It has been a good while since I have updated this blog... Here is an overview of where we're at in the Studio:
Some classes will continue to have choice. I think I've learned that the makeup of the class, as well as the age that the class can determine how successful Choice Based is in a particular class.
In a couple of 6th grade classes, I have a handful of students that I have told individually may have choice. and the rest will be working on a class project. This isn't too bad, actually, because we've started working on clay, and everybody wants to do that anyway.
The early elementary kids are taking a break from choice to do a large color mixing unit. It seems as though some groups of kids either turned off that part of their brain, or never got the info on primary colors and mixing secondary colors. Others totally have it. It's pretty crazy. So I'm just thoroughly reviewing the color stuff with K-2. 3rd graders are getting a primer on tints and shades. Then I'll know where to start off next year.
There're really only 7 weeks of classes left. That means I only see my Monday kids 5 more times. We have a lot to do still.
Coming soon: Pictures from the Lyman Art Show. Due to art shows in March and April, updating this blog wasn't a top priority. I was right out with the Lyman show, but it went really well. Lots of people showed up for the combination of the Art Show, Music History Fair, and TV Turn Off Week. It was a huge amount of work, but it was great to see the kids' work up and displayed.
I think the kids having Choice and putting that work in the art show made for a very interesting show. I typed an artist statement for every kid- either they wrote it and I typed it, or the littler ones dictated to me. It really made the artwork special, in my humble opinion... So anyway- pictures from that coming soon...
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
6M- I had students write some reflection today. This group lost collage a couple of weeks ago, and since earning it back, they have been exceedingly careful to clean up well afterwards.... Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the written responses to the two questions I asked. It was pretty easy and straightforward, I think. I just asked them to choose a piece of art and tell me about it, and then to tell me if they think there's anything that could make choosing better, and how they feel about choosing. Some kids wrote great explanations about their work, and the overwhelming consensus on choices was that they want more choices. I told them we will open up Painting first thing after break. This group of students has a history of being banned from painting last year. I told them, and I think I have demonstrated that I will not hesitate to take the materials away, so hopefully, everything will go smoothly. Studio time was great, and clean up went smoothly. I am pleasantly surprised by the response to Choice in this class. I guess we're starting to get over the initial "panic" phase of choosing...
4D- First day of opening Collage for this group, and also discussed tracking Choices. Things went pretty smoothly. This is a very creative group, and they want to build stuff- they immediately started building scenes with paper. I told them that if it can fit safely in their folder it's okay... that rule was bent in a serious way! I really have a hard time telling them not to make a certain thing! It doesn't seem fair...
2W- Played Art Detective with this group for the first time. They did fairly well. I still almost think that the first graders I did this with did the best so far... but they did well enough. Past couple of weeks, I don't know where this class went with clean up, but we need to have a discussion before the start of next class. I told them that Painting would be closed next time because people didn't take care of materials....
5Ru- This class has a group of 5 or so negative nellies. Drives me CRAZY. I held the group back after class and told them that they're on their way to a 1 for art this term and I need to see some drastic changes.
3Sp- We made folders and handed back work. Things are starting to look a little different with more classes making folders and having Choice.
4D- First day of opening Collage for this group, and also discussed tracking Choices. Things went pretty smoothly. This is a very creative group, and they want to build stuff- they immediately started building scenes with paper. I told them that if it can fit safely in their folder it's okay... that rule was bent in a serious way! I really have a hard time telling them not to make a certain thing! It doesn't seem fair...
2W- Played Art Detective with this group for the first time. They did fairly well. I still almost think that the first graders I did this with did the best so far... but they did well enough. Past couple of weeks, I don't know where this class went with clean up, but we need to have a discussion before the start of next class. I told them that Painting would be closed next time because people didn't take care of materials....
5Ru- This class has a group of 5 or so negative nellies. Drives me CRAZY. I held the group back after class and told them that they're on their way to a 1 for art this term and I need to see some drastic changes.
3Sp- We made folders and handed back work. Things are starting to look a little different with more classes making folders and having Choice.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
too many snow days and tons of other crazy stuff in life going on.... I'm just going to update today and let my notes from my planbook help me for the past week or so.
5M- We talked about more possibilities for Collage. Using negative space, overlapping, using pieces of paper to make a larger shape, tearing edges instead of cutting, and wrapping/weaving paper around each other. This class is super creative. I think every single student is already pretty deeply involved in a project, many lasting more than one class period. I need to get some pictures of what's going on over there. This group especially takes a lot of pride in their work, and loves to tell me about it when it's in progress or finished.
