Oh the first day of school. I've been looking forward to seeing all those bright little faces in the halls and in the classroom. The last couple of weeks have been spent in preparation, trying to figure out the best way to start the school year and keep my enthusiasm fresh for as long as possible. I've read the Teaching for Artistic Behavior book and treated it like any college text book (with likely even more notes written in the margins). And I found a lovely site with several helpful essays that have given me many ideas and invoked quite a bit of thought about my teaching methods.
For this first week of art class I wanted to change my first day modus operandi and open with a small sort of get-to-know-you activity. I asked my students to draw something important to them and then gave them the opportunity to share with a partner and with the class. I also created an image important to me and shared with my students. (I drew a necklace my mother gave me. My older students have often seen me wearing it, so it seemed to be exciting to them to make that connection.)
After the project we discussed our classroom rules and how to behave like an artist. It went fairly well, but I definitely want to tweak my plans a bit.
One thing I really need to do is stay on top of classroom management. It's something I've always felt was a struggle. A suggestion I got from one of the articles I read mentioned reminder questions; I might ask, "Do artists behave this way?" or "How do we take care of people?" if things start getting too rowdy, for instance. It seems like it will be better for management than raising my voice!
In regards to the art project, most of the kids wanted/needed longer than I gave them to work. I think that I will increase their work time, as--particularly with 1st grade--their attention span was much shorter for listening to me talk! I don't want them to get antsy. I may also come up with a secondary drawing activity. Maybe connect it to their pair share in some way. For instance, I may ask them to implement one suggestion their partner gave them or use an answer they gave to a question to either build on their current drawing or start on a new composition.
I also feel like I should offer more questions to my younger kids asking them how they might fill up the paper, add details, etc. Get them to think about their artwork a little more (and also, maybe, take a little longer, haha).
At any rate, it mostly went well. But I really need that art cart to get here.
For this first week of art class I wanted to change my first day modus operandi and open with a small sort of get-to-know-you activity. I asked my students to draw something important to them and then gave them the opportunity to share with a partner and with the class. I also created an image important to me and shared with my students. (I drew a necklace my mother gave me. My older students have often seen me wearing it, so it seemed to be exciting to them to make that connection.)
After the project we discussed our classroom rules and how to behave like an artist. It went fairly well, but I definitely want to tweak my plans a bit.
One thing I really need to do is stay on top of classroom management. It's something I've always felt was a struggle. A suggestion I got from one of the articles I read mentioned reminder questions; I might ask, "Do artists behave this way?" or "How do we take care of people?" if things start getting too rowdy, for instance. It seems like it will be better for management than raising my voice!
In regards to the art project, most of the kids wanted/needed longer than I gave them to work. I think that I will increase their work time, as--particularly with 1st grade--their attention span was much shorter for listening to me talk! I don't want them to get antsy. I may also come up with a secondary drawing activity. Maybe connect it to their pair share in some way. For instance, I may ask them to implement one suggestion their partner gave them or use an answer they gave to a question to either build on their current drawing or start on a new composition.
I also feel like I should offer more questions to my younger kids asking them how they might fill up the paper, add details, etc. Get them to think about their artwork a little more (and also, maybe, take a little longer, haha).
At any rate, it mostly went well. But I really need that art cart to get here.
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