Observation at Cardinal Hayes

Today I observed at the Cardinal Hayes School for Special Children to supplement my independent study on special education and art. This school was a bit different than the Anderson Center, where I had my internship. At the Anderson Center the focus is more on a product rather than the process, but the opposite is true for Cardinal Hayes. The teacher at Cardinal Hayes focuses more on having the children explore and do what they want to do. The teacher at the Anderson Center taught classes with 5 to 8 kids in each class. At Cardinal Hayes, the teacher gets to work 1:1 with students to figure out their interests, which I think is very beneficial. Another reason why it is beneficial that he gets to work 1:1 with the students is because this way the students are doing the art, not the aids.  He only has one or two full classes a day. He explained to me that since it is a charter school, he has more freedom in the schedule and also in creating the entire curriculum.

Today he had one class period and five 1:1 periods. The first period was 1:1 with a student with autism and was a collaboration with the speech teacher. The student was asked what materials he wanted and what colors he wanted. He had to pick the colors and materials from his picture chart and say the words. The art teacher had a picture board with different shapes; a line, a circle, a triangle, and a square. The student had to point to which one he wanted to try to draw. This student was very excited about art. He struggled to draw a triangle and square, but once he did draw them he was so excited that he became overwhelmed.

The second period was also 1:1 with an autistic student and was a collaboration with the speech teacher. The student sat at shut himself off from the outside world. The art teacher kept asking, does he want to work small or big? The student did not respond until the speech  teacher said that maybe the art teacher would help him draw a Christmas tree. At this, the student's eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "Christmas," and got out of his chair to walk over to the large piece of paper which was tacked onto the wall. (The teacher explained to me that this student is very big on holidays) The student had to say which color he wanted. Then he began to draw a giant stack of presents. The art teacher talked to him through out his drawing and commented about what he saw. He also asked the student to reflect on his feelings during Christmas by saying things such as "You must feel really excited when you see all of your presents on Christmas." At the end of the period, the speech teacher asked the student how many presents he was going to get on Christmas, and the student counted all of the presents that he drew and answered.

The third period was 1:1 with a student with severe mental retardation. The materials were construction paper crayons and construction paper. The teacher asked the student which color she wanted, but the student did not respond. He kept asking her and finally she started drawing on one of the papers. The student took the crayons and moved her arm back and forth, creating scribble lines. The teacher also tried to teach her to make a circle but it was not successful.

In each of the 1:1 periods, the teacher tried to pick a material that would interest the students, and gave as much choice as possible. I liked the personal environment of teaching in a 1:1 situation.

High School Critiques

Last tuesday was the final day of my internship at Rondout Valley High School. During this visit, my partner and I partook in a critique in the advanced ceramics class. The project which was being critiqued was a body art project where the students made a cast of their face and their two arms and then used underglazes to paint them in a way which expresses themselves. The format of this critique was the typical kind where the student talks about the piece and then classmates comment on the project. This type of critique was criticized in the former reading, Critiques in the k-12 Classroom, stating that students can feel pressured and anxious when they are put on the spot. My partner and I observed this happening. The assignment was to make the mask and arms as one piece, but one student's project was not visually coherent. The student painted one arm black with a rainbow on it, one arm speckle brown with a white fox on it, and the mask bluish green with a koi fish on it. The teacher asked the student how these pieces go together, and the student kept saying that they were all things that represented her. However, the student said that she does not know how they visually go together. The teacher kept trying to get the student to think of a way to connect all of the pieces visually, but the student kept saying that she didn't understand how they could. After class, the student ended up crying.

Lesson at Rondout Valley High School

Last Tuesday my partner and I taught our lesson at Rondout Valley High School. The students had just completed their contour drawings, and the next assignment was to draw a realistic portrait. My partner and I decided that 30 minutes was too short to show a powerpoint and do a demo, so we skipped the powerpoint. I did a demo on the block in approach and my partner Christine did a demo on the traditional approach. I was nervous at first but then when I started talking I was fine. I tried to talk throughout the demo so that the students wouldn't be just sitting there and watching me draw. After our demo the students got to work on their portraits. Most students used the traditional method of measuring the face, but a few of the more advanced students chose to work with the block in approach. I am excited to return to the school tomorrow to see the progress that the students have made on their drawings.

