Spring Valley High School

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Spring Valley but it was much different than I was prepared for. I had a great cooperating teacher who provided an immense amount of feedback and support that I definitely needed. I will be taking way more away from this experience than I expected to, about high school students, planning, grading, and about myself in general. The amount of planning and grading increased drastically from elementary school, but I also had a lot more down time because the students are typically much more independent and self sufficient –it was strange after coming from the elementary school, where the students constantly need or want your help.

There are some factors about teaching at the high school level that I enjoyed much more than the elementary school. For example, the assignments could be more in-depth and complex than they could with elementary school. I could also show the students a demonstration and they would understand it for the most part, unlike in elementary school where walking around during the entire class period was necessary in order to make sure students stayed on task and were behaving. Also, it was nice to have more mature conversations with the students – being closer to their age was good on this aspect, but also a problem at other times.

We had 6 classes, each 50 minutes long. The classes were three Art 1 (foundations and introduction to art) classes, two Art 2 (advanced art which included collage, sculpture, drawing, and painting) classes, and one Art 3 (drawing with different mediums: charcoal, oil pastels, pencil, watercolor, etc.) class. There were students from every different cultural background, special needs, different personalities in each class, and different attitudes. I ended up teaching four of the six classes: all three Art 1 classes and one of the Art 2 classes. Because of the lack of storage in the room, only one Art 2 class could work on clay at a time, so they would rotate projects between the Art 2 classes.

*All faces have been blurred to protect the students

Art 1: Lesson 1

I collaborated with my cooperating teacher to discuss what kind of lessons would be appropriate to teach. I asked what kind of material needed to be covered next, and we decided on value. Thanks to my 3 ½ years in studio classes, I had plenty of experience creating value. Prior to student teaching at the high school level however, I had no experience in doing scratchboard or monotypes. For the first assignment, my cooperating teacher gave me three full size scratchboards to practice with and I purchased one from a local craft store for additional practice, so I was able to get the feel for how the scratchboard would work along with how to manipulate the tools.

To introduce the concept of value, I had the students complete a 4-page worksheet packet which included solid shading, scribbling, cross-hatching, hatching, and stippling. The students had almost a week to complete the pages. Once the students completed the packet about value, I introduced landscapes and the different aspects about them: foreground, middle ground, background, and depth of field. They were given another small worksheet to practice landscapes and using the various techniques for creating value. After the students finished the worksheet, they were instructed to choose one of about 40 landscape images laid out for them where they then practiced using the scratchboard and tools by recreating a small section of the image they chose. Finally, students were given a large piece of 11”x14” scratchboard and were told to recreate the landscape they chose.  They were instructed to use at least three of the techniques for creating value which would assist in creating a wide variety of values in their images. Students were given a full week to complete their scratchboard For the most part, these turned out very well - the students who really understood how scratchboard works excelled, while others did not understand that once they've scratched it out, it's gone and there can be no putting it back.

Art 1: Lesson 2

For the second lesson that I taught the Art 1 classes, we continued with the landscapes but approached them in a different medium. I had seen the final product of monotypes, but had never done one myself. Luckily, my cooperating teacher gave me a crash course in creating monotypes. It was simple enough that I could introduce it without much confusion.

To begin this assignment, I introduced the concept of printmaking and went into different methods for monotypes. I made sure to establish that monotypes were different because they would only be able to create one print rather than multiples. I went over additive and subtractive, and what the difference between the two is. In my presentation about printmaking, I searched for videos about creating subtractive monotypes, which I included below. I did a demonstration for each of the classes, which included rolling the ink with the brayer, subtracting ink and using the different methods for creating value, blotting the paper, and running their plate through the printing press (which was to be done by myself or the cooperating teacher to ensure the safety of the students and to make sure they would not break the printing press)

 For this lesson, students chose a completely different landscape from the scratchboard.  They then chose one or two different colored inks to spread on their Plexiglas plate with the brayer and used the numerous tools we had set out for them to use (forks, q-tips, paint brushes, scrapers, towels, and they could use the end of their paintbrush as well), to then recreated their chosen landscape to the best of their ability. They were instructed they needed at least 3 different methods for creating value in their monotype as well. After they finished creating their plates, they gave them to me or the cooperating teacher to run through the printing press. In the next class after their prints had dried, I showed the students how to add details that were possibly lost during the printing process using watercolor pencils. They were told to add colors that would enhance their prints, not to cover up the areas that they subtracted, and to help create the different ways for making values. Using the watercolor pencils enabled the students to reactivate the water and ink from their prints, and made blending details easier. This entire assignment took a week, simply because monotypes are so quick and easy to create. Overall, I feel that these didn’t turn out nearly as successful as I would have liked. I did get some awesome prints, but the craftsmanship of the paper took away from the final product. The fingerprints on the paper were not 100% from the students, so I did not take off from that when grading.

 

Art 2: Lesson 1

Art 2 uses a wider variety of materials than Art 1 does, which was great for coming up with lessons. My cooperating teacher was going to cover clay as her next lesson, so I took over that lesson. The day I initially introduced that lesson did not go as well as I would have liked, so I had to approach the introduction a different way during the next class period. I included a brief history of pottery and how it was used through history, what a vessel was, and what the parameters of their assignment would be. After the presentation, I demonstrated to the class how to knead and wedge their clay, how to make coils, the different tools that they would be used, and how the slab roller worked. Because the class was so large, I had to split it into two groups which worked better than I would have thought – those who weren’t watching the demonstration could work on their sketches and design for the project and they would switch once the demonstration was done.

For the assignment, students were to create a self portrait vessel. The vessel had to be a reflection of themselves in some way – something that they are interested in, a hobby, or something that they identify with. It had to be a minimum of 10”, include three different textures, and they had to include one of the following: a lid, a handle, or feet. Their vessels were to be built out of coils, but for some it was easier to use slabs because of their design. I had a variety of designs: a shoe on a pedestal to look like a trophy because he was on the track team, one person really liked birds so he made a bird that has a bowl as the body and what is supposed to be the lid is still an open area, and one person created a dog with a lid where the top of the head is. Some of them really got the concept, while others struggled with the clay. I made the due date the final day of my time at Spring Valley, so I was able to see these pieces from start to finish which was really exciting for me.

During my time at Spring Valley, I realized that I am too close to their age to be an effective teacher right away. I feel that because I am so young, the students either did not respect me or take me seriously. I also realized that I do not have the patience for some of the attitudes that students can have, or for the immaturity. Teaching at the high school level taught me way more about myself than I expected, and about what I want to do with my career.