Week 8

This week I spoke with Colquit Tanner, who came in to help the students with their clay throwing. He got his Masters in education, which I was unaware of. We were speaking about how students need to relate what they are learning to their lives or it will not fully learn it. He told me a bout a history class he taught to upper level students in the Seventies. The class had to complete a final project that related to their lives. They were learning the typical history information, but had to go out of the classroom to experiment in the public. One student in particular, an African American student, did her report on discrimination in employment. She applied to over ten positions for work, but apparently wasn't able to get any of the jobs due to discrimination. I thought the idea for students to get out into the public and experiment with a topic that resonates with them, something important. We both agreed that the method of relational learning was the best method for teaching and learning.

Gary and I went over and discussed my project resource that Gary will use to teach the 7th graders. I gave him a list of possible projects using cardboard. There were too many possibilities, so Gary wanted me to narrow them down to three projects: Steel sculpture, personal space, and student collaborative piece. The jury is still out on which one Gary will use, so I will know this week. I have been developing these projects over the last couple of weeks and hope that they aren't too in depth, which Gary was afraid of. I will try to keep things simple and to the point.

Week 7

This week I assisted the students with their projects. I was able to help them, at least to my knowledge, with their wheel throwing. There were some new student on the wheel that finished the last project. I am still generating a project that I will supply Gary to see if he is able to use the resource and the instructions. I helped students with their glazes by showing them how to tape off areas to keep straight lines when applying the glaze. This is something I didn't know much about a month ago, but I feel confident demonstrating certain aspects of ceramics.

One of the students in Ponz's class had a gallery show on Thursday, so I attended it that evening to give her support. Her artwork parody's the roles of nuclear family moms and relationships. She uses pen and ink drawings with water color. Her drawing style reminds me of Robert Crumb, but you don't want to say that around her. The originality factor is very heavy with the young artist and not wanting to be compared with other works.

I didn't have a lot going on this week, so it will be a little short.

The survey i posted online is a great success so far with over 70 responses.

Week 6

This week I continued to work along with the students in ceramics/ceramic sculpture. Some of the students are hand building, while others are on the wheel. Some of the 7th graders are creating extra sculptures since they have finished the assignments, but most go to the wheel. Three boys in the class created a dragon sculpture along with many little characters. It is interesting to hear the stories behind each one. I have been continuing my education on the wheel, while helping students up to my level of skill, which they pass quickly. I was in charge of the students in that section this week. Some of them new and some pros. I have gotten pretty good at centering, so that is where I am able to really help them.

Gary and I spoke today about the impact I have been having on the students. I was delighted to hear that the students always wait for me to come in. Even some of the high school students are pleased when I walk through the door. As soon as I walk in they ask for help or tips concerning their work. I am glad that they value my opinion. Gary was saying that I have a good ability recognizing students that need a little extra help or assistance.

I spoke with Gary again about giving him a project to teach to his students. I am going to collect cardboard for the project and give the project packet/instructions to see how well it works. This project packet is what I want to experiment with. If I can create ones that a teacher can pull out, learn a little, and then teach well, then I think that I have composed a good resource. Gary will give me feedback as well as my personal observations of pros and cons. Gary feels that my thesis project as a whole, or unit, should start with simple technique-based projects and work its way up to more difficult/multi-technique projects. He said, which was a good notion, was to have the projects vary in time and tedium. They shouldn't all be two or three week projects, but vary, meaning that, say one, should be 2 weeks long, the next a few days, then the next three weeks, etc. Have smaller/simpler technique-based projects in between the more tedious or larger works. This would give the students a break in between big projects. Let them learn a new technique with a simple assignment, then apply it later with other learned techniques. This made a lot of sense.

My survey was approved by the IRB, so I will post that by the weekend.

Week 5

This week on Tuesday there was a sub in for Gary, so I helped the students as Gary would since the sub wasn't an "art person". One student who I was assigned to help last week was creating a ceramic chip/salsa plate. They had to create this using an interest of theirs. This student was creating the roman coliseum and wanted a "roman style statue" to hold up the dip container. This idea, from which I found out later, came from another where they were learning about Greek/Roman mythology. I offered the idea to the student that the figure could be similar to the titan Atlas. Atlas was the fellow who holds up the earth on his shoulders, but instead of the planet he could be supporting the dip. He thought this was a great idea and began telling me about Atlas and other titans and gods. This was an interesting discourse that sparked other students' conversation on mythological characters. I thought that this project should have this theme throughout the classroom considering how everyone was learning about mythology. I guided him on simple proportions and carving methods and it turned out very well. We had to beef up certain parts so it would be strong enough to hold up the dip bowl. I hope it turns out well.

This seemed like a good opportunity to have the entire class create choose a mythological figure to portray in this or similar project. I thought it was great that this student was using the new material he had been learning on his own in the art room. I learned here that students can make connections to other subjects very well and that teachers can learn from this on how to incorporate ideas for their projects. This all goes back to having a good collaboration with other teachers and developing cross curriculum projects.

Ponz showed me an interesting "free" 3-D program that students could use for a number of projects. The program can be used for making landscapes, architecture, and sculpture design. This would work well when having students create "their own spaces" dioramas and designing abstract sculptures, which are two of my curriculum ideas for my thesis. There are many possibilities for this program instead of having the students drawing the designs as usual. I'm not saying that this would replace drawing designs, but could be supplemented in particular or proper projects. After I messed around with the program, I looked into other free programs that were similar. Google Sketchup is easy to use and free as well. It's a little more simple and is geared more toward architecture. This is the program that is used for some Google earth applications.

Thursday I was a student again and Colquit Tanner gave me some pointers on the clay wheel. Colquit has been throwing for 30 + years. This is the second time I really tried this I must admit I was a little proud. The information he was giving to me was invaluable for me and my future students. I would still like to take Gary's adult class on Saturdays.

Raku ceramics and how different it is from traditional clays and firings. The Raku is interesting because it is fired at enormous temperatures, but is pulled out of the kiln immediately and put into a smoke box. If other clays were handled like that they would explode due to the temperature drop. The next thing I learned was about glazes. It was simple information, but will be useful to me in the future. Glazes are a science and need to be applied evenly like paint. Different colors on top of others will effect the way they turn out; and based on this they may turn out different every time. The best thing to do is to make sample tablets sot the students can view what they look like in general and how many coats to apply.

I learned many tings this week, but the main things was that teachers may try to make or supply an opportunity for students to make connections, but when it comes down to it, the connections that students make on their own are more interesting and honest, than when connections are implied too much by an educator.