Residency 1-Whittier Elementary School-Jane Swatosh (6hrs)
This week at Whittier, the children once again started their day with a journal entry, writing their opinions on what they would do if they saw someone else doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. This was followed by a brainstorming session about rules; specifically their own personal rules, or rules they were expected to follow in their homes. Then they came up with consequences for if they did not follow those rules. We brainstormed as a large group and also in pairs. This setup of discussion was beneficial as children who feel uncomfortable to speak up in a large group, get an opportunity to interact one-on-one with a friend, which seems less threatening.
During Friday’s choice time, I chatted with a student about her favorite horror movie, and then we played a drawing game together. In math, I worked with two students, helping them with multiplication. Ms. Swatosh had recently introduced some new formulae to them, and it seemed like they were struggling to grasp the concept. I tried to help them visualize the questions. They seemed to grasp the techniques a little better working in small groups, with more individual attention. With thirty students in a class this is hard to do, that said, Ms. Swatosh often works with a group of students who she feels might benefit from some additional attention.
A continuous observation with the fifth grade classroom, is that they have a lot of energy, and are easily distracted. I wonder what are solutions to help them stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Residency 2-Minneapolis Institute of Art-Angela Olson and Natalia Choi (2.5hrs)
This week at Toddler Tuesdays, Akiko introduced the kids to clay. First, we strolled through the galleries, and Akiko showed the kids the Guardian Kings, these are often placed at tombs, as a form of protection. In class, students made their own versions of the guardians. Unicorns, snails, snakes, cats, lions, a vacuum cleaner, we had it all. The kids loved the clay, and got creative with it, adding pipe cleaners and lots of colors to their various creatures.
With each class with the toddlers, they open up more and more, and this class they not only interacted with the materials, they also interacted with us, sharing their stories and creating sound effects to their creatures. As these classes have progressed, I have noticed that the more open ended the exercises are, the more options they have, the more the toddlers enjoy the making.
Shadowing-Upstream Arts-Masanari Kawahara (5hrs)
This week with Masa, his Monday class was cancelled as Pillsbury house was closed for President’s Day. Instead I once again joined his Visual Memoirs class. From my perspective, this week's Memoirs Class was the most successful one I had seen. We started with a self-portrait. Then did blind contour drawing and some imaginative drawing. One of the students read something they had written, a personal anecdote about a life experience. The rest of the students listened, then created images for the story that had been read. This was my favorite part of the class. Students were really able to visualize the story, and draw out key moments that they individually felt represented the story. This exercise allowed them to be creative, and also showcased their own individual styles. This class was most successful to me as I felt it was well-balanced between learning technique and observing, and developing creativity, something Masa had expressed he wanted to maintain in these classes.
