My Turn at the Easel

Today felt like a long day.  By the time the last class came through, my head was pounding and my back hurt.  This was a large group of first graders, whose greatest strength is not their self control.  I felt so awful that I just wasn’t doing my best teaching.  It felt like all I could do to get them through the glazing of their pinch pots.  Afterwards, I gave them “free choice” time.

I like quiet classes, but at this point I didn’t have it in me to crack the whip to attain that.  About all I could do was to bide my time and make sure no one was hurting anyone else.

When two little kiddies asked me if they could help clean the tables, I was so thankful.  The tables had glaze residue on them and I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning the mess myself.  I could have asked for volunteers, but that even felt beyond me.  So these happy little ones really helped me a lot.  They warmed my heart just for their kindness.  I am thankful for people who offer their help before you ask for it.

Until this year, Art Club has always been a fun experience for me.  The kids who came were highly engaged in the lessons and performed at good to outstanding levels.  This year, however, is different.  There is a good 30% of the kids who are more interested in socializing than working.  That group is loud and playful.  Though they do sit at their tables and  work, the work is of low quality.

Since it is an after school activity that they choose to do, I have never laid down the same rules for work time that I do during school.  Actually, the club kids have always behaved better than the kids in regular class, and so I never had to police behavior.

As I sit in Art Club wondering why I am hating being there this year my first thought is that I must just be getting crabby.  I really think though that I am disappointed.  It’s always been so fun in the past observing the kids who are most interested in art getting the opportunity to create together.  And most of the kids this year are there for good reasons.  It’s just that the other kids are rather loud and care more about playing than the quality of their work.

When I sit back and look at the kids, all of the kids seem to be enjoying the experience.  I contemplate whether or not to quell the noisy bunch since no one but me seems to mind.  If their work didn’t suffer from their playfulness, I think it would not bother me so much.

I opened the club to more kids this year than I had ever done before.  Though I don’t like the idea of cutting the numbers down next year, I am wondering if that’s what I should do.  I am also considering the idea of screening kids somehow.  I’d rather let everyone in, but so far this method is not very fun for me.

Click here to see my Snowman Snip.  (This will take you to Flickr to see the iMovie of my 3D snip.)

I must be longing for a bit of snow, as snow images keep surfacing in my snips.

It was well below freezing this morning, much colder than it normally is this time of year in Northern Virginia. We rode the mountain bikes on a nearby trail. I didn’t feel up to par for it. My lungs felt as though they just couldn’t fully expand. Then there’s the part about freezing toes and freezing fingers. Sometimes I’d just as soon enjoy the winter from the inside of “Snippyville”, the little art space in my house.

To create this snip I hand sewed three sheets of paper together and folded them in half. I used “Dippety Dye” paper, which is stronger than tissue paper, but not by a lot. Cutting through six layers of this was relatively easy however.

I didn’t invent 3D scherenschnitte, by the way. I’ve seen it around as long as I’ve been snipping. (That’d be about 25 years now.)

Click here - Second iMovie Attempt - Sledding

Now that I have gotten a few basics of iMovie, I’m trying to improve what I’ve done.  I like this video much better than the first one.

Sledding

This is a short video of a snip I did today. I missed seeing the first snow flurries of the season today, but this is in honor of the event.

This is also my first attempt at using iMovie on my MacBook.

I’ve been reflecting on the art ed conference that I attended last week.  One presenter, Sharon Clohessy from Virginia Beach, always gives the most thought provoking sessions.  Art instruction to her is absolutely more about thinking than just simply producing, and she always challenges my thinking about how I teach.  It is easy to have kids make pretty things, but what do they get from it?  She said that the most important thing she wants her students to do is to have them think about art.  Think about their art.  Think about art in the world.  Why did the artist do what they did?  How do you get students to produce art that has meaning?

So, that was what I considered the most important line of thinking that I got from the conference.

When I saw my next door neighbor colleagues this morning, aside from the report that my sub was grumpy and rude to them, he told them that I had the kids doing too much thinking and not enough art.  Haha!  Maybe I’m on the right track.

A Tribute to Vincent vanGogh

I’m experimenting with what I can do at the new Clairvoy.  Woohoo!  I’m liking it!

I thought I would experiment to see how I can share video.  At this point I haven’t figured out whether or not I can embed a video.  I have figured out how to link to video however.

The above link goes to YouTube, to a slideshow of van Gogh’s work set to the song, Starry Night, by Don McLean.

I attended the Virginia Art Education Association conference three days last week.  What a dream to be able to go to this every year.  Elementary art teachers are rarely in the presence of others who do the same job.  There may be one other art ed colleague in their school, at best.  So you don’t get much opportunity to share  information about your job with someone who truly understands.  I feel that after being in the presence of hundreds of other art teachers for multiple days, my enthusiasm for doing my job increases dramatically.  Conferences help me keep abreast of advances in art education in a way that my professional reading alone does not.