Last Tuesday was the first day I was back at my placement after my students had their spring break. I had not seen them in over a week and I was excited to be back. 

This day, while the students did their independent work, they all worked on test. All of the students seemed to be focused on their test. Some were looking at their paper, some looked around every once in a while (which isn’t unexpected for some students). They all sat quietly which Ms. Morrow worked one on one with students on reading in the back of the room.

In my placement, Ms. R (11th grade history) tends to be more unstructured and hands-off than Mr. T (10th grade English). However, I notice that she often gets frustrated when she gives the students independent work periods but they end up being loud of getting distracted. She mentions to multiple times that they can be a “difficult class.” A few weeks ago, I notice that she tries to change up the pace of the class and create a little more structure. I’ll copy the section from my fieldnotes and then comment on it below:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/index.ssf/2013/04/east_penn_school_director_juli.html

This seems much worse than, say, any of Cathie Black's comments. Is it easier for rural school administrators than urban to get away with tone-deaf comments, is it matter of school-board versus superindentent/chancellor, or Democratic region versus Republican, or something else?

"On March 8, former South Carolina GOP head Todd Kincannon tweeted, "There is nothing more brain rotting than public schools. God, I pity the proletariat for having to send their inferior crotchfruit to them."

Stolz responded by tweeting, "As a school board director, I wish I could disagree. As a sentient being, I cannot."

Of course, while I doubt anyone on the SRC in Philly refers to public school students as "inferior crotchfruit," they too are (with 1 exception) not parents, teachers, or students, so I do think it may be fair to question some of their commitment to public education, even as--like Stoltz--they are responsible for it. Which is all the more reason that even if some of the school closings were justified, it's very hard to trust this group of leaders, and bothersome when individuals (like one of the people on the panel in our class seemed to) suggest frustration that students/communities can't just accept that the leaders are doing what is right for everyone.

In between terms at the art center, there is a one week Spring Break camp, where students can sign up for morning, afternoon, or full days of classes for one or more of the 4 days (M-Th).

C (head of children's programs) asked me to come in and help out for Spring Break! I showed up on Thurs. morning, not knowing what class, who I would be working with, etc. C comes out, says theres a clay class and a jewelry class. I have more recent expreience with clay (I haven't done jewelry since I was much younger), but C mentioned that the Jewelry teacher seemed overwhelmed by the number of students who signed up for her class, while the clay instructor was okay with a large class, so I went to Jewelry.

She was very happy to have a helper. She hadn't arrived to prep as early as she would have liked, so she ahd a lot for me to do and put me to work almost immediately, to prep materials. I was super happy to be useful.

Older teacher, 50s maybe.

For the spring break classes, all ages sign up for any classes, so this class had a v wide range: 4-12. At first I thought it would be insane for 4 yr olds to learn to use jewelry tools, let alone be in the same class as 12 yr olds (and vice versa), but it actually worked out pretty well, each child managed to scaffold the activities to their own level (easy to do w/ each project).

After school class with Ms. A

Tie die paper

Last day!

I arrive in class and Ms. A asks me if I want to lead the class today. Though I had no idea what the lesson was that she ahd planned, so she quickly shows me, and demos/I do it and I'm ready to introduce it to the class! She prefaced the class as a whole (she is still in charge), but allowed me to instruct the demo and really show them what we were going to do: we did it together, I demo'd and presented each step, while she wrote down the steps, so they could remember more easily.

I was incredibly pleased that Amy asked me to lead. It was natural and notintimidating, really, at all. The only thing was that I didn't entirely know/understand her lesson plan, so I was a bit unsure of the second half of her lesson plan, so I was a bit unsure of the 2nd half of her lesson, but with her there, it was okay. If I had simply been given the plan and the materials to teach on my own, I might have tweaked it a little, but because she was still there, I treated it a bit more jointly and put more faith in a plan I had doubts about. Because she was there to help/answer questions, it worked out well.

2yr olds with Ms. A

LAST DAY 

Gold and Silver this week

last week: only B and gma E, all the colors (Rainbow day)

Glitter on clay starts and moons, add glitter to paint and paint on paper

Only S and mom B and B and gma E today

Working more with glitter

Ms. A and I each would work with one of the pairs, switching off throughout class. Much more relaxed, natural at this point (last day of term). 

Like private lessons (child + parent + teacher)

From the beginning of my placement to now, I've grown so incredibly comfortable in this setting (2 yr olds and adults) and esp with S and mom B. Looking back to the start, when I had never worked with students as young as two, I was very anxious. Now I could easily see myself continuing to work with this age group on a regular basis. 

