Day 20, Projects Ending

A new Monday and a new week.  Every class that we have today is finishing whatever project they are working on,  we have Jasper Johns Flags ending today and Tiki Mask ending today.  Next time we see these classes they will all be starting new projects. I should probably mention that at this time I am running about 85% - 90% of the classes on a weekly  basis. 

Day 19, More What is Art

Friday oh Friday I continued giving the what is art spiel all morning and then after lunch I continued with the two classes doing the Jasper Johns Flag project and two classes doing the Tiki Mask project.  Every Friday so far I have still been working at the movie theater however I feel that my time there is slowly coming to an end. 

Day 18, The Return of What is Art

What is art it is a question that we asked week ago to the older students.  I made a power point for this short presentation I was going to give based on some of the answers they wrote down.  This was originally only supposed to be a fifteen minute presentation but instead it lasted the entire class for each class I gave it to.  most classes were fully engaged and some didn't even get through the whole slide show.  It was while I was lecturing that I realized that my for was starting to go by the time I got the fifth class today. 

Day 17, PD Day

Today is a professional development day, everybody is heading over to the high school.  No students today just us teachers.  Today I got my first glimpse of the high school art room and I must say it is divine however it doesn't have the gently used art room look that B.H.S had.  But it does have a similar set up I am really looking forward to working in there.  The first half of the day was quite interesting hearing about the districts plans to build a fine arts house hear at the high school level.  while the afternoon session was filled with a lot of negativity and venting of frustration.  I feel that I came away from the PDD with two things one if you don't have something create it.  My high school had an awesome program that was not funded by the school district but through fund raising by the students.  This gave them a sense of ownership and connected them to that room.  I feel that there should be more fundraising to support the arts programs.  The second thing I learned kind of ties into the first.  If this art house is ever going to get off the ground there needs to be an influx of money pouring into the elementary schools because the budget discrepancy is difference is ridiculous. 

Day 16, Changing up some things that weren't working.

A new week at the Edge.  We changed up some of the schedule since we share this classroom with two other art teachers and one of them is working in self-portraits at the beginning of the year we changed it up started the Exquisite Corpse with the fourth graders on six foot sheets of paper.  I think this is a more appropriate age group for this project and I like this format better.  Note to self do not do this again with a classes younger than fourth grade.  Another thing we started last week was asking the the third and fourth grade classes what they thought was and was not art.  We told them that we would return to that question a week later.  Starting Thursday we'll return with more on what is art. 

Day 15, A New Week

We have more classes starting their first projects today.  We talked with the music teacher earlier and he said he was planning on doing a couple sessions on Polynesian music and wanted to know if we could do an art project set around that theme.  We quickly agreed to that and after some research came up with a lesson for a Tiki-Mask.  This project we knew we wanted to weave into the schedule for all of the grade levels to collaborate with the music teacher.  We started those with the kindergartens at the end of the day and a second and third split.

Day 14, Week 3 Down

It is Friday again and that means that I have survived another week.  Today the rest another batch of classes at Savage are officially starting their first projects of the new year.  It ranges from the self-portraits to the Jasper Johns Flag to two second grade classes at the end of the day doing the Exquisite Corpse.  I am starting to get the feeling that the Exquisite Corpse idea for first and second graders is not working out. 

Day 13, Painting the Wall

The Edge is a peculiar elementary school it is just a different atmosphere than Savage.  on some days that is really a good thing on others it can be trying and frustrating.  Finally we are starting our first project with the all of the classes are seeing today.  With our third and fourth graders just like at Savage they have started a self-portrait project to gauge their growth over time.  However in the afternoon I am starting a new project with the first and second graders called the Exquisite Corpse.  My cooperating teacher read a copy of the Salvador Dali book from the series getting to know the world's greatest artist and I proceeded to introduce the project after that.  This is a project that forces the students to work collaboratively throughout the assignment since the drawing will be done in three parts by three separate students. I have high hopes for this well see what day two of this project yields.  During our principle directed time we got the wall painted for the mural that we are planning on putting up.  

