Week 16 - April 30-May 6

This week was a bit more interesting than last week, I didn't sleep much, but I got a LOT of stuff done, which I'm very happy about!

On Monday I had my Illustrated Notebook -class, and we just worked on our finals and did smaller group critiques. It was a nice and relaxing class. That night wasn't as relaxing though, since I had to write several teaching artist documents that were due at midnight, and after those were done I realized that I also had to write a draft for a grant in my Professional Practice class... It was a long night of writing indeed...

On Tuesday night I had to finish both my Digital Coloring and Figure Drawing finals. The digital coloring went surprisingly quick, but my figure drawing piece took a lot longer, since I had to glue things to it, and then wait for them to dry. Once I finally finished it, I was pretty happy with it.

On Wednesday we critiqued the figure drawing finals. My piece divided people's opinions; some liked it and some thought it was a bit "too much" with the collaging elements, but overall I was glad that everyone seemed excited to talk about it. Other people's pieces were mostly really good, though unfortunately some hadn't had the time to finish theirs... Later on Wednesday night I studied for my Asian Art History final exam like crazy. I also had to finish my final paper for that class, so I didn't sleep much that night either. 

On Thursday, I had that exam, and I think it went pretty well, even though I was so tired. Hopefully the teacher will be able to understand my messy, half-asleep hand-writing...

On Friday I had work (at MCAD's mailroom), and nothing else interesting really happened, but then Saturday was very eventful. It was the free comic book day, so I of course had to go to a comic book store to get some new comics. Luckily one of my friends had a car, so we were able to go to a big and popular comic book store called "the Source". The lines were really long when we got there, but the wait was worth it. I didn't end up buying anything, and just got the free stuff, but it was fun nonetheless. After we came back, I started cleaning my apartment and packing, since I would be leaving back home in a week. I worked for about ten hours, with a few breaks in between, until I had to stop because my muscles were aching. 

So definitely some pretty cool things happened this week, and next week should be a lot of fun too, since the school will end, and I think there is some fun end of school events. The whole Teaching Artist Practicum class will also be visiting Lynda's (our teacher's) house for our final class of the year, and also for a brunch, which I bet will be great too!

I guess this is the end of my teaching artist journal then. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I'm actually thinking that I should probably start some sort of a new online journal, because I enjoyed this one so much... But we'll see if I actually have the time for that. Anyways, thank you so much for reading my journal, and have a wonderful summer!

Week 15 - April 23-29

Nothing special really happened this week. I was extremely busy with all of my finals, but now I have at least all of my TA-hours finished. I wish I could just continue my recidencies instead of the finals, but at least there is less than two weeks left of school. I'm excited to see my family in Finland again, and hopefully finally take a break from all the stress. 

I don't really know what to write, I'm busy as always, but actually school is going surprisingly well. I might get some pretty decent grades. Next week will be a way more interesting entry, since I'll be talking about my last week of school. I have some pieces getting critiqued and etc. so that should provide a nice topic to talk about! Anyways, until then my dear readers!

Week 14 - April 16-22

Monday April 17, Expo Elementary, Comics and Cubism-lesson 10-11am, 1 hour

Thursday April 20, Spectrum Artworks, Open studio hours, 1-4pm, 3 hours

Friday April 21, Shadowing Melodee Strong, Sunset Hill Elementary School, 7.30-11.15am, 3.75 hours

Friday April 21, Spectrum Artworks, Open studio hours and collective studio hours, 11.30am-2.15, 2.75 hours

Friday April 21, Shadowing Melodee Strong, MIA-brainstorming session, 4.30-6.00pm, 1.5 hours

Total hours: 11.5

As you can tell just from looking at the amount of hours and places I went to only teaching/shadowing-wise, this week has been even busier than normally. This however doesn't mean that I didn't have fun, I met so many cool people and got to know a few people who I had met before even better. I also discovered that I am a surprisingly social person, I loved making all these connections and talking to these people. I also learned a lot, about various things regarding to teaching.

So the beginning of the week started with me teaching at Expo Elementary. It was my first time teaching a class of such young children alone, and I was a bit nervous. More than I was nervous though, I was really excited to meet that wonderful group of kids and Ulla Tervo-Desnick again. I didn't really sleep the night before. For some reason i never sleep before something like that. In the morning I forgot to eat breakfast, and drank a whole energy drink instead, in order to stay awake. This was definitely a mistake, and made me feel sick the whole rest of the morning, but at least I was awake.

Lynda came with me to Expo to film the lesson and to evaluate it. She also found some nice paper from the teaching artist closet for me to use, since I didn't have the money to buy fancier paper myself. I was really thankful for this, because it made the students' final product feel more professionally done.

When we arrived the kids and Ulla were already waiting for us, and as we walked in they all welcomed us with smiling faces. I felt really glad to be back. I had missed them all so much. Sadly there was no time to say more than a few brief words of introduction, because we had to start preparing the lesson. We spread out the pens, panel templates and papers on the desks, and Ulla read a book to the kids while they waited.

When we were done preparing, I started off the class with a brief presentation that consisted mostly of who I was, what my art was like, what cubism was and how we were going to make cubist comics together. The energy drink kicked in a bit too much and I awkwardly stumbled with some of my words, but luckily the kids didn't seem to care and listened with focused expressions on their faces. Their excitement and obvious respect towards me gave me confidence to continue and not care about small mistakes. Despite this, there were a few times when both Ulla and Lynda had to help me a bit. I was so lucky not to be doing this alone, but having two "assistants" there to support me.

