Reflective Journal 5
Nov 17th, 2023
I believe that it was really beneficial for me to start with the middle school placement, since it gave me an opportunity to work with students that already had a base level understanding of art tools and art room expectations. I didn’t realize how much it would change moving on to my second placement with the elementary students. I was able to work on my most basic classroom management skills, time management skills, and how to start and end a class.
I have to admit that I was initially quite nervous about how to “talk” to very young students in an engaging way, but it didn’t take too long (during the second week,) before I found a comfortable way of going through classroom routines. My mentor utilized demonstrating, then doing tasks together collaboratively, then pulling away and letting me take over a few classes during the week. I found that transition really smooth, and felt supported if I was unsure of how to proceed or how to solve a new challenge.
Every single day, I find myself learning something new related to the ability levels or thought process of young students. At the middle school, I felt like the students had lots of choice in materials or techniques. Only when I moved to a fully TAB classroom did I see what kind of projects students come up with from purely their own inquiry and interest. It made the project-based lessons of the middle school even clearer in contrast. I can see the benefits of both, but I feel like with the schedule rotation and wide range of developmental levels of the K-5 students, full TAB is the best. If I were to continue project-based teaching, I feel like I would be stifling the student’s potential for expression and innovation.
Often, I find myself asking a student questions about their artwork or their process, and sometimes I have to take a step back and consider better wording, or more age-appropriate questioning. Recently I asked a 1st grader “what their inspiration was” for their artwork, and the student made a confused face and asked, “what does inspiration mean?” At that moment, I hadn’t even considered that inspiration might be a word I need to scaffold for students. My mentor teacher does a great job of modeling actions and speech depending on the grade level. I like that there are lots of opportunities for me to drop new terms or artist names for students when they are most impactful, rather than just give them a bunch of vocab words in a slideshow at the beginning of class.
From moving placements, I also realized how much I was helped by the required time spent doing different school duties outside the art room. There weren’t as many required duties at the middle school, and I usually saw students after school in art club, which was still the same environment as their art classes. At Riffenburgh, some days we start with playground duty before school begins, other days we help with the “kiss and go,” area where parents drop their children off, and kids come off the buses. Throughout the week we have lunch and recess duty with 2nd or 4th graders. I realize the importance of these little connections made with students in the way students excitedly greet my mentor teacher. When I first started at Riffenburgh, my mentor reassured me that I wouldn’t have to worry whether or not the students liked me, because elementary students will like me immediately, it’s just the way they are. In just a week of spending lunch and recess with students that were totally new to me, I already had students running up to me to say hi, surprise me with a hug, or ask for help tying their shoes or telling me about their weekend plans.
Rather than focus on my own artwork or finished works, for this journal I chose two photos of students working in the classroom. The first picture shows a 3rd grade student experimenting with a new art tool I had introduced in class— tempera sticks. The students that wanted to use their studio time to use the new material were trying out blending and mark-making with the fast-drying paint sticks. I saw this student holding her artwork up towards the skylight in the center of the room. When I walked over to ask her about the work, she showed me how she had created two different multi-color patterns on either side of the paper. Holding it up to the light allowed both images to blend together, and I remarked on the interesting way of thinking about how to view or display a work of art. Her exploration inspired others at her table to try a multi-sided artwork, which I found particularly inspiring. I think this moment is a great example of how I couldn’t have even imagined this art experience as a lesson, and how the students have taught me to think outside of the box.
The second image shows a 4th grade student experimenting with a Gelli printing block, as the station had just been opened during that class period. I did a mini demo of ways to print objects or textures, and some students chose to use their studio time trying out Gelli printmaking. This student was using a marker cap to draw different shapes and lines in the wet print block. I was impressed by their ability to quickly make a handful of unique monoprints and work in a way I had only seen college printmaking students work. It was a challenge to open a station with more specialized tools like the Gelli plates, and all of the extra setup, demonstration and cleanup involved. The work the students were able to make during this week in printmaking was really impressive. It showed me that I need to trust the students to rise to the challenge, and provide them with high quality materials so they can truly feel and act like professional artists.
(Final) Reflective Journal 6
Dec 1st, 2023
As my time at Riffenburgh, and in student teaching comes to close, I reflect on the whirlwind experience of working with young students. To encapsulate the past 7 weeks, I look to a view visual symbols and think about how they represent this part of my education journey. For my first placement, I thought a lot about the growth of a large plant. For my early childhood placement, I think the visual metaphor is more abstract and colorful. I think of an abstract swirl of paint, a kaleidoscope of colors, and a collection of artworks thrown in the recycle bin.
