Week 16: April 27- May 2

This is most likely going to be my last journal entry for my Teaching Artist Practicum class. If this is true, then I just wanted to say that I am forever grateful for partaking in this experience that should indefinitely pave a new path for my teaching career. At the beginning of the semester, I was quite nervous to take this course due to being the youngest and least experienced in the class, and the lack of transportation due to living in MCAD’s dorm rooms. As the weeks progressed, however, I realized that there will always be a light at the end of the road. That very light can even blossom into a new passion. That’s what my practicum class has done for me. My light for this class took on the form of my instructor, placements, as well as classmates who’ve encouraged me to stick with my placements all the way through. Even after the pandemic struck and we were miles upon miles apart from each other they were still in support of my journey to becoming the teaching artist that I could be. If I had to pick one aspect that I admired the most about this class are the lesson plans. While these did take up most of my workload for the class, the lessons that I’ve developed was a great way to experience the teaching work field. Being able to teach my art concentration to a younger generation that’s sprinkled with potential aspiring artists was a grand honor for myself. All those years ago I was in their same shoes, trying all that I can to learn and make my own creations. Over a decade later, the cycle has gone full circle. Now I’m an aspiring teacher trying to share what I know to my placement’s students. All that’s left for me to complete for this course is to fill out a few receipts and complete my teaching application. 

If this is really my last journal then I want to say thank you once more for following me on my practicum journey. I know that this isn’t the end for my teaching career, I only wonder where my path will take me next.

Week 15: April 20-26

On Monday, my breakout group and I discussed our current progress with the lessons we’ve thought up. As I’ve already mentioned in past journal entries, I really enjoy hearing everybody’s lesson plan. I especially like this idea of having our own breakout groups. Since each group only has around three people each, I feel more comfortable with showing my face on camera and chiming in on the discussion every once and awhile. Both of my group members have really great  ideas that they are doing for their lesson plans. The ideas are both extremely diverse and speak volumes about each other’s personality and interests. As the weeks diminish and get closer to the last day of the semester, I have high confidence that both of them will do spectacular, despite the current virtual only situation. 

As for my lesson plan, I can now say that I am now complete with my PowerPoint presentation. I hope that I can give students a fun activity to do that is both meaningful and thought provocative that can help them through these troubling times. This could also be a good opportunity to decorate their homes with love and meaningful messages. Looking back at the process of creating this plan, I have learned things about myself along the way. Throughout this period of self isolation I’ve been kind of down on myself lately. My motivation to do my schoolwork isn’t as high as it used to be, and from time to time I feel nervous to even do it. Doing this stained glass heart project, however, has been a good way for me to step away from my strenuous studio courses. Every time I work on this project, I feel a little more optimistic about my current situation. Despite all of the bad things that are going on in my life and around me, there will always be a little color and heart.

Week 14: April 13-19

On Friday, I had a meeting with my Practicum instructor with regards to the progress of my final lesson plan. As of now, I’d say that I’m at a pretty good spot, and on track to having a successful lesson plan completed on time. Unfortunately, however, on the same day, Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds declared all schools to switch to online learning for the rest of their spring semesters. This also includes Southeast Polk and Four Mile Elementary. This was absolutely devastating news to hear, especially since my younger sister is a senior this year and she can’t go to prom, SKIP day, or walk on graduation. I’ve told both instructor and placement this sudden news and they both agree that I should stick with the original plan and create my Google Slides presentation. As I’ve said, it is absolutely heartbreaking that many students across the state and country are stripped from their school activities. However, I always believe that there will always be some good to come out of any situation, no matter how dreadful it may be. I already plan on recreating my sister’s would’ve been senior experiences in our own house to make up for her loss. She’s unaware of this, but I hope she will find some enjoyment out of my recreations. 

Moving right along to the progress of my presentation, I created my own example of the project yesterday, and I added the pictures to my slides. I hope to either later today or tomorrow morning to add my voice recording of going through each slide to the presentation. From there, I plan on sending my first draft to my practicum instructor for some feedback before I conduct my final draft. It’s a slow and steady process, but if I keep at the pace I’ve been going, I’ll be able to complete this plan by the next Sunday deadline for sure.

As for my breakdown group, I’ve contacted both of my members through text and email to discuss our first meeting. From what I’ve gathered, Monday seems to be the best day for everybody. I’ll try contacting both of them once more to set up a time and confirm that Monday would work later today. If it is that soon, then I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s working in progress.