Day 12, First Official Project starting

It's Wednesday and we're back at Savage.  All of our classes except for the young fives will be starting their first project today.  For the third and fourth graders their first project is a a self-portrait this is our yearly assessment project.  A self-portrait at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year to show how the students have grown in their drawing skills over the course of a year.  Our last class of the day is a first and second split we are continuing a our Jasper Johns flag project that we started with them last week. 

Day 11, Constitution Day

Today we are back at the edge, it is Constitution Day so we have to include something about the constitution in our lesson plan.  Since we were assigning seats and creating table folders we showed them a clip from the school house rock video.  Many of the students said that they had already seen it earlier today however our kindergarten class in the afternoon loved it.  There is really something special about having a young class that has no experience in anything.  It allows them to be wowed by every thing we do as teachers. 

Day 10, Seminar 2

Today was kind of an odd day there was an assembly in the morning that cut the time of two of our classes so they weren't able to really start the Jasper Johns project.  The assembly was for that group that come to every elementary school in the country I think to peddle holiday goods for the kids to sell, I remember doing this when I was their age.  Anyway the company man speaking to the students used this song called gummy bear witch I noticed really got their attention, it also reminded me of the song Crazy Frog.  I had to leave around lunch for my second student teaching seminar in Milan at one of the elementary schools.  It was at this seminar that I finally saw all of the other student teachers together at the same time with our supervisor.  We talked about different things related to writing our units & teaching those to each of the classes.  I think overall it was a giant cramming session similar to study hall the day before the final exam.  I went over a lot of information but some of it still seems a little fuzzy I know I will be emailing our supervisor for clarification on more than one of the topics discussed that day.  Since I am the only specials teacher in this group 7 also the only one who is jumping between both primary & secondary, but several age groups  & grades. 

Day 9, Made it through Week 2

It is friday again I can't believe how fast everything has flown by.  I told my cooperating teacher that I would like to take charge of every other class each day so that I can get more experience especially since my E.M.U. supervisor is coming on the 18th to observe me teaching a lesson.  Two of the classes today started their Jasper Johns projects while the rest of the classes were assigned seats & finished their table folders.  I have to head off to my paying job tonight I hope there is someone to close with because I don't know if I can do another twenty two hour day.

Day 8, Principle Directed Time is Directed.

The Edge is always a different type of environment than that of Savage  I like that we are there on Tuesdays & Thursdays because it adds another level of complexity to being a specials teacher instead of focusing on one grade all day every day.  Today the principle gave my co-operating teacher & I an assignment to do during our PD time.  She wants us to come up with mural for the wall at the bottom of the stairwell it must have the school motto though.  With all of the classes we saw today we finished up helper cards, assigned seats & made table folders. 

Day 7, A Day That Many of Us Will Never Forget, Patriot's Day

This is the second Wednesday of the the entire school year, that means this is also the first staff meeting I will be going to this year.  This is also the day for one class in particular here at Savage that is going to start their first project of the year.  For Jackson's class they see us on Wednesdays & Fridays so they have already finished their helper cards & table folders.  The project we are going to be starting with them is a Flag Assemblage in the style of Jasper Johns.  I had printed up some some examples of Johns work so the students could see some of the work he has made over the years.  We talked about the importance Patriot's Day since all of these students were born after 9/11.  They seem really stoked for doing the assignment. 

Day 6, Oh the Joys of the Edge.

This is the first Tuesday at Edgemont we're still rattling off the spiel & making helper cards one of the classes showed up late so they didn't even get to finish their helper cards which isn't a bad thing, but this should only be a one class project.  This is the first day we are seeing the ASD kids part of me is saying I can't wait I have a cousin who is autistic so I am looking forward to this class.  The ASD class is our last class of the day after which we have principle directed time.  It was during the ASD class that I feel I saw one of my first real challenges that is going to come with the world of teaching.  These kids were out of control there are only ten of them & three para pros.  One girl is a real handful she is a fourth grader I think she was screaming & yelling she even started hitting one of the para pros.  The students blew through the assignment sheets we had for them.  It was probably the only class I have been in so far that has left me feeling totally helpless.  If it wasn't for an unplanned fire drill I don't know if we would have had anything else for them to do. 

Day 5, The 1st of Many Mondays

Its Monday and the start of my second week as a student teacher.  I thought I would have a hard time changing my sleep schedule to fit student teaching.  It hasn't really been that hard I wake up between 5:30 - 6:30 a.m. leave the house between 7:00 - 7:15 a.m. to arrive at school.  By 8:00 a.m.  Now if I can just change my diet to something a little healthier instead of food on the go everything will be good.  The great thing about Mondays is that the first three classes are our doubles which means here we are week to and they are on to table folders.  This is good we haven’t crunched the numbers yet but we are estimating that we see 700 students a week.  In addition to doing table folders the plan is to put each class in assigned seats for the remainder of the year. Also this is our first day to meet the young fives.  I was so shocked by this class it is essentially preschool with only 10 boys in it. For the rest of the afternoon we are back to doing the spiel & helper cards.  

Day 4, Week 1 Down

First things first I'm am official I am signed up & registered.  Its Friday back at Savage another day of the spiel.  My co-operating teacher gives me a little more rope in letting me give the spiel in a couple of classes I am even given control of the class during work time this allows me to get to know the students more since I only see them once a week.  The school day is over but I still have to work tonight, I wonder how long I can keep this crazy schedule going.  All I can say is that one week down and I am having a blast I can't believe I have come this far. 

Day 3, The 1st Day at The Edge.

This is the first official day at Edgemont Elementary when I arrive my co-operating teacher & I have to head outside for morning bus duty.  While my teacher is doing the morning announcements I am getting the room ready for the first class, here at the Edge we have morning prep the first class of the day so we don't see students until 9:45.  This is a fairly simple day because we are doing the exact same thing that we did at Savage yesterday.  Since I have heard the spiel so I am up on deck for at least one class today running the show.  My co-operating teacher jumps in every now and then since she has that loud cutting voice that the students know through experience and reputation. The music teacher came in during out prep and I was talking to him, he knew I was s student teacher and he asked me if I was sure this was something I wanted to do for a living.  Can't let this psych me out he seems only a couple of years away from retirement but at the same time he also seems very bitter about the system and how things have deteriorated over time.  By the end of the day there was only one class that was behind where we wanted them to be.  Began's 2nd grade was late to the art room so they weren't able to start their helper cards which means when we start their table folders they'll have to work double time to do both in one day. 

The 2nd Official Day.... But the 1st Real Day

This is the first official day of on my way to being a teacher I am still not officially registered in the eyes of the university but I am here anyway signing in as a volunteer helper.  I mean lets face I've come to far to be held back now.  We stared out the day on morning bus duty just like over at the Edge, it looks as though that is going to be standard at both schools.  We saw a handful of kindergarteners today but they don't officially start art class until next week because for many of them this is their first week in school ever.  So we took the few that we saw on a tour of the school.  Today was one class after another boom, boom, boom; I am amazed at how quickly the day has just flown by.  All we did today was introductions, procedures, and begin our helper cards.  This is going to be the plan for the rest of this week especially since at this school we only see three of the classes two days a week and the rest of the school once a week.  Tonight is open house for the parents where they can stop by talk with the teachers in general a meet and greet.  There are several student teachers in both of the elementary schools I am in I am there along with my co-operating teacher and we are introduced to the parents by the principle.  I am tired at the end of the day, but its a good type of tied its a tired that comes over you when you know you have accomplished something.

Game Day, Sort Of

Technically this is the first official day of classes for the schools in Van Buren County however for those of us who considered the specials teachers we do not see students on this day because it is a half day for the entire district.  So today I continued organizing the cupboards at this school so I made sure everything was ready for us when we came back to this particular location on Thursday.  At Edgemont my Co-Operating teacher has been tasked for bus duty in the morning which I will be helping out with while I am here she is also in charge of the morning announcements.