April 29 - May 5

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6th grade, 2 hrs

I had my last day at Franklin on Monday, which was bittersweet. I was so impressed by the in-progress work I saw from the students - they are persevering through this very new method of making; but I am sad I will not be coming back and helping them with any future projects. I enjoyed being at Franklin and often times, it was the highlight of my week. I am so excited for these students as they use their skills and creativity and apply them to the next school year.

I am continuing to work on my final projects for my studio classes. I am building a 1:8 scale version of my neighbors house from my childhood neighborhood, which is moving along. I have yet to apply “grass” in the form of flocking and attach the white fence to the base. I have another week to finish this piece and I am looking forward to installing it. Another piece I am working on is a life-size installation of a pasture fence that will include projection. I have been feeling very homesick for the Kansas plains and so, naturally, that has bled into my work as of late.

April 22 - 28

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6th grade, 6 hrs

On Monday, I started my cross-stitching lesson at Franklin Middle School. I began with a short powerpoint that showed two examples of the project that I had made and work by two artists - one from 1830 and the other a contemporary piece by local artists Wone and Youa Vang. On Monday, students began working on their pattern for their cross-stitch, using an internet search as a starting point. Many students were ambitious and found larger patterns than they were going to be able to work on, and I enjoyed seeing their excitement about the project. A majority of patterns were focused on Naruto, hearts (including a watermelon heart), and Fortnight. There were quite a number of students gone on Monday, so Ms. Strong and I reintroduced the project to those sixth graders the following day.

I visited Franklin again on Tuesday and Wednesday to help students start their cross-stitch. Ms. Strong was gone on Wednesday, so I was leading the class with a sub assisting. I noticed the students listening to me and following my direction over the sub’s, which was an new experience for me as a teaching artist that has very much relied on Ms. Strong (or Ali at Barton) to direct their classrooms. Wednesday was definitely the most impacting out of the days I taught, and I am looking forward to talking about this with Lynda.

This upcoming Monday, the 29th, I am visiting Franklin again to check in and help students when needed. I have been busy in the studio the past two weeks preparing for an upcoming pop-up gallery at the Northrup King building, and putting the finishing touches on the library gallery show I have been curating. Currently, I am focusing on finishing a bronze piece I casted with my Casting and Mixed Media course, and working on installations for finals.

April 15 - April 21

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6-8th grade, 5 hrs

On Wednesday, I helped Ms. Strong with clay projects for all of her classes. Seventh grade continued to work on their clay monsters, working with pinch pot heads and bodies, and adding legs and arms. A few of the students were trying to support their monsters with thin legs, so we worked together to make their monsters have shorter legs or feet that stick out. I believe this was helpful for the students to understand the limitations clay and their designs may have.

Sixth graders were starting their bases for their luminaries, working with either pinch pot or slab. Many students were at the beginning stages of their projects, so we were working together on creating a strong base. Eighth grade was working with slabs for their shoe projects, which were impressive - a few students were making high tops and one student was working on a platform shoe. The advanced students were in the middle of their gnome projects, with a few projects finished.

In addition to visiting Franklin on Wednesday, I have been preparing for my cross-stitching lesson and putting the finishing touches on the library show I have been curating. The opening is on Tuesday at noon, and I am quite happy to be almost done. I have also been in the studio working on ideas for final projects, and focusing on an iron pour my Casting and Mixed Media class is participating in at U of M. I am casting a 1:3 scale weathered cowboy hat as a part of a larger installation as a final project.

April 8 - 14

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6-8th grade, 5 hrs

This week, I began working on my lesson plan for Franklin and have also been working on my library gallery show, that opens next week. I was at Franklin on Wednesday again this week and Ms. Strong and I decided on doing a cross-stitching lesson for the 6th grade students. I am excited to teach this lesson as I have been learning cross-stitching myself over the past several months while interning for local fiber artist Wone Vang. This past weekend, I assisted her and her sister, Youa, at their Artists-in-Action event at Minnesota Museum of American Art. I feel like this experience helped prepare me tremendously for what I have planned for Franklin, through explaining the technique to folks and helping them create their pattern.

This past week, I helped students at Franklin design their objects for their clay projects, and seventh graders were working on their “Monsters” project. Their designs consisted of front and back views of their Monster. Ms. Strong started the class with a presentation of examples including Monsters Inc., Godzilla, and the Addams Family. She placed emphasis on the importance of texture, characteristics, and personality of one’s monster. I think this project is a lovely way to have students focus on what can be achievable through ceramics, and to have them create something fun.

