We have just finished our first full month of school and are on yet ANOTHER new schedule. As of Friday afternoon they were changing the schedule yet again. Even more annoying is the fact that my supply order for the year has STILL not been sent to the district. Our oil pastels are inch long, we are digging the last little bits of paint out of the watercolors, we have one or two bottles of tempera in each color. We got a small donation of supplies at the start of the year and I am trying to make them last as long as possible. I've already had to buy about $70 worth of supplies for my middle school and life skills classes. They simply need different supplies than what is available. The school secretary swore that she would put the order in this week. We will see. Sometimes it takes up to a month to get the supplies after the order has been put in.
This is putting a bit of a cramp into my "art around the world" plan. The 6th-8th graders are done with their cave art unit and are in the middle of their Australian art unit. To recap:
CAVE ART
*Online web scavenger hunt (well liked)
*PowerPoint of cave paintings
*Painting with lights out, under tables with only fingers and sticks as brushes and instant coffee mixed with water to make the paint. (most kids enjoyed the experience, the art produced was so so)
*PowerPoint 2
*Practice drawing three cave animals
*Brown paper sacks and oil pastel cave animals (very nice)
*Paper machie "rocks" using celucaly and this lesson . Students really like making their "rocks" we made them on half sheets of transparencies. The backside of the rock worked with with oil pastel and some paint. The bumpy side was too bumpy and we got very mixed results with the quality of work. The students really enjoyed it though. One large bag (cost $11 with my 40% off coupon) took care of two classes of 20 students.
I don't feel the celuclay was worth the money. After we used it I found a lesson that uses regular clay with some sand pressed into the top. I have also seen people use sandpaper. I will use the clay with the 5th graders (if it comes in on time) and brown paper sacks with the 4th graders and 5th graders if the clay is late.
4th grade looked at the cave art power point and started practicing their animal drawings. Some were really negative about the project. They get really caught up on their perfections nature to have everything look perfect. Fifth grade is two weeks behind and will start cave art NEXT week. That gives the clay three weeks to show up.
3rd grade is finishing up a pattern fall leaf project and trying to salvage the bird/bird house project this week. We will do cave art with them starting next week.
2nd grade....yah they are still having a rough time, just like last year when they were 1st graders. They will not be doing the art around the world unit. They will be doing slightly harder versions of the k-1 projects or just random stuff till they get control of themselves.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
explaining the dreamtime
one of the hardest parts of teaching Australian art is correctly explaining the idea of the dreamtime and the rainbow serpent. Many of the stories of the dreamtime are not to be told to non Aboriginal people and some storys are for only males or females. There are diffrent stories for diffrent tribes and some give conflicting information. It is hard to find a example of a dreamtime sotry and there are no childrens books about it as far as I know. I always start by explaining that is one groups creation story. A creation story is a story that explains how the plants, animals, people, even weather came to be. You may agree or disagree with a creation story personaly. This is the creation story of the aborgines:
Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime
It was believed that, before humans, animals, and plants came into being, their 'souls' existed by themselves; they knew they would become physical, but not when. When that time came, all but one of the 'souls' became plants or animals, with the last one becoming human and acting as a custodian or guardian to the natural world around them.
Dreamtime. The Aborigines believe that the world began during a mythical period called Dreamtime, or The Dreaming. During this time, ancestral beings that slept beneath the ground emerged from the earth. They created the landscape, made people, established the laws by which people lived, and taught them how to survive. After the ancestral beings' work was done, they returned underground.
A great dreamtime story with the rainbow serpent http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/australia/jennifer.sumner.aborigines/myth1.htm
Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime
It was believed that, before humans, animals, and plants came into being, their 'souls' existed by themselves; they knew they would become physical, but not when. When that time came, all but one of the 'souls' became plants or animals, with the last one becoming human and acting as a custodian or guardian to the natural world around them.
Dreamtime. The Aborigines believe that the world began during a mythical period called Dreamtime, or The Dreaming. During this time, ancestral beings that slept beneath the ground emerged from the earth. They created the landscape, made people, established the laws by which people lived, and taught them how to survive. After the ancestral beings' work was done, they returned underground.