6Fz- Probably one of the best classes so far with this, sometimes trying for me, group. We talked about the same collage stuff as the 5th graders had. I have had one student in this class who has been "working with" other students a lot. I finally told the student today that she needed to be making work. She started working on a project and seems enthusiastic about it. I feel like maybe it's one of those situations where the student didn't expect their work to come out so well, and now that it is she's surprising herself.
Schedule change this afternoon to accommodate an observation for my mentoring.
1L- Probably the worst observation I've ever had. Actually, definitely the worst. I'm trying to figure out what the best thing is to do to introduce the littler grades to fibers. I read online that really young kids should be able to do simple finger knitting, so I thought this might be more successful than the god's eyes. Nope, Fail. Several kids were able to successfully figure it out. In the future, this needs to be a small group project, then those in the small group can teach others who want to learn. Blargh.
KD- We played Art Detective with Seurat's The Circus, and they had a painting or drawing choice. It went well. At the end, we handed back clay projects from the last couple of weeks.
1N- Went over glazing. I put a hold on Cardboard Construction for this week, and instead many kids did clay building or glazing. They were very loud. But it was kind of funny, because everything they were talking about was having to do with their work. I had a hard time telling them we had to have silent art because it was just deafening, but it was the only way to get the volume down.
Anyway- craziness in life this week coupled with the most chaotic observation ever makes me not very verbose....
5M- We talked about more possibilities for Collage. Using negative space, overlapping, using pieces of paper to make a larger shape, tearing edges instead of cutting, and wrapping/weaving paper around each other. This class is super creative. I think every single student is already pretty deeply involved in a project, many lasting more than one class period. I need to get some pictures of what's going on over there. This group especially takes a lot of pride in their work, and loves to tell me about it when it's in progress or finished.
6Fz- Probably one of the best classes so far with this, sometimes trying for me, group. We talked about the same collage stuff as the 5th graders had. I have had one student in this class who has been "working with" other students a lot. I finally told the student today that she needed to be making work. She started working on a project and seems enthusiastic about it. I feel like maybe it's one of those situations where the student didn't expect their work to come out so well, and now that it is she's surprising herself.
Schedule change this afternoon to accommodate an observation for my mentoring.
1L- Probably the worst observation I've ever had. Actually, definitely the worst. I'm trying to figure out what the best thing is to do to introduce the littler grades to fibers. I read online that really young kids should be able to do simple finger knitting, so I thought this might be more successful than the god's eyes. Nope, Fail. Several kids were able to successfully figure it out. In the future, this needs to be a small group project, then those in the small group can teach others who want to learn. Blargh.
KD- We played Art Detective with Seurat's The Circus, and they had a painting or drawing choice. It went well. At the end, we handed back clay projects from the last couple of weeks.
1N- Went over glazing. I put a hold on Cardboard Construction for this week, and instead many kids did clay building or glazing. They were very loud. But it was kind of funny, because everything they were talking about was having to do with their work. I had a hard time telling them we had to have silent art because it was just deafening, but it was the only way to get the volume down.
Anyway- craziness in life this week coupled with the most chaotic observation ever makes me not very verbose....
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
1L- Warm fuzzies for this class today. Instead of learning a new material today (I thought introducing something new would be a little hectic, after the fibers last week being a little hard for most kids. ), we played "Art Detective." :) (This is me sneaking art criticism/art history into my classes.)
We talked about what detectives do, and then we looked at "Waiting for the Train" by Garin Baker. The kids described what they saw, then began to tell me what they thought was happening. Amazing. I mean, honestly, this was more than I could get out of HS students looking at work last year. They told me about the figures, used clues to guess that the picture was in NYC, and told me what they were doing. It was awesome. Then we had our usual centers open, and some of the kids who worked on the god's eyes last week continued to do so this week. This was a smaller group and it was much easier to work with them and have them feel good about what they were doing with the yarn. Excellent clean up. Super stars today.
5Ri- This class had a sub today, and I gathered that they were being a little more difficult than usual... Considering that, class went quite well. They had earned their "Free Art" class, so they could choose from their regular choices, or modeling clay, or scratch art. I was surprised by the number of kids who chose the scratch art, after all the clamoring this class has done for clay! jeez. :) They were well on time, so they had lots of studio time. I also enjoyed seeing that several kids continued to work on their regular projects, rather than jumping into something new just because it was available.
We talked about what detectives do, and then we looked at "Waiting for the Train" by Garin Baker. The kids described what they saw, then began to tell me what they thought was happening. Amazing. I mean, honestly, this was more than I could get out of HS students looking at work last year. They told me about the figures, used clues to guess that the picture was in NYC, and told me what they were doing. It was awesome. Then we had our usual centers open, and some of the kids who worked on the god's eyes last week continued to do so this week. This was a smaller group and it was much easier to work with them and have them feel good about what they were doing with the yarn. Excellent clean up. Super stars today.