Eighth graders were finishing working on their ethnic mask projects. Students that weren’t finished on Wednesday finished their pieces, and I was so impressed by the attention to detail and emphasis on structure in these pieces. I also talked to Ms. Strong about how to help students constructively and not create their project for them or take it into the teaching artist’s hands. She mentioned that asking questions and letting the student sit and think is helpful; returning later to check-in. She also emphasized that silence isn’t always a bad thing.

March 25 - 31

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6-8th grade, 5 hrs

When I visited Franklin on Wednesday, students were in the middle of completing projects they had started over the past week while I was on break. Sixth graders were advancing in their watercolor unit by translating an image into a painting. Several students chose flowers or plants, while some chose animals such as dogs and cats. Seventh grade was working on their analogous and complementary watercolor paintings. These patterns could be either realistic or abstract, and were drawn from objects that Ms. Strong had available in her classroom. Some objects were skulls, hands, birdhouses, and more.

Eighth graders were working on paper mache masks that were based on different ethnic masks throughout history. As apart of their grade, they must choose an aspect of a certain mask and include that in their design and finished piece. To begin, students designed their mask on a piece of paper that had outlines and facial features. They were then given a brown paper mask to add on to. On Wednesday, the students were moving on to painting and finishing adding embellishments with cardboard, and supporting that with paper mache. I helped one student in particular with painting techniques since she needed to catch up. Some eighth graders had added onto the facial features of their mask through paper mache, and were continuing to add embellishments such as shapes.

During my time at Franklin that day, I was able to talk more with students and get to know them a bit better through the work they were making. I was particularly impressed by the sixth graders and their attention to detail while working on their watercolor paintings. This next week, during Franklin’s spring break, I am in the studio working on two projects that I have upcoming critiques for.

Week 7 March 4 - 10

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6-8th grade, 5 hrs

I started my second practicum placement at Franklin Middle School in North Minneapolis with teaching artist Melodee Strong on Wednesday. Her classes range from sixth, seventh and eighth grade art, to advanced art (8th graders) and design and modeling.

Something that I noticed and appreciated about Melodee’s classroom was that she wrote a layout of the day, or list of steps, for each class on a word doc that was available to view on the screen. This helped students to stay on track or look at the information if they missed a step. In addition, was helpful for me to make sure I was aware of where students should be in their progress. If I recall correctly, 6th grade was working on their “This is America” project in groups of 3-4. The project is a book of drawings and writings made by the students, and on this day they were working on painting and transferring their design to a fabric book cover. 7th graders were working on watercolor exercises, which they obviously enjoyed. 8th graders were working on one point perspective drawings, and in both of these classes I worked one-on-one with students who needed to catch up. The first class, the student was starting a perspective learning sheet and I was helping her when needed. In the more advanced class, the student was working on drawing their name based off of two point perspective. Both students were engaged in their projects and seemed to enjoy drawing.

The students seemed to respect the materials and have access to iPads and other materials if needed. For the students working on perspective drawings, they were able to search for images on the iPads.

I am looking forward to spending more time at Franklin and being able to see the students final projects (which were to be completed this Friday).

Week 6 February 25 - March 3

Clara Barton Open School, Allison Rubin Forrester, 7/8th grade, 10 hrs

This week was my last at Barton. On Monday and Wednesday, I taught my lesson “Algebraic Collage” for 33 and 29 students, respectively. Students were asked to graph three lines on graphing paper, some of which could intersect, and then cut images to fit/fill in the spaces. I believe this project is helpful in using math within another context outside of the classroom (to address the question of “When will I use this?”) and to present students with an accessible art project that they may be able to do at home.

The collages were glued to a piece of plywood using mod podge. As I have noticed with Barton middle schoolers, they were consistently helping their peers and  assisting them with cutting out images or gluing pieces down if needed.

I was impressed by the collages I saw students making, and their attention to detail and willingness to layer images over one another or choose a humorous method/image to use.

The students made incredible work and seemed to enjoy this artistic process, and I could see that many of them took time and intention to choose images that they were interested in, and not necessarily choose them just to finish the project. The work was displayed in three rows in the outside hall from Allison’s classroom, and while installing I found many students looking for their collage or talking about their peer’s work (as well as other students who did not do the project standing and looking at the work). I am grateful that the students were engaged in the collage process and satisfied and intrigued with their finished product.

Week 2 January 27 - February 3

This week, I spent time in the studio and at my internship due to the extreme weather we experienced. I received a particular book that I am excited to look through, titled Tilings and Patterns. For my lesson for Allison’s class at Clara Barton Open School, I am looking at incorporating collage and patterning onto tiles, and feel that this book will be a top resource for working through some ideas.

