Friday, February 20, 2009

4th day solo

I saw Ciarra in the hall this morning and she asked me for some help on a poster she was working on for her class. I had her come back to the art room with me to help her. I also said hello to Vanessa, which she ignored. I'm curious what her mother had said to her. Also, I ran into Christian's morning teacher (1st grade). I had given him a lunch detention on Wednesday for his behavior on Tuesday. She told me that she had called his mother for something else and mentioned his behavior in art also.
Most every student was productive during the 5th grade studio time. I moved AJ because he was talking so much. Perhaps we should move the seats around so that he isn't right next to the two girls at the blue table that like to talk too??
My 2nd graders were awesome! They were working on their collages and the results are really showing up as being so totally fun! To the left is a sample of the student work. The face is showing the emotion of angry. It is emphasized by the warm colors and the flaming hair.

Today's 3rd grade group came into class mellow (polar opposite). The agenda for the lesson was to have the students watch a 30-minute video on Van Gogh, then use the remaining time to work on a crossword puzzle. They sat on the rug and were ready to watch a video. To reward this difference and the fact that it was Friday I allowed a group of students to sit in a row of chairs behind the rug. This freed up some space on the rug for the remaining students to sit and stretch out. I told them that they may sit however they would like as long as they were considerate of their neighbor and didn’t close their eyes or talked. Students followed this behavior, were attentive to the video and quiet. After the video, I provided the crossword puzzle on Van Gogh. I had one student ask if he could free draw, which I said was fine. This caused a handful of students to want to free draw also.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

3rd day solo, part 2

Today's third grade class was very interesting and probably the prize winner experience of the week. This class came in with a very tense energy. Sitting on the rug illustrated a challenge and it didn’t help that I had to get at least two of them up to spit things out several times. Vanessa even insisted on watching as Jerrion spit out whatever was in his mouth to make sure he did (never, ever again going to allow this). The movie was having problems starting, as the output kept on changing over to the computer screen, which caused a couple of kids to complain more. Jerrion was the first to cause issues. He vocalized continuously that he didn’t want to watch the movie and that it was “for 2nd graders”. He soon moved to the discipline chair, but asked to sit back on the rug 5 minutes later. I don’t think he was liking being in the back closer to Mr. Holland. Lacyria and Vanessa were sitting next to each other with their backs against the wall with all the student work in it. Vanessa was watching me, not the movie, with caused me to watch her. Lacyria began to be very vocal as the movie progressed, which made it very hard for anyone to watch the movie. Vanessa was kind of egging on the situation, but Lacyria was definitely the ringleader. I wasn’t 100% sure on her name though, so I ended up allowing both of them to move to the tables. Lacyria lasted 30 seconds before Mr. Holland grabbed her and took her to Ms. Smith. For the next 5 minutes Vanessa asked maybe 3 times if she could go to the bathroom, which I wasn’t buying. After that, she walked out of the room. Jerrion ended up going back to the tables after this. He was still being vocal about the movie, and at the table he wasn’t like that Mr. Holland was telling him to be quiet. I ended up giving him a crossword and after a bit he left too. After these three students were gone the remainder of class was excellent.
I filled out three reports after school and talked to Ms. Smith. She said that Vanessa’s goal had been to get down to the office to be with Lacyria, which she had realized and made her sit in the hallway. I phoned Vanessa’s mother and explained what had happened.

3rd day solo, part 1

Today I am dividing the day's events into two separate posts. Something major had happened at the end of the school day and I want it to shine on its own.