Week 13: April 6-12

For this week, I’ve started planning and writing out my virtual lesson for my first placement, Cynthia Murphy,  third grade section. As of now, I have completed most of my planning backwards model and my script for my Google Slide presentation. The next step for my lesson is to add the images that correlate with each step, as well as record my reciting of the script and add it to the presentation. On Sunday, I also had my second spring class meeting with my Practicum class. It was refreshing to see my fellow peers once more during this time of self-quarantine. Hearing their progress on their second lesson plan not only makes me feel slightly at ease at the position I’m in with mine, but it also reminds me just how connected us as teaching artists really are.

By sharing our ideas and progress with one another, I feel more connected with my peers, and inspired by what they have come up with. During our meeting, we also talked about splitting ourselves into four separate groups and giving critiques to one another while we continue to work on our lessons. This way, we could see each other’s progress and give our own comments on it. I think that this is a great way to improve our lessons. Furthermore, it’s a good opportunity to get to know our peers even more. My next meeting with my instructor is on Friday. Until then, I plan on hopefully acting out my lesson and creating my own example for the presentation.

On another note, I want to reflect on how I feel about my lesson’s overall message. Recently, both my placement and instructor have noticed tiny hearts on windows in their towns. This may be in light of the current pandemic, to give a sign of hope and appreciation to the community. Now that I’m having students create their own hearts, I hope that this will make someone’s day. With this heart lesson, I desire that the receivers will feel slightly less alone and or depressed during these troubling times. I’m excited to go forward with this lesson, and now that the virus is starting to slightly settle, there may be a light at the end of this dark long road.

Week 12: March 30- April 5

 As I’ve mentioned from my previous journal entry, I’m currently working from my own home rather than the MCAD campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that I’m going to finish off the rest of the semester in an online setting. As of now I have managed to complete one week learning on MCAD’s virtual campus. Based off of that week alone, I believe that I’m going to be fine. In fact, there are some aspects of online learning that I like. Working off of my laptop allows me to bring my work with me anywhere I go. Furthermore, online learning allows me to work in an environment that I feel the most comfortable in, that being my home and bedroom. Lastly, what I believe to be the most beneficial factor of moving to an online environment is that it gives me a taste of what the real world will be like when I graduate. It practically sets me off on my own and gives me a set of tasks to work on. In a way, it emulates what a career in the art field will be like. However, there of course some drawbacks from working in this setting. For example, the lack of resources can put a hindrance on my artmaking for the rest of the semester. I’m also going to miss the human interactions with both my fellow colleagues and professors. I am glad, however for the online campus that was provided. I also appreciate all of the hard work and effort that the college faculty are putting in to make learning at MCAD still a possibility. 

As for my lesson, I’m currently in the process of revising it to suit an online setting. This will be a new opportunity for me to expand my teaching skills, and will allow me to teach in both physical and virtual classrooms. While revising I’m going to write a script for myself to read over before I record my lesson. This way, I will feel less nerves while creating my project on camera. While my nerves may never fully go away, I am determined to adapt to my new learning environment and inspire others through my teaching in anyway possible.

Lesson Plan 2’s Google Slides Presentation 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Tgr3JODBOXhwZifn2UAD-lluuhNqgNN0K9Qly48DnHQ/edit#slide=id.p

Lesson Plan 2’s Original Lesson Plan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JYttDH71deYSfJqcAzEjug6-Abv_HEFALt5Ywjoe1Ew/edit

Week 11: March 23-29

Placement: N/A

Location: N/A

Grade(s): N/A

Sunday, March 29

As I’ve mentioned last week, the Southeast Polk school district has cancelled their classes for the time being due to the outbreak of COVID-19. While it would have been nice to help out my placement and conduct my second lesson plan, I do believe that it is in the betterment for both myself and the world to continue to self quarantine until the pandemic completely washes over. I know how perseverant the human race is, and I know the power of togetherness during times of hardship. As of now, the world is dark and frightening, but there will always be a glimmer of hope that simmers out the darkness.