After the presentation, it was time for the students to start working on their comics. First they thought of a short story, then they chose two to five colorful pre-cut shapes to use as comic panels, and then glued them onto a white piece of paper. After that they got to draw out their story with pencil and then ink it. If the kids still had time after this, they got to decorate the edges of the paper and/or color everything. The theme was "My Dream Job", and all the comics had to have at least two words of text. I was incredibly impressed by the creative ideas that kids had, there was such a variety of approaches and different dream jobs; many pokemon trainers, superheroes, mermaids and someone even wanted to be a frozen yogurt when she grew up. It was great seeing that the kids weren't ashamed of having these wonderful dreams, even if some of them might have been a bit difficult to reach in real life.

At the end of the class, it was time for everyone to share their work. I asked everyone to lay out their work on the carpet in front of the class, and then sit next to them. This I could have probably organized slightly better, but with Ulla's help we made it work. After we had gotten everyone to sit down, I asked students to volunteer to share their work in front of the class. This went well, and I was impressed by the kids' ability to speak about their own comic.

A comic from my class at Expo! This student really liked her cat, so it appears in all the panels :D

Another comic from my class at Expo! This student wanted to be a mermaid, and beautifully decorated the gutters with waves :) 

Me and Lynda ended up staying slightly over time, since at the end I remembered that I had made stickers to give to the students, and everyone took their sweet time choosing them. Before leaving, I once again talked to Ulla about coming back some time and she said that I would be welcome to do that. I really want to go there at least once before the semester ends. I want to say good bye to that particular class, because if I went back next Fall, Ulla would have a different class. 

This journal entry is becoming really long, and congrats to anyone who has read it this far :D However I'm probably only half way done, since I did so many other things besides teaching at Expo. Anyways, on Thursday I went to Spectrum again and that day it was Iris' turn to teach a lesson there. Their lesson was going to be about the basics of Adobe Photoshop, and I was really excited to be able to observe it. Iris felt slightly nervous before it, so I tried to help them as much as I could by doing some small preparatory tasks and talking about random things.

Iris all prepared for teaching! The class was wonderful and I learned a lot.

When it was time for Iris to teach, we came across a problem: there was no extension cord for the projector. I ran around the building trying to find one, and eventually it wasn't even me who found a suitable one. At least I tried to help. 

Iris' class was spectacular! They taught in a way that was very easy for everyone to understand, even though the subject was fairly complicated. Both me and Lynda learned something new as well. At the end of the class, everyone seemed really happy and excited about their new Photoshop-knowledge. When it was time to leave, Lynda was able to give us a ride back to school again, which was very much appreciated.

Friday was an extremely long day for me, long but fun. I woke up really early in the morning, and went to wait for Melodee, who was going to pick up me and another interning student , Tre'on Bell, at 7.30 am to go and work on a mural at Sunset Hill Elementary School. She was late by about 20 minutes, which got me slightly worried, but luckily she arrived in one piece. The traffic was horrible, but we were able to get to the school a bit after 8 am. Melodee and Tre had been there before, so they just signed in, but since it was my first time I had to register with an ID before I could go in as well.

The process of painting the mural was already really far along, because this was Melodee's fourth day painting it, and she had many little helpers. Actually I was very surprised when Melodee told me that she intended to have all the kids at the school to help her. That way everyone would get the opportunity to say they contributed to the mural. I thought that this idea was just wonderful, because the mural was all about the diversity of the student body as well as friendships between students. 

Melodee Strong instructing the kids as they paint the mural.

Me, Melodee, a random kid and Tre'on decided to take a selfie :D

The students came to help in groups of 6-8 kids, and each group got to paint for about 15 minutes before a new group came. Almost everyone had a lot of fun painting, and there was only one case I witnessed when a kid refused to paint, but even then he seemed to enjoy "supervising" his classmates. 

I tried my best to be as helpful as I could, but I ended up mostly just smoothing some globs of paint that were too big, that the students left as they painted. I also went around praising the students work as, and encouraging them when needed. Besides this, there were some times when my help was not needed, and I just spent that free time observing the space. I noticed a couple of birds that had a nest in a pipe that was coming off a wall located in a garden outside. I took a few cute pictures of them.

These cute, tiny birds had a nest in a pipe outside the window near the mural. They kept bringing food to the babies inside it.

Another exciting thing that happened during this visit, was a lock-up drill. I had never participated in one before, and didn't even know what exactly they were before this. It turned out that they are drills to practice intruder-situations at school, because of all the school shootings that had happened in the past years. When the drill started, we weren't entirely sure where we should hide, so we hid in a bathroom (I think there was about eight or nine of us). I have to say that it was my first time in a bathroom with so many people. 

Hiding in the bathroom together was a strange experience :D

After the mural painting session at the school ended, Melodee was able to drop me off to Spectrum, where I was going to do a few hours that day as well. It was very quiet there, with only a few artists there along with me and Jes. I spent my time having conversations with and critiquing the people's work who were present. I also found out that the upcoming week was going to be a volunteer appreciation week, so Jes gave me a cute plant as a gift. 

