Urban Arts Academy- Katie - 1:30-6:00
This week I did the second half of my lesson at Urban Arts Academy! The students hand bound books out of the prints we created last week. It took a little longer than expected, and it was very difficult to get them to focus on the task. They loved learning what a bonefolder was—but they got a little frustrated when they had trouble feeding the yarn through the holes. I had to assist them quite a bit, but when the project was finished, they all had books they had bound themselves and printed the cover! They immediately opened the booklets and started drawing in them, which I didn’t expect to happen! It was so fun to see them get excited about a project we had done together!
We spent a lot of time outside with the students as well, as it was so sunny this week. A lot of the students didn’t want to come inside when it was time for me to start my lesson! It was my last week, though, luckily, I left my bag of art supplies there, so I’ll have to return to pick them up!
Overall, I feel like I learned a lot more patience from working at Urban Arts Academy and with Katie. She is a very softspoken instructor, who approaches discipline with her students in a very gentle, personal, and one on one way. While the students don’t always immediately respond to this, over time they form a connection with her and respond to the respectful way she treats them. Observing and doing this with the students has allowed me to expand the ways I interact with young students more than I thought! It was a great experience and I am excited to have been invited back to teach workshops with them in the summer, but I will miss them until then!
