This morning was my first time assisting in the art room. I was assigned a small school located in a beautiful area with an interesting and passionate art teacher. Over the next couple of weeks I will be assisting middle and high school art classes twice a week. Overall, I would say that my experiences today were very positive and I am really looking forward to next week.
General Art (High school):
As the students entered the room and began interacting with Mr. H it was obvious that students admired him and enjoyed their daily encounters. They were able to talk casually about their other classes and activities out of school. A number of students were speaking excitedly with Mr. H about a school sporting event that would occur later that day that he assisted coaching for.
Once the bell had rung Mr. H asked his students to take their seat and quickly engaged students by asking them questions about their work. This involved some minor critiques that he urged students to participate in before they were expected to continue working. Mr. H was very supportive of his student's work and gave constructive criticism to those that needed it.
Students were continuing a previously introduced lesson plan today. I introduced myself to the class and proceeded to get to know the class. I asked a couple of students what the requirements were for this assignment and was told that they were assigned to create a series of large scale still life line drawings. Each of these drawings will then be worked on differently, the students that were the farthest ahead had completed a drawing that used five different shading techniques and were on to their accented intersections piece.
Throughout the period I spoke with students and watched Mr. H interact with his students to gain an understanding of the dynamics of his class. It was nice to see that he was able to joke with his students and use this to his advantage when students were off task. There was never a time that I saw him appear angry or feel that it was necessary to verbally reprimand students. If a student was off task he would joke with them and then transition into a constructive criticism of their work to get them interested in the task at hand.
I spent some time getting to know the environment; it is fairly obvious that Mr. H is a favorite of his students. I saw numerous drawings dedicated to him and a very positive attitude within his class. While looking around the room I specifically looked for a rules poster, which in the end I was unable to find. The students seem to be expected to have an understanding of proper etiquette in their classrooms and did not need reminding of what they could or couldn't do in this room.
Whenever a student asked to go to their locker or to the bathroom Mr. H would allow them to leave; I believe he gives them this freedom because he has high expectations for their productivity and unwavering deadlines that students are aware of. At this age students need to learn to plan accordingly and if they don't finish within the class time students are expected to find time at home or otherwise. There was also a student who took home their drawing and forgot to bring it back; she then asked to work on other homework. Mr H's response: During art class you need to be either making art or cleaning up after art. For the remainder of class she was assigned to cleaning some of the throwing wheels and ceramics area.
As I made my way through the room I asked students how they felt about this lesson:
Student 1: Not excited about drawing and was looking forward to the approaching end of this lesson. He was more excited about working with clay in the near future.
Student 2 & 3: Really enjoy drawing and like this project.
Homeroom:
Classroom is empty. I prepared next project for students with the assistance of two students from another room.
I was also able to talk with Mr. H about his own art practice and some of his history. He spoke of his family and that he had over a decade of teaching science before he turned to art education. Mr. H told me that he was a practicing potter and that he spent some time with Warren Mackenzie recently. I was very excited to hear this because I am pursuing ceramics as my emphasis for my studio major and just purchased my first ceramic work, a beautiful bowl by Warren Mackenzie from the American Pottery Festival.
Eighth grade:
As students filed into the room they pulled out their projects that were due today. From what I saw they appeared to be small geometric paintings focusing on color. Once seated they were asked to pull out a sheet of paper, write their name, and answer the questions that were written on the board. These questions were built to assist the student in reflecting on the project and so that they are aware of what grade they earned and why. This makes the students more responsible for their final work. Once finished they taped the paper to the back of the project and handed it in.
We then introduced the next lesson. Students were asked to grab a ball of clay from a table and a large piece of paper to cover their desk. Mr. H started by explaining the health hazards of clay dust being in the air. He explained that clay settles in your lungs after attaching to mucus and will remain there for the rest of your life if you allow too much of it in the air. We then continued on to how to properly wedge clay. Mr. H asked me to demonstrate how I wedge clay for the class and afterwards he directed his students to spend the remainder of their time preparing their clay for the next class. Ten minutes before the bell rang students were asked to wrap their clay in a bag to place in their bin and throw away the paper that they were wedging on.
I'm very excited about how well my first experience was in this school and look forward to next week.
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