Saturday Art APRIL 4
A Teacher Assistant For A Day
I worked with third to fifth graders with Kaylee who was the student art educator of this class. I remember when I first walked into the classroom I did not even recognize it as how I usually see it as one of the critique rooms for the photography students and Drawing III and IV classroom. She had each board decorated with the travel theme that the Saturday Art classes are focusing on and she had a lot of posters hanging up that she designed herself. The tables were put together and the set up was very kid friendly. I glanced over her lesson plan and was very impressed with how it was organized with her materials and terms listed and pictures of how the project would be assembled step by step. I thought Kaylee did such a great job teaching the students especially being on her feet with thinking about how she should respond when one of the girls said "It's Easter I don't want to learn anything." This girl was pretty persistent about not wanting to learn what was on her powerpoint that she was about to present and said she wanted to get to the artwork already. I thought Kaylee's calm response was good whens she said that in order to do the art we have to learn it first. During the presentation the kids were engaging and listening to Kaylee's friend (her guest speaker) talk about India and their culture. Once Kaylee demonstrated how to do the clay hands, the kids gathered around her at the center table and watched her. Most of them recognized how to do the project based on projects they have done in school, but again this did not discourage Kaylee and she kept proceeding. Kid's were getting restless and started leaning on the demonstrating table wondering when they were going to start, but she got them working on the project right away.
Kaylee was at one table and her friend was at the other so I naturally went to the third one to help out. By having three of us there, this really helped give the four students that were sitting at each table more individualized attention. The four students I worked with tried to approach the project in different ways deviating away from the technique Kaylee was showing, but I made sure to suggest her techniques and corrected the students without telling them they are doing the process wrong. As they were building their hand I guided them through it and tried to make sure I was not doing the project for them but showing them alternative ways of how to follow the process. I made sure I was positive to the students and complimenting them on their good work, but when I said to one girl that her hand looked like a glove she interpreted my compliment as me saying she had a fat hand, so I had to quickly clarify to her that I meant the form looked very good and accurate. I could tell the students enjoyed talking to me and I knew I was someone easy to talk to since they kept asking me questions or ask if they were doing it right. The only problems we had during the day was when Kaylee picked disney music and how some of the people didn't like the song choices so she had to keep skipping songs. Another minor problem was when Kaylee was trying to give cleaning instructions, the students did not stop what they were doing and were still talking over her which was disrespectful, but at the end, they did follow instructions and clean up their space. When the kids were done with their hands, I admired all of them sitting at the table and how uniquely different they all were, where some fingers were crossed, other had the hand out where the palm was facing up or some were smoother than others. This made me think how we all interpret or create art differently and everyone did an awesome job. We reflected at the end and cleaned up and I gave her tips on how to quiet the kids down like do a clapping game with them where they would have to repeat after you or count to a certain number to get their attention, but we did conclude that would be hard to start in the middle of their period when usually classroom policies are interdicted in the first day. However, Kaylee did phenomenal job and I applaud her for having so much self-control and patience with the younger students.
I worked with third to fifth graders with Kaylee who was the student art educator of this class. I remember when I first walked into the classroom I did not even recognize it as how I usually see it as one of the critique rooms for the photography students and Drawing III and IV classroom. She had each board decorated with the travel theme that the Saturday Art classes are focusing on and she had a lot of posters hanging up that she designed herself. The tables were put together and the set up was very kid friendly. I glanced over her lesson plan and was very impressed with how it was organized with her materials and terms listed and pictures of how the project would be assembled step by step. I thought Kaylee did such a great job teaching the students especially being on her feet with thinking about how she should respond when one of the girls said "It's Easter I don't want to learn anything." This girl was pretty persistent about not wanting to learn what was on her powerpoint that she was about to present and said she wanted to get to the artwork already. I thought Kaylee's calm response was good whens she said that in order to do the art we have to learn it first. During the presentation the kids were engaging and listening to Kaylee's friend (her guest speaker) talk about India and their culture. Once Kaylee demonstrated how to do the clay hands, the kids gathered around her at the center table and watched her. Most of them recognized how to do the project based on projects they have done in school, but again this did not discourage Kaylee and she kept proceeding. Kid's were getting restless and started leaning on the demonstrating table wondering when they were going to start, but she got them working on the project right away.