I spent time working on a particular project for one of my studio courses, Site / Non-Site, in which I am planning on projecting found and edited archived footage onto a building near my apartment. During the cold, I was researching and finding several clips to use for editing. I am also working on an installation for my Casting and Mixed Media course, in which I am planning to cast some smaller glassware that my sister owned a version of when we were growing up.

With my group gallery show approaching, I have been sifting through and editing several photos that I am interested in displaying, and will be preparing the space alongside my peers this upcoming week; along with spending time at both Barton and CAFAC. I am planning on printing and framing my photos earlier in the week and am looking forward to seeing them in the space, and celebrating the hard work my peers and I have dedicated for this show. This week I will also be developing my two studio projects and gathering several materials to move forward with those ideas. I am also dedicating some time to researching materials for my ideas for the lesson at Barton, including some old magazines and testing applying these onto tiles. I am looking forward to speaking with Allison and Lynda to hear about their ideas about this project as well.

Early Start January 13 - 19

Clara Barton Open School, Allison Rubin Forrester, 7/8th grade, 7 hrs

Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, Teaching Artist Jess Bergman Tank, .5 hrs

On Monday and Wednesday this week, I continued to visit and assist Allison at Clara Barton Open School. The students in Algebra were preparing for their end-of-semester test, and were given a “crib” sheet, which is essentially a study guide that they can use during their test. On Wednesday, they participated in an “Around the World” study game. Seven questions were placed around the classroom and students were to float around the room and complete the questions from any starting point. I appreciated the openness that Allison provided to the students for studying; it wasn’t a review that I have been mostly used to, where a student sits in their desk and watches/listens as the teacher solely works through the review. I noticed that when letting students be active and choose their own groups, many used that time to their advantage and finished their problems early (and were given the answers on a small sheet of paper to look over and correct if needed). I did remember how to properly answer one of the questions, and typically stayed close to that corner of the room! Typically, I accompany Allison to her “Dance In Society” class (which is the second period of the day), but on Monday there was a spelling bee, which was exciting to watch.

On Wednesday, I stayed for the first twenty minutes of Allison’s Geometry class and watched as the students presented some of their “Do Something Creative with Circles” projects. One pair of students made blueberry and apple pies to hand out to their peers, another pair fabricated a circle inspired Jeopardy game, and another student, working individually, drew different circles with equations. It was stimulating to watch the students present, some with ease, others with a bit quieter voices than usual and some with humor incorporated. I am intrigued by the option of letting students work individually or as pairs, and am wondering how this would look within an arts project? I often find projects that let students work together as a group and individually, exciting.

That day, I also looked through several of Allison’s copies of MC Escher books, and have begun to solidify a few more ideas and ways to incorporate art into the classroom. This week, I plan to do more research on certain tile patterns and tessellation-based work, and research materials as well.

I also toured Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center with Heather Doyle, the artistic director of the center. I attended a short meeting alongside Heather, teaching artist Jess Bergman Tank, executive director Victoria Lauing, and the gallery coordinator, Jhyle Rinker. I will be assisting and shadowing Jess on Wednesdays during her “Sculptural Metal Casting Fundamentals” class, that runs through the middle of February. I was definitely inspired by this group of women and am thrilled to be shadowing Jess and learning more about this local center.

Early Start January 6 - 12

Clara Barton Open School, Allison Rubin Forrester, 7/8th grade, 4 hrs

Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6/7/8th grade, 1.5 hrs

This week, I started my placement at Clara Barton Open School as an assistant to Allison Rubin Forrester, a math and dance teacher for middle schoolers. This was the first week back for the students, and their semester ends next week, so they are working on studying for tests and the like. I have found myself watching Allison as she engages with the classroom when she is working through homework or study guides on the projector, asking students questions about problems. I am very much intrigued by her responses to when the answer is not correct - instead of saying that it is “wrong”, a common phrase that I heard throughout my middle school education from teachers. Allison asks the student again if they are really sure of their answer, and walks them through how to solve it in the correct format. It feels like a more open, non-exposing method of teaching and instructing the student, and it also allows them to think about where they got lost.

The students sit at groups of 3-6 at tables in the classroom, and have time to work on homework or assignments in class and as a group (although I have noticed, not every middle schooler takes advantage of this learning time). Allison floats through the room, and answers any questions one may have; and when I am asked, I usually ask the student if they have asked their peers how they solved the problem, and work from there. I am becoming more interested in the idea of work as a group and using your peers as a resource, especially when they are in such close proximity.

This week I also met with Melodee Strong, an arts teacher at Franklin Middle School. I walked through the supplies she has for her classroom, saw several completed projects on view throughout the school, and some saved student work from previous classes. She also introduced me to some materials about graphing and tessellations that I may incorporate into my lesson for Allison’s class.