After I left Spectrum at about 2.15 pm, I headed straight home and took a little break before I had to leave for another shadowing session at 4.15pm. This time, Kate Mohn (who works at MCAD as a person who helps arranging internships and grant-writing) was able to give me and two other interns, Nathan and Patricia, a ride to the community center where one of Melodee's many mural brainstorming sessions was going to be held. 

We arrived before Melodee, and it turned out that she was stuck in traffic and was going to be late because of that, so we had to start the brainstorming session instead of her. It went smoothly and the kids were excited to start drawing. The theme was: what do you like about your neighborhood?

Later, when Melodee arrived, she did a short presentation and took charge of the brainstorming session. A few of the kids had to leave early, and in the end only four of them were left, but they seemed to have a lot of fun. When the session ended, everyone also got a donut, which of course made everything even more fun.

This was such a long journal entry... Probably the longest one so far, and despite that I feel like I was able to only give a tiny glimpse of what my week was really like... Anyways, next week's entry probably won't be as long, as I will be only going to Franklin Middle School to shadow Melodee. Then again, it will be my first time there, and many interesting things will probably happen... Still the entry won't be as long, I promise! Thanks for reading, and until next time my readers!

Week 13 - April 9-15

Shadowing Melodee Strong at Simpson Housing, Thursday 4/14, 4.30 to 6.00pm - 1.5 hours

Nothing very special happened this week, I was of course busy with school, but that's just how my life is. I didn't have any hours at Spectrum this week, because I was doing a shadowing for the first time. I was shadowing a person called Melodee Strong, and I have to say that her name is very fitting; she was oozing authority and knew exactly how to keep the kids in order. I later learned that she teaches at a middle school, so it makes sense that she knew how to deal with kids, considering how rebellious middle schoolers can be...

Before the shadowing, I messaged DJ Yang (another MCAD TA-student) because she was going to shadow Melodee as well, and we walked to Simpson housing together. I'm glad I walked with her, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have found the right place. As we walked DJ had to stop me several times from going to the wrong direction... When we arrived, we helped set up the drawing supplies for all the kids that would soon come in. 

Drawing supplies

After setting up the drawing supplies, and covering each desk with a big piece of paper, me and DJ mostly just walked around and waited. Soon the kids, their tutors and Melodee herself came in, and the class started. Everyone was going to work on drawings that would serve as designs for a mural that they would later paint together. Every child had their own desk and also a tutor helping them, so me and DJ couldn't do very much to help besides walking around and giving occasional feedback about the drawings. 

Me and DJ at Simpson Housing (and also a photographer guy in the background, whose name I forget...)

Even though there wasn't very much to physically do, just watching Melodee teach and learning from her was a very beneficial experience. I hope I can become such a strong teacher some day too. Luckily at the end we helped with the clean up at least, so we didn't have to feel completely useless.

I'm definitely looking forward to do more of these shadowings, and my next one will actually be next week so I'll be covering that in my next entry. I will also have taught a class at Expo Elementary at that time, so I'll probably be talking a lot about that as well. It will be a very long entry again... Anyways, until then my readers!

Week 12 - April 2-8

Thursday 4/6/17 and Friday 4/7/17, Spectrum Artworks, Open Studio Hours 1-4pm and Collective Studio Hours 1-3pm(+ clean up until 3.30pm) - 5.5 hours

This week was, well of course really busy again, but most of all it was incredibly exciting: I taught my first lesson by myself! Though it was hardly just by myself, since I had 4 assistants (Iris, Taylor, Jes and Lynda), but it was super exciting nonetheless.

In the beginning of the week I was very busy with all my homework, so I was a bit worried if I would have enough time to prepare for the lesson. I was able to practice my presentation a few times with friends, but the other things weren't as easy to prepare for, since after the presentation the class was going to continue in a more spontaneous manner with the students working on their comics.

When the day of the teaching came (which was Thursday by the way), I was very nervous, sleep-deprived and hungry (since I had just started my diet). I drank a lot of coffee to make sure people wouldn't notice how tired I was. When I arrived at Spectrum at 1pm, the welcoming and warm atmosphere once again soothed my mind, and I suddenly didn't feel as nervous anymore. Jes wasn't there at first, so I just spent time walking around and talking to everyone. Many of the people there seemed very excited about my upcoming lesson, and that scared me a bit. I once again wondered if I could live up to their high expectations. 

After Jes arrived, we started gathering the supplies for my class that she had promised to provide (pencils, sharpeners, erasers, rulers and etc.). When we had everything, we headed upstairs to the Lighthouse's training room, which was were my lesson was going to be held. We had to wait a bit, since it was occupied by a meditation group at first, and when we got in, it was about 2.30pm (half an hour to my lesson).

I had been to the training room once before, but somehow it felt bigger this time. Maybe it was just the nervousness and excitement that I had bubbling inside me. We noticed that there were some relaxing nature sounds playing in the background, probably forgotten from the meditation session. They were so nice that we just decided to leave them on for my lesson as well. We then proceeded to rearrange the tables, I quickly learned how to use the room's strange computer and soon it was time for my lesson to start. People started walking in, and in the end a total of nine participants had arrived, which I think was pretty good considering that ten people originally signed up. Even Lynda arrived right on time, though she had said she would be very late.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the students, to protect their privacy, but here is a picture of me instead.

When I started my class with the presentation, I was surprised by how smoothly everything went. Speaking in front of the students didn't feel intimidating at all, it was the opposite, the situation felt completely natural and comfortable. Of course I was speaking about something that I was incredibly passionate about, so that helped, but still I was amazed by how much fun it all was.

