Placement: Brook Thompson
Location: Lake Country School
Grade(s)/ Year(s): 1-3
Shadowing: Kelley Meister
Location: Science Museum of Minnesota
Grade(s): 3-5
Monday, Feb 3 (2 hours): Shadowing (Kelley Meister)
Monday was the first day that I started shadowing teaching artist Kelley Meister. at the Science Museum of Minnesota. As an artist herself, Kelley’s work consists of sculpture, printmaking, and multimedia installments. I was very excited when I found out that I was going to be shadowing her. Not only are her artistic pursuits similar to mine, but I also have a fondness for science as well. During the time of my first shadowing, I helped Kelley out in classroom 7, which was called Dazzling Digital Art. Through the coding programs, Turtle Art and Sketch, students will not only learn about the process of coding, they will also learn about the possibilities that can be created through the process as well.
Tuesday, Feb 4 (2 hours): Shadowing
Students continued to explore the program Turtle Art and apply what they have learned the day before. For the most part, they seemed to really enjoy this program. Many of the students were able to show one another their creations and show them the steps of how they’ve created their design. Before this shadowing, I’ve never even heard of Turtle Art, so it was a delight to observe students to explore a program that they’ve never heard of as well.
Wednesday, Feb 5 (3 hours): Placement (Brook Thompson)
Wednesday was the first day that I began my second placement with Brook Thompson at Lake Country Schools. What made this placement different from my first is the fact that it’s a private montessori and not a public school. Because it’s a montessori, both elementary and junior high grade levels are taught in one building rather than two separate ones. With their focus on hands on learning and collaborate play, each classroom is able to have multiple grade levels. For this class, students learned about tints, shades, and hues. They were first shown a Prezi presentation about the definition and examples for each term and were then assigned to apply what they’ve learned soon after. With tempera paint at their disposal, students had to create designs of their own that incorporated a variety of different tints and shades.
Thursday, Feb 6 (2 hours): Shadowing
On Thursday, students continued to work on different coding programs to try and make their own art. This time, the students were trying to figure out the Sketch coding program, which is much more advanced than Turtle Art. Many of the students were struggling at first, especially when trying to find some of the keys on the keyboard. After they’ve gotten used to the keyboard, however, many of them actually started to enjoy Sketch more than Turtle Art.