Class Discussion for Arts Academy Groups

Soon after our last Art Class, I was out on the playground with my class of First Graders.  It was a beautiful day and the mountains were looming in front of us.  I decided that we would try to draw them.  The next day, we each went out with a clipboard and sketching pencil.  I know so little about art but I told them to draw a mountain line, a grass line and the trees between them.  We could not draw anythinkg that we didn’t see…no suns with smiley faces.  Also, no buildings, only things that were part of nature.  The kids were silent for about 30 minutes enjoying this activity.  The next week, we got out the water colors.  I guided them through their use and how to make bold lines, and soft surfaces.  The kids did an amazingly good job.  They were extremely interested and we could have worked on it for a longer time.  We finished the water colors the next day and they are now hanging in the hall, under the title of “What We see From the Playground.”  I still feel like such a beginner but I have ordered several art books that will help ME learn the basics.  It was a very worthwhile experience!

Today I had my students do Prof. Nelson’s color cards. Our principal is so supportive of what we are learning in this program that he bought card sets for the faculty, older students and younger students at our school! It is awesome to have such great support! I was a bit apprehensive about doing this since my students are only 3rd graders. Much to my delight, they did wonderfully and had so much fun doing it!  The great thing was, I had tried to figure out a few students’ “colors” before they ever took the test and found that my predictions were correct!  Tomorrow we are going to have all of the faculty do the adult version of the color cards. I hope they will get on the band wagon and see the true value of discovering more about themselves. Can you imagine the impact of our educators if we all used this process to evaluate the strengths and values of the students within our classrooms?  I believe what we are learning is the purest form of No Child Left Behind.  I can’t wait to go to the next level with this information and start grouping my students according to their color. I am thinking that teaching will be a lot more of a positive adventure for all of us if I use Prof. Nelson’s color specific teaching strategies. This is so exciting!

We have a great principal who agreed to buy us 3 sets of George’s color cards so that we can understand and reach the learning needs of each of our students.  We have a set of cards for the younger grades (see Leslie’s post for info on how she’s used them), one for upper grades, and an adult packet for each faculty member.

This morning we had a faculty meeting and shared some of the things that we learned about the learning styles. It was fun to see some of the teachers get excited about being able to reach their students after knowing where they’re coming from as far as learning preferences, values, etc.

Doing the color analysis with my own students was also eye-opening.  I’m totally blue and only have 3 predominantly blue kids in my class, with the majority being orange and green.  I’m excited to more consciously gear my teaching towards the learning preferences of my students.   I just did the color analysis with my students yesterday, but I can already see how assignments and activities I’ve done in the past were more appealing to different learners.  It was also amusing that as we were about to finish up the color analysis activity, one of my green girls asked “Why are we doing this?” a typical green question…wanting to see value in it in order to do it.

I hope this is the way to do it…

I decided that I really wanted to try the art project. Apparently I like to do what scares me the most first. I learned that Char-Kol is actually in our 4th grade art supplies. But I was amazed at how well it went! I was so scared about it, but it actually went quite well. I found that the key to teaching it was to outline the drawing. I forgot that the first time when teaching it. It tended to produce better products that way. I also found that as long as I set the ground rules at the beginning, the kids didn’t do anything that I deemed not appropriate conduct. I only ended up with two boys that looked like chimney sweeps at the end! Now I just need to try drawing with other objects.

In the reading one thing that struck me was allowing the students to choose if they would work in a group or by themselves. I gave it a try and was surprised. I found that my first graders wanted to work in groups and the older grades had more students that wanted to work on their own. The important part was, they all participated in a more involved level. The one first grader who I have a real struggle with,still presented me with a challenge. He decided to go around to every group and contribute by getting his name and effort into their work whether it fit or not. Some groups accepted him and some resented him. Any help on this one?

The activity was to draw a dragon. it is the beginning of a unit on dragons and we talk about dragons in movies, if they are good or bad, what they may look like and that they are imaginary, then they draw one.  The objective is to get the students thinking creatively about dragons.

I have implemented a few things from the first couple of days of class.  First- “The Brain Dance.”  My students love it, and I feel that it wakes them up and gets them ready to learn. We did the brain dance before taking the IOWA tests.  Every morning I have the students do a song as part of our “morning meeting.”  The students may choose “The Brain Dance” as their song, if it wasn’t chosen the day before.  The second thing I have done in my class is the poem writing. It just so happens that we are working on poetry right now. I showed a movie clip that was third grade appropriate, then had the students write down words or phrases about the movie clip.  They did a great job, even when I gave them a certain number of words they could use.  I did the whole activity with the students.  I didn’t tell them what we were doing before hand.  This helped them to be engaged.  Many students were surprised when I told them that they had just written a poem.  I had one little girl that said she didn’t know how to write poems.  It was cool to see her realize that she had written one with her group.  It seemed to encourage her to want to write a poem of her own.  It was a great activity, and I think it could be done on any grade level.  It really helped my students who are struggling.  It made them feel like they accomplished something just as good as the excelling students.

Hi, Well, it’s been two weeks now since we were up in Park City enjoying creations with charcoal, and personality enlightenment. I loved it! Last Wednesday I finally allowed my students to also create with charcoal. It was so interesting to watch. I used the same general approach that Scott demonstrated. But told the kids that this was our first experience so they could just experiment. I got everything from a completely black page to kids that only drew in pencil because they didn’t want to get their hands dirty. Still I ended up with 17(out of 23 students) beautiful charcoal pictures of our bowl of fruit. Each of them is completely different. Cutting them out was the key. We cut them out and put them on yellow construction paper and they came to life. Now for confessions… I have never been on a blog like this in my life and I’m not sure if this is where I’m even suppose to be writing. Sadly it’s taken me all this time just to get my password and figure out how to get in. But my heart is willing even if I am blog challenged. Carol

Well, I’ve been implementing a few things from what we talked about the first two days.  It’s been going really well.  The brain dance is so magnetic, it pulls everything together for the kids and their focus.  I have also been getting ten minutes of art in each day and I feel really good about that.  We have been doing a lot of drawing because I feel my students need that a lot lately- as far as feeling the flow of lines, and making light and dark lines.  I want it to help them with their handwriting, etc., too.  We’ll be doing more drawing in the next couple of weeks similar to what we did in P.C.  It’s been really good, it makes teaching much more fun!  I feel I don’t dread some days like I used to, because we make time to create!

Jennifer shared the following poems at Arts Academy, Thursday and Friday:

Come to the Edge by Christopher Loge

Come to the edge.

It’s too high.

Come to the edge.

We might fall.

Come to the edge.

And they did.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

The following is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

Every day we should hear one little song, read one good poem, see  one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

Dear Arts Academy Participants,

I am very excited to get to know each of you in our sessions this year. After each session, you will be asked to implement something you learned into your classroom. Then report back to all of us on this BLOG about how it went and what you learned. This is a great way to get to know your colleagues and to get feedback on your implementation strategies.

I hope that you will enjoy blogging and that these conversations will enrich your practices in your classroom!

Cally