When I got to the end of the presentation, the students proceeded to work on their comic characters and then later on the comics themselves. Me and the assistants walked around giving the students advice and words of encouragement. Everyone's work was really beautiful, but that was of course to be expected, since they all had artistic backgrounds. I was also glad to see that many of the students had taken this opportunity to tackle some very personal subjects, while others took more distant approaches. Overall it was great to see that the students understood that this was a project where everyone could do their thing and not worry too much.

A really fun comic by one of the students!

A humorous take on a serious subject, by one of the students.

When the class ended, I was surprised to notice how much my throat hurt from all the yelling. I also wasn't expecting that I would have to even yell, but when people get excited about something they often get loud, even if they are adults. So whenever it got loud like that, I had to yell in order for people to hear what I said. All in all, I felt very happy about having taught a class for the first time, and fairly successfully too.

After cleaning up, me, Iris, Jes and Lynda stayed at the training room to talk for awhile, and then Lynda offered to drive me and Iris back to MCAD. We gladly accepted the offer.

On Friday I went to Spectrum again, but awkwardly forgot that I had to be there at 11am and not 1pm, because of some schedule changes... Fortunately Jes was once again really cool about it, and let me help out with whatever I could. It was a very quiet day, and I ended up mostly just cutting more pieces out from magazines for the art journaling class again.

Anyways, a very long entry again. Congrats to whoever read through it all. Next weeks entry probably won't be that special, but I guess we'll have to wait and see! Until then my readers!

Week 11 - March 26-April 1

Thursday 3/30/17 and Friday 3/31/17, Spectrum Artworks, Open Studio Hours 1-4.15pm and Collective Studio Hours 1-4pm - 6.15 Hours

This week was very busy again as always. Hopefully next semester I will get to take it a bit easier. Anyways I spent the beginning of the week by mostly doing homework none-stop, since I was sick last week and a bit behind in many classes. I also emailed back and forth with both Lynda Monick-Isenberg and Ulla Tervo-Desnick trying to figure out when I could teach my class at Expo Elementary. It was extremely difficult to get the schedules to work together, but after what must have been over twenty emails, we were finally able to set up a date that worked for everyone.

On Thursday at 1pm I went to Spectrum again. It was a very beautiful day out, and walking there in that nice weather was kind of nice. When I arrived, the studio was bustling with people, which is common on Thursdays because of the open studio hours. There was one new person who I hadn't met before, who had come to try out his artistic talent, so I spent awhile talking to them and figuring out what he should start making. At 2pm, Taylor (the other volunteer besides me and Iris) did a figure drawing demo for everyone. He was a natural teacher, and had formed a lesson that was easy for artists of every level to understand and learn from. After the demo, many people went ahead and tried out the methods he taught. It was fun seeing how helpful he was to them, but his talent at teaching made me slightly scared of my own lesson that is coming up next week. Can I be even close to as good as he was? Of course the subject I will be teaching is a lot different in many ways, and everyone teaches differently anyway. I should do fine!

On Friday I went to Spectrum at 1pm as well. Iris was there too. It was very quiet, with just two of the collective members present, and this worried me slightly because I wouldn't be able to help as much. Luckily Jes had come up with a completely different job for both me and Iris that day: we would be cutting out collage materials for the up-coming art journaling class. So we labeled a few different trays with words like "people", "colors", "textures" and etc. and then proceeded to find interesting-looking magazines to cut out pictures from. We spent three hours just cutting and I was surprised by how much fun it was. Many of the magazines were really old and full of goofy advertisements and pictures. I was originally supposed to leave at three, because that's when the studio closes, but I ended up staying until four helping Jes out. 

Me and Iris had fun cutting paper :D

It was serious business.

The result!

Iris, Jes and Me! A happy selfie after all that paper-cutting.

At four when me and Iris were about to leave, we noticed some of the Lighthouse staff members gathered in the main hall. We were curious and went to see what was going on. It turned out that one of the staff members had a hamster, so they were letting it run around the hall inside its "hamster-ball". I had never seen a hamster inside one of them before and it was a lot of fun just watching it adventure around the place, while being protected by the see-through plastic ball. I ended up taking three minutes worth of videos of it...

But yeah, next week's update will be exciting, since I will have completed my first lesson for the Teaching Artist Practicum -class. I just hope I'll have enough time to prepare for it, considering how much homework I have... Anyways, until then my readers!

Week 10 - March 19-25

Thursday 3/23/17, Spectrum Artworks, Open Studio Hours 1-3.30 pm, 2.5 hours

This week I got sick again. I've been sick with a cold twice this year already... All the more proof that I'm working more than my body can handle. Anyways, my sickness messed up all my plans this week, and I had to miss class on Monday. On Tuesday I went to class, but was sneezing and coughing so much that everyone told me to go back home and sleep. On Wednesday I got to take it easy, since I only had a mid-term review in my figure drawing class, which only took about forty minutes with the preparations.

On Thursday I was still losing my voice all the time, but not too sick anymore, so I went to Spectrum. There I was glad to hear that Jes had a job for me that didn't require much speaking (except for the occasional greeting to the people who went in and out of the studio), she wanted me to work on my lesson plan. Luckily both Iris and Taylor, the other volunteers, were also there, so they were able to do the other tasks for Jes.

