My Turn at the Easel

pollen,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

The Pollen Was Bad that Day” is the title of this little piece.

It’s summer and that means it’s Artist Trading Card time with art teachers. My ArtEducation2.0 Ning group is doing their annual swap. I have to make five cards.

I’ve been watching every grade stitch and weave this quarter. Weeks upon weeks of watching kids having fun with needle and thread. Finally, it’s my turn. I’ll do my ATCs with embroidery.

This particular card was first colored with a freezer paper print and then embroidered. I like the idea of printing first. It gives me good guidelines to follow while filling in empty spaces between stitches. The insect motif is a favorite of mine and was an easy choice to start off the process, but I think I will base the next one on a design from a masterpiece.

Looking at photos of my work, I always see errors that I don’t see in person. The eyes need to be darkened or outlined and I forgot to stitch an antennae. After that, I’ll be happy with it.

The weekend’s here. Finally. And it is the last one of the school year.

Without any thought of mentioning it to my students, I started using a computer drawing tablet in class. Whereas I used to stand in front of class and draw directly on the SmartBoard, now I sit at my desk and draw on the tablet. It then gets projected on the SmartBoard.

Today I noticed that when I drew, the kids looked at the SmartBoard, then they looked at me. They looked at the SmartBoard, and then they looked at me. Without seeing that I was drawing on the tablet, someone marvelled, “She’s drawing it with her eyes.”

The preschool printing lesson I did last week was successful, so I created a video and uploaded it to TeacherTube and YouTube.

Preschool Art - Bubblewrap Prints  on TeacherTube

Preschool Art - Bubblewrap Prints on YouTube

If anyone asks why my students are painting “gingerbread houses,” tell them that it has a creative connection to architecture. That’s what I’m claiming anyway.

With three school days left until Winter Break, my kindergartners are “losing it.”  I was feeling bad, thinking that it’s my fault that they are less self controlled; thinking that it’s because I am getting crabby and it’s making them crabby.   But when several enter the class saying crabby with each other, I think that it’s something bigger than me.  I’m not so sure that things get better after an hour in my room, so that’s frustrating.

There are only two more kindergarten classes before break and we have things to do that must be done before break.  In January, I’ll try to start fresh with them.  An hour is a long time to be in art.  I think that when they come back, I’ll lead them through a lesson and then not teach anything else.  I will give them art “free choice.”  Blocks.  Tangrams.  Drawing.  Whatever else I can think of in that vein.

These kindergarteners are printing patterns on a grid.

Fridays are interminable. I have five classes of four different grades with five different media. The preparation and clean up for all of that is exhausting. Yesterday I had kids printing, glazing pottery, working with clay, drawing, and weaving. I remember sitting for only short periods of time, and spending lots of time hunched over the sink, washing. Last night my brain was numb and my back was tired. Most of the rest of the week, my schedule is good, and I am happy with it. Fridays are just tough.

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.