The Rainbow Serpent is seen as the inhabitant of permanent waterholes and is in control of life's most precious resource, water. He is the underlying Aboriginal mythology for the famous Outback "bunyip". He is the sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent, who vies with the ever-reliable Sun, that replenishes the stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as he slithered across the landscape, allowing for the collection and distribution of water.
Dreamtime stories tell of the great Spirits during creation, in animal and human form they molded the barren and featureless earth. The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains and gorges as it pushed upward. The Rainbow Serpent is known as Ngalyod by the Gunwinggu and Borlung by the Miali. He is a serpent of immense proportions which inhabits deep permanent waterholes.A great dreamtime story with the rainbow serpent http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/australia/jennifer.sumner.aborigines/myth1.htm
Monday, September 21, 2009
cave art website scavenger hunt
Cave Art Website Scavenger Hunt
(work on your own or with one other person)
Name(s):
Go to this website:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
1. What country is the Lascaux site in?
Use the website and the directions I provide to answer the questions below:
Click on the discover link (has the horse painting next to it)
Click on the 'Time and Space" link
Go to the second page
2. Sketch what the entrance of the cave looked like at the end of the Paleolithic period.
Go to the next page. Look at the time line.
3. About what year were the paintings in the Lascaux caves done?
On the sidebar on the left click on "1940 the Discovery" link
4. How many teenagers discovered the Lascaux cave? Name one.
Next Page
The boys went though a hole in the ground from where the roots of a pine tree had lived. When they entered the cave the the found an open space that is now called:
5. Great Hall _____ _____ ________
Next Page
6. List three of the animals that are painted in the Hall of the Bulls.
*
*
*
Next page.
One of the four boys, Marcel Radiate went down a deep shaft (hole) in the cave
7. How deep was the shaft he went into?
Next page.
The next morning the villagers went to see the caves and a group of archaeologists came to explore the caves.
Go to the sidebar on the left. Click on "1963 The Closing of the Cave"
For many years people were able to go into the caves to see the paintings.
8. In 1955 about how many people a day went though the caves?
However, scientist discovered that all the carbon dioxide from visitors breathing was ruining the paintings.
Next Page
9. The caves were closed to visitors on April ____ 1963.
Next Page, Next page
In 1980 the French government started to build a life size copy of the Lascaux caves. Today you can visit the replica caves that are near the real caves.
Go to the left sidebar. Click on "Virtual Visit" There are 7 galleries you can click on to visit. The links are in yellow. Click on the Great Hall of the Bulls link.
10. Find the "unicorn" sketch it.
11. Find the hidden bear. You can only see part of the bear because it is hidden in the ______________'s belly.
Go back to the "Virtual Visit" main page. Click on the Painted Gallery link.
12. How many antlers are on the stag?
13. Find the Chinese Horses. How many are there?
14. Choose one animal from this Gallery to sketch.
Take the remaining time to look though the other 5 galleries to gather ideas for your own art. Look at the animals that were painted, the colors that were used and the drawing style. Be prepared because starting tomorrow you will be a cave artist.
(work on your own or with one other person)
Name(s):
Go to this website:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
1. What country is the Lascaux site in?
Use the website and the directions I provide to answer the questions below:
Click on the discover link (has the horse painting next to it)
Click on the 'Time and Space" link
Go to the second page
2. Sketch what the entrance of the cave looked like at the end of the Paleolithic period.
Go to the next page. Look at the time line.
3. About what year were the paintings in the Lascaux caves done?
On the sidebar on the left click on "1940 the Discovery" link
4. How many teenagers discovered the Lascaux cave? Name one.
Next Page
The boys went though a hole in the ground from where the roots of a pine tree had lived. When they entered the cave the the found an open space that is now called:
5. Great Hall _____ _____ ________
Next Page
6. List three of the animals that are painted in the Hall of the Bulls.
*
*
*
Next page.
One of the four boys, Marcel Radiate went down a deep shaft (hole) in the cave
7. How deep was the shaft he went into?
Next page.
The next morning the villagers went to see the caves and a group of archaeologists came to explore the caves.