Working on the lesson plan took longer than I expected. Since there was no wi-fi, I had to use my phone whenever I had to look something up online, so the process turned into multitasking between the phone and the computer. When I finally finished, it was already 3.30pm and Jes told me I could go home since I was still sick.

Later that night, there was a meeting of the teaching artist practicum class. It was a lot of fun to hear everyone's crazy stories about their residencies.

On Friday I did not go to Spectrum, since I had a meeting afternoon, and had to work on artwork for the MCAD Mini-con. I was very behind with the con-stuff, so I had to do pretty much everything on Friday... I finished working at 4am on Saturday morning, and couldn't really sleep after, since I was too excited about the con.

In the con I got a table next to the pop-corn machine, which I wasn't too fond of, since the greasy smell oozing out of it felt strong enough to stick to my comics... Despite this, I was able to sell enough of my comics, zines and stickers to get at least my printing money back and more. The best part was just walking around and trading art with everyone though. I got a lot of amazing stuff and technically paid no money for it!

Anyways, this journal entry wasn't too heavily focused on my residencies or teaching artist stuff, but more of an update of what is going on in Hanna's life. Next time I'll hopefully have something with more TA-substance! Until then my readers!

Week 9 - March 12-18

Monday, March 13 - Friday, March 17, Expo Elementary, 7.45 am - 2.50 pm, 35 hours (+ 10 hours commuting)

I wasn’t able to sleep much the night before, because I was so excited about my first day at Expo Elementary. Just the commuting there was going to take over an hour, my phone didn’t work and it had just snowed the day before, so I was worried that getting to the school at St. Paul would be easier said than done. I woke up at six in the morning and left my apartment at 6.30. The trip went surprisingly well, and I arrived at the school at 7.30. I started with getting my nametag from the main office, and then I went to stay in front of Ulla Tervo-Desnick’s classroom.

Expo Elementary at dawn.

A selfie in front of Ulla Tervo-Desnick's classroom 

            After a little while of waiting, Ulla came. We greeted each other and went to her classroom. The moment we stepped in, I noticed the ball-shaped chairs for the students. They were a donation from a parent, and a more ergonomic sitting choice. I later came to learn that the chairs weren’t the only donation, but the parents actually took turns donating light morning snacks for the kids and many of them also volunteered helping everyone in the classroom.

            Me and Ulla talked to each other for a little while, and at 8.15 the students started flowing in. Ulla taught the first class so the kids were really young, only six to seven years old. Some of them came straight to me and asked who I was and what I was doing there, some of them whispered to each other excitedly with their eyes glued to me. It was great to see that my arrival had this sort of an impact.

            As the classes started, Ulla instructed me to go ahead and help the students with their writing assignments. This is something that I actually continued doing throughout the day, as there were some students who were behind and/or had attention problems. I loved seeing what a variety of talents the class had, just the differences in their handwriting were incredible. Everyone had a unique touch to their work, and everyone was trying their hardest.

            The day continued with a recess, then a little bit of math, then a longer recess and lunch (which was the time when me and Ulla also got to take a longer break), and after this there was a one more class with Ulla, then a class called GT (which was a class for “talented kids”, but at Expo all the kids get to take it). The last class of the day was just called “choice time”, this was when the kids just got to choose and work on whatever they wanted to, within boundaries of course. “Choice time” was clearly the class favorite.

           Just the first day just made me realize how lucky I am just being able to spend this one week with this class. All the children just have really interesting little personalities, and I wish I could see what kind of adults they end up becoming. This experience proved even more that teaching is what I am meant to do. Yes, I still want to be a cartoonist, but that can be something I do on my free time and as a side job. More than anything, I want to be an elementary school teacher with my own class!

Me sharing objects that are important to me with the students. This was an activity that everyone in the class took turns doing and learning more about each other. 

            The following four days were full of adventure and learning. Day by day, I started becoming more and more familiar with the students and they with me. I felt really comfortable being a part of their classroom. As the students got better at math, reading and writing, I got better at teaching those things to them, and I didn’t really have much experience before.

             All my days started with the long bus+lightrail+bus –ride and arriving to Expo at around 7.45. I started to really enjoy those long morning rides and mornings in general. Since before this my sleeping rhythm mostly consisted of going to bed late and waking up at noon. I also liked how every morning that I arrived at Expo I got to have a little bit of time to be by myself, and just sit in the beautifully morning-lit class-room waiting for everyone to come in. During these times I also worked on a small project that I started on my first day: coloring pictures. When some of the kids saw my sketchbook, they wanted me to draw something for them, and since it would have been unfair for me to draw for just a few of them, I decided to make coloring pictures for the whole class. Ulla liked the idea a lot as well, and by the end of the week there was seven different pictures. Since everyone knew me as the comic artist, I of course added in some speech balloons for people to write in as well. The end results were really cool! Some kids had wonderful color pallets and put all of their focus to the coloring part, while others were inspired by the speech balloons and filled them with delightfully witty dialogue. Sometimes I wondered if drawing the coloring pictures was more fun for me than the coloring was for the kids, but their excitement over my drawings was so immense that I didn’t have to wonder for long.

A student beautifully colored a picture of I made of princesses and animals.

I love the way this student used colors in my dragon coloring picture!

I don't really draw a lot of robots and machinery, but my fighting robot vs. super hero coloring picture was a hit with the students!

