Student Teaching Observations March 20th - April 28th (McCormick Jr. High)

 Monday, March 20th

I have been leading the 7th grade into classes through their GVC project for the district assessment. For this project, they were to create an abstract wiggle line for their artwork, section it into 8 segments and explore a new element in each one. I have been having a lot of fun with this project, and the students seem to enjoy it too. I used tootsie rolls for everyone to push around their paper with their pencil. This is what created our abstract wiggles. Once the students were done with that step, we moved on to fold our paper and work on the fist row of elements. I use video demos for these steps so it is brief for the students and simple to follow. 

Wednesday, March 22nd

I have been working on putting together a zentangle project for the current 2D 8th grade class for my early finisher students. This is a project I want to introduce into my 7th grade classes as well. I think by starting with a zentangle project, students can practice slow and controlled line designs which can later transfer to the line element in their GVC. My hope is that this ordering of lessons will help them be more prepared for success. For this project, students create a blobby splat as an organic shape. Then their shape is sectioned out into different pieces which will have different examples of line in each. 

Thursday, March 23rd

Instead of going in to McCormick Jr. High School, today I traveled South instead and went to the UNC Educator Employment Days job fair. I brought over 20 resumes, teaching portfolios, and letters of recommendation to the fair and came in with little idea of what to expect. I tried to get my name out there as much as possible and spoke to many different schools and districts. I met Ralph Mattas, the district supervisor in Roswell, NM. I originally had no intent of even speaking with any schools further than Colorado Springs, but Ralph's position for an art teacher caught my attention. There is an unusual opportunity to teach 2nd grade art travelling from school to school. I would be visiting 13 different schools in a two week span with about two schools a day that I would visit. I ended up interviewing and signing a letter of intent the next day. I'm planning on visiting Roswell next week on my break.

March 27th -31st - SPRING BREAK

I drove down to Roswell this week with my mom to explore the town, meet the administrators, and interview with the Creative Learning Center. I absolutely loved the town and all of the people I was able to meet through the district. Ralph Mattas, the one who interviewed me at the UNC job fair, even took me out to lunch and showed me a tour of around the town. All-in-all it was a very positive and welcoming experience!

Monday, April 3rd

I've been starting to plan out a lesson plan for the 8th grade 3D class. I really want to introduce a clay project to them and I thought it would be fun to have students create their own functional chia pets. These chia pets need to include something important to the students or hold some type of personal meaning. Techniques I want to introduce with this project are sgrafitto line work, cutting an object in half to hollow it, and the slip and score method of reattaching pieces. For this project, I want students to have a lot of creative freedom and have the opportunity to experiment on their own. 

Tuesday, April 4th

We had a virtual learning day today due to the weather. Cindy and I sat on zoom all day if students needed to check in or receive help at all. I also came up with a short "mini assignment" for them to complete during the virtual day so we could take attendance. The assignment was to follow along in drawing a sea turtle through one of their apps "SketchesSchool" on their ipads. This lead them through ways to incorporate line designs, create their own patterns, and experiment with colors. All of the turtles came out differently, and they all had their own unique touch. After the virtual day was over, I compiled all their images into a PowerPoint presentation which I'm planning on sharing with the students tomorrow. This will give them a chance to show off their own hard work and see the interesting things their peers did as well. 

Friday, April 7th

7th grade classes have been doing extremely well on their zentangle assignments. They have controlled, detailed line work, show examples of elements of line, and have even come up with creative and interesting new ways of making patterns. I gave each of my students a packet with examples of zentangle patterns inside if they needed some help. Many of the students have been using these packets as resources, but not copying the patterns directly from them. One of my students with special needs informed me that she cannot read or write, so she is unable to do the student check-ins at the beginning of class. I sat down with her and we worked through a system where she can visually pick a card labelled "rose", "thorn", or "bud" and just tell me how she's feeling based on what she picked. She gets ecited to do this when she comes into class, and it worked as a great way of differentiating for that specific student. 

Tuesday, April 11th

My 8th grade 2D class is moving on from our Hawaiian fun with the murals and tiki projects. Now, we are creating a Tim Burton inspired self-portraits. This project introduces several techniques and skills to the students. For example, student learn to shade using blending tools, charcoal, conte crayon, and erasers. I showed the students multiple demos on how to use the materials and then gave them a day to experiment with things. This is prior to even introducing Tim Burton to them. I really want to provide a day for the students to try new things, be unafraid of making marks, and gain an understanding of how highlights and shadows can be added. 