The 5th graders are continuing to work on their Doodle for Google. Some students still needed to come up with 4 different ideas and others were ready to begin working on the Google logo. I was attempting to motivate all these students to move beyond the point they were at so that they may begin working on the logo. I must have been being pretty intense, as Ciarra had asked me if I was mad at her, which I told her I wasn’t. But at the end of class as students were lined up, Ciarra wouldn’t look at me as I was giving Gotcha’s to the students. I found that as Ciarra was leaving (she was last in line) that she had tears on her cheek. I may have been too hard on her, which I talked to her afterwards about. I provided her with extra Google logo worksheets to do at home.
The 4th grade class is sooo needy. Brandi attempted to = manipulate me into doing her work for her. Because I wasn’t she was getting angry. I walked her through the steps she was suppose to take, and would walk away – she would then have Mr. Holland do the same thing. I finally helped her do some drawing after she made a stencil, which earned me a brilliant smile (motives never more apparent at that point), but it got her to complete the next step; she was making the design on the wing. Before she could transfer it onto her poster, class was over.
The 1st grade class was beginning their pop-up houses. On the rug during my demonstration Isaiah was getting upset with Angel (and neither of them would quiet down). I sent them both back to their seats, which Isaiah didn’t like at all. I had them come back when they were to work on making their pop-up. Isaiah continued to get irritated and negative. I had Mr. Holland walk him to Ms. Smith. I talked to Ms. Smith later that day to see if I needed to write him up and we decided no, and that he just needed to decompress a bit.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Job Fair Orientation

Tonight I went to a required job fair orientation. Much of it made my eyes roll. "Blue suits are more successful than black suits, and brown is not a very successful color. Ladies, wear nude hosiery if you need to (but not black or anything with pattern). Don't wear anything trendy." Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the rest of the women going through student teaching in the art education program are a little envious that my adviser is gone. It seems that many of them are having difficulty gaining any control of the classroom.

2nd day solo

This fifth grade class is still working on their previous project - a self-portrait based on a photograph where the primary objective is to achieve a realistic value system. I was having a difficult time motivating Sharon to work on hers. Ever stoke she made seemed to be half-hearted and at points counterproductive. About 10 minutes before the end of class she complained about a stomachache. Earlier in the hallway as students were going to their classroom, I had one student complain of a stomachache. I recommended going to the office, but Mr. Holland mentioned the Phantom Stomachache; meaning students suddenly have a “stomachache” as a method of getting out of doing something. I didn’t quite believe Sharon because of this occurrence earlier and am interested in learning of how other teachers handle such an occurrence. Is it a regular thing? How do you be sensitive to students, but still weed out the ones that really don’t have pains?
The fourth grade class was a bit of a challenge today. I had 5 students finishing up their self-portraits from the previous project and the remaining students beginning their sketches for their new project. First, none the painters waited for guidance on how to stamp their works, which caused extra clean-up and wasted paint. Darrion at one point threw away his portrait, to which I made him go sit on the rug for a bit. Brandi messed something up on her project and threated to rip it up. I told her that if she did I would give her lunch detentions for the rest of the week and send her to Ms. Smith. Andreanna became very helpful at this point in calming Brandi down. She was motivating by the school’s agreement to reward all classes that had no one removed from the class during the week, so she helped Brandi fix her portrait. Tim was being a brat. He would make a sketch, and if it were too small or traced or if he threw it away, I would make him do it again. This aggravated him. I know at least two of these students ended up relocated on the rug or in the discipline chair.
The second grade class was doing their second day of printing for the Emotional Face Collage. Diego was working really slow. Last time in class he only developed 1 print and crumbled up his printing plate after that. It made me wonder how well Diego was with his English. Today in class he required a lot of step by step instruction, and I used more visual examples to help him out. [The next day I went to speak with his homeroom teacher, who told me that several of his other classmates may help him out by telling him what he can do next. She also told me that he has an individual learn program because he’s behind/slow. She agreed to translate simple lines of instruction, so that when I introduce the next step to this class that I may be able to say it in Spanish too.]
The third graders were finishing their still lives. Deon was particularly needy today. He has a lot of pent up anger, so when I was noticing him clinging his fists, I would make him unclench and stretch his figures out, than repeat that 5 times. He was getting bugged by others in the class, like Joshua, taking anything done very personally. I was almost fearful that he would act out on one of any of these occurrences.
Kyesha decided to sit with Janiya during this class period. She usually decides to sit by herself at the Purple Table, and seeing this difference was amazing. Kyesha pulled out more supplies (bigger paint brushes and tooth brushes) without asking for permission. She and Janiya ended up with little cups of paint filled to the top, which caused a lot of waste. Kyesha also painted her hands, which (stupidly) I allowed her to talk out of the classroom with. However, I think it was safe to assume it was at least dry (though tempera is water soluble). In retrospect, I should have had her clean her hands in the classroom.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