            As I got to know the kids more, I learned about how treating them very individually was the key. Some of the kids had problems focusing on their school work, and Ulla soon showed me what methods were used to help them focus, and how sometimes if something was unbearably difficult, it was alright to just give up and let the kids move on. These kids were incredibly smart, but just had to be taught in a way that was a bit different from the norm.

Me and two of the kids (who shall remain unnamed to keep their privacy!) talking about their coloring pictures.

Then there were some kids that just loved trying out their boundaries with me. This resulted in them being very clingy and forceful with me, and me being at a loss of what to do. There once was even a situation where Ulla was leading the whole class to another classroom on the other side of the school, I was taking care of the end of the line and one of the kids noticed this. She looked me in the eyes and asked if she could be the last in line with me and hold my hand. How could I have refused a cute kid like that? The moment I said “sure” and took her hand, a bunch of other kids in the line noticed and started asking me to hold their hands too. I tried to say no, but at this point it was difficult since I was already holding one of the kids’ hand. About five children ended up clinging onto me as we were falling behind the rest of the line. When the cluster of me and the kids finally reached Ulla’s end of the line, I looked at Ulla apologetically, and it took one strict order from her to get the kids off of me. I was at a loss for words: what authority! And despite the occasional strictness, the kids loved her! This moment made me admire Ulla as a teacher even more. A good elementary teacher is most of all a reasonable adult who takes care of the children by setting boundaries and goals for them and teaching them how to behave, but by also letting them be kids: play and have fun! This is what I also aspire to be some day.

            Learning from Ulla was an amazing experience. Since she is also from Finland (though now has a dual citizenship), she could understand my point of view in a way that a fully American person probably never would. Her advice for me was incredibly valuable, since she knew what it was like to be a Finnish teacher immersed in American culture. Also just speaking Finnish with her was a fun way of having a secret language for talking about things that the kids shouldn’t hear.

Ulla organizing papers at her desk.

            When the week was coming to an end, I felt genuinely sad. I loved being at Expo, the children in Ulla’s class were wonderful, and there was so much more I could have learned from Ulla still… Luckily she said I can come back and help around in the classroom whenever I want to, which made me incredibly happy. I will also be teaching a class about comics there still, but that won’t be until after more than a week… I just miss everyone so much already…

I miss these amazing kids, this class room, this school and of course Ulla so much already ...

            Writing just a one journal entry of my whole experience at Expo, just doesn’t seem like enough, but I guess I’ll have to try and end somewhere (since I have so much other homework to finish).

            The point is that I had a lot of fun, and being a teacher is the best thing ever! I really have to look into the possibilities of continuing my studies... Anyways, until next time people!

Week 8 - March 5-11

Friday 3/10/2017 - Spectrum Artworks, collective studio hours 1-4 pm , 3 hours

This week was really rough on me, it was very busy and stressful with school, and in the middle of the week I got a horrible migraine. This actually made me miss going to Spectrum on Thursday, I felt awkward since I waited until the very last minute to tell Jes about it, because I was hoping my migraine would maybe go away.

On Friday, I felt a lot better (though I was still a bit out of it), so I was able to go to Spectrum again. When I arrived, I noticed that there was more people in the basement's community lounge than normally and as I walked through the crowd people told me that there would be a monthly community meeting that day. I proceeded to walk to the art studio, and was surprised to notice that Jes was nowhere to be found. I walked around the space for a moment, and talked to a new artist who I hadn't met before. She had the cutest service dog, and I was allowed to pet it. This really made my day, since I miss my own dogs back in Finland a lot...

After talking to her, I figured that I probably shouldn't be in the studio without Jes accompanying me, so I went back to the community space. After awhile of walking around there, I got called upstairs to hear that Jes was stuck in traffic and I should wait her there. Soon enough she arrived, and we joined the community meeting. It was a very interesting event, there were many announcements made and one of them was about my lesson, which was exciting and I even got to say a few words about it too. Most of the event's focus was on a person who was about to leave Lighthouse after working there for awhile. I never got a chance to talk to him, but he seemed like a very nice person. There was also two different types of soup and cake served at the meeting, which was great. I'm was happy to notice that they had vegan options too. I tasted the vegan cake (which was also gluten free), and it was really good.

When the meeting ended, Jes suggested that I'd start working on a flier for my class that is coming up on April 6th. So that is what I spent the rest of my time doing. It was fun, but I felt a bit bad that I wasn't in the studio and talking to people, but at least the flier I made turned out to be pretty cool:

The flier for my up-coming class at Spectrum!

After making the flier, I cleaned the studio tables again and soon it was almost four o'clock again, and time for me to leave.

Next week's entry will most likely be very long, since I will try to write about one whole week at the Expo Elementary school in St. Paul. I'm sure that the week will be full of memorable experiences and people, so let's hope I can write something that does justice to that adventure!

Until then people!

Week 7 - February 26-March 4

Thursday 3/2/17 and Friday 3/3/17 Spectrum Artworks, open studio hours and collective studio hours 1-4pm - 6 hours

This week I actually went to Spectrum twice, on Thursday from 1 to 4 pm, and on Friday at the same time. (I felt really awkward going in on Thursday, since I lost my volunteer-tag, but Jes kindly made new ones.)

