Glenwood City High Day Seven

My final day was at Glenwood City High School was short and a bit nostalgic. I had enjoyed my time there and had learned and grown over the course of the last semester. When I first got there, a bit early, I caught the end of 3-D class for the first time. Mrs. Jones was helping a student on the wheel. He was building a cylinder that was getting tall, but was a bit off center. Mrs. Jones did a good job of saving the pot from getting too far off, exhibiting some deft ceramics skill. This was with good reason, it was Her concentration at Stout. It was good to see this, especially considering ceramics wasn't exactly my strongest studio class and I look forward to improving in the area in the near future.
Next came painting class, where most students had finished their main piece and were moving onto a two-sided painting. By two-sided I mean that the students painted two distinct pieces and then putting them together on cardboard, running perpendicular to each other and propped up in triangles. As you turned the projects from side to side they made interesting and evolving combinations of each other. An impressive project indeed. Mrs. Jones had the students start by griding out the compositions, a stage that most students were at.
The senior were gone that day and that caused senior studio and the joint senior studio class to be canceled. There wouldn't be art classes until the final period when the eighth graders were finishing up on an assignment. I had already exceeded the necessary time, so I left as Mrs. Jones recommended. I said goodbye to Mrs. Jones and She told me to keep Her posted in progress in education.
As I left I photographed the advanced senior display.

The theme for that portion of the advanced studio semester was "PUZZLE." The student's interpreted this in many different was and made an impressive display.

Glenwood City High Day Six

My fifth day at Glenwood City High School was dominated by the second part of my one-point perspective lesson for the eighth graders, though I was at the school several periods prior. The first period the painting class was still working on there main project at various stages. In particular, I helped one student who struggled to find the courage to finish his painting. One problem with long term projects is they can become precious to students and then they don't want to keep working on them, for fear they deface their prior work. This was the case with this particular student, who had worked hard on a finessed background and was nervous to incorporate some elk into the foreground. Both Mrs. Jones and myself encouraged and helped him and He began to build up the figures.
In advanced studio class I primarily aided one student who was working in Adobe Illustrator. This was because I had encouraged him to expand his skill set and utilize that program and Mrs. Jones had limited knowledge in using it. He was using the pen tool to create an outline of a city skyline and had a window pattern that He was transforming into the buildings. The project was coming along well and the period was quickly over.
In the final period the eighth graders were finishing their one-point perspective hallway drawings. Naturally they were all at different places in the project, some were completely done, others had considerable studio production left. I decided to start the period with an critique where the students talk about their projects and what they learned. The students that had already completed their projects were some of the more advanced students and they were confident when they presented their projects. I went around to all the different students and helped them with some of the issues that were present in their drawings. Some of the students went back into the hallways, others had enough visual information to complete the rest of their drawings in the classroom. Overall, I was very pleased with the results of the students, who's drawings were very advanced for eighth graders. This coupled with the fact that all of the students seemed to understand the basic concepts of the assignment led me to believe the project was a success. Below are four examples of the students drawings.

Glenwood City High Day Five

The time had come for me to present an assignment. I was going to do it all by myself, as my co-operating Mrs. Mary Jones was attending Seminar's that week. Mrs. Jones then realized the eight-graders, who I would be teaching, would not have final period art on Wednesday. I re-arranged to Friday prepared my Lesson. I would be teaching observational drawing in one-point perspective to the eighth graders and the introductory class. It was a challenging assignment for that grade level, but I was confident that I could introduce the concept of linear perspective (something that took mankind over a thousand years to understand) in the short time I was given.
I created a visually interesting PowerPoint that introduced the basic terminology several times, in several different ways, for the variety of learning styles of the eight-graders. I also took a photograph of one of the hallways directly outside the art studio. I broke down the necessary steps in order as clearly as I could. I emphasized the importance of convergence and how these points meet at the horizon line, which is also the students eye-level.

I also showed how they can find the stroke width of various architectural elements and define those lines by two points, the vanishing point and horizontal marks they draw up at a consistent size. I was trying to make meaningful connections between one-point perspective's scientific approach to visual understanding and geometries mathematical understanding of the visual world. However, this is difficult when the student's do not understand simple geometric terms such as parallel and perpendicular. Fortunately a dutiful student asked what perpendicular was in the designated question time and I was able to break the geometric vocabulary more. Finally, I showed my example from Jarvis Hall and the Student's were off to draw.

Many of the students did not know how to begin, as they had not drawn from observation before. I had to explain and demonstrate how to begin to many of the students. I did my best to get to every student and by the end of the period all the students had a good start on their drawings.

