Last Day at NFA

My last day at NFA was spent just having the students continuing their work on their drawings. I had students at all different stages in the project so I was just walking around helping them and trying to keep them on task. It was nice to see how the drawings had progressed while I wasn't there. I was lucky enough that my teacher didn't have a problem giving them time to work on them while I wasn't there. These are some of the pictures I have of their drawings, some done, others in progress:

We didn't exactly get to the completed drawing stage that I had planned, but I'm content with the work I did and what they accomplished because I saw so many of them improve their drawing skills and really work at it, they were learning and that was more important to me in the end. 

Compostions Using Your Body- Victoria and Justin's Lesson

I really would've liked to participate in this lesson, but I had to videotape. That being said, I think it gave me a different perspective on what was going on.

I liked that this lesson kept everyone moving from the very beginning, it had students up and out of their seats participating. However, I feel that there was an issue in managing the space of the room, there were some tables in the back of the room that isolated from the rest of the class. I feel like they kind of became forgotten back there and even I found myself having to remember to keep going back there to ask questions and see what was going on. I think a solution would've been to bring those tables into the center of the room so there wasn't one student alone on the floor working by themselves.

There was also an issue with students being told that they shouldn't move both of their hands at the same time to achieve symmetry, but instead try to make a mark on one paper and then copy it on the other paper. I think this was so students could really concentrate on making the marks symmetrical. Some students had issues with this and others didn't and Justin did state that you would probably find one way easier than the other. I found that a lot of the students were doing it both ways anyway. Some students weren't really sure what to do after they had finished, they didn't really know when they were done. But overall I feel like this was a really realistic classroom situation and students were enjoying the activity. There was a lot of conversing as work was being done, it was interesting to see all this happening and not be caught up in doing the lesson myself.

Communication Through Memory- Joe and David's Lesson

This lesson was interesting, but I feel like it was a rather rushed drawing process. I feel like students who would be doing this wouldn't necessarily be happy with the drawing that they created for their partner. It had to be rendered rather fast due to the information that was given by your partner. I think it's a good practice for maybe a final drawing later on. This was the drawing that Taryn made for me:

My memory was being in the car holding one of my new puppies on the way back home from picking them up. I actually think Taryn did a really good job at drawing my memory.

There were a few issues as far as using the materials, which were kind of like oil pastels. I didn't really like using them and didn't understand really how to get the finished results that were shown in the teacher samples. we found out later that the teachers themselves had put a little more time into their drawings, which was fine, but it would've been nice to tell us not to necessarily rush the process.

The other thing that I had an issue with was the packet, I thought it was good that all that information was provided for us, but neither one of them went over it. I think it would've been helpful to have the terms explained or examples given on how we could use the terms. I saw the point of having that worksheet to work on, but I found it distracting and couldn't fill it out because I was listening to my partner and answering her questions. I kept getting distracted by that. It was also really noisy in the classroom and I had a hard time hearing what my partner was asking me.

I think it was an interesting idea in discussing communication, it just needed some tweaking.

My Thematic Lesson-Phobia Photo Comic

I was really nervous the day we did the lesson. A lot of things were falling into place a lot later than I would've liked and things were not going very smooth.

I really do wonder if there was a way to not make this a collaborative lesson in the future, than maybe the means to make it so should be explored further. I just feel like making it collaborative brings up a lot issues that can hinder the lesson. There is figuring out when to put things together and the disagreements that happen between two people who teach differently. There is also this issue that I saw in a few other presentations where one partner can be out shined, not necessarily through any fault of their own. Some people are just more dominant in certain situations and you're not going to call out your partner during a presentation. And while I know why we had to do it this way and I learned a lot of things while collaborating with a partner, I feel like a more fair way of assessing someone as teacher and seeing how they teach a 55 minute lesson would be to see them do it on their own. This is just my personal opinion and I might be the only one who felt like this, but it's the way I felt through the entire process.

That being said, I enjoyed the lesson that my partner and I came up with and presented and even though there were issues in executing it, I feel like everyone still enjoyed themselves.

Narrative and Performance Art- Jen and Megan

I enjoyed this lesson a lot. This was my puppet for my nightmare narrative:

It is an in progress spider. I have this nightmare where I am sleeping in my bed and I suddenly wake up and look up at the ceiling and there is this huge spider crawling toward me. The awful thing is that I cannot move, I am paralyzed with fear and can't get away. A horrible feeling.