Using the Smartboard

Today at my internship at  the Anderson Center for Autism, I left the art room for a chance to observe in a special education classroom. This observation really made me re-think learning how to use the smartboard. The teacher used the smartboard exclusively through out the day to teach all subjects. She made interactive slides which were engaging to the students. The students were even allowed to explore the smartboard on their own at free choice time. Before observing this class I thought that there was no purpose of me learning how to operate the smartboard since my concentration in art education is studio art. However, this observation experience has changed my mind. Students in this classroom were extremely engaged and motivated, which I believe in part is due to the lesson being taught on the smartboard. I think that students who are interested in playing computer or video games pay closer attention to the smartboard than to a regular white board. Using the smartboard also gives the teacher a chance to make the lesson more interactive, like a computer game. Using this technology in the classroom is a great way to get students to be engaged, and I believe that every future teacher should take advantage of this opportunity.

Rondout Valley High School Internship Day 2

Today was my second day at Rondout Valley High School. Most of the portfolio development class finished their contour self portraits. My mentor teacher went over grading with my partner and I. Portfolio development class is the closest thing that they have to AP Art at this high school. Since the students in this class will be using their portfolios for college, my mentor teacher grades them with an AP Art rubric. This rubric goes from 1 to 6. We went through the students' work and graded them on ideas, composition, fluidity, image choice, visual impact, and conventions. Many of the students were way behind where they should be at this point, mostly scoring 2's in each category. This experience made me realize how difficult it is to grade student's work. Sometimes you want to give students the benefit of the doubt, but the work does not measure up to the criteria on the rubric. In the ceramics classes, students finished their whimsical fish, which were at the green wear stage. The classes started the critique process, which is describe, analyze, interpret, judgement. Today each class covered the describing part. Each student showed the class their fish and spoke about the process, if they enjoyed working with clay for the first time, and if they were satisfied with their work.

First day of Internship at Rondout Valley High School

Last Tuesday was my first day at my field placement at Rondout Valley High School. While looking around the classroom, I noticed a poster which listed the principals and elements of art. I also noticed a  poster explaining how to critique a work of art. This coincided with a reading that we had last semester in Curriculum and Instruction. The school operates on "block scheduling." This means that each period is a hour and twenty minutes long. This is great for the art department, especially since my teacher teaches ceramics. There is also a 30 minute period called "the skinny". During this time, my teacher has a 2D portfolio development class for students who are interested in pursuing art in college.

The students in the portfolio development class were working on portraits. The teacher explained that since these students have not had a consistent studio art teacher, they are behind in their development. Students in this class looked in a mirror and drew a contour self portrait. They used three sharpies of different thicknesses for line variations and then added watercolors. The students in this class were at all different levels of skill. One student chose to draw the back of her head, saying that she did not know how to draw a good face.

The students in the ceramics class were working on a project called "whimsical fish". To make the body of the fish, students scored two pinch pots together. Students then got to decorate the fish any way that they wanted to. Some students chose to give their fish a top hat and cane. One student made a mexican fish equipped with a mustache, sombrero, and a taco. The only requirement in this project was to add texture to the fish. Some students accomplished this by scratching into the body of the fish, while others added texture by attaching pieces of clay.

Overall, my first day of my internship at Rondout Valley High School was successful. My teacher was very organized and I enjoyed observing the lessons. I feel less intimidated about teaching at the high school level, and I am looking forward to teaching a lesson on portraits to the portfolio development class.

Internship at Anderson Center for Autism

This past Tuesday was my first day of my special education internship. I am working in the art room at the Anderson Center for Autism. This is a school for kids age 6 to 21 who are diagnosed with autism or other developmental disabilities. On Tuesday I worked with 5 classes with students ages 14 to 21. These students were all low functioning and nonverbal. A reoccurring topic in our art education class is writing a curriculum which centers on big ideas. I asked the art teacher how he writes his curriculum for students who do not have the cognitive ability to understand big ideas. He told me that he focuses on creating projects that will allow students to learn different skills and techniques. I noticed that while the projects being done in the classroom were not conceptual, they all contained the "principles and elements" of art. I found that many projects focused on layering and repetition. In one project, students started off coloring a white piece of paper with crayons, any way that they wanted to. Next, they used one color of paint, and added a layer of paint on top of the crayon. This reminded me of how Eric Carl creates his paper. Finally, they used a stencil of an animal to add a black layer of paint on top. Looking at the finished products, it is apparent that although there is not a cognitive aspect of the lesson, students are learning and actively using art elements such as unity, repetition, contrast, pattern, and texture.