Our next assignment was to do some printmaking. The question was, how to make it safe? We didn’t want to use sharp carving tools, especially with Jr High #2! My partner C found an assignment online where they used styrofoam (like the flat part of a meat tray from the grocery store) and carved into it with a pencil or orange stick. Perfect! This was one of my favorite assignments- the students understood it and really loved it. Some mess but not too bad.
After they carved their “block” (our group theme was Spring), they then used a brayer to ink up their styrofoam and stamp their paper. The students did very well and created some great stuff. It was a good assignment because it satisfied the students who love to draw and the students who like to be busy.
Next came my baby during the semester- the quilts. I taught the students about quilts and their construction. We also talked about art quilts and fiber arts in general and how art can be collaborative. Art can foster a sense of community. We had students draw their favorite Erie landmark on a white square of fabric using Crayola fabric markers. We had photos for reference if they got stuck. I assembled the squares into a wallhanging for each school. This assignment fulfilled our “service learning” aspect because we donated the wallhangings to the schools. Junior High #1 is getting a new building soon and we thought they could use some art for it.
I did a lot for this project, but that was okay. I got the markers and fabric and cut the squares in advance. I taught and explained it all. I ironed the squares to set the marker. I assembled the wallhangings. Phew! We unveiled each wallhanging at a parent night and everyone, including the ladies from CHAMPS, loved them. The students were excited to see their work and were amazed at the final result. I think we won big points from everyone because hey, this isn’t something that everyone does. I doubt many of my fellow Art Ed students sew. I think the best part was proving our teacher wrong- he showed up and totally poo poo-ed the assignment right before I was going to teach it because he didn’t think that the students would relate to the Erie landmarks. Yes, these are students who probably haven’t seen many of these landmarks, but I figured they could still have some pride for them. I haven’t been to the Space Needle or Pike Place market more than twice in my life, but I still have Seattle pride, right? And it turned out I was right. They did the assignment just fine, though Jr High #2 needed some coaching, but what else is new? When my teacher saw the final result at Parent Night, I got a fist bump from him, he was so pleased. Take that!
In reality I was inspired by church for this assignment- we did something like this in Primary years ago where each kid drew on a square and assembled it into a quilt for humanitarian aid. Currently in YW we’re working on a quilt for aid as well.
We then moved on to sculpture in the form of “Mimbre” bowls. We taught about coil building in clay and had the students make their own coil- built bowl using air dry clay. I’d never used the stuff before and I’m not really a fan- it’s so fragile. Most of the projects broke or had chips. We spent one week making the bowls and the next week painting them. My partners and I had to make extra bowls in case there were students who were absent during bowl-making but showed up the next week. And good thing- I think we used up most of our extra bowls. We let them make whatever they wanted with their leftover clay. This was one assignment that showed the differences in ability- most slopped on paint and in contrast there were a few who did amazing work.
The dragon was amazing! I was really amazed it didn’t break, especially with everyone and their dog wanting to touch it at Parent Night!
We then had an experience with each school group at the Erie Art Museum, which went about as expected. Junior High #1 was calm and behaved well, as expected. Pretty easy day being a chaperone. Junior High #2 was WILD as expected! I don’t think the museum knew what they were getting into! They were divided into two groups, but they were still too large in my opinion. I wound up chaperoning the group that had the younger kids in it- and all the rambunctious troublemakers! My Mom Nag Voice was worn out, I was such a broken record…”Don’t touch that.” “Get back in the group.” “Be quiet and listen to the lady from the museum.” “I SAID don’t touch that!” And on and on.
The lady from the museum who lead our tour did what I thought was a great thing- she had this bin of random little objects and each student got one to hold while looking at the Spring Show. The idea was that they could touch the object since they couldn’t touch the art itself. They were to find a work of art in the Spring Show that they felt related to their object in some way. I even got to participate, I had a little metal car with Bollywood images on it. Other students had a ceramic apple or a carved spoon, things like that. I need to go back and look at the Spring Show in more depth- I didn’t get to see much due to the kids!
The lesson that the people at the museum taught was about “magic” art, or art that fools your eye. We looked at various pieces that did that and discussed them. The students enjoyed it, and I thought it was a great lesson.
Each group had an artmaking session as well. We made thaumatropes, which is where you spin two images (one on each side) and they become one image. Everyone enjoyed making their own “magic” art and it was a simple but effective project. You traced and cut out two circles of cardstock, and drew your two things that would line up and become one. Then you taped/glued them on either side of a wooden skewer and as you spin it in your hands, the images become one. It was a lot of fun, though some students took awhile to catch on to the concept.
Here you can kindof see the effect- this student did a dark cloud on one side and a yellow lightning bolt on the other.
We did a few other assignments too, like comic strips and some other fun assignments this semester.
The end of the semester was spent preparing for Parent Nights, we had one at each school to show the artwork that the students had done. It was a bit crazy trying to get things set up but overall things went well. With Junior High #2, we were part of their multi-cultural night, which was fun but we were a little out of place. It was neat to see some of the students do dances from their homelands. We were asked to do a PowerPoint that showed images and artwork from countries where the students came from. It was surprising that people from all over had come to Erie- there are students from Nepal, Bhutan, Iraq, Ukraine, Russia, Somalia, Puerto Rico, Congo, Burundi and Tanzania. I think it is pretty neat to have a diverse school like that.
I thought this picture of Nepal was amazing:
I suppose I have a bias towards Nepal, we worked with some little Nepalese children who were I think the sweetest children I’ve ever met. They just exuded love and they were so happy to see us! It felt great.
Here are our art displays at the two schools:
Overall, it was a challenging, but rewarding semester. I probably had the most experience with teaching children out of our group (thank you Primary and YW!) but I learned a lot here. It was good to see that I can do this, I can teach art to kids and succeed. It was good to have the two schools as a comparison. Junior High #2 sure kept us on our toes! It was great to see the students “get it” and create great stuff. I was amazed by a few of the students who very good at art. We had a lot of great students, and some definite characters. I think we had the best assignment being at the jr highs- we saw reports about what the other groups had done and it looked like many of the high schools were really difficult. I was blessed to have two great partners, we worked very well together and each brought good stuff to the group. The teachers who helped us out were great, too.
I miss my jr high kids! Even the rambunctious ones. ;) I’m excited for student teaching in the Fall!
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