I feel like when I first walked in and saw puppets, I began to wonder if it would be age appropriate, and I think with the added references to a dance group on a popular tv show, the movie the Labyrinth and the puppetry used by another culture to portray fables and stories, it in fact did make it very age appropriate. 

I think just some things to consider would be maybe not such an emphasis on having to have a figure in the nightmare. Also, there are students that are not going to be as willing to share their nightmares or maybe cannot remember their nightmares and maybe coming up with solutions for those issues.

Other than that I thought the lesson was presented very well, I walked in a little late, but i still understood exactly what was being discussed and what we were supposed to do. I would love to do a lesson like this in a classroom.

Candy Compositions- Mia and Rebecca's Lesson

I feel like this lesson was fun, but a big risk and there were some snags in executing it. This was my candy composition that I made:

I had the Beatles song "Across the Universe" and used the line "Images of broken light dance before me like a million eyes..."

I think the part of the lesson I had the hardest time with was during the demo. The demo itself was really well done and helpful, but halfway through it, I was wondering what we were making with the candy, I really had no idea why we were watching a demo on making things with candy.

My second issue was the choice of songs. I do like the Beatles, but I think limiting it to one band and their music is not going to sit well with your students. I understand that there is the possibility of inappropriate content if you let the student pick their own song, but I'm sure that can be worked out somehow because I think a more personal connection to the song could be helpful in making the artwork.

I think the energy during the lesson was prevalent, but we were also eating a lot of the candy.

Teaching at NFA Part 2

The second part of my lesson revolved around elements of design. Students got to experiment with pattern, symbols, and color to make a design that was personal to them to fill in the hands they had drawn. I also touched on Mehndi designs that are done with Henna: 

I felt like this was a relevant cultural tie in because a lot of them had heard of henna tattoos, but might not know their significance in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. I discussed with them about how they were using pattern and symbols and how these design were very significant to Muslim and Indian cultures as they are usually applied before weddings and important religious festivals.

The students really liked seeing images like this and I think my enthusiasm about them was a little contagious. I also saw why many started the design process that they kind of took elements from these designs and made them their own. 

Another thing I saw in their designs was students really trying to incorporate their personal interests. I had one student make a design on her hands that revolved around her being a volunteer firefighter. Another student used these figures that he drew as the main focus and made a design around it. 

I was quite pleased with the designs that they were coming up with. I gave them multiple suggestions and helped them one on one, but I didn't want to give them too much. What a lot of them came up with was fantastic.

Some of my students work:

I had a few students who had rendered their hands to the point where they became very attached to them and didn't want to fill them in, so I suggested that they come of with a design to fill in the negative space around the hands. 

Literary Sculptures- Laura and Mikaela's Lesson

I feel like this is an art form I have always seen amazing pictures of and always wanted to try:

This lesson was a great way of exploring and making sculptures made from books. The teacher examples were really well done and i think that really helped to engage everyone in this project, to see what was possible to accomplish. I did however, have this initial hesitance in cutting up the pages of a book. Some people didn't have that problem because they felt that they didn't own the book so there was no personal connection, but I still had a problem. I think it's because it was just one of those things that was ingrained in me as a child, that books were something very special to have and you don't destroy them. But for the sake of the project and my curiosity, I got past it.

 I had some issues in choosing a subject to portray from my book because I chose an encyclopedia and there was too much material to choose from. I thought that there was definitely a variety of books to choose from though. The other issue that the lesson presented was the idea of additive and subtractive processes when making the sculptures. I don't think I was as aware of this when I was making my sculpture because I was concentrating more on just making it. I understood the concept of additive and subtractive methods, but i guess it could be argued that we weren't really adding or subtracting anything because it was all taken from the book itself. I can see it both ways I suppose, you are using additive and subtractive methods, but maybe there shouldn't have had so much emphasis on it during the lesson.

Teaching at NFA

The day I gave my lesson at NFA I barely slept the night before. I don't know why I was so nervous, I'm usually more comfortable in front of a classroom full of students than a presentation in front of my peers. I think it was because I just didn't know how this lesson was going to be received. I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself and got all stressed out. In actuality, the lesson went really well, better than i anticipated.