On another note, I had my first virtual meeting on Sunday afternoon from 12-2:40 with my TA Practicum class. At first Google Meet was kind of confusing, especially with the microphone. We all eventually, however figured out the program and the meeting was rather successful. In fact, I would say that it was more than that. I thought it was a very engaging and fun way to interact with my classmates and instructor despite what is happening outside of my household. I enjoyed listening to how everyone’s hours have been coming along, as well as all of the lesson plans that my other peers have come up with. This Google

Meeting with my Practicum class has certainly been a highlight to my self-quarantine. Lately, I’ve been really down on myself and practically unmotivated to hardly do anything anymore. Being unable to go to my regular classes and see all of my classmates and instructors in person certainly put a damper on my mental health in general. Sunday’s virtual meeting, however, has actually given me a little bit of hope. Despite not being face to face, seeing everybody has definitely made me feel a little less alone. I now have this slight feeling of motivation to finish this semester strong the best I can. I have an individual meeting with my instructor tomorrow from 2-3, and I’ll see where I should continue my class from there. Now that I know that these virtual meetings make me feel less isolated, I am definitely looking forward to it.

Week 11: Mar 16-22

Placement: N/A

Location: N/A

Grade: N/A

Hours: N/A

This week was my school’s spring break, which just so happened to be during the same time as one of my placement’s as well. Because of this, I wasn’t able to get any hours for this week. During this time off, I made sure to spare some time to reflect on my teaching from last Wednesday. Upon reflection, I thought that I did a fairly good job given it was my first time taking a solo teaching position. I was kind of nervous at first, but I did eventually feel more comfortable in my teaching shoes. When viewing the video version of my lesson, I did notice that from time to time that it was hard for me to find my words when trying to answer the students’ questions. Whether it was presenting my Google Slides presentation or during work time, every once and a while I felt overwhelmed by the number of hands at once or I never gave the clearest advice or constructive criticism. However, I do believe that over time these skills will come more naturally to me. After viewing my teaching video and evaluating myself, I felt kind of proud of myself. If I’m able to inspire just one student to grow an interest in animation or any other art form, I will already feel accomplished as a teacher.

Moving forward, however, is another tricky story. As of now my college campus has strictly moved to online learning and has asked all residents to vacate the dorm buildings due to the spread of the Corona virus. Furthermore, there’s a fair probability that the Governor of Minnesota may declare a stay in place order, possibly preventing me from retrieving my items from my dorm. While it may seem shaky as of now what the future may hold, I know that it will all work out from the end. The benefits of a hybrid class is that it can be completed in anyway and anywhere. The future may be a mystery but the sun will continue to rise again.

Week 10: Mar 9-15

Placement: Brooke Thompson

Location: Lake Country School

Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3

Hours: 3

Wednesday, March 11

Wednesday was a big milestone for me in my path of becoming a teaching artist and art educator. On this day, I finally taught a lesson of my own design to my placement’s class. Because I’m an animation major and it's the spring season, I decided to have my lesson plan focus around growing different shapes, since it incorporates both the process of animation as well as the meaning of growth during spring. Before I taught my lesson, I made sure to come in the day before to discuss the overview of my lesson as well as drop off my pre-made flipbooks for the students. I was still nervous of course going into the next day, but I knew that I would be alright no matter what happens thanks to the support that I have from my Practicum instructor and my placement. As soon as I stepped foot in the classroom on Wednesday, my nerves did resurface once again. They continued to remain persistent throughout the first couple of minutes during my presentation as well. Public speaking was and still isn’t my strongest attribute. To add on top of it, trying to teach an art medium that I’m fully aware of to a much younger audience that most likely have never tried out themselves definitely didn’t settle my nerves. However, despite how nervous I felt that day, I did eventually feel more comfortable in this new role of teaching as the day progressed. In fact, my love for teaching others may have grown that day. It really brightened up my spirits when many of the students enjoyed making their own flipbooks and said that they would want to do this again during their own free time. Being able to inspire a younger generation to possibly pursue animation is one of the many reasons why I love to teach. If I’m able to inspire or help out just one student to become an artist, I would feel accomplished not only as a teaching artist, but as a person as a whole as well.

