Monday, January 20th, 2020
NO CLASS TODAY. It’s Martin Luther King day!
Tuesday, January 21st, 2020
Expo Elementary
2nd-grade teacher Ulla Tervo-Desnick
7-8 years of age
7:00 a.m -10:30 a.m
3 and a half hours
Today began like most other days. I helped Ulla prep the classroom before students began to roll in. I found a broom and cleaned up the floors. As we were working students who arrived early began eating their breakfast. They begin to come in around 7:15. When one of the students finished eating Ulla ask if they wanted to vacuum. She had a couple of students help.
Once most of the students arrived Ulla began playing the piano signaling the morning meeting. She always writes updates on the board and a review of what they will be doing in class. They read it out loud together after the morning song. At the bottom of the board, she gives them little survey options consisting of different topics each day. Today she asked if they wanted indoor or outdoor recess. She allows the students to create their own options. I have noticed how she gives every student many choices so they can formulate their own decisions/conclusions.
Ulla usually ends the morning meeting with a quick game. (Chosen by a student) During this morning game, there were some students that were whispering the answers to other students. Instead of getting angry and yelling, she let them finish their game. She then calmly started a discussion with the students. She asked these questions
How was the whispering not fair?
How could whispering the answers hurt other students’ feelings?
How does the whispering break our classroom rules?
She then created an example that shows how their actions affects the other students.
She explains how each action has consequences.
She then allowed the students to play the game again with what they have just learned.
Wednesday, January 22nd
MSS in Oakdale.
Teaching artist Matthew Bindert
18-75 years of age
Students with disabilities
8:00-11:25
2 and a half hours
Today I got the opportunity to work with the same student and dive deeper into photoshop. We worked on three different photos. The first photo was based on a tutorial we saw online. We took a photo he had taken and changed the color of specific areas. We purely used it as a practice. In the second photo we used a photo he had taken of a barn. We turned it black and white, created a mask, and colored the red of the barn back in. The photo was taken on Matt’s uncle’s farm. When he saw the final image Matt asked if he could send it to his uncle to show him. The final photo we edited was a combination of the skills we learned in the first two photos. We chose a dragonfly photo, changed it to black and white, painted the color of the dragonfly back in, and then changed the final color.
As we worked on photoshop, Matt walks around the room and assists the other students. He gives them tips and tricks, basically, he is the assistant of each artist.
One student has been working on a fairly large canvas for over 2 months. Each week she adds the same shape flower. Layering the canvas with multiple colored flowers. Throughout the two months, she allows different individuals to add to the piece. This week she let me add a flower to the piece. As she continues to patin I have noticed how Matt gives her ideas on how to make some colors stand out or add shadow to other spots.
I have attached two photos of the canvases that were created by the students.