Glenwood City High Day Four

After two weeks of missing Glenwood High, one due to Spring Break and one due to extreme weather I was more than ready to return to the School's Art Studio. It was the end of another quarter and Mrs. Jone's was quite busy. There was a pile of ungraded projects and several Student's needing attention. Fortunately, I was there to help.
The first period was painting class and the Students were working on a larger acrylic project on art boards. Mrs. Mary Jones showed a few demonstrative videos of painting acrylic backgrounds, including skies. The videos must have been effective, because most of the Students dived confidently into their paintings and the backgrounds were looking good. One student effectively made a black to white gradient that looked sharp and smooth. Another effectively brought watery textures into the lake in His composition. In addition to painting, there is also a section of the Advanced Studio Art class that meets during this period. Being the last quarter of the school year, Mrs. Jones had to introduce a new section of the studio class. She took the advanced Student's in the Hall and introduced several options to the Students. They could continue their current concentration in media or work with different materials. Then they could choose one of three themes; a set of three, the world around us, or inviting and uninviting environments. Finally, there was a volunteer component to the Advanced Studio class. The Students could choose from several avenues of volunteer work or come to Mrs. Jones with their own ideas. It was quite a bit of information for Her to get through and She discussed that is was often hard to teach two classes in the same place and time. However, both the painting class and studio class advanced through the period.
In the next period there was the other section of the Advanced Studio Class and the received the same information as the other section. From there they began to form their own ideas. A few of the Student's already had concepts for the final section of the class. These Student's discussed their ideas with Mrs. Jones and myself.
In the final class, the new section of eight graders were working on a key chain art metals assignment. The Students would cut out shapes in metal and turn them into key-chains. Getting Students to cut with jewelers blades may seem too challenging and some Students were struggling. I did my best to encourage these Students while Mrs. Jones introduced an extra credit assignment for Students who had already completed the assignment. This extra credit assignment was in Photoshop and consisted of arranging found photos of the Students interests into their silhouette. The Students worked well and the period was quickly over.
When I asked Mrs. Jones about how She assess Student artwork, She had plenty of examples. She had many different rubrics, varying from project to project. Many of Her rubric sheets were meant for the Students themselves as self evaluations. She said that for many of Her sheets She doesn't add up the points but instead chooses to give the grades She feels the Students deserve. She also said that one of the best functions of rubrics was to set a series of objectives for the Students, to let them know what She was expecting.
After class I discussed the assignment I will present next week. That assignment will be a one-point perspective drawing of the hallways to the eight graders next week. Mrs. Jones will actually be gone next week, so I will be doing this on my own. A challenge, certainly, but one that I eagerly look forward to.

Glenwood City High Day Three

My third day at Glenwood City high was another informative experience in the art classroom. When I first got there, it was once again painting class. The Students were continuing studio production on there acrylic assignments. Each student was at a different place in the project, but they all worked well throughout the period. Some students were close to completing their compilation's, others were still designing them. One Student in particular had designed a very interesting and intricate logo design. It was some sort of flaming animal. It was highly detailed and asymmetrically balanced. He put the drawing in the schools projector and expanded in onto the painting paper.
Once again, drawing is not a pre-requisite for painting class, so most of the students were working off of photographs. The last student I mentioned was advanced and it was nice to see Mrs. Jones make accommodations for the skilled as well the other Students. Throughout the period the Students all advanced on their pieces and the period was quickly over.
In the afternoon, the advanced studio class worked on their individual projects in a wide variety of media. The most important thing that happened was one Students struggles and experiments with molding glass. She had cast several different colors of glass in plaster molds. Unfortunately, the plaster was stronger than the glass and there was no way to remove the glass without breaking it. Throughout the period the student, Mrs. Jones and Myself researched alternative methods of casting glass that might work for the Student. Ironically, it was the Student who proposed She use investment and that turned out to be a good solution to the artistic problem.
The final hour was an intro to life drawing assignment for a new group of eight graders. This is the group of eight graders Mrs. Jones will have for the rest of the Semester and I will present an assignment to them. Introducing Life Drawing to middle schoolers is ambitious to say the least, but Mrs. Jones did a good job of stressing the basics and I was able to help correct some of the larger proportional mistakes of some of the struggling students. Both Mrs. Jones and Myself were very impressed by the progress of these new students.

Glenwood City High Day Two

My second day at Glenwood City High School was another successful journey into the Art Education classroom. I made it to the studio at noon for painting class. The students had just completed the watercolor assignment, working with coloring and blending. I viewed a few of the students work and discussed how the project with some of the students. Most of them were done and moving along smoothly. The acrylic project was similar to the watercolor project in that it utilized the projector and found images. The students worked well and Mrs. Jones went from table to table helping students understand how to utilize the medium of acrylic paint. Mrs. Jones also gave a solid demonstration of some of Her favorite techniques.
Later that day I discussed some possible options for the lesson I will present. She had three different ideas for lessons. One was a bulletin board assignment that would be interactive, including a presentation on some interactive artists. Another idea was presenting an artist to the studio class. Finally, is the possibility that I could do a contour line assignment, complete with a presentation on life drawing.
When I asked Mrs. Mary Jones how She is evaluated by Her principle and how She prepare, She said She was evaluated every three years. This formal evaluation was a consistent form that the school board had to address standards across content areas. She said it was important to invite the principle in different types of class periods. That way you can show your demonstration skills as well as the teachers role as a facilitator. She also said it was important to invite the Principle during projects that you know will be especially successful.

Glenwood City High Day One

My first day at Glenwood City High School today. My co-operating teacher is Mrs. Mary Jones. I left early taking back-roads through some very scenic terrain in Western Wisconsin. I made it on time to the Glenwood City School District, which housed the High School. The first class was a painting class, they were finishing a three part assignment that included a color study, a monochromatic color study and a final water-color painting. They had just turned the first two and were working on the final composition. Since drawing wasn't a prerequisite they used projectors and then outlined them with an interesting product called maskoid. Then the Students water-colored the areas with at least four colors. Student skill level varied, but all of the Students were working steadily.
The next class was called Studio and offered a myriad of choices, encouraging the Student's to explore a variety of creative outlets. The theme of the Studio was puzzling things and Student's were taking that concept in a variety of directions. One Student was working with machines and the perception of them, whether confusing or something that was understood. One girl had finished Her project, a puzzle of woman's face's of different ethnic background. One Girl was making a large scaled ceramic piece, which would latter be a globe with countries missing. The projects were varied and interesting.
When I asked Mrs. Mary Jones why She chose to be a Art Education Professional, She said there were several factors. She is a Stout Graduate and began Her college career in Graphic Design. This reminded me of several people I know, including Yours Truly. Mrs. Jones said that She had become jaded by the competitive elements of the Design world. She thought back to all of Her Art Teachers and thought, "that seams like something I could do."
Overall, my day was successful and meeting Mrs. Jones was interesting and informative. I look forward to going there Wednesday Afternoons the Semester.