This swirl represents the wild variety of experiences each day holds. Serving over 500 students in a rotating schedule had me feeling (especially early on) like I could barely keep track of what students I was seeing, and what content we would be covering. I am thankful for having such a calm and supportive mentor teacher, so I never actually felt like I was overwhelmed with the placement. It did take a good 2-3 weeks before I really understood Riffenburgh’s schedule and what we would cover for four weeks, before switching to a new topic/station. As for this particular swirl artwork, it also represents a student that decided to try something completely new, surprising and self-directed.
This was created during a week I was introducing the new printmaking station. This involved pulling out trays to work on, and liquid tempera paints for rolling onto print blocks. This student had already engaged with the new Gelli printing blocks, and after putting those items away, he noticed that the tray was warped and that it was really easy to spin it in a perfect circle. He took the liquid paint and dripped it onto the rotating surface, and I could tell he was delighted with the novel method. While I was pleased with his discovery, I realized that a part of me first thought about how it might get messy or waste a lot of paint materials, and it wasn’t really what I had in mind for these specific tools… However, trusting the process and allowing the student to try something new was way more important than having this student create something neat, tidy, and aligned with what I had in mind at the beginning of class. TAB has really helped me step back from taking control over student projects, and the students still have no problem coming to me for help or advice when they need it. I think of all the times I had teachers tell me I was doing something wrong, and my goal as an educator is to allow them the space and support to explore, not to restrict and control.
Local colors felt brighter and more expressive with the K-5 students than it did with middle schoolers. I wonder how much of the rainbow color choices have to do with brain development or TAB classroom format. Rainbows and wild color palettes were present in all the different grades. Many times, students experimented with stripes of colors, trying every possible color of a material (like tempera sticks or watercolors,) in one artwork. Sometimes students would just focus on drawing and painting literal rainbows, and others would make something not typically rainbow-colored, colorful, (like a spider, or house.) I think one of the most enjoyable parts of teaching elementary is their love of bright colors and optimism in artmaking. Students freely talk about their inspiration, or who they are making the artwork for. Being in the art room is a positive experience, and many of the students have such a hard time cleaning up and getting ready to leave— even when I reassure them we have art class again tomorrow. The students are so kind, and always gifting artwork to me. My days have been filled with high-fives, hugs, and greetings. Its hard to be in a bad mood even when behaviors are challenging, due to all of the kind and happy students that come to class each day. As someone who hasn’t colored a rainbow in at least 10 years, I feel like the elementary students helped me appreciate a wider spectrum of color, metaphorically and literally speaking.
My last symbol for this reflection is a collection of artworks that I pulled out of the trash at the end of the day. We had opened the printmaking station, and Gelli printing was a new and exciting tool that students had a chance to work with. It was incredibly messy, and often disorganized, but so gratifying to try with each rotation. My final week at Riffenburgh is the fourth week in the schedule rotation, and so it’s going to be my last time introducing printmaking as a TAB station. Each Monday has been controlled chaos, and by Friday, students that choose to engage with Gelli printing are making some amazing layered work. Despite frequently teling students not to throw any artwork way, (we encourage them to place it in the “speciality paper bin,”) Mr. Z and I try to pull out any potentially useful artworks. Sometimes it’s hard to relay the possibilities of recycling old or “failed” artworks to students, since they can be so hyper focused on their own single-track idea.
I enjoyed taking a moment and observing the colors and textures that were used in these test prints. Even though each one was different and created by different artists, the Gelli plate leant a consistency and visual aesthetic to the collection. “Culling” your art collection is certainly an aspect of being a visual artist, regardless of age and ability— but I think it’s interesting to try and have a conversation with students when they throw something away. Sometimes it’s that they experimented and didn’t plan on keeping the work in the first place, sometimes the idea doesn’t turn out like they had planned and so they consider it a failure, and sometimes a student leaves an artwork in a bad place and another student thinks it should get tossed. I like catching students before they throw art away, and ask them questions about their intentions or process. This can serve as a nice way to see how students are engaging in their studio habits, and push their thinking or problem solving. After thinking about this visual symbol and the classroom behaviors, I know that I want to make sure it is a conversation I have early on. I want students to be conscious of trashing materials, but also conscious of their own challenges and improvements… and how sometimes it helps to keep the “bad” art to look back on, and help see the transformation throughout the school year.
Teaching elementary students was such a rewarding experience, and I’m glad I had to move from my “ideal” placement in middle school. it gave me a better idea of what students are doing just before they move on to 6th grade. It gave me ideas for how to better scaffold lessons for students that might not have had the best elementary art experience. I could see myself enjoying working with K-5 students… even though Kindergarten still feels like a completely different group than the rest of the students. I’m thankful for all of the practicum classes that allowed me time with students to prepare for these long school days. Additionally, I’m glad I had the ability to work with so many different special needs students, which will help guide me in my long-term sub position that starts immediately after graduating. All of the readings and theory, peer teaching and presentations have led up to now, where I am wrapping up my last week with Riffenburgh students, and teaching my last set of demos and mini lessons.