Week 1: date and hour
1/20/21 about an hour and a half of emailing?
Just regular emailing about how we are going to do this teaching artist thing during Covid. Was genuinely surprised when I found out I can come in person. I’ll have to wear a mask and a face shield however, which I am okay with. I do work at a bar so the safer the better. Not much else was communicated. I know I will be starting in february so next week. Somewhat excited actually, should be fun.
Week 2: date and hour
2/3/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weavile Lake
I shadowed Melissa today. About 20 of the 24 students were confused with why I was here. When they found out I was here to teach art, one of the kids stood up and announced that he hated art. Funny kid, I respect that. I simply chuckled at the challenge and responded that this was going to be a different kind of art assignment than he would have done before.
Week 3: date and hour
2/10/21 3 and a half hours Melissa Weavile Lake
I shadowed Melissa today. This time she trusted me to help her take care of some of the students who had to leave and miss some of her lessons. The lesson was writing in their journal about what they had learned about native american culture. Afterwards I formalling introduced myself. I was pleasantly surprised when the entire class was able to say my entire last name. Most adults when I was growing up couldn’t and a lot of people my age won’t even bother. It made me realize that children are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.
Week 4: date and hour
2/17/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weavile Lake
Once again I was given the responsibility of taking care of students who had missed prior instructions on a lesson. This time it was on a test about the two native american books they have read. Some of the students had trouble writing and spelling, so I helped teach how to sound out some of the words. They seemed quite proud of themselves after being able to spell larger words on their own without an adult telling them straight up how to spell.
2/17/21 1 hour w/Gritzmacher White Bear Lake High
Today was my first day shadowing a highschool art class. The drastic change in environment gave me new insight on how students developed as they grew older. The first thing I recognized right away was that teenage students aren’t as big of risk takers or they don’t seem to openly care as much during a lesson. When Gritzmacher asked a question the class stayed deathly silent for a few minutes. Meanwhile in Melissa’s third grade class, students would clambering to answer first, almost everyone would raise their hands. I will be perfectly honest. Knowing how highschoolers are and how art students specifically act as I am one myself, there really is no way for a professor or teacher to get them to be more engaged. It's all up to the students themselves. All you can do is show the material and start discussions.
Week 5: date and hour
2/24/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weaile Lake
Today was my first day teaching a lesson to the 3rd graders! It was short and sweet. The activity was a variant on Meet The Artist, where the students would draw themselves as artists and on the side list off their likes and dislikes. We only had half an hour, however the students seemed to have really enjoyed themselves. I had a chance to teach small lessons on critique and character shape design to help them better understand the creative process. All in all it was a success and I was happy to see the results.
2/24/21 1 hour w/Gritzmacher White Bear Lake
Today I showed the class my artwork and gave out some tips and advice for going to an art college and what MCAD as a whole is like. Their reactions were exactly what I thought it would be. They were impressed but not all that enthusiastic. If anything I’m pretty sure they just wanted to start working on their own stuff. Since this class is only a few years younger than me and are already beginning the college application process, I was able to be more honest and brutal with the realities of a career in art. Surprisingly my words were taken very well and it seems like they may have already had a good understanding of the struggles to come.
Week 6: date and hour
3/3/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weavile lake
Today was a relatively chill day. I helped a few students learn to read and deal with their own internal struggles when it comes to spelling and critical thinking. It was really enriching to see them almost immediately understanding the process of breaking down sentences and compound words to better understand the text.
3/3/21 1 hour w/Gritzmacher White Bear Lake
Todays class was a workday. Most of the time spent was me observing the interactions between Gritzmacher and his students. Like me, they would work on their art assignments as the teacher was giving a lecture. A habit that they most likely developed due to online schooling. Admittedly I’m also guilty of this. They would turn off their camera and not really pay attention to the teacher as they were more focused on drawing and working ahead of the game.
Week 7: date and hour
3/10/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weavile Lake
Melissa had a substitute teacher today. It was a jarring day as some of the children who were usually well behaved started acting up. It was definitely entertaining but also worrisome as I remember being like that their age. Wanting to rebel and all. I was definitely more involved with the class today in an attempt to take a load off of the substitute.
Week 8: date and hour
3/16/21 A personal life emergency occurred and I was unable to go to these classes this week.
Week 9: date and hour
3/24/21 3 and a half hours w/Melissa Weavile Lake
Today I helped Melissa and her students with a quilt art project they are currently in the progress of developing. One of the students had to go home early due to a headache. So I came in to help make some progress with his quilt whilst he was gone today. Some of the students were impressed with how accurate I was able to cut out forms and negative space, though admittedly its pretty amateurish in my opinion. However, I ended up helping a few students figure out their projects and how to compose it. Later that day when I was heading out they followed behind me in a single file line like ducklings and asked me to be their substitute. This made my day.
3/23/21 1 hour w/Gritzmacher White Bear Lake
Today was another workday for the students as they further developed their paintings on what it means to be patriotic. One of the students needed help figuring out how to draw a realistically proportionate hand for theirs and I was able to assist and give them some tips and pointers.
Week 10: date and hour
3/31/21 Spring Break
Over this week Melissa and I agreed that I would be planning a second lesson to teach later this month or next month. The students will be going through MCA testing so it will be difficult to figure out when. However I have decided on doing a character design lesson where the students will choose their favorite constellation and then design it into a character.
Week 11: date and hour
4//6/21
This week I began planning out my final lesson plan. Meanwhile I continued to shadow Shawn Gritzmacher. I was given the ability to help and critique some of the students' works in progress.
Week 12: date and hour
4/13/21
This week was more planning and shadowing Gritzmacher. Once again nothing new really happened with the highschoolers. I helped some more students with composition work and how to organize their negative space to their silhouettes.
Week 13: date and hour
4/20/21
This was a rough week.
Week 14: date and hour
4/27/21
I taught my final lesson with Melissa today. The lesson was creating a character design for their favorite constellation. Many of the students were engaged and enjoyed themselves. However there was one student who was very adamant about not doing it and creating a disturbance. Luckily I’m a very tired and patient individual so I was just straight forward with all my answers. Never show a child attitude especially if they're giving you one. As someone who was there once, they only want attention and to cause some form of drama. All I had to do was be honest and straightforward and just ignore him now and again.