Week 4

Lots of exciting stuff happened today! First big milestone, students are willingly coming up to me to talk through problems or get a second opinion on their work, so it's great to feel like a valuable asset to the classroom. Second, I talked to Ms. O about whether or not they do class critiques on finished projects. She said it was funny I mentioned that because the art teachers feel as a department they have been slacking when it comes to making time for class critiques because it can take two to three days out of class time to talk about everyone's work, so they were looking for a solution to that issue. Recently, Fishers has switched to Canvas and teachers and students are still adjusting, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to use the discussions feature in canvas to have an online critique. This way, students still receive the benefit of critiquing and receiving feedback from peer's without taking away time during the school day. We still will have at least one critique in class because verbal critique is an important skill and much different than an online forum, but I think this is a better solution than hosting no critiques at all. I walked Ms. O through the process of setting up a discussion on canvas during prep and then I introduced the assignment to her 5th hour AP drawing/2d class. While I introduced the assignment, I had them follow along on their own laptops so I could demo the process of posting images of their work to the discussion and how to reply to each others comments. I kept asking if they were doing okay, if they understood what they were doing, how much experience they have with canvas etc, and I was just met with blank stares or people who didn't even lift their faces up from their laptop, so I couldn't get a read. I don't think they were being resistant or rude, I just don't think Ms. O asks for verbal feedback or eye contact when she's giving them info in class. When I have my own classroom, I would kindly ask and enforce that my class gives me verbal responses when I ask them questions so I can help them, because no eye contact or blank stares doesn't let me know what I need to help them with. I will also enforce active listening. I believe you can't fully receive information if you are not facing towards the teacher, sitting up straight, and giving eye contact. I am fine with doodling or fidgeting, but you can do that without looking at whatever you're drawing or fidgeting with. I draw from my experience as a color guard instructor where verbal feedback and active listening is expected. I know it's different in the classroom, but I do believe it makes a difference in how students receive information and their ability to apply it later on. I also believe that these are life skills that will benefit them in almost every other part of their life in and outside of school. I would make sure that I am explicit about the reasons I ask them to follow these classroom procedures so they understand how the skills can apply in other areas of their life and not just seem like a crazy controlling teacher. I also wouldn't like punish them if they didn't do these things, just remind them. Ms. O bragged to the other art teachers about my idea and I'm glad that she values my ideas and wants to share them with her co-workers! They want us to show them how it turns out when everyone completes the discussion so there will be more on that next week!

During the time I was working with AP, Ms. O had stopped in the SPED room across the hall to check on a student who was taking a test for her class with a peer mentor, and she observed the students dancing to music playing on the computer. One student, T. was having a blast. T. is arabic and little is known about him because his parents brought him to school the first day classes started and just kind of dropped him off. They spoke with counselors but they did not speak much English and the school does not have a translator who speaks Arabic. The most they could gather is that they had just arrived to the US and their son has autism. So, it's been five weeks since he's been in school and all the SPED teachers assumed he was nonverbal because he never talked or responded to people. After watching him dance, Ms. O said they should put on some Arabic music. So the teachers did and Ms. O said his demeanor totally did a 180. He was smiling so big, singing along to the music, and dancing like crazy. They had hardly gotten two words out of him and here he was singing! Then, the peer tutor that helps the SPED student in Ms. O's class started speaking to T. in Arabic and he freaked out. He talked to her and she said he said he was so excited to have a friend. They also found out they had been pronouncing his name wrong this whole time.

While this is incredibly heartwarming, I am so utterly shocked at the SPED teachers for several reasons. 1. They assumed he was nonverbal instead of recognizing that he might not be talking because he doesn't know any English and doesn't have anyone to speak to in Arabic. 2. Out of such a huge student population, they didn't think to search out a student that spoke Arabic since they didn't have an adult translator. That would've been helpful when speaking with the parents as well. 3. They pronounced this poor guys name wrong for four weeks. 4. T. did not have ANYONE to talk to for the past four weeks as a new student and a new citizen of the US.