Kaylee was at one table and her friend was at the other so I naturally went to the third one to help out. By having three of us there, this really helped give the four students that were sitting at each table more individualized attention. The four students I worked with tried to approach the project in different ways deviating away from the technique Kaylee was showing, but I made sure to suggest her techniques and corrected the students without telling them they are doing the process wrong. As they were building their hand I guided them through it and tried to make sure I was not doing the project for them but showing them alternative ways of how to follow the process. I made sure I was positive to the students and complimenting them on their good work, but when I said to one girl that her hand looked like a glove she interpreted my compliment as me saying she had a fat hand, so I had to quickly clarify to her that I meant the form looked very good and accurate. I could tell the students enjoyed talking to me and I knew I was someone easy to talk to since they kept asking me questions or ask if they were doing it right. The only problems we had during the day was when Kaylee picked disney music and how some of the people didn't like the song choices so she had to keep skipping songs. Another minor problem was when Kaylee was trying to give cleaning instructions, the students did not stop what they were doing and were still talking over her which was disrespectful, but at the end, they did follow instructions and clean up their space. When the kids were done with their hands, I admired all of them sitting at the table and how uniquely different they all were, where some fingers were crossed, other had the hand out where the palm was facing up or some were smoother than others. This made me think how we all interpret or create art differently and everyone did an awesome job. We reflected at the end and cleaned up and I gave her tips on how to quiet the kids down like do a clapping game with them where they would have to repeat after you or count to a certain number to get their attention, but we did conclude that would be hard to start in the middle of their period when usually classroom policies are interdicted in the first day. However, Kaylee did phenomenal job and I applaud her for having so much self-control and patience with the younger students.
Oxford Kinetics Festival
My class had the opportunity to work with Dr. Stephanie Danker and Rod Northcutt volunteering for Miami's annual Oxford Kinetics Festival (OFK). This year's theme was flight, but activities or sculptural pieces were interactive or could be creative with moving or sound components. Reflecting upon this event we learned that OFK strives to not only be exclusive but too reach out to undeserved groups in the effort to:
Our Art 195 class collaboratively worked on an activity that we could set up as a station in the festival. At first we had two separate groups and two different ideas, but I think by having the whole class work on one project was the better approach, because there were a lot of tasks for the idea that we decided on. Our class came up with an idea that we originally called "Flying Fish" to keep the integrity of the theme for flight that the festival was sticking with. This idea was an inspiration from a previous lesson plan we did in class with Dr. Danker where we constructed paper mache fish out of Matt board and newspaper and covered the fish's body with colorful tissue paper. We decided that in our activity students can decorate/build their own fish with models that were pre made for them already and then we attach a wooden block with hooks so we can attach them on a zip line we constructed ourselves for the kids to race on, hence the name "Fish and Furious."
For preparation, we all as a class had to figure out roles for how we could get tasks done and who would be doing what at the event. Dr. Danker wanted to give our class full control of the planning so there were lots of good leaders who stepped up and a lot of good effort on everyone's part. We split up into two groups at first: half the class stayed in the classroom one day to make the fish profiles in different color construction paper making sure there was a variation in design for each fish. The other half worked outside with Rod Northcutt (head of the Kinetics festival and a Miami Sculpture professor), to figure out how to create the zip line to race the fish and setting up our tent. Lauren Curtis was so generous to help me outside of class making the wood blocks for 150 fish so we had to cut and measure 150 of these wooden blocks. To cut the pieces of wood we used a drill press and that was really fun once we knew what we were doing. At the end of the day, we ran out of materials but we made enough for 125 and we got to work with sculpture grad students in the wood shop. Next class period we split off into two groups again. One team continued to make more fish profiles and then there were five of us who helped skrew two hooks into each wooden block. To make the attaching hooks a faster process, I lead the team to the woodshop and we used power drills to drill a hole instead of forcing the hook into the block of wood. It was really cool to use the wood shop tools and having the experience to work with the eqipment; I enjoyed that the most.