These are some pictures of me teaching the first part of my lesson. I feel like a lot of the students were looking forward to me teaching, I'm not sure why, maybe because I was a visitor and they were curious about me. They were quite chatty at times and I found that I had to pick and choose times to address it, 

I let it go unless it became so distracting that I lost my train of thought. However, as chatty as they were, I found that every time I did a demo drawing my hand, you could suddenly hear a pin drop. It scared me a little but the first time, but I got used to it. Another thing I found teaching this lesson throughout the day was that there is a definite stigma in art when it comes to drawing. Students felt that if they were not good at drawing they were automatically "bad" at art. I knew about this already, but I guess, seeing it so much was a little disheartening. I made sure to explain to students that drawing was a skill, that even people who have natural ability have to practice all the time to get better at it. 

I also noticed that keeping the students who had very little confidence in their ability was my greatest challenge for the day. I tried several approaches, but the one I found to be the most successful was telling the student that I wasn't grading their drawing. After I told them this and came back around 5 minutes later, they had finally begun to draw. I felt relieved, but a little sad at the same time. It shouldn't be like that. Students today are tested so much and judged on everything that they do that they are afraid to put a mark on the page. 

Aside from this, all the students seemed to be getting into the drawing process and that made me feel good. My teacher was having fun too, taking the day to sit and practice drawing along with the students.

Narrative Portraits- Jaime and Kirsten's Lesson

So these were my narrative self portraits for Kirsten and Jaime's lesson:

My genre was horror. I'm holding a piece of balled up red paper that I tried to make into a clown nose. I don't like clowns and the idea behind this was that I had found a clown nose and I know that there is one nearby, probably hiding somewhere, all nose-less and creepy. 

In this lesson, I really like the way narrative was discussed through the different images that were shown. Giving us this really open ended photograph to talk about let to so many assumptions about what was going on and I found the stories that developed during the investigation of these images to be very interesting and entertaining. It got the idea of narrative across to the students in a really engaging way. Making the different portraits was a fun process too, the only thing is I think there should have been more supplies available to make props, maybe a little more structure on how to develop narrative in these photos by using props because a lot of that creativity and ingenuity came from us. Also I  think a lot of the chaos of using the limited space in the room and having students leaving without permission was a good lesson in how we all need to remember that we are in charge and we have to manage our classroom and be aware of what it is going on at all times.

Insanity- Tanya and Katie's Lesson

I thought that the way that Tanya and Katie presented the idea of insanity in this lesson was done very well. I could tell that they were trying very hard to be politically correct and sensitive to the idea of insanity. I found the most memorable artist they talked about to be Judith Scott, who was born profoundly deaf, mute and with down syndrome and institutionalized for most of her life. But I do not remember the artist because of this, I remember the discussion because of her work and her process to make works of art like this:

The fact that this is what I remember, how her process of repetition played around with the idea of insanity, not that the artist herself experienced hardship in her life due to disability. This was presented really well.

I also really enjoyed the activity and the idea of having all those mystery boxes. It made the process of making art into a game and games always go over well with students. The only problem would definitely be the preparation foe all those boxes in the limited time between classes. Fantastic idea if it could be executed for every class and I'm sure it's possible, just would take some planning. 

Planning my lesson for NFA

When it came to figuring out what i was going to do for this lesson, I was honestly lost for a couple weeks. My mentor teacher was teaching this studio art class for the first time and getting his own curriculum organized so he really couldn't tell me what he would be doing ahead of time. He told me he would rather I do my own lesson. I was happy that he had complete faith in my ability to do this so I agreed that this is what I would do....but I didn't even know where to start.

I began to think about so many things to the point of over thinking. The Pre-Assessment test had slowed down the class and not much material had been covered. I really wasn't sure what their skill levels were, though I assumed it was ranged from those with natural ability to those who I would have to coax to at least try. I wanted the lesson to be challenging, but not frustrating. I wanted the students to be engaged through the process because some of them just did not want to be there at all. I had limited space, limited time, limited supplies. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and then I saw this image in an online search...

This was the stepping stone for my lesson. I thought what if I just have them build off of the last lesson where they did a line and contour drawing of their sneaker. I could have them do different poses with their hands working with just line and contour, so rendering them would not be an issue since they had not really covered value and shading yet. I really liked the design element done on the hands so I wanted to incorporate that also. It would be a way for them to personalize it, kind of like tattooing. I could also talk about Mehndi designs that are done with Henna as a cultural element to the lesson.

