Week 6: better late than never..

So week 6 I decided to recap everything that I went through in a short 7 minute demo. What a mouthful. I never made it to ink and values but that was ok because I think that a lot of my students were overwhelmed with the amount of materials available.

It is currently week 7 and I am at UF for my summer studio courses that I need to take to graduate. So before I forget everything that happened, I wanted to reflect on the 6 weeks that I was present.

What worked:

• Choice Based Learning as a whole worked with the occasional student who didn't understand the allotted freedom to create.
• The classroom function and space was marvelous, once we got through two centers it was easier to spread them out. I kept basic drawing materials at each center to make up for some space issues at the beginning.
• The students became really patient during the demos and they knew that  it wouldn't take me long and they could work soon.
• After I added pictures to the stations, the room started to stay cleaner.
• Hiring classroom keepers a week before I left gave them the initiative to clean and show me they deserved to be hired. That was the cleanest I've ever seen the room and the keepers took responsibility. 

What needed to be changed:

• The post it note was too much during clean up and it was wasting paper. I changed it to a chart that gets glued on to their portfolios. This worked better and I could track all 8 weeks in on place. Less work for me. 
• Talk time needed to be more structured and that is a change I will make for the Fall Capstone Project.
• Keeping some students on task was difficult, they would make one thing in 15 minutes and say they were done. I need to find something for them after besides making something else which they wont even care about because they are no longer inspired. Maybe classroom jobs?
• Order more paper for portfolios. Unfortunately some of my paper didn't come in until the 3rd week and by then I had run out of the ones I was using for large portfolios. It was worse than newsprint but the biggest thing we had in the building. Make sure to get more. 
• Get more copy paper!

Overall there was so much I learned from this trial and error experience that I now feel more prepared for the Fall Capstone Projects. I really liked the classroom function as a whole so now I can do more observations on the problem solving aspect which is what I wanted to focus on. Summer is a hectic time at work and the school year brings a different set of kids and skills.

I am really looking forward to it. For now I'm having nightmares about what my classroom will look like when I return. Thankfully I hid most of the really good stuff. We shall see. 

Terrible Tuesday & a Recap

Remember that comment I made about being terrified of having a sub for two whole weeks? Yeah, I got a taste of that on Tuesday when I went on a field trip with the High School Members and was gone for two blocks. A total of three hours. Not even a whole day.

I left explicit instructions for the sub which he read over in front of me. I asked if he had any questions, he did not and I left for the field trip. When I returned I found things out that should not have been used, materials that they did use in other places and STAMPS ON MY DRY ERASE BOARD. I am now officially terrified of the mess that I will come back to. Due to this inconvenience and nightmare, I have decided to hide most of the materials that they usually use. I will be leaving them with the basic drawing materials and the collage station. While the collage station will probably be a huge mess I need them to learn that even though I'm not there they must care for the materials as if they purchased them. Also, I have hired 2-3 "Classroom Keepers" for their scheduled block to help with the mess and to assure that the routine goes as planned. I will be "paying" the classroom keepers in Character Counts Coupons (a reward system we have for good behavior) and Free Taco Bell Coupons. I will have the sub make sure that they do their jobs and will hopefully leave me notes as to the classes overall behavior. I'm nothing short of terrified, but I must go to UF for the studio classes. I graduate in December, it has been a wonderful experience and I am thankful for all that I have learned.

Printing and stamping for the other class has gone really well and they have made some really interesting monoprints. I hope to get them passed back next week to be sorted into their portfolios.

Week 4: Printing & Stamping

With two classes so far this week I thought it was important to record how my first day went with printing
and stamping. I showed them the basic stamp that went over well... until it came to cleaning them before using them in another color. So I developed a quick wash process for the sink that didn't involve constantly running the water. This worked out better than the other way and limited wasted water and people hanging out at the sink.

The prints we did were simple mono prints from one side of the paper to another. I showed the example, did the demo, showed them how to clean it and we were on our way. I limited it to one mono print for the day so that everyone could have a chance if they wanted. It worked out well and it was obvious who listened

to the demo and who was daydreaming. They really enjoyed this method, so much so that a few of them tried to sneak a second one. We fixed that problem early and it ended up working well. I had them blow dry them and then put them on the drying rack. During one of my planning periods I'm going to sort them and put them in their cubbies to be distributed next week.

We were having a problem cleaning up and returning things to their spots so I took pictures of everything (labels are NOT enough). These pictures show the proper placement for everything. Now no one can say they dont know where it goes. They've only been up for about two hours but they seem to work a little better.




I'm a bit terrified to go away to school this summer and leave a sub in my class. I will try to leave as clear instructions as possible but I know I'm a little ridiculous about the schedule and routine of the classroom. We. Shall. See.