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.

Here is my grow project:

aaaaand finally, here are some of my sketchbook entries over the past few weeks.  From now on, they will be posted with the corresponding weeks.


Week 1:  Exploration of braille.  I created a wooden panel and drilled out holes 1/4'' into it.  I then used wet paper and pressed it into the holes.  These are two results:  (they say I I I I, Me Me Me Me, Us Us Us Us, We We We We)

                    

I also sketched a picture of my brothers when they were little selling lemonade.

Week 2:  I used photos that I took and drew around and through them with pencil.

And week 3:  I did the same exploration with a photo I took and pencil, and I  also created a collage with a simple sketch and cut up renaissance style old valentines day cards that I had sitting uselessly in my desk drawer.