Collaboration

At 8:15am this past Saturday, Laura, Amanda, and I were ready for our students to arrive and were prepared for what should have been a relatively calm day at Saturday Art School (in comparison to the first two lessons, which had more activities packed into the two hours). Our 4- and 5-year olds would soon enter into the Wonderful World of Bugs once again and learn about how bugs collaborate in their habitats. Our lesson consisted of apron making, free sketch, a discussion about their drawings from the week before, a bee dance performance, and finally, the main project where each student would complete a drawing on hexagon-shaped paper and when they were done, the hexagons fit together to form a collaborative artwork, just like the AIDS quilt project that they learned about at the beginning of class.

Overall, the lesson went really well in terms of how much the students seemed to enjoy it and how much they learned, but for the teachers, we seemed to lack the rhythm that we usually have and our timing was a little off at points in the lesson, but that's all part of teaching! What really matters is what the students learned; they really put in 100% effort on the collaborative project and we saw wonderful results! In the video below, you will hear from a few students who volunteered to talk about their drawings. We were excited to see that two of the students, Kian and Sophie, decided to pair up on their drawing, which showed us that the idea of collaboration really clicked.

The bee dance was also a fun part of the lesson, where students got a glimpse at how bees communicate to fellow hivemates where food can be found. Also at one point in the lesson, we had to move the carpet across the room and as I started to move it myself, about 7 students ran over to help me lift it. We wanted them to see, firsthand, how collaborating and working together not only makes you feel good, but it can make great things happen, and we, as teachers, got to see that in this lesson as well!

The Perils of Taking Students Outside

The thought of a peaceful autumn afternoon drawing outdoors seems exciting for new teachers and their students, but taking students on an outdoor field trip has many hidden challenges. Managing your students outside of the classroom can be challenging, especially when your assignment encourages students to explore. Our technique was to use the buddy system to keep students from getting separated. What we didn't' realize is that students were working individually and they lost track of their buddy. It became difficult to keep track of all students while we were working around a building because it was impossible to see all the students at once. Fortunately, most of our students followed the boundary we had set and there was no major incidents.

Our bigger concern was the weather of the morning we were teaching outside. It had rained earlier in the week which forced us to pick a new location due to the chance of rain or mud. Fortunately, it did not rain and temperatures were mild for fall. What we didn't plan on were strong wind gust capable of throwing a drawing board into the air along with all other materials we had to work with. We tried to use tape to secure the drawings but the wind continued to be a major distraction for the entire lesson. We were forced to end the outdoor lesson early and lead students back inside to continue working on their drawings with no distractions. In the end, most of our students still worked hard and produced successful drawings of nature. We learned that when planning lessons that involve taking our students out of the classroom, there are always unexpected variables and it is always necessary to have a back up plan. Most importantly be ready to think on your toes.

More Than Meets the Eye: Camouflage Ants

On Saturday, I sat down with Jack, a pre-school student. He was deeply engaged, drawing in his sketchbook. Curious, I asked Jack to tell me what he was drawing. Little did I know the complexities behind Jack’s drawing, what seemed very similar to other children’s drawings I had seen. The image unfolded as an interesting narrative. He added another part of the drawing like a next chapter in a story. He added each piece of the drawing he had added with precision, with meaning. In the middle of the page were two insects, with three body parts and six legs. “Those are the ants”, he told me. Pointing to another part of the drawing, I asked “what’s that?” “The ants’ stingers, they are stinging the people.” Jack pointed to a few figures toward the top of the drawing. Jack also told me the ants were stinging the people because the people were trying to kill the ants. The people that Jack drew now seemed more animated. I expressed my worry for the ants, but Jack reassured me that the people can not kill the ants. “They’re turning camouflage” Jack said as he colored the ants with green. I wondered how he had learned about camouflage, and thought it was such a great solution to keep the ants from being killed by the people.

Jack is in a preschool Saturday art class that I co-teach. The class’s theme is the wonderful world of bugs. I wondered if the theme had encouraged Jack to draw insects and work out different things he knew about insects and people. The movie “A Bug’s Life” was also playing while he was drawing. Jack told me that it was his favorite movie when I asked. What Jack was drawing seemed to be a combination of context and personal interest.