Wednesday, April 12th

In 2D, I showed my students how Tim Burton structures his characters and explained the steps they needed to take to mimic his style into creating a self-portrait. I made and handed out step-by-step packets to help them decide on head shape, options for noses, pushing expressions, etc. After this, I then asked for a volunteer to come up and wear a groovy pair of sunglasses. I turned off the lights in the whole room and turned on the flashlight on my phone. By using this student as a model, I explained how the highlights and shadows on your face are going to move depending on where your light source is. The students had a lot of fun with this and I think it helped their understanding of how to push shadows in their portraits. 

Friday, April 14th

The Pau Hana dance was tonight! I am so proud of all the hard work my students have put into the decorations. Their tiki totems came out amazing and were full of bright colors and personality. The murals were also a huge success and students were coming back and forth all night to take different photos with them. I had fun as a chaperone and it was rewarding to see all of our students having so much fun and excitedly showing off their designs which they created. We had at least 20 tiki totems and three murals on display after all our hard work.

Monday, April 17th

8th grade 3D is going to start their next project which is their GVC or district assessment. For their project, I want the students to tell a story about themselves through a Columbian Casita inspired window relief. This window relief explores melting marbles at high temperatures to create a stained glass effect in the panes. Students will re-visit old techniques learned such as sgraffitto techniques, and learned new ones through melting marbles and using slabs to build and carve a 6"x6" window design. 

Tuesday, April 18th

I already had video demos made for the 8th grade Columbian Casita GVC assignment, but I had a change in plans. A student went in the back kiln room when Cindy and I did not see and smashed my exemplar chia pet piece into 6 different parts. It seemed like a deliberate act and I discussed with Cindy what we should do to address the situation. Cindy wanted them to do bookwork as a punishment, but I did not want the whole class to be denied creation because of the poor actions of one student. 

Instead, I explained how much time and effort I put into making these exemplar pieces, creating demo videos, and doing everything possible to make art a fun and enjoyable experience for all students. I gave each student a sticky note to anonymously give me input on what happened and played a demo video for them to take notes on. This demo video had not been sped up or included music, it was just a 20 minute long demo in silence. This punishment was incredibly successful and I immediately found out what had happened. I even had that student come up to me after and apologize for her actions. Due to their honesty, I decided not to pull the project and allow them all to create their clay windows. 

Wednesday, April 19th

I found out through my tactic yesterday, that my exemplar piece had been knocked into by a student who was not watching where they were putting their piece down. I asked the student who broke my piece to please draw me an apology picture since she did not immediately alert one of her teachers to her mistake. I never told the class who broke it, but I explained that we would continue with the project and if they ever accidently break another students piece or even a teachers piece that it's an understandable mistake. I stressed how important it was for them to say something, because otherwise it can be taken as a hurtful act of vandalism. 

The whole discussion went really well! This was the class you observed that can be a bit rowdy and oftentimes difficult to focus. Every single student was silent and I had their full attention during this discussion. I even had students who were unrelated to the incident apologize on behalf of their peers. It was really heartwarming to see their reactions and even their frustration that someone would have done such a thing to me intentionally. 

Monday, April 24th

I have been working extremely hard on creating personalized drawings for each and every one of my students I have had in the 4th quarter. Once I'm finished, I will have drawn close to 100 doodles so each of the kids can leave with a parting thank you when I am gone on Friday. I've been very fortunate to build such strong relationships with the kids and I have already promised to come back and visit even though I am no longer their student teacher. I know all of their names and have made an effort to get to know every single one of them, so leaving is going to be much harder than I thought. I wrapped up my last lesson with 7th grade today and Cindy will pick up with her soap carving unit from there. I will continue to teach both 8th grade classes until I am fully finished on Friday. 

Wednesday, April 26th

I have been working closely with the BIS team to provide a specific student with support. I've been holding off on grading his digital art portfolio because if I grade it as is, he will fail. Instead, I wanted to offer him a chance to re-do the assignment with guidance from an adult. He was able to pull his grade up significantly from just delaying his submission and he thanked me from giving him another chance. This is a student who has a difficult time staying on task due to his autism and this extra chance made a big difference for him. 

Friday, April 28th

Today was my last day of student teaching! All classes continued with their lessons as usual, but I handed out their thank you drawings at the end and bought otter pops to share with all of the kids for their last 5 minutes of class. Everyone was super sweet and I even received several gifts back from the students, including a keychain, bracelet, plant cuttings, drawings, cards, and some little origami critters. I had a wonderful last day with the students and I would change it for anything!

Throughout this observation journal, I was unable to add any pictures otherwise it would not send, but if you want to see photos of anything specific I discussed, please reach out! 

Thank you for your time,

Emma