Nicole held a brief fieldwork meeting today. The question she wanted us to walk away thinking about was "what did we learn about public schools in our most recent fieldwork experience?" Many students remarked on neglect by the teacher to particular students, or the troubles with the new SLO exams that the students are taking at the beginning and end of the year. Luckily  I didn't see many students if any being neglected at my placement, but I attended public school, so I certainly know that it does happen. And no, my mentor teacher wasn't thrilled about the SLO tests either, nor was she worried about them however.
  By doing my fieldwork this semester in a public school, I learned about modifications. Honestly, that box feels like a load of bull in our lesson plan format when I am writing theoretical lesson plans for students who I do not know, because they do not exist yet. To successfully use this box, you have to know, who am I modifying this lesson for and why? When you know the answers to who and why, suddenly, the modifications box is possibly the most important section of the entire lesson plan format. For example, when I was working at Union Vale Middle School, I was assigned to teach the sixth grade class for six weeks straight. Every week, I wrote two very different specific modifications; for who and why? One student had multiple learning disabilities, with signs not un-like downs syndrome. Another student was blind. This gave me specific guidance on how to use this box that was otherwise useless to me, for these students could not have participated in my lessons at all if I did not specifically modify it for them. This was perhaps the most meaningful lesson that I learned working with this class; making simplified versions of lessons as well as making equally challenging, yet three dimensional modifications. This is what I learned about public schools. The general public is filled with diversity, different kinds of learners, and different kinds of people who all have very different specific needs. It makes me want to leave the modification box blank when I write these theoretical lesson plans, simply because I will not know how to modify them until after I have gotten to know my students in need of modifications.

Candy Art

    Besides feeling like I've gained a pound of candy, I really enjoyed today's activity. It's interesting to see how what we put into our bodies is so bright in color that it can be used to make art. To add to that thought, that could be a point of the lesson; "do we really want to eat so much of what is layered in artificial coloring?"
    Candy aside, one strength of the lesson was connecting language to visual symbolism. Perhaps it would have been helpful to view a music video to elaborate on this. The poems with related art was definitely helpful.
    Some of the teacher samples were very beautiful, particularly the image for "nowhere man." And I agree that the Beatles were indeed a good selection because their discography is nearly endless; so many poems to work with! Also, most of their tunes are all age appropriate, and carry peaceful goodwill messages.
    I probably would not do this project on a regular class day, only because it's so much candy to cram into a 45 minute lesson!! Don't get me wrong, art making is always special, but I still think that this is a special occasion kind of art making experience; maybe a good one for Halloween, or for a special after school art club party, a girl/boy scouts meeting... something to be celebrated; that's just what most people associate candy with.
  As always, I'm looking forward to next groups lesson plan; sock it to me!

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Afterthoughts on my Candy Art post:

I took a photo of the art I made with candy in class and sent it to my boyfriend. He said it looked like barf. haha.

Also, I grabbed a sandwich bag full of candy like a pig when class was over telling myself, "I'm going to make art with this." I knew the dark truth though... I was going to eat it all. I left it on the table in the lobby of the library for someone else to gorge themselves with, because I'm really trying to be healthy!! And today, my sweet tooth kicked in and I missed the candy. haha... This is my confession.

  Today, Cameron, Chris and I made some revisions for our Make A Mutant lesson. I'm very happy that we did, because in theory, I think our lesson is much stronger than how we originally presented it in class a few weeks ago. I regret not having it entirely together the day we taught; of course we thought it was! But I'm glad we could learn from our mistakes and revise them; I suppose that's why our class is called Theory&Practice.