The Thursday went by in a lot similar manner as before, except that this time, both Iris and I felt more comfortable with what we were doing. Also an older volunteer, Taylor (an illustrator), was there, so most of the time we just shadowed him. He definitely seemed to know what he was doing, and I admired the natural way that he interacted with people. Just by seeing him do this, thought me a lot. There also were many new artists working in the studio who I hadn't met before, so admiring their work and talking to them was a lot of fun.

Jes was busy with people from other departments of Lighthouse coming in, so we didn't have much time with her, but she kept an eye on us the whole time, making sure that everything was going alright. This actually reminds me of a worry I had: the discussion with the artists turned a bit political at some point, and I wasn't sure if it was alright to talk about politics in a space like this. When I asked Jes about it, she told she had heard the conversation and that it wasn't too bad, but generally the topic should be avoided, just in case someone is sensitive to that and/or has opposing views. I'm glad I learned about this now.

The Friday was a lot different, neither Iris nor Taylor were there and I was the only volunteer, also it was a working day for the collective members and not an open studio day. So basically only the artists who had their own studio-spaces there, were present. I liked how peaceful it was, but I was worried if I was able to actually be of any use as a volunteer. Anytime there was an opportunity I made sure to ask if I could help, and actually that way I had something to do the whole time. I helped Jes clean and hang some paintings, I did some running tasks for the artists, and then I helped by checking which markers had dried up, which turned out to be way more time-consuming than I had thought, and I actually ended up making a surprisingly cool-looking piece of art with the check-marks. I left the weird drawing at the found-object shelf of the studio.

Jes cleaning at the studio.

Checking which markers worked turned into this cool abstract piece! I shall name it: "Hanna's mind".

Other than these tasks, I just talked to the artists again, and gave them feedback. There were some people who I hadn't met before, so getting to know them was really interesting, and I ended up having some really long and insightful conversations about mythology, pet animals and everything in-between.  

On Fridays, the studio closes at five, so Jes and I stayed to clean and just talk after. She showed me some interesting scrap-books that made me more familiar with the history of the place, and I was able to ask some more questions from her. I also just had to mention what an interesting and eye-opening experience being at Spectrum had been so far. I had to admit that I had thought that peoples' illnesses and struggles would play a more central role at studio, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The overall atmosphere is very happy and accepting. More than anything, this is a place where people socialize, make art and have fun, and of course sometimes their illnesses might affect them more.

I'm excited to tell you all more again next week. Until then!

Week 6 - February 19-25

This week, I couldn't go to Spectrum, because Jes was sick, and I also am sick. I have been staying up several nights trying to finish my work for the merit competition show, so in a way this gave me more time to do that. 

The show preparations aren't going very well though, because the printers at the school's service bureau aren't printing double-sided at the moment, and I still need to print out two of my comics and business cards... The deadline is Monday 27th at 8 am.... Hopefully I will find a way to do this.

Anyways, I'm excited to continue working at Spectrum next week. I'll be working both on Thursday and Friday, from 1 to 4 pm. So in the next journal entry I will go over what happened then, and there will most likely be a lot of interesting content for you to read! Until then!

Week 5 - February 12-18

Thursday 2/16/17 Spectrum Artworks, open studio hours 1-4 pm - 3 hours

This week I finally have something exciting to talk about! This Thursday February 16th, I started as a teaching artist volunteer at Spectrum Artworks. 

Me in front of Lighthouse (the place where Spectrum Artworks is located)

I went there to meet with Jes Reyes (who is the manager person at the art studio) at 1pm, and arrived exactly at the same time as Iris (another TA-student who is also doing the residency there). When we went in, we were greeted by the receptionist (whose name I unfortunately don't remember yet), and then continued to a spacious waiting room. After a short while, Jes arrived, and my first impression was that she seemed easy-going and nice.

She started by giving us a tour in the building. I was surprised to find out that it used to be a funeral home, since now the building was just bustling with activity, and people going about their tasks. We started by climbing to the second floor, which was mostly filled with meeting rooms. Many of them were in use, so we just got a glimpse of what it was like. The staff kitchen was also in the second floor, and it was nice to hear that volunteers could use it too.

Then we went to the first floor, and saw some more meeting rooms and offices. One of the offices was named "zen-room" because of its creative decorations. Then, besides the other areas that we were already familiar with, we saw an internet and phone corner that was free for people to use, and a bigger meeting room, where some art workshops were sometimes held, because of the beautiful natural light that came from the huge windows of the room.

The basement was where our tour ended, and that is also where the art studio was. To get to the studio, we walked through a lounge area, where people went to hang-out and socialize and were provided food and drinks. The atmosphere there was warm, and people seemed content and happy, many of them greeted us with excitement.

It was easy to tell when we entered the art studio, since the moment we stepped in, there was just art, everywhere. There was an incredible variety too: collages, paintings, found-object sculptures, drawings, photographs... and so many others. It showed clearly from the work that these people were serious about what they were doing. Professionals. That moment was probably when I started to get slightly worried... Was there anything that I could teach to these people anymore, if they already were so good at what they were doing? I didn't have too much time to think about this, since Jes proceeded with introducing us to all the studio-members who were present. Most of them had their own spots around the studio, but some of them liked to switch around and work at different areas, so we just walked around and talked to everyone. All of them were such interesting characters, and fun to talk to in their own ways. So much so, that I felt like in those short three hours, I actually got know them a bit.