 My mentor teacher was really excited for this lesson when I talked to him about it and thought that it would go over well with the students. He also helped me with the little details, like how I would present the idea to the students and what supplies i had to work with. He was very encouraging and that made me feel a lot more confident about my lesson.

Time Based Collage- Shannon and Sara's Lesson

This was my static composition from Shannon and Sara's lesson

     
                                  This was my dynamic composition

                           This was a zoomed in closeup of my composition, trying to play around with cropping

 Overall I think the lesson was done very well. I think the idea of static and dynamic compositions were explained really well and having the objects to arrange helped reinforce the concepts. I wonder though about the fact that we were told to bring in a certain amount objects for class, but we weren't really told why or what we were bringing them in for. I suppose that posed as part of the challenge for students in trying to work their composition, but as you can see in my examples, I brought in random stuff from my apartment without really thinking about it. Knowing that we were making this 3D collage maybe would've made me think about what I would bring in and I would be happier with the results of my composition.

I Don't Like Change

My second day of fieldwork was a really strange day. I had not been to the school the week before due to a holiday and I had been informed that because there was a student teacher also working with my teacher, that it was not an ideal situation for me and I would be switched, again. You take it in stride, but what's really going through your head is, now I have to do my first day all over again. My new placement teacher was James Reyes, he shared the room with my previous placement teacher, so I had actually already met him briefly. He had never had a fieldwork student before and this made me a little nervous. While talking with him it seemed clear that he was very open to and interested in my ideas, which was fantastic because that doesn't always happen. However, there were also times where I felt lacking in direction. I decided that it was best to just address that problem by asking him what he thought when I shared with him my ideas, as this is exactly what he would ask me when he told me what he was going to teach that day. Doing this basically set up the dynamic for the rest of my time there. As this was his first time teaching this course, and this was my first time really working with high school students, we were learning from each other and this was something I had never experienced before in fieldwork. I didn't realize it at that moment, but I was extremely fortunate.

First Impressions

So for Fieldwork III this semester I was placed at Newburgh Free Academy in a studio art class. Initially I was quite intimidated, Newburgh is a city dealing with a lot of poverty, crime and drugs, the school is also huge and has a bit of a bad reputation. It doesn't help when you tell your friends, "I got placed at NFA," and they simply say "Oh" and give you this sympathetic look. However, I was determined to make the best of this situation, look at the positive side, if I can work at a school like this, I can work anywhere. So I went there my first day, already nervous due to the fact that I was informed that my placement teacher had taken an elementary position, so I didn't even know if I would have a teacher to work with. I walked past the metal detectors (apparently they are only for the students) and found the main office, signed in and waited for my teacher.

The first day didn't go too bad, as I mainly sat off to the side and observed. I was in a studio art class, kind of like a foundations art course and it was required and it was mainly made up of ninth and tenth graders. There really wasn't a lot of teaching going on due to what was explained to me as a Pre-Assessment test that was to be given, only they couldn't call it a test, they called it a "survey". Basically, the state is demanding that art teachers must include the elements and principles of art into their curriculum. They can't teach anything about the elements and principles before they give the "survey" because there needs to be a certain calculated amount of growth over the year to show how much students are learning and how teachers are teaching. This Pre-Assessment is not being well received by teachers and it has only made teaching more stressful and difficult. For most of the day, I watched how the students interacted with each other and their teacher and I listened to a lot of conversations I will never be able to erase from my brain. At the end of the day I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to be ok there, and that I would be able to handle this. 

Art.sy

I came across this interesting website the other day called Art.sy. Basically, Art.sy is to art as Pandora is to music. Art.sy is a large database that catalogues various artwork. You can go on it and conduct a  search by artists, artwork, movements, mediums or keywords. Also, like Pandora, the site takes into consideration your artistic preferences and you can follow particular artists, specific pieces or collections of art or even a certain movement. Art.sy will then send you suggestions for other artwork you might be interested in according to your preferences. For example, if I wanted to follow Claude Monet, Art.sy would suggest other artists of the Impressionist movement to follow. They will also send you emails to let you know when new images have been added to the site. They are still collecting images as we speak, so they do not have access to every single piece of art ever produced, not yet anyway. I think this is an interesting resource, it allows you to explore different types of art without having to do a million google keyword searches, everything is right there on one website. Here is the link for it http://art.sy