Week 9: Mar 2- 8

Placement: Brook Thompson

Location: Lake Country School

Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3

Hours: 3

Wednesday, March 4

For this class, the students continued to explore the art medium of printmaking with stamps and collographs. Similar to last week, many of them really seemed to enjoy cutting out their own shapes and coming up with different patterns. Some of the students even continued to work on more complex stamps that they started last week. Observing each of the student’s stamps, I thought that all of them were very creative and were different from their peers. One of the students even tried to make a stamp out of a pet rock that they brought in. Similar to the last time they were printmaking, many students were swapping stamps between table groups and were coming up with different patterns and collographs. There were some that wanted to challenge their printmaking skills by creating letter stamps. One student even wanted to try to spell out their name. I was impressed by how determined the students were when they wanted to create letter stamps. It’s not an easy feat, since they knew that the letters had to be backwards in order for the stamp to work. However, they stuck with it, and because of it, the students were successful. 

Next Lesson Plan:

This week, I also talked with my practicum professor, Lynda Monick-Isenberg about my lesson plan for next Wednesday. Overall, both my professor and my placement thought that the idea was creative and a good way for students to try out a new art form that most of them have never tried before. To make sure that I log my lesson plan in, I’m going to record myself teaching to the class on my phone attached to a tripod. Over the weekend, I’ve prepared my example flipbooks of both a growing shape and flower for the students to observe and flip before starting their own. I’ve also prepared blank flipbooks for the students that consist of 21 index cards and one medium binding clip. While I am still a little nervous to teach for the first time on my own, I believe that it will work out in the end, I might even enjoy teaching on my own.

Week 8: Feb 24-Mar 1

Placement: Brook Thompson

Location: Lake Country School

Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3

Wednesday, February 26 (3 Hours)

On Wednesday, students learned about the new art form of printmaking. With spare cardboard pieces, they created their own stamps and patterns. Dipping their cardboard cutouts into their choice of tempera paint, they then printed their own patterns onto a sheet of paper. Many of the students were frustrated at first when it came to cutting out the cardboard pieces because of how thick the material is. After a while, they did grow a liking towards the printmaking process. In fact, many students started trading stamps with each other to test out the others’ stamps themselves. The more popular shapes that the students used for their creations were mostly circles and squares. Some of the designs that they came up with actually took advantage of the shapes and created their own subject matters and landscapes rather than patterns. Students were able to create flowers, people, houses, and an open field with help of the shapes that they have cut out. After the first class was finished with their designs, many of the students from the second class were inspired by their creations that they decided to mimic them as inspiration. As a result, there were many Star Wars TIE Fighters, cats, and flowers amongst the two classes. 

Next Lesson Plan:

For each placement we must teach and record our own lesson to the class that we have been helping out in. As of now, I do have my rough draft for my lesson plan typed out and finished. I am currently working on the examples of the lesson to help guide the class to how to approach the lesson. My second lesson plan focuses on the process of drawing a successful animation frame by frame. Since the class that I will be touching is made up of first-third years, the animation that the students will be trying to draw is a good beginner’s level. Spring is the season of growth and it is  just around the corner, so I think it would be a good opportunity for students to capture this aspect of growth through their own flipbook animations. By growing a simple shape through a series of frames, students will be able to test out a new artform that they may have never tried out before. If students wish for a more advanced project, I will also provide the option for them to grow their own flowers or trees.

Week 7: Feb 17-23

Placement: Brook Thompson

Location: Lake Country School

Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3

Tuesday, Feb 18 (1.5 hours)

On Tuesday, I met with Brook to discuss my lesson plan. For each placement, we have to develop a lesson plan to teach to the class. For my lesson, I’m going to have the students create their own mini animations that illustrate growth. Spring is the season of growth, so I think that it would be a good opportunity for them to mimic this aspect through their own booklet of drawings. Students can show the process of growth by taking a shape and gradually increasing the size as if it’s blooming. If students want more of an advance or literal interpretation of growth, they will have the option to animate the life cycle of either a flower or tree. From a seed in the ground to blooming petals, it will be a fun challenge for them to not only improve their drawing skills, but their science knowledge as well.  I’m already looking forward to seeing how students will interpret this project. Whether the students choose to grow shapes or flowers, this will be a great opportunity for them to get excited for Spring and their upcoming break.

Wednesday, Feb 19 (3 hours)

For this class, students learned about how art can express ideas, feelings, and meanings to the viewer. To explore this aspect even further, the students in each of their table groups were assigned to write down possible feelings, ideas, and meanings that can be conveyed through art. For the most part, the class had fun trying to come to with their own solutions for each prompt. After writing down their own solutions, the students shared their ideas to the class and wrote them down on three giant sheets of paper, with each paper representing one of the prompts. Overall, while some of them did struggle with trying to answer the prompts, I thought that this activity was a great way for students to think more deeply about artwork. Not only should they carefully analyze and interpret professional art pieces, but students should also keep these prompts in mind when creating artwork of their own.