5Ri- This class had a sub today, and I gathered that they were being a little more difficult than usual... Considering that, class went quite well. They had earned their "Free Art" class, so they could choose from their regular choices, or modeling clay, or scratch art. I was surprised by the number of kids who chose the scratch art, after all the clamoring this class has done for clay! jeez. :) They were well on time, so they had lots of studio time. I also enjoyed seeing that several kids continued to work on their regular projects, rather than jumping into something new just because it was available.
Jan 20-
6M- I'm a little annoyed at this group right now, to be perfectly honest. There was a lot of messing around. Well, maybe not tons, but more than is acceptable for me. Plus, they lost Collage for next week. It was trashed when I went to check on it. Not cool, and they will hear about it. What bums me out about this is there are several kids who just relish this time to work on their own artwork, and unless the majority of the group changes, they will not continue to have that opportunity.
2W- I didn't open any new materials for this group yet, though I should open fibers soon. Instead of having a mini lesson at the beginning of class, we had extra sharing time at the end. Usually I only have the kids share if they have extra time after clean up, but this group is so excited to share their work, and some kids are making great stuff, I wanted to give more students the opportunity to share if they wanted to.
5Ru- First day allowing a choice for this group. We talked about observational drawing, and then they had a drawing choice to practice observation or draw from imagination. There are a couple of boys for whom it's like pulling teeth to get anything out of them. Hopefully maybe some building centers will break them out of this. I've got to get some blocks and stuff.
3Sp- This class is the class that painted the lobby windows and had expressed interest in public art. We talked about Keith Haring today. Looked at haringkids.com (great website), and talked about what his work was like. (Of course edited to age appropriate content!) :) Then the students could choose to create some Haring-esque figures to place around the studio. They came up with some creative places. I'll have to do pictures. Not sure what else to talk about for public art with this group... will have to do some research...
6M- I'm a little annoyed at this group right now, to be perfectly honest. There was a lot of messing around. Well, maybe not tons, but more than is acceptable for me. Plus, they lost Collage for next week. It was trashed when I went to check on it. Not cool, and they will hear about it. What bums me out about this is there are several kids who just relish this time to work on their own artwork, and unless the majority of the group changes, they will not continue to have that opportunity.
2W- I didn't open any new materials for this group yet, though I should open fibers soon. Instead of having a mini lesson at the beginning of class, we had extra sharing time at the end. Usually I only have the kids share if they have extra time after clean up, but this group is so excited to share their work, and some kids are making great stuff, I wanted to give more students the opportunity to share if they wanted to.
5Ru- First day allowing a choice for this group. We talked about observational drawing, and then they had a drawing choice to practice observation or draw from imagination. There are a couple of boys for whom it's like pulling teeth to get anything out of them. Hopefully maybe some building centers will break them out of this. I've got to get some blocks and stuff.
3Sp- This class is the class that painted the lobby windows and had expressed interest in public art. We talked about Keith Haring today. Looked at haringkids.com (great website), and talked about what his work was like. (Of course edited to age appropriate content!) :) Then the students could choose to create some Haring-esque figures to place around the studio. They came up with some creative places. I'll have to do pictures. Not sure what else to talk about for public art with this group... will have to do some research...
ee.. going back a few days.
Jan 15th
6Fz- Building on our grid lesson from last week, my mini lesson was on distorting an image using a distorted grid. Several students have begun working on the grid idea without the distortion. I think that the grid idea can help with the need for "realism" that many kids seem to strive for, especially at this level.
1N- Last week, these kids had a choice for drawing. This week, I opened collage for them, but many began working on drawings. Also, because of the weather, it's been inside recess. During recess, one of the students began working on a building for his lego figures. He brought it to class, and asked if he could continue working on it. No problem for me, but I need to be ready for the rest of the class to look at what he's doing and want to do it as well. Cardboard Construction Center needs to be built. They got pretty into the building thing.
Jan 16
6B- Introduced the idea for the grid drawing. Several students in this class brought images from home to work on. A good handful of them got into it after the mini lesson. We also talked about tracking our choices on the chart that I handed out. I'm doing this so that when I have portfolio meetings with them before the end of the trimester in March, I will be able to discuss with them what they are choosing and why. Possibly encourage them to branch out if necessary.
3Su- This class has some very ambitious artists. All of the students who began work on a large drawing last week continued the work this week. There were a handful of students who wanted to weave, so I sat in a small group with them to help with loom set up, etc. As the class went on, there were more students interested in weaving, so I made an executive decision that official weaving lessons will begin next week.