I am very sad to end this class and to stop working with this particular group of students and adults. I'm still unsure of where I want to go in the future in arts education: schools (full-time), museums, or art centers. Relationships with students are so important to me, as well as reaching "the masses". I'm still really leaning towards piecing things together: maybe working at a museum in education, teaching at art centers/privately on the side

Went to a 2nd grade class at a quaker school. Teacher A (15 students, 3 teachers)

12:45 back from recess, moment of silence

12:50 person of the week (Every Friday)

Introduce me to the class, "we have so many teachers" "I wish we could have a million teachers"

Reminder of commenting

Girl (S) sits in front of class, shows large pictures of herself: on a sports team, on a trip

(sketch of room and student set up)

Thoughts to bring back to my placement from this class: kids interacting with each other, asking/answering questions

other kids listening, looking on mostly silently, just a little restless, moving chairs, playing with tape

Teacher A: "You did a great job of listening and not commenting"

ready for comments, many instantly put their hands up

ex: where did you make the sandcastle? what did it look like?

1 or 2 adults came to the door throughout Person of the Week, Students don't really notice/react

Teacher A: "It makes people feel good when ppl ask questions!"

1:05 Choice Time: look at S's stuff, read. shared choice time with other 2nd grade class, relaxed, open environment, not too hectic, but a bit of structure. Some reading, writign, drawing.

Teacher A: when theyre writing during choice time, she's okay telling them how to spell it. She's really just happy that they're choosing to write and read at all.

A little loud, having fun, but not too disruptive

1. not being confident in the content even when you are an "expert"

I draw mountains and hills on the board, and direct the students to follow with their voices as we outline the shape of the mountains. They do this easily. Next we sing “Boom-di-a-da” as a round. I teach the students this line by line, then we sing it together, then we break it into a round. The students mostly already know the song and learn it more easily than I or Ms. Presley expected; apparently their teacher last year taught it to them (although one word was different in my version, which they are quick to point out- “fountains” instead of “flowers”.)

The only problem in this activity is that I was focusing carefully on myself and my own teaching; thus when Ms. Presley asked me how I thought the students were sounding and how they could improve, I came up blank. Truthfully they were doing pretty good.

2 yr olds with Ms. A

Two pairs here: S and mom B, Sl and mom C

C, a 1st grader, who's mom works here, is helping out today

I've grown so incredibly comfortable with these kids and parents, esp. S and her mom B. Throughout the term, S has clearly been becoming more independent from her mother, often specifically asking her not to help and to sit not so close to her. She has, in many of these instances, felt more comfortable with me helping out, allowing me (a non-parent adult) to guide her in her learning. I have never felt this comfortable wiht one specific child (I've never been a baby-sitter). 

In this setting, where a teacher can develop a relationship with a student over time, I find myself shying away from thinks like museum education. While I love being able to reach so many visitors in that way, I then often lose the chance to become close to a child, to observe and guide them more personally through their artistic/creative education. Things like this make me want to be a schol teacher, where I have the opportunity to see students regularly and develop relationships with them.

S was particularly close with me today. At the end of our class, mom B even asked me if I babysit and if I would be available to babysit for S! I was so flattered and happy to have made such a good impression on both the mother and child.

Modern class with Ms. B

Printmaking! (My concentration!!) Block printing with styrofoam plates

Show images of block prints, mostly animas, woodcuts, etc. b/w only

Ms. B did this with a group at her church last week and it was such a success that she wanted to try it again with this group. 

I cut the center circles out of plates for them. She had stencils of animals for them to trace. Trace in marker, then press image and designs into plate with pens (sketch) whale, squirrel, coyote

Some kids continued to draw, design with markers, they didn't quite understand the full concept of the printmaking

Maybe if Ms. B had done a full demo at the beginning??

I suggested that they check to see if they pressed hard enough with the pen by running their fingers over the designs.

Challenging concept, but they managed to complete.

Once completed designs, Ms. B and I had to go around to check whether they pushed in enough. I went over many lines myself, to make sure their image could be printed.

Then printed! One by one, they had to make a line. I helped roll the ink, Ms. B helped printing the plate onto paper. Some kids wanted to do 2 or 3 prints.

Wash hands, snack and story time

A's birthday, brownies

Walk over to big gallery art show. Radnor residents. Ms. B had 2 paintings. 

They see a nude painting showing a butt, they are all very amused. "It's a BUTT!"

Ms. B and I: everyone has a butt there's nothing funny about it.