Week 6: Feb 10- 16

Shadowing: Kelley Meister

Location: Science Museum of Minnesota

Grade(s): 3-5

Monday, Feb 10 (2 hours)

On Monday, I was greeted by an entirely different group of students. I knew that the class was only a week long, but it still kind of came to me as a shock when I walked in. Because it’s a different class, we all started the day off with introductions. The students sat in a circle on the floor and introduced the class with their names as well as their favorite type of art making. After introducing themselves to one another, the students were then introduced to Turtle Art. While I’m still fairly new to the program, I was still able to answer any questions that were brought up during work time thanks to my experience from last week. Similar to the previous class, most of the students were struggling with the program at first, but eventually got the hang of it as the class progressed. In fact, when it came time to pack their laptops and call it a day, many of them were disappointed and wanted to play around with Turtle Art a bit longer. It fascinates me to see the progression that can unfold within a short amount of time. From disliking or feeling frustrated about another form of art making to wanting to spend hours with the program is one of the reasons why I would like to possibly teach one day. Seeing the growth of confidence and experience of a student unfold is an amazing sight.

Tuesday, Feb 11 (2 hours)

The students continued to explore the possibilities of Turtle Art. Many of the students were fully engaged with the program and were excited to test out a variety of their own codes and to test the outcomes of each one. Not only were they excited to test out their own codes, but the students were also more than willing to share their findings with their peers. While the class is made up of students from three different schools, they were still able to help each other out and even form friendships with one another. Tuesday was also my last day shadowing Kelley at the museum. While our time was short, I definitely enjoyed each moment I had with helping her out. I’ve learned so much from this shadowing and I’m sure to visit the museum once again along the line.

Week 5: Feb 3-9

Placement: Brook Thompson

Location: Lake Country School

Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3

Shadowing: Kelley Meister

Location: Science Museum of Minnesota

Grade(s): 3-5

Monday, Feb 3 (2 hours): Shadowing (Kelley Meister)

Monday was the first day that I started shadowing teaching artist Kelley Meister. at the Science Museum of Minnesota. As an artist herself, Kelley’s work consists of sculpture, printmaking, and multimedia installments. I was very excited when I found out that I was going to be shadowing her. Not only are her artistic pursuits similar to mine, but I also have a fondness for science as well. During the time of my first shadowing, I helped Kelley out in classroom 7, which was called Dazzling Digital Art. Through the coding programs, Turtle Art and Sketch, students will not only learn about the process of coding, they will also learn about the possibilities that can be created through the process as well.

Tuesday, Feb 4 (2 hours): Shadowing

Students continued to explore the program Turtle Art and apply what they have learned the day before. For the most part, they seemed to really enjoy this program. Many of the students were able to show one another their creations and show them the steps of how they’ve created their design. Before this shadowing, I’ve never even heard of Turtle Art, so it was a delight to observe students to explore a program that they’ve never heard of as well.

Wednesday, Feb 5 (3 hours): Placement (Brook Thompson)

Wednesday was the first day that I began my second placement with Brook Thompson at Lake Country Schools. What made this placement different from my first is the fact that it’s a private montessori and not a public school. Because it’s a montessori,  both elementary and junior high grade levels are taught in one building rather than two separate ones. With their focus on hands on learning and collaborate play, each classroom is able to have multiple grade levels. For this class, students learned about tints, shades, and hues. They were first shown a Prezi presentation about the definition and examples for each term and were then assigned to apply what they’ve learned soon after. With tempera paint at their disposal, students had to create designs of their own that incorporated a variety of different tints and shades. 

Thursday, Feb 6 (2 hours): Shadowing 

On Thursday, students continued to work on different coding programs to try and make their own art. This time, the students were trying to figure out the Sketch coding program, which is much more advanced than Turtle Art. Many of the students were struggling at first, especially when trying to find some of the keys on the keyboard. After they’ve gotten used to the keyboard, however, many of them actually started to enjoy Sketch more than Turtle Art.