6Fz- Building on our grid lesson from last week, my mini lesson was on distorting an image using a distorted grid. Several students have begun working on the grid idea without the distortion. I think that the grid idea can help with the need for "realism" that many kids seem to strive for, especially at this level.
1N- Last week, these kids had a choice for drawing. This week, I opened collage for them, but many began working on drawings. Also, because of the weather, it's been inside recess. During recess, one of the students began working on a building for his lego figures. He brought it to class, and asked if he could continue working on it. No problem for me, but I need to be ready for the rest of the class to look at what he's doing and want to do it as well. Cardboard Construction Center needs to be built. They got pretty into the building thing.
Jan 16
6B- Introduced the idea for the grid drawing. Several students in this class brought images from home to work on. A good handful of them got into it after the mini lesson. We also talked about tracking our choices on the chart that I handed out. I'm doing this so that when I have portfolio meetings with them before the end of the trimester in March, I will be able to discuss with them what they are choosing and why. Possibly encourage them to branch out if necessary.
3Su- This class has some very ambitious artists. All of the students who began work on a large drawing last week continued the work this week. There were a handful of students who wanted to weave, so I sat in a small group with them to help with loom set up, etc. As the class went on, there were more students interested in weaving, so I made an executive decision that official weaving lessons will begin next week.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Haven't seen any of these classes for just about a month...
6th
Sixth grade kids did pretty well this morning. They still have that fresh and frantic feel to them that I recognize from the fifths at the beginning of the year. There is one group of kids that has a hard time coming in and getting down to business. I'm not sure if separating them will help, or if it will hinder the progress of the kids I move them nearer to.
I introduced drawing from a grid/enlarging a photo using a grid to this group today. This definitely appealed to some analytical minds in the group. The difference I see with some of the students is amazing. A small group of boys who was very chatty during teacher oriented lessons has almost completely reversed and several of them were working on enlargements of cars, characters and baseball players today.
1st
I did a mini lesson on making God's Eyes. This might have been a little much for this group. I was hoping for something easy to begin the fibers center with. I will have to do a little research on easier/age appropriate stuff for this group.
Clean up was messy. I should have spoken with them more at the beginning of class about reminders for clean up.
5th
This class is super stars. Their classroom teacher dropped in for a few minutes at the beginning of class to see how they work. I gave them a vote for weaving in the fibers center, or macrame. It was almost unanimously macrame. I should have Devin come in to do a lesson on it... Anyway. We did our lesson, and then the kids could still choose from Painting, Drawing, Collage and what we have covered in Fibers so far. It was awesome. My boys who finished their humungo dragon started a new one! I think every single student was fully or nearly fully engaged during the entire studio time. These kids are like my poster children for choice. Love love love. I had one student share how she drew her embroidery design on her fabric before she began embroidering. One student has been doing finger knitting and he helped several others get started. I helped him with the bind off, then I saw him helping someone else with the same thing.
*warm fuzzies* : D
6th
Sixth grade kids did pretty well this morning. They still have that fresh and frantic feel to them that I recognize from the fifths at the beginning of the year. There is one group of kids that has a hard time coming in and getting down to business. I'm not sure if separating them will help, or if it will hinder the progress of the kids I move them nearer to.
I introduced drawing from a grid/enlarging a photo using a grid to this group today. This definitely appealed to some analytical minds in the group. The difference I see with some of the students is amazing. A small group of boys who was very chatty during teacher oriented lessons has almost completely reversed and several of them were working on enlargements of cars, characters and baseball players today.
1st
I did a mini lesson on making God's Eyes. This might have been a little much for this group. I was hoping for something easy to begin the fibers center with. I will have to do a little research on easier/age appropriate stuff for this group.
Clean up was messy. I should have spoken with them more at the beginning of class about reminders for clean up.
5th
This class is super stars. Their classroom teacher dropped in for a few minutes at the beginning of class to see how they work. I gave them a vote for weaving in the fibers center, or macrame. It was almost unanimously macrame. I should have Devin come in to do a lesson on it... Anyway. We did our lesson, and then the kids could still choose from Painting, Drawing, Collage and what we have covered in Fibers so far. It was awesome. My boys who finished their humungo dragon started a new one! I think every single student was fully or nearly fully engaged during the entire studio time. These kids are like my poster children for choice. Love love love. I had one student share how she drew her embroidery design on her fabric before she began embroidering. One student has been doing finger knitting and he helped several others get started. I helped him with the bind off, then I saw him helping someone else with the same thing.
*warm fuzzies* : D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