1st day solo

Today is my first day of student teaching where I am completely in charge of everything. Mrs. Carey is on holiday all week, so students will no longer be looking to her for authorization and will prefer me over the unfamiliar sub. Knowing this psychological adjustment is actually going to play in my favor I went about my normal routine with sub in tow.
First on the day's agenda is the fifth grade class. They are beginning the Doodle 4 Google logo contest, so I presented the information to the class. Some of the fifth graders were a little too talkative in the back of the rug, though most were great. Desmond, Braedon and AJ were crammed into an area in the very back of the rug and were more interested in talking than listening. Desmond appeared to cause a lot of ruckus, aided by AJ who was the ring leader when it came to talking (which continued into studio time); DeAndre was his usual sassy self, but he at least fulfilled the expectations; Shanella and Charlease had a difficult time coming up with ideas (doesn't help they do a lot of talking to one another). Masonda did an overall good job. He seems to work better when he is stationed by himself and that worked really well for him. Tomorrow I am planning on reading over all the 5th grade Google ideas to offer feedback on post-its.
My second graders were having their first day of collaging. They are working on their Emotional Face Collages. The last two days in class they did printing of a face with an emotion and now they are continuing that by collaging neck, shoulder, ears and hair onto a piece of paper with one of the printed faces. Jesse was having a hard time. He got angry and poutty towards the end and didn't want to work. I allowed him to come back during his lunch recess to work some more and he did a lot better.
The first graders were drawing their houses and family in preparation to the pop-up house they will create during their next visit. Christian was very very VERY needy today. From the time on the rug to the time in studio. It took me 5 minutes to move him to the detention chair. I congratulated him for losing the bonus recess for his class, to which he went on for about 5 minutes talking to himself about how he doesn't care about recess. I walked away, as it wasn't necessary to really devote any more attention to his behavior. He completed his house, and when he said he finished his people, I told him (just as I explained on the rug) that stick people were not expectable and that he needed to add more detail to them. By the time I came around again, he was sitting on the floor by the classroom door pouting. Ms. Smith (the school's disciplinarian) came in about this point, and just talked to him saying stuff like "how do you know if you don't even try" to him saying that he can't draw people. At the end of class when everyone was in line, one of the latino girls said that Christian hit her. I don't know what the intentions were or how hard or if it was just a girl overreacting, but Christian was being a total brat today. I'm planning on going to talk to his teach in the morning and taking it from there.
The third graders were to be completing their still life project. Romeceo and Ellesse (+ her buddy that she play fights with) were having issues with one another, as they liked to talk loud enough for the other table to hear a comment about the opposite person. Romeceo said something that got the girls attention and ended up getting one of the girls to tell me about how her mom no longer hangs out with her friend (the mom's friend) because she was selling her body and she didn't like... (the cash that was around? I don't know). Anyway, strangeness. Ellesse volunteered to wash brushes again. She ended up washing the little bowls that held the white paint. I had cleaned out the drying rack at the beginning of the day, and Ellesse neatly stacked the little bowls in there like a pro. Must be one of her chores at home. :)

Emotional Face Collage, demo collaging

Today I demonstrated what the 2nd graders were to do next with their project. I went over the book "The Way I Feel" and had the students look at the hair in the layouts. They hair can emphasize the emotion that is being displayed, and each has a different treatment. Some hair is sticking up, while other hair is limp and depressed. As part of my demonstration, I reminded them of the warm/cool paper they made a couple weeks ago. They will be using that to collage the shoulders, neck, ears and hair onto a paper with the face. I then showed them a completed version and a version that had not been glued yet. Today my expectations were that the students would cut out most/all of their collage pieces. I would not provide them glue, though I did go around to see if students were ready to glue the neck the the shoulders, or the ear pieces together. I was aiming to monitor the students' collages by making sure they had an interesting design before they glued. By doing this I was able to insure the students were doing planning and making design decisions.