Go to the sidebar on the left. Click on "1963 The Closing of the Cave"
For many years people were able to go into the caves to see the paintings.
8. In 1955 about how many people a day went though the caves?
However, scientist discovered that all the carbon dioxide from visitors breathing was ruining the paintings.
Next Page
9. The caves were closed to visitors on April ____ 1963.
Next Page, Next page
In 1980 the French government started to build a life size copy of the Lascaux caves. Today you can visit the replica caves that are near the real caves.
Go to the left sidebar. Click on "Virtual Visit" There are 7 galleries you can click on to visit. The links are in yellow. Click on the Great Hall of the Bulls link.
10. Find the "unicorn" sketch it.
11. Find the hidden bear. You can only see part of the bear because it is hidden in the ______________'s belly.
Go back to the "Virtual Visit" main page. Click on the Painted Gallery link.
12. How many antlers are on the stag?
13. Find the Chinese Horses. How many are there?
14. Choose one animal from this Gallery to sketch.
Take the remaining time to look though the other 5 galleries to gather ideas for your own art. Look at the animals that were painted, the colors that were used and the drawing style. Be prepared because starting tomorrow you will be a cave artist.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Monday Masterpiece
Ah the return of the Monday Masterpiece for the 6-8th graders. I did this at my last two middle schools and it is time to do it again. This time I am not providing the answer for the kids to circle after the first week. They have to come up with them on their own. I wish I could find the worksheet I made for this warm up. It seems to be long gone in the move from school to school.
Monday Masterpeice
Name
Period
What do you think this artwork is called?
What objects do you see in this artwork?
What colors do you see in this artwork?
What shapes do you see in this artwork?
Who do you think made this artwork (time/place/people)?
Do you like this artwork? WHY or why not?
On the back of this paper do a quick sketch of this artwork.
That is mostly it.
So Monday I will have the kids make their warm-up book. They need the Monday masterpiece sheet folded in half and two other sheets of paper.
Explain what the Monday Masterpiece is and say we are going to do it together today. The less we focus the less time we have to work on finishing our accordion books that I will be collecting at the end of class.
Starting tomorrow we will be working on our cave art unit full time. We will spend a day in the comp lab exploring the french cave paintings through a museum website, we will talk about the who, what, when, where and why's of cave art and we will be try our hand at making cave art style art.
I need to make a web guide for the Lascaux website and reserve the comp lab.
Monday Masterpeice
Name
Period
What do you think this artwork is called?
What objects do you see in this artwork?
What colors do you see in this artwork?
What shapes do you see in this artwork?
Who do you think made this artwork (time/place/people)?
Do you like this artwork? WHY or why not?
On the back of this paper do a quick sketch of this artwork.
That is mostly it.
So Monday I will have the kids make their warm-up book. They need the Monday masterpiece sheet folded in half and two other sheets of paper.
Explain what the Monday Masterpiece is and say we are going to do it together today. The less we focus the less time we have to work on finishing our accordion books that I will be collecting at the end of class.
Starting tomorrow we will be working on our cave art unit full time. We will spend a day in the comp lab exploring the french cave paintings through a museum website, we will talk about the who, what, when, where and why's of cave art and we will be try our hand at making cave art style art.
I need to make a web guide for the Lascaux website and reserve the comp lab.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
glorified babysitter
The new schedule has been made and my roll has been clarified in my mind. A very overqualified glorified babysitter.
Why do I feel this way, because they have re-arranged the schedule so that I only see the students for 30min for a time AND during that time I have to walk them to their next elective, take them potty and pick up the next group and walk them back. We do not have a small school. It often takes 10min to walk the kids from music to art. So honestly I will have the kids in the room for about 15-20min. 5 to get set up, usually 5-10 for clean up...wait that leaves 0-10min to work on our art. Does anyone else see an issue with this?
The librarian is also at a loss. The gym and music teacher could care less (both have told me so). They have WAY less clean up and are more than happy to either play a game for 15-20min or practice their two songs.
I don't want to complain in school too much because I clearly told the principal and my rep on the scheduling committee what I really needed to have a successful art program and they made a clear choice that did not take that into consideration. Instead the principal came back with the clear purpose of giving the homeroom teachers 2 90min Profession development periods a week where they can work on writing samples with each other.(?)
