Gotcha Celebration

Today marks the end of my 6th week of student teaching. It is also the end of the month, thus all the good students that collected 70+ gotcha cards got to attend the Gotcha Celebration happening in the gymnasium all morning long. For this event I put together a new Fishing for Prizes banner. This banner is taped to a wall with a teacher hidden behind it. When the student puts their fishing pole over the wall the teacher attaches some small prize. Other events included Pin the Tail on the Wolf, bowling, pinata, basketball, and several other things. The photo below includes the 4th and 5th grade students waiting to begin the fun activities.

Student Teaching: Day 27

Getting accurate assessment of student knowledge. I had been brewing the night before over the results of the second grader's first critique day, and wondering how I may improve the results of the assessment and if it was possible that I was asking too much for the developmental level of my students. Or was I not providing an environment that limited the number of factors acting as distraction to my students. I visited the general and bilingual second grade classroom to check with the primary teachers of my students. I showed each of them the handouts I am using for assessing students' I was using and asking for their opinion of their experience with these students. One of these teachers provided a suggestion that in order to have the most accurate assessment of their knowledge I should provide folders to separate the space, read each of the questions and not allow the students to work ahead. As the general classroom teacher, she provided me with an idea that would provide consistency to our shared students and a solution for getting a more accurate assessment of my teaching through what my students have committed to memory. I told this to Mrs. Carey and she suggested that we borrow some folders from their classroom and try the assessment out on the next group of students.

Students perspective of performance. One of the interesting points that were made at my student teaching seminar I attended yesterday had been that our end goal is to provide students with independence and the ability to self-monitor. As a classroom that requires a lot of hand-on, students often illustrate an "I can't do it" attitude and lock up. These students will constantly request that you draw, cut or plainly do their art project for them. While I admire the student's ability to delegate tasks, the lessons I am trying to teach in my class are important for their frame of mind. For instance, students that are assisted too often with their art making will develop a bond with the participant teachers. These teachers allow the student to slip into a lazy pattern. They allow the voice of self-doubt within the student to grow. They come to you asking you to do something that you had asked them to do. They haven't even tried, and you know this because they haven't even attempted to place any marks on the paper. One student like that can be sad and tug at your heart because of their neediness. However, when a regular classroom has a couple to several students with the same attitude, than it will also drain you of a lot more energy. So by encouraging students to work independently and to apply themselves in their tasks without being worried of failure, than a teacher can save physical energy that could be better spent of providing students with more mental challenges through the fine arts.

1st Grade Drama. I heard today that two students had gotten suspended for their behavior on the playground the day before hand. The most surprising bit was that one of the students tried to strangle the other student. Its a little disheartening to hear such news. I am curious about what factors at home encourage such behaviors. In my classroom the remaining first graders were completing their second day on the pop-up houses. One of these students was adorable. He's a big kid and a couple weeks ago I had taken him to the office because of his voice level and behavior in the hallway. When he thought that he was in big trouble, he turned into a kitten -- totally the funniest transition I could ever have seen. Anyway, I motivated him to complete coloring his paper by telling him I'll have him take a picture with his artwork. So cute!

Black History Month Museum. The fifth grade class did an event for the school today. each was assigned researching an important black figure, writing a bio, dressing as the figure, and being in a "was museum". Tuan was really in character; being completely still until the token was in his box. Randy had his speech memorized. And Victor wrote his own rap to tell about his character.

Gotcha! Celebration preparation. I was asked today to do the water for the fishing game at the Gotcha! Celebration. It looks great! I used two different colors of blue paper - one for its sturdiness and the other to create waves. I also added many colored fish. I caught the attention of several of my students that stayed after school (I was working in the gym) and they helped cut out fish and put the marker details of them. Here is one of the fish.

Kindergarten and Pop-up Houses

Today the kindergarten class completed working on their Pop-up House project. They had spent one day learning about house types and parts of the house, one day drawing their home, and two days making/coloring their pop-up home.
Intergrating Spanish. Teaching in a bilingual school has provided me with an opportunity to consider how I might integrate Spanish into my art room. For my Pop-up house project, I had students learn vocabulary words for parts of a house in both English and Spanish. They learned that the Spanish word for roof is techo, window is ventana, and door is puerta. While it was not a vocabulary word I ended up also teaching the word "pomo", which means doorknob in Spanish. I like this particular word. It reminds me of some of the art theory I need to get reading/writing about for my thesis. In art, PoMo is short for post modernism. When I was an undergraduate in graphic design we used to talk about pomo and popomo (post-post modernism, the probable time period after post modernism) and jokingly label our time period as popopomo.
So Many Houses. During the process of this project I had read the student a book called "So Many Houses", which I scanned into the computer to put on the Smartboard. Its a little, short book. Scanning it allowed me to make it big and keep the students' interest. I showed the students different types of houses that they may live in. Like a house-house, an apartment, trailer, and duplex. Helping students to identify their home and be able to draw it allowed me to learn a little about my students too. While the kindergarteners primarily made the house-house regardless of what their home looks like, the sketch they made on the second day of the project provided me an accurate idea of what they went home to.