Concord JHS Visit

This week I did an observation in my hometown just for fun. Our junior high school is a completely new building that was built about 4 years ago, so I have never been inside it, and I chose to observe Mrs. Amador who I have never had as an art teacher, but have heard phenomenal things about! So this observation was a totally new experience for me! First off the art rooms are just as good, if not better, than the classrooms in Fishers! She said that they were included in the designing of their classrooms so they had a lot of control over how their rooms would look! They literally have a whole wing of the school to themselves. It's enormous. Seeing the school invest in the art classes in my home town really made me feel better about finding a school that cares about the arts. I think it's getting the recognition in academia that it deserves. So this is a good sign for art teachers!

Being in her classroom and seeing her student's work and her own personal work in the room really inspired me to create. In fact, one of the projects they were working on, I plan to do over Thanksgiving Break! The atmosphere overall is great. The students love and respect her and she loves and respects them. The way she talks to them about their art, as professionals, is something I want to emulate in my own teaching. She and I have a lot in common and hearing about her journey to teaching art here at Concord JH really affirmed my draw to working in the Concord community.

I took more extensive notes that I'd like to count as a majority of my journal entry, so I am going to copy and paste them right here!

Concord Junior High School Observation

Mrs. Amador-Spradling

Period 2 – Art 1

-beautiful, beautiful classroom! They just remodeled about 5 years ago, so the art teachers were able to design what they wanted in their rooms. There is so much space! So much natural light, different rooms for different resources and projects. Seriously just astounded. It makes it sad that they move from such gorgeous classrooms to smaller, dinky rooms at the high school, which has not been remodeled.

- It really is encouraging me that schools are starting to take into account the needs of the art teachers when building schools because it definitely makes a world of difference in our instruction and our student’s ability to produce art at their maximum potential. I’m just happy to see the arts are valued in every school I’ve visited so far.

- the painting/drawing room is enormous. Then they have a small computer lab in the back, a room for working with clay along with a kiln, an office for the art teachers, storage for supplies, and a resource room for mixed media projects

- since the seats are spread out so far apart, it makes it difficult for still life projects, so right now she is projecting and image of the still life onto a Smart Board

-also, she has the back half of the classroom bring their chairs to the front of the room when she is demonstrating or giving important instructions

-she speaks very clearly and has a nice tone of voice. Her students respond to this well. They’re quiet and engaged when she asks questions of the class.

- she added new elements to the still life and asked “why did I add this element to our still life” and students responded and she affirmed each answer they gave.

- we did get a chance to talk before her class began. She went to IUPUI for her degree, she student taught at Northridge Jr. High, and she was lined up for a job in Noblesville, but then a position at Concord Jr. High opened up and she took it to be close to family. I love that I’m not the only person who loves living in Elkhart. Everyone bashes our hometown, but if you love it, you love it. So she affirms some of my doubts about wanting to work back home. But I will take opportunities outside of my hometown during my undergraduate studies.

-They are quiet and hard at work. She is hovering around the room and helping students problem solve. One student asked, “I don’t know what color to make this.” And instead of saying what she would do, she asked the student questions like, “do you want it to look harmonious or contrasted? Do you want soft or loud?” then this helped the student to come to the answer herself.

- they are working on color theory by painting a still life of bottles and straws.

- varied stages of completion. Some are almost completely done and others are barely started.

-one student was in India for a wedding last week so Mrs. Amador asked her to incorporate some of the Henna tattoo design she had gotten done there into the background of her still life to make it more interesting. I like that she showed interest in her experience and how to incorporate the experience into her artwork instead of worrying about catching her up.

- jr. high introduces a variety of mediums and methods of making art since it’s the first time they get to select an elective. High school becomes more specialized and narrows in on 2D and 3D.

- there are 26 students in the class but it seems like a lot more since they are so spread out. It’s nice because each student has their own workspace and room to move papers around. Definitely would get my exercise in by making laps around the classroom.

- there is music playing and a light chatter among the kids, nothing unmanageable or disruptive to their work

-she does not let them get their own paint because the tendency is to pour a lot more than needed, so until they learn that “less is more” they can’t get their own paint

-she uses positive statements a lot like “I would agree with you” “Great point!” “Awesome example!”

- they do have to raise their hands for her help and she manages to get around to everyone quickly.

- they are not allowed to use black or brown. They have to make their own neutral colors. This is the same for my painting class. They find that mixing your own black produces a black with color and more dimension instead of a flat black. They kids are learning how to mix complementary colors to make grays. I think this is great because they learn from they get go that they can make so many more colors with a limited palette than they would think.

- she spreads out the times when students begin cleaning up, so the back half will begin cleaning up and putting things away, and then sit down and then the front half will start cleaning up and putting stuff away so there’s less congestion and block up at the cubbies and sinks.

