Let the cat out of the bag

Although, we discussed many topics in class number four, one in particular stood out.


STRUCTURE aka classroom management.


When class began, Aileen listed the tasks and plans for the day.  Upon doing so, she asked... now why would I not do this with kids? or as she put it "let the cat out of the bag"?

A few responses like: 


kids would get bored


or they may rush through assignments to get to one that seems more fun were answered (which are both valid points)


...but for the first time I felt puzzled.


I have always been taught that keeping kids in the loop and acknowledging the structure of classroom procedures would aid in productivity.  and to be honest, I still am a bit confused about it....


Either way,  we continued to discuss structure as a classmate of mine is teaching for America Reads at Pratt.  She has around 45 students for 5 hours and has been struggling with managing them.  Everyone had many insightful suggestions like:

• creating learning centers
• doing group work
• working in pairs
• doing individual assignments
• allotting for breaks
• using all aspects of the classroom (which reminded me of John Dewey..as I'm studying him in another class, because he  believed in utilizing the entire school for educational use)
• and teaching the students about each of these spaces/areas.   

We then went on to discuss transitioning from one activity to the next.  And how many time this can cause teachers anxiety.  It is not always easy, or ever easy really, to get a group of students to stop what they're doing and start another task.  A point was brought up that in order to do this efficiently, the teacher must orchestrate something like a choreographed dance; where everybody has a role and knows what to do in advance.  Kind of like our cooperative learning groups that I talked about in my first entry.








We also critiqued our Tyvek pieces and documented them using projectors, reflective surfaces, video, etc.  Here are some examples:

We discussed how this project could be incorporated with students and two suggestions that really stuck out were:

• using tiny nail scissors (with younger students) 
• and a process called scherenschnitte that is basically a papercut created so it is folded in half resulting in a symmetrical image.  Like this:

Our next assignment is creating creative alphabets.  We each are to make 4 letters (one found, one material of our choice, one with fabric, and one using printed collage).  We then will collaborate our letters in image form to create a slideshow.  I'm super excited about this project and have already started taking pictures of letters everywhere!! Seriously.  Kinda obsessed.

Check some really cool creative alphabets out  here.  click on alphabets.. on the right.

three times a lady

A few key things that stuck out about class numero tres were:

• Creating distinctions.  

Many times kids/students will have the tendency to just draw draw draw, or paint paint paint and often become discouraged because they don't know what to do or really learn anything.  When a teacher creates distinctions with materials, or content, students have the ability to learn about what they are creating.  

You can use this with lesson plans by:

asking students to incorporate texture

or negative space

or color schemes like black on black, and the power of white.

• Project Examples.

The importance of using project examples is clutch as it enables students to explore their peers work.  It also cane give a sense of validation.  In many ways, the slideshow becomes the teacher's piece, and depending on available classroom materials (medias/technologies) can morph into something exquisitely beautiful.  Especially with the use of projections.

• and Tyvek. 

We are using this material with our next project incorporating text, in which we are to cut words out of a piece of Tyvek.  It is softer then regular paper but more durable.


Here is mine:

Ivan Asin came to our class and showed some examples of his work.  This is his wesite: www.ivanasin.weebly.com

and we also looked at Beatrice coron's work with the material:

Class numero dos

Class number two began with a critique of our booklets.  I was inspired by Ann Hamilton's braille piece "Myein" that I posted in my first post and have chosen to continue experimenting with braille and light in the next couple weeks.

The critique was good.  Everyone took uniquely different approaches to creating their books and because of that were able to discuss a few ways to relate the first assignment back with our students.

These are some of our ideas:

• Limiting students to one material allows them to experiment with options of how use that particular material creatively.  Kinda like elmers glue. Maybe not.
• This project encompassed using grids.  Creating pictures that can be viewed seperately or combined to create a larger image.  We talked about Chuck Close and how he uses grids with his work.  Side note:  I met Chuck Close last year and have a few interesting stories to tell about that.

• Grids brought up the idea of collaboration, like these cheesy folks, or working together to make artwork.  Which reinforces basic skills like cooperation as well as expanding upon and growing artistic expression.

We also talked about a few artists that deal with text.

I was lucky as an undergrad to hear Shirin Neshat speak about a movie she was directing, when she came to Arizona State University a couple of years ago.                

I also found Xu Bing to be very interesting.

Xu Bing

And lastly, I decided to add one fun fact which hopefully will continue in each post that came up in class.  I had no idea that their is an american version of cursive.  I thought as long as we use the same characters the script wouldn't change between languages.  But check out French cursive.  Totally different.  Maybe everyone already knew this, but it kinda blew my mind.

8.31.10

First day of class, we:

• set up Cooperative Learning Groups  (basically classroom jobs/routines that when used with students ensure independence, teamwork, and efficiency). My job is table mover which is extremely fitting as I have super strong arms. Seriously, you should see me arm wrestle.

• discussed materials that everyone would like to learn more about.  Clay, new medias, and eco friendly or sustainable art supplies topped the list with an overall theme of materials being cheap and attainable,  or simple.

• were also given our first assignment:  Create a little book that embodies the theme of our entrance questionnaire.  The limitations are one drawing material, one color and the use of text only.  This made me think of a few of my favorite text A R T ists.

Here is my little book: