October Updates

One of my favorite things throughout the year is when a new student comes to the art room for the first time and I get to tell them about the choice-based art studio.  Every student is different.  Some jump right in with painting or marker drawing, while others wander around the room and take in everything with wide eyes for most of the class period.  I personally identify with the latter inclination, needing the time to process my environment and consider the context before creating a 'product'.

As of this week we are in full studio mode, except for clay, which will be available when the large sculptures move out.  The students now have their folders and I have been stamping their checklists.  So far, I am exceedingly pleased at the results.  We haven't had a session on writing artist statements, but so far they have been very well written, and the students have a positive attitude when it comes to writing about their work.  During 5th grade today, two kids were doing paper mache, one was drawing a graphic for a video game, five boys were working on an elaborate model of a spaceship with K'Nex, two kids were printmaking, two were making foam sculptures, two were using popsicle sticks, and the rest were painting with florescent paint that I ordered for the first time this year.  Here are a few projects from the last few weeks:

Two boys made a soccer game with construction paper goals and popsicle stick people

Drum

Castle

K'Nex Spaceship

Castle

Oreos made from hole punching foam and a water bottle made from beads

I have two big things coming up in November, and still have a lot of work ahead.  Another art teacher and I will present on TAB at the Texas Art Educator Association's annual conference, which will be in Dallas the weekend before Thanksgiving.  And, I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.  I have tried NaNoWriMo three times, and "won" only once, in 2009.  What is NaNoWriMo?  www.nanowrimo.org

Time

I am very critical of how time is spent in the classroom, as the most important thing to me and my students is that they have the maximum possible to work on their individual and group projects.  I feel uncomfortable taking up more then five minutes of their time, but there are always announcements, new materials and techniques, artists in the news, questions about art, and a million other things we could share in that short introduction.  I have to consider what would make the most impact on the class as a whole, and at the same time include required state and local standards, and required vocabulary.

Shortening my time with the group as a whole also increases the time I have with each individual student.  Considering 36 weeks of school, less at least 4 weeks for field trips, performances, field day and other athletic days, and absences, comes out to about 32 times in the art room per year.  Each time a student comes to art, they have about 35 minutes to work on their art.  (45 minutes, minus five for introduction and 5 for clean-up).  If I touch base with each student individually, that is 35 minutes divided by an average of 22 students, which is about a minute and a half per student per week.  One and a half minutes per week times 32 times per year is only 48 minutes for the entire school year.  In that amount of time I have to somehow make the child feel appreciated, assess and monitor their progress, and encourage their personal growth.  The young artists have to be independent.

In the past few years I have asked the students to fill out a planner for me to approve before they began a project, explaining their idea and needed materials, but I found it not to be worth the time, and this year I am trying something different.  Each student will have a checklist in their folder based on the TEKS (state requirements), and the new LISD fine arts curriculum.  It will help the students to be self-directed and it will help me keep track of what is being covered in class.  I will still expect students to write an artist statement when they are finished with their work and it is very encouraging that artist statements are in the new art TEKS.

Thanks for reading.  Here are some fun paper sculptures from the last few weeks: