I am teaching here, I haven't forgotten that part...

But sometimes my updates may make it seem as though the whole Student Teaching thing is taking a back seat to my social exploration lifestyle. I will admit, things have been going really well these last 7 weeks of teaching...but it's getting to be more and more of a reality every day... With mounds of planning and preparation building up and trying to keep on top of all of the meetings and communications with the middle school, high school, and my cooperating teachers..Most of my student teaching friends are ending their first placement and switching over to their new classroom right now for the second 8 weeks, but I've got my unique situation where I'm teaching in both rooms for 17 weeks so there is no switch over...just adding on...

I've worked in the elementary during a few planning periods, and starting this week I'll be teaching silk painting in the other middle school art room-a first for me. I'm excited but it also requires prep time and figuring out what and how I present the information to the new group of students. High school gave me a really rough time on Thursday. It was last period, Mr. Crouch was gone for the day, and they just decided to find their attitudes. I was really frustrated until I realized it was a surprise and blessing that I hadn't been challenged like that before. Just another moment to learn from and reflect on.. And all the more motivation to come in this week with my A game on... A recap of my teaching so far,

I've taught Exploratory Art with 6 graders (just switched to a new group of students this week). We made "Me Stars", Kaleidoscope Kites usin oil pastels, and their own sketch books. The new group is making altered books... (Had to adjust my oil pastel lesson to use white and paper clips to scratch away areas that got too muddy and thick with pastels)

My middle school mixed media class has been working on their altered books for several weeks. We've explored collage, texture, color, using a variety of media and writing...I've been using the school flip cam to record discussions during this class for documentation...

Middle School sculpture made clay seascapes and now we're working on our recycling bobble head project with plaster and mixed media...(I learned you should not give students water before they cut their plaster strips or you'll have a messy ocean of plaster covering the tables)

High School printmaking made graffiti tags and now are learning relief printing; using styrofoam to learn the process and the qualities of a good print...it will be leading into another form of printmaking along the theme of 1000 awesome things...



Ceramics created textured tag mugs, classical pots, and are currently learning to glaze (assuming anything I told them sunk in on Thursday)... I'm working on lining up a guest artist to come in and talk to the students about her work next week.

It's keeping me busy.. the big thing I still need to work on is documentation and the busier I get, the less formal, written out planning ahead I do... I continually need to keep myself in check and think through details over and over... I am hoping/assuming this will get easier/better/more of a habit the longer I teach.......