hour helping students correct lines and explaining why it worked the way it did. I always compare this class to the general art class, I can't get over how differently these students interact with me. There are a couple of them that seem to enjoy asking me questions and getting my help so that they can tell me about themselves. They always seem so eager to learn and just want to be your friend. I was also surprised to see how weak cliques were in this school, I watched a group of girls interacting at the end of the hour, one of the four obviously didn't fit into their social group, as I watched I expected them to ignore her presence or at least begrudgingly include her. However, to my surprise, these girls willingly included her in their conversation without hesitation and they left the room with all of them talking. I wonder how much this has to do with the individuals and how much this has to do with the small class size. How different would this have been in a larger school, like the one I attended? They may not feel that have the option to pick and choose due to the lack of diversity.