Practicum Observance From March 26th, 2015

Today was Emma and I’s second day of practicum observance and now that we knew what to expect going into the classroom, I wasn’t as nervous about observing the students. 

The Stain Glass I/II students continue to work on their stain glass pieces that they were working on during our first observance day.  Most of the students have moved on to a new assignment where they are creating a hanging windowpane in the style of either Frank Lloyd Wright or De Stijl.  Coincidentally, I am currently studying Frank Lloyd Wright and De Stijl in my History of Design class, so I was pretty proficient on the knowledge of both subjects.  Because of this information, I was able to help some of the students gain a better understanding of both Frank Lloyd Wright and De Stijl. 

In Painting and Drawing I/II, the students were introduced Mark Rothko and Abstract Expressionism.  The students also had a review of color theory and they had a discussion of how colors can convey emotion.  To give students an example, they were played a sample of Taylor Swift’s song “Red”.  The lyrics go as such:

Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark grey all alone
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met
But loving him was red
Loving him was red

I thought the incorporation of the song into the lesson helped students engage with the information presented as well as learn about how aspects of art, such as color, can be an aesthetic experience.  I believe that I could teach students about aesthetics by doing an activity such as this because it engages the students by incorporating their interests.  After the song activity, the students were shown examples of Mark Rothko’s work and the students were asked what kinds of emotions they felt looking at his work.  I have recently studied Mark Rothko’s work in my Art Since 1950 class, and we did a similar activity while looking at his paintings.  Rothko wanted the colors in his paintings to immerse the viewer in order to evoke an emotion from the viewer.  Because of this choice by the artist, he never titled his paintings except for the colors that he used in each composition.

The students were then given a demonstration on how to execute the project.  Our cooperating teacher had made 6 batches of wallpaper paste, which was dyed to the colors in the color wheel.  Then the students were shown many ways on how to apply the wallpaper paste onto a giant sheet of paper except for a paintbrush.  For this assignment, the students were not allowed to use a paintbrush, so Mrs. Gumness had several types of materials and tools that the students could use to apply the paste.  The students were asked to think of an emotion they have experienced and they were to convey that emotion onto the painting surface.  The results of this lesson were very exciting to watch come to fruition because each and every one of the student’s applied the wallpaper paste in a different way. 

In Pottery I/II, the students were now working on coil and creating bowls made from coil.  A few of the students were a little behind and still working on their pinch pots.   For all the classes Mrs. Gumness teaches, they are given a list of all the assignments that they will be doing over the course of the trimester along with due dates for each project.  For the advanced students, they are given this list as well, but they have the freedom of getting ahead if they finish an assignment early.  There are some aspects of this way of teaching I like, especially at the high school level.  One reason I like it is because it can give the students a sense of responsibility with making sure that their assignments are completed, but there will always be a few students that will take advantage of that freedom and will wait until the last minute to finish the assignments; in the end, the end product(s) tend to be not the best quality and don’t accurately show the students’ ability.  I took advanced art classes my senior year of high school and my teacher approached the class the same way; we were given a syllabus with due dates and that was the extent of our teaching.  At least with Mrs. Gumness’s teaching style, she is actively engaging with them and giving advice and helping her students proactively.    

Another question we asked our cooperating teacher was how she defined the rules of her classroom.  She closely follows the school’s motto, “Be respectful, Be responsible, Be safe… It’s the Blackhawk way!” which is posted next to the door to the hallway.  Along with following the school’s motto, she also has rules in regards to language use.  If a student says a profanity, she expects the students to say 3 positive words starting with the letter the profanity started with.  Another way the cooperating teacher manages her class is at the beginning of the trimester, she has students sign a contract stating that they will respect the rules, the materials being used, their peers, and safety procedures in the classroom.  The cooperating teacher also implements a checkout system for art supplies, such as paintbrushes, pencils, and digital cameras.  As stated in the contract, the student will check out a supply and the object is supposed to be returned in the same state it was checked out in.  If a supply is returned in poor shape or not returned at all, the student is expected to pay the cost of replacing that object.  I believe that this is a fantastic classroom rule, especially at the high school level because it holds the students accountable as well as teaching them responsibility.