More and more projects are slowly coming out of the kiln at my first placement school.... and they're looking great! The school that I am currently at uses four rotations in a year for their art classes- students rotate visual art, media art, theatre, and music classes. Each rotation lasts roughly 9-10 weeks if I am remembering correctly, and attend their art class daily.
When I started student teaching around the end of January, I observed a week of their second rotation visual arts, and got to start off the new classes of the third rotation visual arts. The first week consisted of getting to know you activities, mostly so my cooperating teacher and I could start to learn the names of the students. The students all know each other on a first name basis for the most part; I've only heard of a couple of students not knowing one or two other students in the room. This happens very rarely.
Each rotation, my cooperating teacher and the other visual art teacher that shares the room always start off with a clay unit. The first week or so is used learning about clay; how to build with coils, slabs, and pinch pots. We also talked about slipping and scoring, as well as the different stages their clay projects will go through - Green-wear, Bisque-wear, Glaze-wear. After building their projects for the first week, we moved on to the lesson plans that I had put together for my time at this placement. Although we have moved on to a different topic for now (zines), we are all still super excited about the clay projects!
Clay projects are slowly coming out of the kiln, more and more everyday. The table that is set up by the kiln is filling up with so many amazing creations! I am so excited to have seen students work in clay, a medium that I had not planned to cover, because I have learned so much from the clay unit! Not only has this clay unit been a learning experience, I have gotten to see projects that students worked so hard on, and projects that I had a small part in putting together. Seeing the excitement of the students when they're looking around the table to see how their project turned out has been the highlight of every class period.
Students were instructed to put their clay creations on their shelves, which are organized by class periods. Looking into this sea of bisque-wear has been so exciting... I can't wait to see them glazed!
Look at this perfectly shaped peach!
This strawberry is awesome!
A great piece from my first period class!
Mushrooms from my second period class!
A great piece from my fifth period class!
The first and second period shelf is filled with all new bisque-wear!