Teaching Artist Practicum:
Placement #1: Urban Arts Academy, Preschool, Wednesday 1:00 - 4:15 (3.25 Hours)
Placement #2: Whittier International Elementary School, Teachers Susan Buchholz and Angela Olson, Kindergarten, Monday 12:00 - 3:00 (3 Hours)
Shadowing: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Angela Olson, No Shadowing Opportunity This Week
Urban Arts Academy - Preschool
Wednesday, May 1st, 1:00 - 4:15 ( 3.25 Hours)
On Wednesday I attended Urban Arts Academy! I arrived early, and found that they have hired a head teacher, so I will be there with Mrs. Brown and the new head teacher next class period for teaching, it will be great to have the extra help! When I initially got there, the kids were finishing up rest time, and then we wrangled them up and got them down to the gym to burn some energy. The students were extremely energetic and a bit wild, but things are new for them, so I hope they aren’t like that next week for my lesson. I am going to approach it with an open mind, and hopefully throughout the three or so hours I am there the children will eventually complete my project, that is if they don’t have any interest during the specified lesson time.
After the gym, I assisted in helping the students complete their fish projects. They had to add fins and eyes to their painted toilet paper rolls. They were really intrigued in drawing eyes on the fish, a lot of them wanted me to add eyelashes, that really fascinated them! I think this is a great sign for my self-portrait lesson coming up. In addition to the fish, later on, a few students painted a big sheet of paper to look like water/waves to the fish had a place to live. They enjoyed being crazy messy and just having the ability to paint a big sheet freely and be experimental! There were other stations one of which included coloring, and drawing (once again) on chalk boards - this week the letter “H.” I enjoy playing the drawing game with them and having them guess which objects I drew that started with “H”, I think they enjoy it as well! I keep looking back over the pictures I take, and while recapping my teaching days in these journals I keep getting sadder and sadder because I don’t want my time to end at Urban Arts. The children are a great source of joy and even inspiration for myself, so I’m very grateful for this opportunity.
Whittier International Elementary - Kindergarten
Monday, April 29th, 12:00 - 3:00 (3 Hours)
On Monday, I completed more hours at Whittier Elementary! The first thing I did was help students on a worksheet where they were learning about words staring with “w” and the “w” sound. I walked around and checked in with the students about how they were doing on their worksheets and how they were doing in general. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again, you can really notice the growth in the students abilities - and that makes me very happy!
I also participated in Read to Self time with one of the students individually. The students are always begging to read with me, so everyone thinks the student who is chosen to is extremely lucky. After these activities, I was sort of on standby for Susan as she worked with students up on the Smart Board going over the month calendar, the daily weather, and patterns. She also read a few stories to the whole class.
The last thing I did was play a math game with two boy students. Numbers 0-6 were on flashcards laid out and each student took turns picking pairs and counting to find ones that added up to equal the number 6. This was a very fun math game, and me and the two boys shared a lot of laughs. After, the students came together to talk more about the game and share the pairs they came up with. Overall, I feel very comfortable in the Whittier classroom, which has come a long way since the very beginning. I feel like a big help, and staff has been including me and talking to me more. In my opinion, Whittier has been a great place to have a first teaching artist experience.
Minneapolis Institute of Art - Open Studio Day Shadowing
No Shadowing Opportunity This Week
Personal Update
Here is just a piece I have been working on for Narrative Design, thought it was pretty playful so I could share. This is one art board from a music festival brand animation, most of the little objects move in some way as it pans across the typical video sized screen. Finishing up this brand for finals with a moving poster, Instagram ad, and a GIF!!!
