Week 7

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17TH

Students continued to work on sketches today. It was a shortened day so there was no point working in clay. I am still have trouble getting my 7th period to give a crap. They had all of class to turn in their thumbnail sketches and I asked, "how people are down with their sketches?" Nearly all of them raised their hands. Then I asked, "Why do I only see two submitted on canvas?" and one kid was like "Aren't they due tomorrow at midnight?" and to me that response was stupid because why wouldn't you just take three minutes to submit on canvas while you have 20 minutes just hanging around?? I just don't relate to kids who don't give a crap because I CARE ABOUT EVERYTHING. I care about putting my best effort into everything even if I don't feel like it. I care about what the teachers think of me. I care about all of these things. I don't get not caring.

During PLC today, we talked about the idea of having kids create a portfolio that can be accessed by art teachers if they choose to move into a more advanced art class the next semester or year, that way teachers can have a readily available pre-assessment of their abilities and students can document their work to carry on with them and share during college visits or interviews. I think it's a great idea so hopefully that takes off!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH

Today was the official start date of their projects. I am noticing tons of mistakes when coil building so tomorrow I'm going to do a short demo to correct those mistakes. I'm worried about how these are going to turn out. The hard part is not focusing on the product but rather the process for these kids when assessing. I have to remind myself that for many kids this is their first time working with clay.

I find myself growing more and more impatient with incompetence and laziness. One girl constantly shows up late to first period and always smiles and laughs "It's SOOOO hard to get out of bed in the morning! Sorry!" and today I snapped. I was like "Girl. It's hard for everyone. Get your butt to class!" I even docked points on her project because I consider the "effort" part of the rubric involves freaking showing up. Then, in seventh, I had one kid pack up 30 minutes before the bell. I was like what are you doing? He said "I packed up, I'm done for today." I was so ticked. I said NO. Get your stuff out and get to work. I just literally don't have patience for it.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH

Today I demonstrated some of the common mistakes I was seeing while students were coiling. It is funny how you can create new problems when trying to solve the original problems. One problem was students were not pinching down to connect the coil to the layer below it. It really is more squishing down, but I used the word "pinching" so students began to pinch up and make their walls super thin. So that backfired. I also demonstrated how to make a lid. That was nice because it was smaller groups of kids and only for those who were adding one to their sculpture.

I had them do a process log entry today. I've decided to make it a straight journal, so no more taking pictures of their work in progress. I think that should help them do the entries that day because the pictures just took too long to transfer to their computers. I also am including prompts to guide their reflection instead of asking them to write about anything. I hope this works better!

L., a so proclaimed problem student, accused of not caring about him because I wouldn't let him go to the bathroom today (because he asks every single day). I laid it down for him. I told him if I truly didn't care, I wouldn't be checking in to make sure he is doing his assignments correctly, or making him redo things to his best ability, or hovering to check and see if his coiling technique is correct. If I didn't care I would let him go to the bathroom so he could dick around. I told him not to accuse me of not caring again. I think he got the message, but he played too cool for school and muttered once I left. The student next to him was like "she does have a point dude."

We had parent teacher conferences tonight and they went very well! It was really a great opportunity to meet parents and I think the part I liked the most was validating that their kid is awesome. Just kind of seeing that relief and happiness to know their kid is doing well and is liked felt good. One mom even said, "Thank you for smiling each time you say my son's name!" Just small stuff like that is important to them! I was disappointed that one student's parents who I have real concerns about didn't sign up. I even sent a personal email saying I was concerned and would like to talk to them and they didn't even respond. Just really unfortunate and rude.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH

Today was a project work day. I demonstrated how to pull handles. I am realizing there is a lot of sexual undertones when working with clay and it's really difficult to get the kids to look past it, because as a serious artist, it doesn't even cross my mind, so trying to get them into that mindset is difficult since they're hormonal teenagers. I just try to keep a calm, professional demeanor when speaking and I think it is beginning to rub off on them. Pieces are turning out great!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST

Had a great day today! I really got to get hands on with our AP class today as we began drawing from observation. I'm having a great time bringing some of the knowledge that I just recently applied in my courses in the spring to my students. I definitely need to keep my skills up through classes or model sessions. I kind of had a wake up call with color guard where I wasn't practicing my skill enough so I wasn't as confident or proficient demonstrating or talking about techniques with my students. I don't want that to happen as an art teacher, so I'll make sure to keep up my skills.

Witnessed the worst kiln explosion I've EVER seen. Just a massacre. I was talking to Jasmine about what she planned to do about grades and moving forward since nearly the whole classes' pieces had been destroyed. She said she might have them use the piece to recreate a new ceramic sculpture which I think is cool!