Week 1

January 5/7

I went to Oak Hall twice this week to sub for Gary. The overall experience was good since most of the students knew and respected me. I introduced the lessons that Gary typically starts them with, but I also tried to put a little of my flair in there as well by giving them the option to add to the project or do it a little differently. A couple of the classes were upper school, so they continued what they had been doing, most of them worked on the clay wheel which I am inexperienced in doing. I really need to work on those skills.

The lessons that I modified a little were the fish platter project in 6th grade and the 7th grade silverware project. I gave the students the option to create tessellation platters that could be joined together after they finished them. Most of them thought that was a great idea, but were a little scared of the results, so all but one or two used the template. I think if this was my lesson, I would introduce different styles/cultures' fish designs or discuss different kinds of fish that the students eat. This could go with science to an extent, but falls back on the creativity of the student. Other lessons may be stronger when trying to integrate other subjects, but this one would be a stretch I think. Maybe iridescence could be brought up about the scales and the glaze.

The siverware project was a little on the fly. Typically the student build a solid "architectural"-type form and then incorporate a decorative embellishment to the top with the silverware. It is a fun and inexpensive project. Some of the students had already done it the semester before, so I encouraged them to add on to their old ones to go well beyond the 18" minimum. One student got his to 5'4". I told them that once they had gotten the height and the fork/spoon/knife embellishments, they could use stuff from the junk box to add contrasting shapes. There were plastic fruits, circuit boards, cloth, and other things of interest that they could use. They had some funny conclusions, especially one student who hung berries inside of his and another who used a pear, but it made his structure slouch, so we had to beef it up. One student used cloth as a cape, while adding eyes and a mouth out of plastic bits. She wanted a marker, so I supplied one. She wrote "Super Sculpture" on the paper with her name and grade. It was really creative and I encouraged her cleverness. She was very proud.

As far as the students were concerned, they were good, but there were a couple exceptions. A few of them didn't want to do anything after I encouraged and demanded (somewhat), for them to do so. I just wrote their names down for Gary later. The 8th graders were better the second day, but the first day, they didn't want to do too much because they had already done the clay shoe project that I was supposed to teach. So instead of making them do it again I gave them a free period to experiment withe the clay some. The second day we got started on a sculpture that needs to have 1 extruded piece, 1 form wheel, and 1 from a mold. They managed to work well day 2. On the first day two of the girls bolted out the door after I told them to clean. This aggravated me a bit. I should have given them detention the next day I was there, but I will discuss it with Gary. The boys in the class were ok, but the 8th grade attitudes were there. They seemed to follow the lead of the boy with the deepest voice. I thought it was rather funny. Anyway, the second day, I gained the respect of the voiced student, so they all worked since he was.

Good experience my first week back. I learned a few things about introductions and about the respect for substitute teachers.