Week 4: Jan 27- Feb 2

Shadowing: Kelley Meister

Location: Science Museum of Minnesota

Unfortunately, this week did have a couple of mishaps here and there. However, I did accomplish some things as well. Initially, I was going to start my second placement this week with Brook Thompson over at the Lake Country Montessori. However, I did have a dilemma with the transit and couldn’t figure out the right path to take. I did let my instructor and Brook know right away after my mistake with transportation and I plan on starting my second placement next week. In the meantime, I’m going to talk to MCAD's Student’s Affairs to figure out which route to take to get to the montessori. While I’m still new and slightly intimidated by the bus system, I know that I’ll be figure it out eventually. After the first couple of times, it will most likely become second nature to me.

Besides the mishap on Wednesday, I did take a tour of the Science Museum of Minnesota with the person that I’m shadowing on Friday. For transportation, I decided to take my first Lyft ride. After arriving and stepping inside, I was amazed by the grand scope of the building. Besides art, science was always my favorite subject to study and learn about. Because of this, I was fascinated by all of the experiments and exhibits the museum had to offer. Once I met up with Kelley in the lobby, she walked through the classroom that I will be shadowing her in. After taking a look around, she then told me about the criteria that will be covered over the next couple of weeks. The students will be exploring a new 3D software called Turtle Art, where they will be able to create their own abstract designs. I’m excited to help out with this project since it will be a new program for me as well. I’ll be able to both learn about Turtle Art and to try to help others at the same time. 

I plan to start my shadowing on Monday from 10-12. To make sure I get my hours I plan on helping Kelley out on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well for two weeks. This will be a new experience for me, but nonetheless I’m happy that I’ll be able to help someone out.

Week3: 20-27

Placement: N/A

For this week I didn’t have any placements or shadowings this week. This is most likely due to the start of the new school year, as well as the confirmation on some of the start dates for my second placement and shadowing. 

While I wasn’t able to meet the required 35 hours for my first placement at Four Mile and Mitchellville, I’ve certainly learned and added to my teaching arsenal. It was a completely different experience from the Teaching Artist class from last semester. Being independent from a teaching group and helping out someone else who’s in the same field made me appreciate the value that a teacher can have in a classroom. It was a big honor to help out, and it was a great feeling knowing that I was able to help guide the next potential artist. Even though I wasn’t able to do my lesson plan during break because of a snow day, I’m sure I’ll be able to teach it in the near future. Whether it may be in the same class as my first placement, or in my second one, I’m looking forward to it.

As for my second placement and shadowing, I’ve contacted them over break and also earlier last week to set up a schedule for this semester. For my second placement, I plan on helping out Brook Thompson from the Lake Country school on Wednesdays from 1-4. I’m looking forward to this placement since it's a  Montessori school and it has a completely different way of teaching from most public schools. As for my shadowing, I’m going to help out Kelley Meister, an interdisciplinary artist from Minneapolis on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 10-12, Feb 3-14. While I’ll only be helping out, I’m still looking forward to shadowing and helping Kelley out whenever I can.

Early Start: Week 2: Jan 13-14

Placement 1: Four Mile Elementary, Iowa

                     Mitchellville Elementary, Iowa

Teacher: Cynthia Murphy

Monday, Jan 13 (2 hours) Grade(s): 1st and 3rd

1st Grade:

The students were introduced to a new project where they learned about secondary colors and mixing paint. This served as a review of how certain colors, when mixed together, can create a whole other color. With their mixed colors, students created their own art made out of different sized circles and rings.

3rd Grade:

The students have earned an incentive to reward their good behavior from previous classes. To celebrate, Mrs.Murphy laid out a variety of different art stations at each table. These stations included: stamps, stencils, and clay. The most popular station by far was the clay station. Many of them wanted to design their own clay snowman because of the holidays. Some students used a fork to make textures and to cut their clay.

Tuesday, Jan 14 (5.5 hours) Grade(s): 2nd, 3rd, and 5th

2nd Grade:

In this class, students were introduced to the weathervane project. After the presentation, the students created their own weathervanes to reflect something that they like or are involved in. Many of them did their own pets or a sport that they were involved in. After helping out Mrs.Murphy multiple times with this activity, it has really grown on me. It was a good way to get to know the  students for me, and they seemed to really enjoy it.