- the students really enjoy her class and projects, they genuinely love taking her classes and that prompts them to take Art 2, 3, and 4

- the students did not even fidget when the bell rang and didn’t leave until she said “okay have a nice day!” it was amazing. Usually its an issue where students hover at the door and teachers can’t get them to wait in their seats, but this was impressive.

Period 3 – Art 1

- students ran into class and instead of scolding them she said “I’m glad you’re excited to be in class but don’t run!”

- there is a student who just entered the class who only speaks Spanish. She was able to speak to him in Spanish. Concord has a large Hispanic population so speaking Spanish would be a good skill and it has convinced me to learn Spanish once and for all. I tried over the summer using Rosetta stone, but I fell out of it because I wasn’t using it in daily conversation. I’m going to look into alternate ways to learn Spanish.

- the student has a buddy in the class that can also speak Spanish so they are sitting together so he can explain the project and different steps necessary

- there was one student who blurted out “He can’t speak English!’ and she shut it down fast. She didn’t make it a bigger deal than it was but didn’t tolerate chatter over it.

- she addressed the patterns of habits she’s noticing in their artwork. She pointed out the straws are still three dimensional objects and shouldn’t be painted as a straight line in a solid color, but she explained strategies to make them to look more three dimensional.

- a lot of students lay with their arms crossed on their desk and their head laying down. I am a huge fan of posture so I think in my own class I would ask them to sit up straight during class.

- she has her personal artwork hanging up by her office for her students to see. I think she is a fantastic artist and she is a great example for students. She is a working artist so she does sell and display her work in local galleries. That’s important for students to see so they can see how their art can be displayed for the world even as a side job.

- she has a nice balance of her job as a teacher, a working artist, and a mom. She doesn’t take on more than she can handle she makes sure each area of her life is given attention.

- they do just use Styrofoam plates as palettes for the paint. I think this is fine for a beginning, junior high, art class

- I am reminded again of why I want to teach at concord. There’s more diversity and a range of needs from the students. It reminds me of my talk with the substitute teacher from Fishers HS who had worked in a school where her students NEEDED her. I think that would be the only drawback in fishers, there isn’t the same capacity to actually change the course of life. Most students at Fishers will end up fine whether they have me as a teacher or not. I do want to make that impact in my students though.

-there are two students in the class who are EH and require a para to go around with them to each of their classes. She sometimes has to tell them to cool it but for the most part they are doing fine.

-she did a project for the school where she made portraits of the staff at the jr high as Disney characters. She rolled her eyes because art teachers are asked to do artsy projects for their schools on their free time and with their own resources, like it’s no big deal. But there is a line that has to be drawn between volunteering for projects and being asked to do stuff just because you’re artsy. Like you can’t over commit to outside projects.

- a project I loved that she came up with was an oil pastel drawing that was then covered with pinto beans, macaroni, or cheerios, and then spray-painted black. Then the food was pushed off and created an amazing negative texture on top of the oil pastel drawing. SO COOL. She said she saw the technique in a furniture book and translated it into an art project. I’m going to try it over Thanksgiving Break!

-she also has her students create elements of art booklets that they get to keep and reference back to.

- there is no “front” to the classroom, it’s just one big open area, she doesn’t have a stationary place where she “sits”. Supplies for the project that day are placed on an island in the middle of the seats. Seats are arranged in a huge rectangle and students face in towards the center.

Period 4 – Art 3

- she forewarned me that this class will be rowdier, maybe because most of them are 8th graders by my guess

-they have sketchbooks that they had to turn in today before class.

- “Paint what you see.” “We do interpret things differently, so don’t copy your neighbor.”

- they are also painting a still life, but they are working on more advanced concepts and working on a bigger surface.

- they are exploring a broader range of color variation and blending. They are handling the still lifes really well!

- she told me it was interesting to see the different levels of “looking” each student was capable of. Each person has something that the other person hasn’t “seen” and so each work is unique even though they’re looking at the same still life.

-they are mixing paint on newspaper. I think this is a great solution because they need more space to mix their colors than just the paper plate.

- they have an art gallery in the main entryway that they display art. It is an enclosed glass room that is only open during lunch and after school. They have professional lighting, hardwood floors, and display cases. It’s really beautiful. They haven’t had any problems with vandalism. I think because the art is being displayed in a similar way that it would be displayed in a museum, it creates that professional atmosphere that makes kids act differently than they would if it was just on a bulletin board on the wall.

- another class’s ceramic projects are on the drying rack and they are creating a family of hybrid animal/humans. They had to create three figures that are human and one animal, but combined in different ways. They can attach Barbie parts or plastic animals to the finished piece.

- a large portion of the class speaks Spanish, so it’s fun to watch her switch languages while speaking to her students so casually and not making them speak English.

- students are sharing stories about art projects they’re starting at home