I was engrossed with what Jack was telling me. I would have never understood what he was drawing if I had not talked with him, even if I had the drawing right in front of me. Now, after listening to Jack, his drawing has a completely different meaning to me. It was as if Jack opened up his imaginative world to me, and I had a glimpse of what it was like to be four again. Though I had seen before that children’s art means much more than you can tell by looking at it, I was still surprised by my experience with Jack. I really enjoyed listening to Jack, and found it exciting to find out the story Jack was telling in his drawing. I wonder if it was bad that I was surprised, that perhaps I was expecting less of preschoolers. As I talked with Jack, I also worried about the questions I asked and how I worded them. I wondered if I was saying too much.

Have A Sense of Humor: Transforming My Face

Starting from the beginning of the class, I felt like the lesson using computer could be a little difficult lesson to teach especially because I am not an expert in using Photoshop program. As students started to work on the projects, they had many questions to ask. Although many were already explained by Tiffany, they had problems that just occur because of the technical issues. As I was helping out with a student, Ginger, I had an incident that makes me think and question myself about ‘what could’ve been I done at that time?’ Ginger was the girl who wanted to use painting tool to make her face into an old man. She started to use green colors to add mustache, beard, and long hair to transform the face to look more funny and different. As I came by to answer her question, she told me that the work was finished. I thought the artwork was well completed, too, so I tried to save the work. Although I saved it as the way I usually do it through ‘Save As’ icon, it was looking like it saved a work in a different format. After I closed it and opened the picture, it didn’t allow me to open. At that moment I saw Ginger’s face and I knew how disappointed she was. I did not know what to say to her because I knew how much effort and work she put in to paint on the face. I just told her, “I don’t know what happened with how I saved your work, I am sorry. Would you like to do it again since we have more time?” So she worked on it again for a while to re-work on the artwork, and same problem arose with the saving. The class was almost over that I told her again that she can stay for a little longer to work again. She ended up just putting couple dots and lines to just finish the work. I decided to just take the screen picture and save the artwork instead of trying to save it through the program so that I don’t lose her work. Until now, this incident makes me feel very regretful, and makes me strongly believe that using technology in elementary level is difficult. More than what I feel about technology, I was thinking about what I should have done when accidents like this occur. What should’ve been said to her, and what should have been done to let her work on the artwork, again? Although I ended up losing her work, I think it was an important experience that I had a chance to think about questions like this in facing a sudden and unexpected problems.

Beginnings

Last Saturday, eleven student-teachers welcomed 134 children to the first session of Saturday School, Fall 2011.  There was confusion, and tears, and, by the end of the morning, hundreds of silly grins to testify to a morning well spent.  You handled it all like the professionals you are quickly becoming.

This blog is a space for us all to reflect on the experiences we are having as we travel together through the journey that is Saturday School.  It is a place to share ideas, questions, concerns, calls for help, insights, frustrations and triumphs. It is a place for our conversations to continue, well beyond the all-too-short and busy time we have to discuss our classes on Tuesday mornings.

More that that, this blog is a place where the first phase of documentation can happen: Where each week, you post photographs from your classes, descriptions of what your students said and did, quotations from class discussions and conversations with or among children–evidence of their learning, made visible on the blog.  It is a place for you to pose questions, for yourself and for your colleagues, to consider what this says about art teaching and learning, about kids, about art, and about the ways you can build curriculum on the events you observe in the classroom.  It is a place to feature the visible (and audible) traces of learning, to allow us all to think about them together.

I will be adding some links that may help you to consider what to post on your weekly blog entry, and (more important) what to pay attention to so that you will have something to share. Below is one that will help you understand how blogging with other art teachers may be critical to your teaching practice.

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Enjoy your second week of teaching.  JoePa says that the team always learns the most between the first week and the second.  What did you learn last week that you will keep in mind???

‎""Learning is the human activity that least needs manipulation by others. Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is –rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful activity." – Ivan Illich