   First we made a video demo of drawing the four different sketches for each section of the body. Then we made a video demo of the collaboration of the different forms of the body coming together as one creature. This included drawing the frontal view, profile, and back view.
   After, we made video demos of wedging, slipping and scoring.
     Then we made a video demo of translating the 2d sketch into a 3d sculpture, including things to keep in mind, like the weight of the clay being a concern for the legs and base of the sculpture.
   Lastly, we made a rubric that reflects the key elements of the entire step by step process of Make-A-Mutant.
  I feel wonderful as if our lesson plan is now true and complete! My apologies for not presenting it this flawlessly in class. If anyone is interested, the rubric is posted under my thread on black board, and the lesson plan is posted on Chris's, and soon the video demo will be recorded on his thread too.

mark making

 I enjoyed today's mark making activity!
   This was a wonderful idea for a basic art class (9th grade). I say this because it was both conceptually rich, and physically easy to participate in. It concerned the elements of design, but that fallowed the active and playful throwing of clay.
   It opens up opportunities for students to view modern art that is conceptually rich, that does have elements of design, but isn't necessarily pretty. Therefor the students don't worry that they are not capable... just going through the motions is taking on the conceptual role, and even if the outcome isn't "beautiful," it's still art! I will keep this one in mind especially if I have a very shy art class some day filled with students who don't consider themselves to be "artists."

       Last night I spent four hours in Kingston's Ulster County Jail. NO I was not arrested!! I volunteered through the KDP honors program for the Read Out Loud: A Voice to Remember.
    A partner and I met with six or seven different inmates, one by one. I helped them fill out a questioner about the children at home who miss them, and I explained how we could help them send their holiday love and wishes this year. Together, my partner and I helped them pic out greeting cards and children's books for the young ones who miss them. They were given one card and one book for each child. After they wrote their personal message into the greeting cards, my partner recorded them reading the book out loud. They also recorded personal voice messages for the kids. Before the holidays, the children (sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and cousins) will all receive a package from the inmates (that KDP will send out for them). Now they can once again hear their locked up loved ones' voices, have a new book at hand, and read their book with the voice recordings.
    This was very rewarding work! The inmates were grateful. At first, I was a little nervous... spending intimate time with criminals that I don't know in a secluded room with no officers or guards.. but there was apparently no reason to worry. The only questions the inmates asked us were "no ones paying you for this?? where do you go to school?"; both questions which I was happy and comfortable to answer. Some of them got weepy recording messages to the children who they've been separated from... we also brought tissues for this happening. The inmates thanked us, and I'd like to thank KDP for this wonderful volunteer opportunity!

  I've really been enjoying the lessons presented by my class mates in class. These are wonderful ideas that I can hopefully use one day as a teacher. All but one of the projects as "team theme" which is always fun! Team based activities inspire community and individuality in that while two people work together, they certainly through compare and contrast become more able to identify their own unique style.
  There were many flaws in my presentation; the biggest being that my team did not create a demo. As the days go on this is torturing me!! I think I would like to record a video of instructions and demonstrations the complete step by step process. The first step would be on sketching the individual forms (head, torso, arms, legs). The second would be on how to collaborate different people's forms into one sketch. The third would be on translating the sketch into 3d clay sculpture, and clay techniques (wedging, slipping, scoring, addition, subtraction). This could also be fallowed by a 4th video demo on glazing. Although my time has already expired for presenting these demonstrations live to the class, I would be happy to post a video of the demos on this message board and on black board. Hopefully it will make the lesson more effective, complete, and applicable for other teachers to use with their students in the near future.

  Last Wednesday was my last day with my sixth grade class. Throughout my seven visits, I encountered many challenges, new opportunities, and accomplishments! My mentor teacher put me right to work. Every Wednesday for six weeks I was to lead the sixth grade class. I made slide presentations on the basic facts and techniques for sculpting with clay, and glazing, games and work sheets reflecting the famous artists the students were studying, teacher samples, and I even typed up some lesson plans.
   My most wonderful challenge was the fact that this was an all inclusion class. I had one student with multiple learning disabilities who wasn't lingual, and another student who was blind. Every week, I learned more and more about how to utilize the modification box in our lesson plan format.
   The blind students sketch book was fantastic! He used scratch-foam and a stylus. He used puffy paint and scented markers. It was brilliant aiding his attempts to make sense of the visual world which he has NEVER seen before through by utilizing his other senses; trying to picture color based on scent, and image based on touch. Needless to say, I made three-d examples of every project.
   I got a Picasso card for my mentor teacher, a Monet card for my students, and a bouquet of flowers for the class room to say thank you! My students made a thank you card for me too. I'm grateful for my time spent at the middle school.