5th Grade:

The students continued to work on their Claire West animal projects that they’ve started before winter break. Most of them were done with their choosing cutout animal, so a tutorial was given on how to create the background for the project. The materials that made up the background include: paint, chalk, and oil pastels. This was a fun way for students to experiment and combine a variety of different materials into one project. It was also a clever way for students to explore the techniques and style of an artist from the past as well.

3rd Grade: 

For this class, the students continued their Frank Stella designs from last week. After coloring both circles fully, students had to cut each circle into fourths and choose six different colored squares to paste their circles on. After following each of the steps completely from Mrs.Murphy, students were successfully able to mimic the design works of Frank Stella. What made this a fun challenge for the students was that they had to problem solve which colors work best with their colored circles, as well as arranging the pieces.

Wednesday, January 15 (3 hours) Grade(s): 2nd and 4th 

2nd Grade:The students continued to work on their weathervane projects that they started the week before. Before starting the next step, they were shown a presentation that illustrated the emotions behind color choice. This was to cement the idea that the color of the sky would determine the overall mood of the piece. Knowing this, many of the students chose to do a more colorful background, with either a sunny sky or a rainbow. At the end of class, they were allowed to have a gallery walk with their finished glazed owls. I really enjoyed this part of class, since it was nice for the students to admire their peers’ artwork.

4th Grade: For this class, the students continued to work on their David Hale projects from last week. For the next step, they were assigned to add their own Native American symbols and the animal’s intended habitat onto their pieces. Many of the students seemed to enjoy this part of the project, with some of them creating designs of their own. 

Early Start: Week 1: Jan 6-10

Placement 1: Four Mile Elementary, Iowa

Mitchellville Elementary, Iowa

Teacher: Cynthia Murphy

Tuesday, Jan 7 (5.5 hours) Grade(s): 2-5

2nd Grade: For this class, the students continued to work on their clay owl projects that they were modeling before winter break. Now that their owls went through the kiln, the students were allowed to paint them with the provided glaze. The students had a lot of fun trying out different types of glazes and trying out different color combinations for their owls. During this process, I did have to remind them to remember the edges as well, so the glaze can look its finest.

5th Grade: Students were given a choice to model either a clay dragon or gnome. Before they were allowed to begin, a tutorial was provided by the teacher on how to approach and create each option. While the students were tasked with creating the same subjects, they all turned out completely different from their peers. For me, the highlight of this class was going around and hearing the different stories and personality traits the students have given for their project.

3rd Grade: Students were introduced to a Frank Stella design project, where they were tasked to draw two circles with smaller circles on the inside. Before beginning, Mrs. Murphy gave a demo on how to approach coloring the circles and its protruding rings, so it can look nice and neat at the end.While the drawing process was a little stressful for some students, most of them seemed to have enjoyed the coloring the circles.

Wednesday, Jan 8 (3 Hours) Grade(s): 2nd and 4th

2nd Grade: The students were introduced to a new weather vane project. Before starting, Mrs. Murphy provided a presentation talking about the history of weather vanes and how they can reflect one’s personality or hobbies. I really admired the creativity of each of the students’ weather vanes. Each one told a lot about the student and what values the most to them.

4th Grade: For this class, the students were introduced to a new David Hale project. They were tasked to pick out an animal and create a design that revolves around its natural habitat. At first, it was hard for the students to draw the right size and have the animal fill up the entirety of the paper, but they were eventually able to learn how to draw bigger rather than smaller. 

Friday, Jan 10 (4 hours) Grade(s): 2nd, 4th, and 5th

2nd Grade: The students continued to work on their weathervane projects that they’ve started before winter break. Those who were done coloring their weathervane were assigned to add a sky to the background. This taught the students how different colors can affect the overall mood of a drawing. For example, a sunset would indicate the setting to be more peaceful and warm, while a rainbow in a blue sky could be more hopeful.

4th Grade: During Mrs.Reichardt’s 4th grade class, the students were introduced to a new David Hale project. Similar to the other class, the students were still having a hard time drawing the right size for their animal. In the end, they were successful in drawing their animals and providing a habitat design for them. One thing that I admired about this project was the creativity of the designs each student drew inside their animals.

5th Grade: The students were assigned to draw a Claire West inspired stylized animal that would be later added to a surreal background the following week. What I found the most interesting about this project was the creativity in color choice. None of the animals the students drew had the typical color palette. Each one was really bright and colorful, giving them an extra pinch of personality.