Residency- Field Community School- 5 Hours
The beginning class of 7th and 8th graders were working on an animation project. They were making animations using and iPad app designed for stop-motion animation, and were drawing scenes onto a whiteboard and photographing it from above. I think that's an innovative use of technology.
Then, when the 5th and 6th grade classes started, it was time for me to teach my lesson on comic art. I did this for two periods. First I showed them my own work, and then I showed them Scott McCloud's way of describing panel transitions, similar to what I did for my lesson at Barton. There were two main challenges with this: one was trying to get the kids to stay focused (the kids in the second class I taught got distracted especially easily); and steering the conversation in the direction I wanted to take it.
After my presentation I let the kids get to work. A lot of them were still in the process of choosing their story and articulating how they wanted it to look. I walked around the room and listened to the students' ideas and sometimes gave my opinion but for the most part their ideas sounded fine so I let them roll with it.
Residency- Barton Open School- 5 Hours
At the beginning of the Language Arts classes, the teacher showed a clip from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. She showed it because it was relevant to the vocabulary word of the day. Incorporating outside examples like this into the vocabulary is a good way to teach it because it puts it into context. Also, it was a fun way to get the class started on a good beat, because who doesn't love Ferris Bueller?
For all of Film Studies, the students finished watching a movie they'd started. Since I didn't see the beginning of the movie, I didn't really know what was going on. The students were quite invested in it, though, and kept audibly gasping at all the dramatic parts. I think them doing this showed that they were engaged and invested into the class.