I honestly am just thankful that Ms. O had made that suggestion or else these realizations may have been held off for much longer and he may have not been connected with another student who speaks Arabic. That student is doing Best Buddies so they are going to make sure to pair them up.

This experience solidifies that we should never assume abilities or skill levels of our students and that we should make every effort possible to connect with them on some level, even through music. I definitely will make sure to play music in different languages if I ever have ELL students in my class, just so they can listen to someone "speak" to them in their language instead of trying to speak to us in ours.

I did a great job putting my observations from a week or two ago into practice. I had mentioned treading the line of doing student's work for them and demonstrating techniques that will help them progress. Today a student asked me how to draw saturn when he was sketching ideas for the next project. I thought it was funny at first because it's just a circle with rings around it, but he genuinely wanted to learn how to draw it well. So first we looked at a picture of Saturn and I asked him what he thinks is difficult about drawing it. He said he didn't know how to make the rings look like they go around the body of the planet. So then I asked him to tell me what aspects in the image of saturn indicate that the lines are wrapping around the planet instead of existing in front or behind it in a straight line. He pointed out the shadows on the rings, the gap between the rings and the planet, and how it is a 3 dimensional object around a 3 dimensional object. So I sketched on another paper how I would begin to show these aspects that he's described and then he tried it on his paper. I praised his effort but he wanted to try again to make it better. I honestly was really impressed that he wanted to try again because most students want to take the easiest route, but it goes to show that students will put in the effort if it is something they are interested in or connected to. I let him know I was impressed with his effort and desire to practice to make it better. I know that sounds like a super simple encounter with a student, but I'm proud of the way I prompted him to make observations and apply those observations to his drawing when I could've just sketched it for him on his sheet of paper and have hime be like "cool, thanks." Because this isn't a drawing class, it's 3D, so Ms. O doesn't care if their sketches are great and sometimes she draws them for some students, but I am glad I took the opportunity to let him do the work.

Another instance, a student was stuck on how he should add texture to his clay vessel in ceramics 1, so I asked him to pull out his vision board they created for the project and looked at some of the inspiration he had drawn from other pieces. I asked him to identify what the pieces had in common, he pointed out that he enjoyed the illustrations ( it was porcelain with Chinese dragons drawn on them) and I prompted him to think about how he could translate those illustrations into a texture since the drawings are flat and he needed to incorporate actual texture. So we got to brainstorm together and I didn't feel like I was telling him what he should do, just facilitating his thought process.

There was another learning moment too in regards to working with students with IEP's. Apparently Ms. O had not recognized that one student was required to sit towards the front of the class as outlined in his IEP, and his parents mentioned it at parent teacher conferences. So Ms. O was put in a situation where she had to move him, but didn't want to embarrass him by moving him in front of his peers. So I suggested just changing the entire class's seating assignments because even though it is another thing on her to-do list, it is the least obvious way of moving him to the front. She said she was hesitant to do that though because the class had found their niches and were being productive so she didn't want to introduce a disruption. I also offered that there really is no "front" in an art classroom except during presentations. So maybe during presentation she could have everyone move towards the front so then he gets to the front when important information is being introduced but it's not obvious that HE specifically had to move to the front. She liked that suggestion.

Okay that's all! Just really happy with how today went and wanted to record it for my own benefit, not to make you read a ton, promise!

P.S. Also got to set up the display case in the hallway. Thinking of ways to incorporate students getting involved in the display process and "presenting" is one of the four National Arts Education Association standards outlined. Most times teachers pick what work is displayed including how and where, and this standard says that presenting their work they way they want to is an important aspect of the creative process that often is forgotten by art teachers. So brainstorming ways to allow student choice in the presentation part of their work.

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P.S.S. Two students are displaying their work in a local coffee shop this Saturday, so that will be cool for their resumes and portfolios. This is just one image that I found outstanding that will be displayed.