Me and Iris at the studio.

After introducing us, we had a longer meeting with Jes, discussing over what we would be doing as volunteers. There were so many things that kept bubbling up in my mind, that I probably ended up asking twenty questions from her, all of which she politely answered. Basically what we would be doing, is just being a helpful, supportive presence in the studio (then also some housekeeping things, like cleaning and organizing). We wouldn't by any means teach them, because everyone is allowed to work in the way they want. I think this method gets exactly to the heart of what art-making should be like: fun. Our job is to hang out, and make sure that people get all the support and positive feed-back that they need, in order to make art-making fun for them (It's weird how this idea actually hits close to what I've said in many of my artist statements).

At the end of our meeting, we filled out schedule-sheets of when we could work. I basically wrote down every Thursday and Friday when I didn't have any other residencies or shadowings. So far it looks like it definitely won't be a problem to get all my required hours in and more.

When we had finished figuring out our schedules, we were free to hang out with the artists in the studio. My worries about not being able help them in any way resurfaced for a moment, but just immediately dissolved, when the people started talking to us, and asking us questions. Many of them were already excited about our future lessons, and told us what they would be interested in. Among other things, there was a strong interest to figure drawing, and learning more about digital art. I'm currently in a figure drawing class, and doing surprisingly well in it, and Iris is basically a Photoshop-guru, so I feel like we can definitely do the classes that they want. We later asked Jes to set up some preliminary dates for our classes, so that we can start preparing. So far it looks like we'll be doing them April 6th and 20th.

The three first hours working at Spectrum went by really fast, and it was 4 pm almost too soon. I have to say that I'm really excited to go back, and learn more. Next update will probably not be "novel-length" like this one, but I bet I'll have a lot of cool stuff to talk about then too! Until next time my dear readers!

(I'm surprised how fun writing a journal like this is, why have I never done this before!)

Week 4 - February 5-11

I have been extremely busy this week, working on several projects for the MCAD's Merit Competition, and trying to balance this with all the school work. Luckily, I think I'm far enough with the merit projects, that starting with the Spectrum residency this Thursday won't add to the stress. I'm very much looking forward to it, and next week's entry will easily be the juiciest so far, since I'll have some actual material from the residency to talk about.

Until next week!

Week 3 - January 26-February 4

This week has been mostly just waiting for the residency at Spectrum to start in two weeks, and being buried in homework. Despite this though, I'm glad that the start of the semester hasn't been as stressful as it was last Fall. I also think I'm doing really good in all of my classes, which is great.

With this, I feel like I'll be in a good place in terms of school when I start my Residencies. It is a lot of fun reading everyone else's journals and seeing what they're up to while I wait. I'm learning a lot by doing that, and I'm lucky to have all that knowledge going to my first teaching experiences.

Anyways, until my next entry!

Week 2 - January 22-28

This week, I managed to set up the schedules for when I'm going to do my residencies and the shadowing. I'm really glad I got it all figured out now.

The first one, the residency at Spectrum Artworks will start on Thursday February 16, and it will be from 1 to 4 PM. I had a volunteer orientation for it this Thursday morning, and found out many interesting things about what Resource (the company that Spectrum Artworks is a part of) does, and was surprised, since it was a lot more than I thought. One thing that I really liked, was hearing that no one who seeks support from them gets turned down. Also the fact that they don't heal people, but support them and help them heal themselves instead... It sounded amazing... I feel like I'll never want to leave once I my residency there begins. I wish I could start there a bit sooner, but at least the beginning of the semester should be less stressful now. 

I also know what my basic schedule at Expo Elementary will be like. The residency will start March 13th at 8 am at Ulla Tervo-Desnick's (who will be my mentor there) room, and after that I'll be helping her around with the classes. The residency will be during the spring break since commuting there will be easier for me at that time. I'll have five days of actual time at the school, and the days will be from 8 am to 3.15 pm, with my last day being March 17th. I'm sure that my experience there will be great, since I'll be learning from a teacher who shares the background of being from Finland (Ulla Tervo-Desnick).

My teaching artist shadowing with Melodee Strong at Simpson Housing, will take place a lot later. The first few hours I'll do on April 13th, then I'll continue on April 14th, and May 4th will be my last day shadowing. This opportunity is also very exciting for me, since I've heard that Melodee Strong is a MCAD -graduate. It'll be great to see in person what an amazing artist and a teacher she became after going to school here. I bet it will be motivating!

Anyway, after this longer journal entry, there will probably be just some very short ones for awhile, since my my first residency starts so late.

Until then people!

Week 1 - January 15-21

I'm very excited to start writing this journal, since it'll basically be the story of me venturing into the professional world of teaching art!

I'm off to a slightly rough start, since my internet connection was very bad over the winter break, but I've got two interesting residencies and a shadowing ahead of me, and I've started contacting the people about them. Now that I'm at a place with good connection, I have a feeling it's going to all work just fine!

My residencies are going to be at Expo Elementary in St. Paul, and since it's a bit far away, I'm working there over the spring break in March. The place sounds great from what I know! Then I've also got a residency at Spectrum, and that is happening sooner, but I'm still figuring out the schedule with them. The shadowing is happening in Simpson Housing and I'm very much still figuring things out with them too.

Anyway, this is going to be a fun semester, and I'm looking forward to everything that these experiences are going to offer, to me and to you people who might be reading this!