I several issues with this.
This brings us to the meat of the issue. I already get a strong feeling that the new principal doesn't intend on keeping art around next year. Maybe as a very part time position with the middle school but not as a full time thing. With this new schedule, and using us to make sure that the kids are watched while the teachers get sustained "planing and development" time just reaffirms this concern that I will not be kept around.
I'm tired of bouncing around from district to district. Principal to principal, schedule to schedule. I have the ability to be a really good art teacher that provides a excellent, well rounded art program. So really the principal and leadership team needs to decided if they want an art teacher and an art program or if they just want a place for the kids to go. I am not going to keep doing something that is really emotionally and physically challenging if I don't feel that is what is wanted by the school community.
At the end of this year, before I pay to renew my licence I need to decided do I stay put if the position if offered again next year, do I try to find a middle school job (there were NO jobs open this year) or do I stop teacher for now till a better fit opens up and do something else instead.
Is it better to be a very high paid babysitter that doesn't really like what I'm doing but I'm earning a lot of money? Or is it better to earn less and try to find something I like better.
It doesn't help that my pay is freezed and I not going to get a raise for a couple years under the current budget situation.
I'll report on the new schedule when it is in effect.
Why do I feel this way, because they have re-arranged the schedule so that I only see the students for 30min for a time AND during that time I have to walk them to their next elective, take them potty and pick up the next group and walk them back. We do not have a small school. It often takes 10min to walk the kids from music to art. So honestly I will have the kids in the room for about 15-20min. 5 to get set up, usually 5-10 for clean up...wait that leaves 0-10min to work on our art. Does anyone else see an issue with this?
The librarian is also at a loss. The gym and music teacher could care less (both have told me so). They have WAY less clean up and are more than happy to either play a game for 15-20min or practice their two songs.
I don't want to complain in school too much because I clearly told the principal and my rep on the scheduling committee what I really needed to have a successful art program and they made a clear choice that did not take that into consideration. Instead the principal came back with the clear purpose of giving the homeroom teachers 2 90min Profession development periods a week where they can work on writing samples with each other.(?)
I several issues with this.
- 1st this is a really long time for the students to NOT be receiving in-class instruction each day. That's almost all of the afternoon instruction. Yah for time for teachers to professionally develop but is that best practice for students to get daily practice and sustained time to work on subjects. Our students also need a stable schedule and this is not one of them. I predict an increase of students being absent on the days when they are "not doing school" in the afternoons.
- 2nd. Who is going to oversee that the teachers are going to be using that time to do professional development and not prep and relax time. No one to be honest.
- 3rd, the real reason I am annoyed is that we were asked what the point/purpose of the electives program was. The music teacher and I meet with the principal. We talked about improving our students skills, creating a program that builds our students skills from year to year, having students learn to focus, make intentional work, learn the mechanics of the skill, revise and improve their work. NONE of this fits into 15 min art making sections.
This brings us to the meat of the issue. I already get a strong feeling that the new principal doesn't intend on keeping art around next year. Maybe as a very part time position with the middle school but not as a full time thing. With this new schedule, and using us to make sure that the kids are watched while the teachers get sustained "planing and development" time just reaffirms this concern that I will not be kept around.
I'm tired of bouncing around from district to district. Principal to principal, schedule to schedule. I have the ability to be a really good art teacher that provides a excellent, well rounded art program. So really the principal and leadership team needs to decided if they want an art teacher and an art program or if they just want a place for the kids to go. I am not going to keep doing something that is really emotionally and physically challenging if I don't feel that is what is wanted by the school community.
At the end of this year, before I pay to renew my licence I need to decided do I stay put if the position if offered again next year, do I try to find a middle school job (there were NO jobs open this year) or do I stop teacher for now till a better fit opens up and do something else instead.
Is it better to be a very high paid babysitter that doesn't really like what I'm doing but I'm earning a lot of money? Or is it better to earn less and try to find something I like better.
It doesn't help that my pay is freezed and I not going to get a raise for a couple years under the current budget situation.
I'll report on the new schedule when it is in effect.
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