Observation #3: Substitue today!

Today I visited the elementary school. Ms. M was absent today, so we were working with a substitute teacher. We also got a lot of time with Mrs. W, which was awesome. It was great to get yet another opinion and advice from another set of eyes.  It was a great day today, although it was filled with a lot of misbehavior! It was exciting to be the "experienced teachers" today because all of the students recognize us, but not Ms. W!

Last week we did not attend Ms. M's class because it was a teacher in-service day. After our second visit, the children wrapped up their jungle themed projects and were working towards a new destination: Space! Unfortunately, my camera was not with me, or I would have more photos for you to see! Next week I will capture more photos of the students' work.
 

The alien landscapes from the first graders

The first grade students were working on alien landscapes. They had drawn out space-ship themed landscapes and were working on painting them. Ms. W was nervous about the paint because the art room does not provide smocks for the children to wear! Luckily, it all worked out just fine. They were using tempera cakes, a form of the paint I had never seen, to fill in the shapes they had drawn on a black sheet of paper. The black background definitely gave the landscapes a "space" feel. Even though the children got paint everywhere, they do a great job cleaning up and they kept it off of their clothes! And their skin!

The sixth graders were working on space ship models. They were creating 3D models of their own spaceship designs that they will be re-creating with cardboard. Many of the students had a hard time making their ships look like their previous drawings that they had made on chart paper. Once again, the students were on different parts of their projects than their peers. Many students were finished while others were just starting to build with the paper and masking tape. I didn't mind helping students with different ways to work with the tape and paper, but it was difficult to really teach any children because they were misbehaving so badly! So many students were literally yelling, throwing paper airplanes and working on free drawing when they did not have anything done. I later said that it was the longest 40 minute class we could have taught. Many boys were taking advantage of the substitute by not doing as she was saying, or doing something behind her back. Luckily with three sets of eyes, we could catch many students misbehaving right away. Although it sounds like every child was being difficult, it was only two tables that were getting out of hand. The rest of the students enjoyed the project so much that they wanted to keep working on it!

The fifth graders were working on a very exciting project. They were working with contour lines and creating abstract, fluid shapes with sharpies on glossy paper. They had to free hand the lines, and contour them to different shapes that they had made. The students were finishing up the sharpie lines and were starting to color with fine tipped markers to color their abstract designs. While some students were coloring, others had a lot of drawing to do. Those who had a lot of drawing left were the students who were misbehaving all class period. One table had to be separated from each other for being too loud and rowdy. I didn't even notice the first time that Ms. W moved one of the students. She quietly went over, told the student she had to move, and led her to a new table. She then allowed her to have a second chance, though it was taken away after she became too loud and rambunctious yet again. Another boy had to be moved as well, and then they finally behaved. It was very interesting to see how something so subtle could do so much!  I wish I had my camera so I could show you how great the artwork was turning out. There were some great designs happening! These contour line drawings started to look very psychedelic!

Although the day was full of creativity, my favorite part of the day was talking with Ms. W! She was a Stout alumni who graduated in 2004 with a BFA in studio art and BS in Art Education. Ms. W just finished a long term substitute position at the High School in the same district that Ms. M teaches. She currently has her license to substitute teach, but let her teaching license expire. She found that she enjoyed her studio art to be much more fulfilling. In the past seven years she has worked in the medical field and has created her own artwork in her studio. She paints and does commissions for others as one of her sources of income, which I think is pretty amazing.

After school was out, Ms. W was talking to us about her disciplinary experiences. It was very nice to hear some real world stories in the different schools that she had taught for. The high school had some great stories about how to deal with high school boys, who are over six feet tall and full of attitude, who misbehave or are disrespectful. She said it is hard to look like an authority figure in high school, but you can still be effective. She noted how it is a good idea not to react to any misbehavior, to just deal with it as it comes. She said it's all in the tone of your voice, not in the reactions or emotions you show. Staying calm and not getting a rise from anything is her secret that she learned in her days of student teaching. Once a discipline outline is set, and the students know that they have consequences for misbehavior, she said it is very easy to tell them that they made a bad choice by misbehaving. She uses cleaning her art room as a punishment and makes the students come in before, during lunch, or after school for different intervals of time depending on the crime. The students know that if they misbehave they will be spending the time in the art room cleaning. Ms. W says it is great because her room gets cleaned for her! She has made students organize paint by color, scrub the sinks with toothbrushes, alphabetize resources, and other tedious jobs around the room. I really enjoyed her insight, and will be keeping some of her techniques in mind!