Written on 3/22/21 at 12:30pm:
PiM Arts High School - Thursday, March 4th & 11th - (5 hours)
Walker Arts Center Shadowing - (1 hour)
As the quarter comes to a close for students at PiM, I have continued to Mandy's ceramics classes every Thursday. Week 8 was very short because class was mostly work-time, as the soft deadline for getting their projects fired was March 9th. We mostly just checked in, and answered any questions students had about turning in their work at the school. Mandy also had us meet in smaller break-out groups, which work very well in the Zoom app. One group was very quiet, while another was very talkative. It was a great chance to connect with the students more individually. One student was talking about how they were transferring the Perpich, so we had a great conversation about that, and she seemed very enthusiastic. In another, a student was planning to go to MCAD next year, so we talked about the various programs and facilities that will be available to them. Of course we also talked about their projects, but many were still in the early stages of development. After we were done with the breakout groups, Mandy let the students go early to have more time with their projects.
Independently, I finished my clay project, which was specifically designed to feature many different textures so that I may demonstrate how to achieve many unique effects using layered transparent paint. Unfortunately, the project of course took much longer than anticipated, and I did not have time to finish painting it before Week 9. Instead of my more thorough lesson plan, I made a small slideshow for the students so that I could at least convey to them the possibilities of mixing colors optically. I think that it went over well; in both classes I presented in, the students had great questions and ideas about their projects. I was only a little bit nervous, but I think it came out very naturally as color theory is something that personally, I am endlessly fascinated by. Even though my lesson didn't fully develop as planned, I think it still had the desired effect. Fortunately, I should be able to fully flesh it out for Mandy's classes next quarter (I am unsure of the schedule quite yet,) and so this week will serve as the perfect practice run.
After we were done with questions, Mandy let the students go early again to have more time to paint their projects for next week's final critique. I can't believe how short the quarter felt, I feel like I had only just begun to become familiar with the students and their work. I am curious what the benefit is of having such short class lengths at the high school, as all art areas take a lot of time and practice to develop. Not to mention how unnecessarily early the students have to wake up for class, but that is another point. It is also a factor that I am only seeing the students one day of the week, so maybe it didn't feel as short for them. I hope that at least some of the same students from Ceramics 1 take Ceramics 2, so that maybe we will get a chance to work together in person next quarter, as the school will likely be moving into a mixture of digital/in-person teaching.
I also continued communicating with Sarah Lampen from The Walker Arts Center about my shadowing schedule, which so far has at least four possible meetings set up. One possible meeting is shadowing a tour of Perpich students, which would be an absolute joy if the teacher allows me to attend! Because of my interest in teaching the high school age group, Sarah also connected me with Simona Zappas, the Youth Programs Coordinator for the Walker, who helps run the Walker Teens Program. We are meeting digitally next week, and I cannot wait to talk with her as she seems like a lovely individual over email.