Day Two Experiences

Today was my second day in Mr. H's art classroom; another positive experience to build off of.

General Art Class:
As students entered the room they immediately began working without Mr. H prompting them. It had been a couple days since I'd seen these students and they were on to their third still-life drawing. The prompt was to take a line still-life drawing and add patterns to the objects to create a sense of space/depth. There was a large variety of both completion and skill within the class's work. I really enjoyed interacting with the students and discussing how they felt about this project and which drawing was their favorite/why. It's interesting to compare how these students interact with me compared to the eighth grade students. I've found that many of the middle school students desire a high degree of attention from both Mr. H and I, whereas with the high school students I always have to approach them to start a discussion and they generally seem reluctant to be engaged. I'm hoping that as they get used to my presence and I continue to start conversations that in turn they will attempt to engage in conversations with me.
Nearing the end of the class these students received their first two drawings with grades attached. Mr. H then addressed the class by critiquing the class' overall effort and how a number of students spent too much time talking during class. He then spoke very positively about certain aspects of specific drawings and how exciting it is to see strong value changes in some of their work. This transitioned well into encouraging students to put in extra effort tonight so that their final drawing would be their best. I believe that Mr. H does a great job of balancing critique and encouragement when addressing the class as a whole and the students individually; I hope to imitate the success of his methods in the future.

Prep-hour:
During this time Mr. H told me about the next project for a class that he was teaching later in the day; he was focusing heavily on teaching his students the principles of design during this next lesson. Mr. H told me about this interdisciplinary lesson and how he would be working with other teachers to really engage the students. The students would be learning about bridges in their art, tech, and reading courses simultaneously. I thought this would be a really great way to get students to focus and hopefully get them interested in one subject from a number of angles.
I also asked Mr. H why he chose to become an art teacher. He told me that originally he had been interested in becoming a doctor and had actually originally attended a program to become a trauma surgeon, but switched to science education because of how he felt about teaching. After working as a science teacher for over a decade he decided to obtain an art education degree because of his passion for the arts. His parents, wife, siblings, and many of his friends were artists and art had been a big part of his life since he was young. Mr. H told me that he grew up in a bad part of a large city that exposed many individuals to drugs and alcohol. His mother bought him supplies to keep him busy and away from the negative environment outside. He believes that art, religion, and science are how we explain and express our existence and that teaching is the most important this you can do with your life. This was his draw to art education.

Eighth grade:
 These students were finishing their clay tile project that they had been learning to wedge clay for last Thursday. The students were asked to create a focal point in their tile and were given a number of tools to use. It was interesting to see the variety of complexity and successful execution within the student's work. If they finished early they were allowed to work with another ball of clay for the rest of the period since they were starting a new project the next day. A number of the students in this class have begun asking me for help with their work and are interested in talking with me during the hour. I've begun to feel very welcome in this classroom's atmosphere.