During the event I came in the middle and helped until the end. I notice my classmates helping the kids to decorate their fish and hot gluing the wooden block to the top of the fish. Other students were around the zip line either helping the students at the beginning of the line attach their fish to the rope or someone was at the end of the line to say "On your mark, get set, go." Others either helped them or made sure none of the kids went under the zip line construction. I helped screw more hooks into the extra wooden blocks. When we ran out of hooks we use duck tape and made two loops for substation. I stayed until clean up and as we were cleaning up about six more kids approach our table. Since we did not make much progress on clean up, a couple of my classmates helped me with the ones who wanted to do the activity last minutely. Successfully we were able to have them either make a fish or keep one of the models that were already made and they received a chance to still race their fish. Clean up was simple, we basically put all the supplies back into their storage boxes, cleaned up trash and took the zip line and tent down. It was a fun event and all the 125 fish end up being used. I can't wait to participate in the festival again next year.
- Connect people who do not normally interact
- Develop opportunities for the sharing of skills
- Develop individuals' creative confidence (in other words, to get people who may not think they are creative and feel at the end that they can be) (Danker handout).
Our Art 195 class collaboratively worked on an activity that we could set up as a station in the festival. At first we had two separate groups and two different ideas, but I think by having the whole class work on one project was the better approach, because there were a lot of tasks for the idea that we decided on. Our class came up with an idea that we originally called "Flying Fish" to keep the integrity of the theme for flight that the festival was sticking with. This idea was an inspiration from a previous lesson plan we did in class with Dr. Danker where we constructed paper mache fish out of Matt board and newspaper and covered the fish's body with colorful tissue paper. We decided that in our activity students can decorate/build their own fish with models that were pre made for them already and then we attach a wooden block with hooks so we can attach them on a zip line we constructed ourselves for the kids to race on, hence the name "Fish and Furious."
For preparation, we all as a class had to figure out roles for how we could get tasks done and who would be doing what at the event. Dr. Danker wanted to give our class full control of the planning so there were lots of good leaders who stepped up and a lot of good effort on everyone's part. We split up into two groups at first: half the class stayed in the classroom one day to make the fish profiles in different color construction paper making sure there was a variation in design for each fish. The other half worked outside with Rod Northcutt (head of the Kinetics festival and a Miami Sculpture professor), to figure out how to create the zip line to race the fish and setting up our tent. Lauren Curtis was so generous to help me outside of class making the wood blocks for 150 fish so we had to cut and measure 150 of these wooden blocks. To cut the pieces of wood we used a drill press and that was really fun once we knew what we were doing. At the end of the day, we ran out of materials but we made enough for 125 and we got to work with sculpture grad students in the wood shop. Next class period we split off into two groups again. One team continued to make more fish profiles and then there were five of us who helped skrew two hooks into each wooden block. To make the attaching hooks a faster process, I lead the team to the woodshop and we used power drills to drill a hole instead of forcing the hook into the block of wood. It was really cool to use the wood shop tools and having the experience to work with the eqipment; I enjoyed that the most.
During the event I came in the middle and helped until the end. I notice my classmates helping the kids to decorate their fish and hot gluing the wooden block to the top of the fish. Other students were around the zip line either helping the students at the beginning of the line attach their fish to the rope or someone was at the end of the line to say "On your mark, get set, go." Others either helped them or made sure none of the kids went under the zip line construction. I helped screw more hooks into the extra wooden blocks. When we ran out of hooks we use duck tape and made two loops for substation. I stayed until clean up and as we were cleaning up about six more kids approach our table. Since we did not make much progress on clean up, a couple of my classmates helped me with the ones who wanted to do the activity last minutely. Successfully we were able to have them either make a fish or keep one of the models that were already made and they received a chance to still race their fish. Clean up was simple, we basically put all the supplies back into their storage boxes, cleaned up trash and took the zip line and tent down. It was a fun event and all the 125 fish end up being used. I can't wait to participate in the festival again next year.
Saturday Art Show
I'm really glad I signed up for this event. I was really looking forward to seeing all the works by the young students. Each grade level impressed me and it was very exciting to see all the kids ardent about showing off their work. At the event, I basically walked around and enjoyed the admiring all the artwork. During there final ceremony, another student and I were in charge of tear down for one of the rooms which happened to be the pre school and kindergarten room. We had to take down all the kid's artwork and organize them in piles to hand them back to them. The ceremony ended early so at the end we rushed, but everyone got their work back and we all worked as a team to help clean up the classroom and retrieve the work that was hanging up.