Art Portfolios

The students in my school that I am student teaching at got to take home art portfolios the other day.  These were magnificent creations that the teacher supplied them.  It was just a big envelop that the students got to decorate however, they wanted that day and the art teacher gave them all of the art that they had done throughout the quarter.  The students had so much fun making these, I think you could easily incorporate this fun little project into any class for any subject.  Each envelope was different and it was a unique way to present art to their parents.  I don't think my field experience teacher for this class did that with her students.  To my knowledge she just handed their work back to them after she had displayed it in the hall for a while.  I like the portfolio idea better because then the students can show their parents and display it like a real art gallery, which is something you can incorporate into your teaching.  What an art gallery is, and why people do them, and how they are set up.

Snowman feet

Today in my field experience class for my other class the students got to paint their feet and make snowmen ornaments out of it.  This was a pretty interesting thing to watch.  The students loved to do it and you could see on their faces that they were having fun.  It was also a could way to teach the students that they can make anything into art.  The students were a little skeptical at first that this was not going to work but once they saw an example and started to make them they were on board.  This taught them that they can use whats around them, and to really use their imagination.  I think we stifle students imagination to much and they become bored with school.  If we spark their imagination with art I think that would change tremendously.

Music

Yesterday I went in and saw the 5th grade class music performance.  They did pretty well for just beginning with instruments and you could see it on their faces that they were excited to play for an audience.  You could tell that they had practiced hard to learn the songs like jingle bells and all those good ones.  The audience really enjoyed it too. It was a spur of the moment thing and I am really glad that I got to see them perform.  I wish I was able to see some of their practices to see how far they had come.  It did take me back to the days that I was starting in band.

Art

Yesterday I got to go in again and see the art class one more time.  This was especially fun to watch because 4th grade was working on their architecture projects which were pretty amazing to look at and see them create.  Some of them stuck with buildings they knew I don't know how many Mcdonald's and Chick Fil A's I saw on their papers, however, some of them were pretty creative.  They had different shaped colorful building and their names were pretty funny.  It was great to see all of the students really enjoying the lesson.  The 5th graders got to work with oil pastels.  They were making a window scene they had to draw a tree and decorate it and then add then window panes and snow to it.  They turned out really cool and made me want to sit down and join them.  I was really glad that I went in one more time to see them.

Incorporating Art and Music

I haven't had much time to go and visit the school. I have all my hours in but I have been busy with homework and my other field experience.  Therefore I will elaborate on some of the things that I wish my one classroom would be doing.  I like that my teacher has been doing multiple craft projects with my teacher however, I wish she would incorporate art and music more in the classroom.  I have seen her put on Pandora so I feel that the students are getting exposed to music but they aren't really learning about music like they could be.  In addition, I feel like she could add more art into her teaching as well, especially when teaching the students about different traditions.  You could find multiple art works that depict different holiday traditions to help with this concept.  I feel that my teacher is just missing so many different opportunities.

Art

My first visit to the art class was very educational.  In art class the students are working on Patriots day artwork.  The 3rd graders are drawing stars and then outlining them with red and blue crayons.  The 4th and 5th graders are working with wax resist with their projects.  A lot of the students thought it was so cool and I have to admit it was pretty cool to see it actually work.  I liked how the teacher stayed with one general concept and then adapted it to all of her other grades.

November 20, 2015 Music

Last Friday I went to observe in the the music classroom again.  I got to spend about 3 hours there and it was a very great learning experience.  The 3rd and 4th graders were doing their recorders and it was really fun to see the difference between the two grade levels.  The 3rd grade needed more work with the recorders, which makes sense because they are younger.  There were more students on the very first song still.  The 4th graders most of the students were taking their test to past the 2nd song.  The students seemed to really like the recorders, and the 4th graders did a really good job with the warm activity that the teacher was teaching them.  They both got the same warm up activity and they had to clap out the rhythm that was a rhythmic pattern of eighths notes and quarter notes.  It was fun watching the students with that because I could remember being in music class and struggling with eighths notes.  The 5th grade got to work on a worksheet about country music and then when they were done they got to do their turkey trot songs.  One of them was a pumpkin pie polka and the other one was a hip hop turkey.  The students being 5th graders you could tell they wanted to dance but they thought that they were to cool to dance but eventually everyone started to dance and just have fun.

November 5, 2015 Music

I got to go in today and observe a 5th grade music class.  The teacher is responsible for organizing the Veteran's Day celebration and the 5th grade classes are the ones who will mostly be presenting it.  It was really neat to see all the different things that went into making a assembly like this one and I didn't really know or understand all the work that went into one.  That being said the 5th graders who had solos did wonderfully when their parts came and the students did a wonderful job singing they all sounded really superb.  One of the songs they did was America and the teacher was going to have a select few students play the Orff instrument however, that did not go over well.  The students got lost at multiple points in the song and many of them were either off on their notes or off on their tempos.  The teacher made the decision at the end of the class to do away with them because she didn't have enough time to really teach the students and get them to be confident playing it.  I don't blame her most of the students had never played an instrument and none of them understood what conducting was so I think she will have to take baby steps with these students.  I had a thought of fun with these students today, they all seemed very excited about their upcoming performance.  I am just sad that I will not be able to see them perform it.  They have worked so hard.

November 5, 2015 Art

Today I went and observed in the Art Classroom. The class was a 4th grade class and they were finishing up their Veteran's Day projects.  Most of them were done so the rest got to free draw.  I like the idea of free draw.  The teacher has binders with the teach me to draw books in them and the students are always pulling them out.  I also like to just walk around and look at what the students who don't pull one of those books out are drawing and I was very impressed.  Some were free handing animals and bugs from their own memory and making them their own.  Others were creating almost tye-dye looking patterns with markers.  I also got to witness a very special drawing that I must say I was greatly impressed came from a 4th grader.  The picture started off as just a simple picture of flowers in a sky, however, then the little girl put words on her paper and it changed how I viewed the picture.   The more words that she put on the more impressed I became.  "Every flower is different, no one flower is alike."  "Everyone is perfect just how they are." These were things that were written on her paper, and I thought it was amazing because I didn't expect it to come from a 4th grader and I just hope as she moves through her school life she never loses sight of that.  I do have some things I did not like about the class and that was how the teacher manage her students.  Her students had gotten a tad noisy a couple of times and yes after the first time they should have followed the rules however, the students were talking about their art and not just nonsense.  I feel that the classroom wasn't as loud as the teacher made it out to seem.  Since the students were free drawing and sense most of them were finished with the projects I feel that the amount of talking was completely acceptable.  These poor students are supposed to be sitting in a classroom quite for most of the day and for an hour I think the teacher could of let the talk with their tables and neighbors because it was an off day and they didn't have something they needed to get done.

Music

I know I am a little late with this however, I have had a very fun time in my music and art classes that I am observing in.  For my music class the 3rd and 4th graders are starting recorders.  They are also working with deciphering notes and with drawing a treble clef.  The 5th graders were having try outs for their Veteran's Day celebration.  I got to take notes so the teacher can choose which ones will get speaking parts and which ones will get solos for one of the songs they are singing. This was so much fun to see.  I liked learning about how the students learn how to do the treble clef and how one teaches students the notes.  She was very fun to watch when teaching the students notes becuase she teaches with whole class discussion.