I can't believe that it's June already! I'm not ready for the school year to end yet (although the students would all disagree with me). If you didn't catch the last blog post, this is my second summer working as a Kindergarten teacher on a hutterite colony. My "Classroom"As I mentioned last time, my "classroom" is actually in the library/storage/photocopy room. We don't have a lot of space to move around, but we try to make the best of what we have. Last week, I bought some fantastic foam, interlocking mats that we put on the floor when we're reading or playing a game. We're learning lots of stuff as we go, the kids and I! 1) I read to them in the mornings and right after lunch. They take turns getting to pick books; everyone alternates days. Otherwise, they fight over which books they want to read. And... as a result, certain students keep going back to old favourites, even though they've heard it hundreds of times now. I've read Robert Munsch so many times now, I've basically memorized them. Funny enough, the two students from last year also loved Robert Munsch too. 2) I got tired of how much German they've been speaking in school, so we've agreed to a system where if I hear them speaking German, his/her name gets written on the board. After three strikes, they spend two minutes cleaning up the classroom during recess. 3) We have Phys Ed with the Gr. 1, 2, and 3s. We usually play kickball outside, if it's nice. We've tried playing soccer a couple times, but the older boys get rough and they push, which ends in much tear. They're really competitive with each other, especially brothers, and there's usually a lot of arguing and yelling. After a while, the other teacher and I get fed up with all of this, and we make them pick up garbage or write lines. 4) I've also started teaching Gr 3-7 Health again, something that I did last year too. There is a great resource binder with a lot of great discussion points and worksheets, adapted to Hutterite situations and context. Class is mostly a big discussion with us sitting around the big table talking. Some days, it goes great. Other days, the older boys will get silly and refuse to stay on topic. We've been talking about how to be a good friend and how to show respect to someone. Rather than making it another boring, discussion topic, I took this opportunity to make it into a classroom building exercise and make it into an Art project too. I wanted the students be able to tell each other specific things that they appreciated in each other. Although we ran out of time with the painting last week, I will be continuing it this week and will be posting pictures after! Farm Field TripA couple weeks ago, the principal's daughter-in-law and baby grandson came to visit the colony. We decided to have a "field-trip" day where the kids got to show us around the farm. It was a lot of fun, and really neat to see how some of the animals are raised. The kids were able to answer all sorts of questions that we asked and it was amazing to see how comfortable they were with the animals. They knew which ones were docile enough to pet and pat on the head and which ones they needed to stay away from (spoiler alert: it was the bulls). More ArtEvery Friday, we have Art with the students. Art is split into junior Art (K-3) and senior Art (Gr. 4-7). Even after years of doing crafts at the library with 30+ kids, doing art and craft projects with the kids still exhaust me. It's a constant flitting back and forth from one student to the next, helping them with what they're doing. Some students are less willing to try than others, and some amazing students will help others once they are done.
Overall though, it always ends in a chaotic mess, but even better than that, it's a fun mess. Yes, I'm tired, but having all those kids being on task and having fun is truly a creative experience for them and a great memory for me. I have always loved art and I consider myself to be an artist, even if an amateur, hobbyist one. However, as I have found in this praciticum, being an artist and being an Art teacher are two different areas. Just because I could "do" did not mean I could "teach" as well. I have been teaching Grade 4 Art once a week. Since this group is particularly artsy, it has been has been quite fun and easy to motivate them to do their work. The few in the class that did not enjoy art, however, was a little bit more difficult to motivate and encourage. I learned quickly that it was the effort and motivation I was looking for in these students, and not the quality of the finished product. We've done some fun projects such as half-Picasso self-portraits and abstract various abstract pieces. Some of them have even surprised my with their creativity and imagination. Some of their work turned out differently than expected, but I was thrilled that they could incorporate their artistic creativity into the project. Then, after showing some of the digital pieces that I make on Photoshop during a school assembly, I took on teaching high school Art Photoshop. While I am quite familiar with Photoshop and I have been using it for several years, most of everything I know is self-taught through finding online tutorials and playing around with the various functions. I was a bit worried about trying to articulate my process clearly.
However, I'm trying a more web-based approach to teaching this class where I post the guidelines, tutorials, and assignments, and with a small bit of lecture at the beginning of the class, the students are mostly working and exploring on their own. It's an interesting mix between a CTS and Art class. I set up Learn Photoshop 101, and it has been beneficial to everyone. I can go around and help students that need a bit more help, and those that are a bit more advanced and working ahead can go onto the next lesson that I have posted. This way, the class isn't stalled because some students are not quite finished their projects yet. The students have impressed me with the results and the direction that they've taken with some of the projects and how well they are working in class. The students are at different points and on different lessons, but I have been able to efficiently manage their work learning! Check out some of the hard work my students have done! |
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