Clinical Reflections Paola Sandoval Reflection 1 Saturday Art Class 9/17/22 8:30-11:15 My clinical experiences started with Saturday art classes at ISU. My first Saturday art class was certainly nerve-racking at first as I did not know what to expect since it was my first art clinical in my education journey. I do feel however that it was a good first experience to have considering I was not responsible for teaching the students, but just helping where I was needed. My first Saturday art class was taught by three seniors taking ART 309. We worked with fourth graders and taught them a little about seat creatures and the ocean. The purpose of the lesson was to inform the students a little bit on pollution and how to reuse and recycle and use it in our art. The day I attended was the first day that the project was introduced; therefore, I only saw the beginning of their projects. At the beginning of class, a presentation was given to introduce the project and to get the students excited. There were many interactive elements in the presentation and many questions were asked both by the teachers and the students. Once the project was introduced, the teachers passed out clay to each student where they then sculpted ocean elements. These elements included anything from actual animals and creatures, plants, coral, and seashells. The teachers explained what they would be doing within the coming weeks to give the students an idea about what to expect. There was also a game played in order to get to know the students a bit and this tied into the project because it was a game using a beach ball. I was involved by doing a lot of recording for the teachers and cleaning up after the kids left. I also interacted with the students on my own by getting a chance to talk to each one of them rather than just strictly observing and recording.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 2 Saturday Art Class 10/10/22 8:30-11:15 I attended two Saturday art classes per the class requirement, and I would say I gained even more out of this session than the first one. I feel that the student instructors I worked with this time had everything planned out quite well and probably had gotten into the flow of Saturday art class as it had been going on for a few weeks at this point. I observed a third grade class this time around and I think that a really cool lesson was taught, perhaps something I would take into my future classroom. This class was taught by three other 309 students, and I think that they had really good energy with the students. They seemed very prepared and excited to teach the students. This class started with another intro game to get to know everyone as this was the first week of the groups being switched to new teachers. The students really seemed to enjoy this game and it was a good start to class to get them focused and engaged with their teachers. The project that they were introduced to this week was drawing using red lighting. Red lighting makes colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc. look like colors that they aren’t; it basically neutralizes them. Students were using pastels, both chalk and oil, to create a drawing of a still life in the middle of the room which was dark and only lit with red lighting. The point of this project is to let go of control and you may create something beautiful and unexpected. Once the lights turn back on, your piece is usually something completely unexpected which is the fun of it all. I helped this time by switching the slides in the presentation and I again socialized with each of the students. One student in particular had a bit more trouble focusing when he needed to, so I also helped keep him on track as directed by Dr. Briggs when she popped in. This was a great learning experience for me and taught me how to deal with young diverse students.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 3 Metcalf 10/19 - 9:25am – 10:10am My first time at Metcalf, I was observing Mrs. Strode’s 6th grade art class. Right away after walking into the art room, I was blown away by how nice it was and how nice the school was in general. Metcalf’s art room was unlike anything I have ever seen before, and it would be a dream to have an art room even close to that. Mrs. Strode began class by welcoming all her students and telling them what materials they would need for the day in order to get them prepared. At the beginning of class, students were to explore a website they had never used before. With that, once one of the students figured out how to navigate to the website, Mrs. Strode had that student explain it to the rest of the class. Some of the students seemed to have trouble listening and following directions so she did her best to re-direct their attention. Once students completed the online activity, Mrs. Strode began a lesson in Lino Printmaking. She gave students the option to take notes in their sketchbook and explained that they could write, draw pictures, doodle, or use whatever tool they find helps them remember information the best. Throughout her presentation, she asked students various questions to keep their attention and even if the students got the question wrong, she would tell them that she appreciated them making an attempt which I thought was very nice and important to remember. Mrs. Strode explained what linoleum was and how they are going to use it to make prints. She also showed a video that was very easy to comprehend explaining exactly how they would use the process. When students would lose focus, she would regain their attention. There was one student in particular who seemed to be easily distracted and Mrs. Strode eventually had to ask him to move seats so that he could gain as much out of the presentation as possible.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 4 Metcalf 10/19 - 11:50am-12:20pm For my second clinical at Metcalf, I was supposed to observe Miss. Zimmer; however, she was absent this day and so I observed a substitute teacher. The substitute teacher appeared to be an ISU student which was interesting and cool to see as I was unaware that we could sub as college students; however, I was informed that the requirements have changed in recent years. The students seemed to already know and love this substitute teacher, though they did ask where Mrs. Zimmer was. Being kindergartners, it is probably strange for them to have their routine thrown off by their regular teacher not being there. With the students’ age and it being close to Halloween, they had a coloring page to do during this class. When the teacher introduced the assignment, the students screamed with excitement because they were all excited for Halloween. This class was quite fun because I got to interact with the students quite a bit. Because it was a more relaxed day with there being a substitute teacher and just having a coloring page to do, the students were filled with energy. I walked around a lot and talked to almost all of the students. I ended up sitting and chatting to one table in particular for the majority of the time. I asked the few kids sitting there about their Halloween plans and they explained each of their Halloween costumes and what they were excited for. Once it was time for the kindergartners to clean up, the teacher instructed them where to put away materials and to sit back down when they were done. She then dismissed students by table and gave them clear instructions on how to leave the room appropriately.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 5 Boys and Girls Club 10/21/22 – 4pm-5pm Personally, I enjoyed Boys and Girls Club Friday art classes more than anything. I really felt a strong need to be there and help those students as they are the type of population I want to teach in the future. I would like to teach in inner city Chicago in CPS to help a low income and diverse population. These kids at the Boys and Girls Club made a huge impact on me and I hope I made one on them as well. For my first experience here, the big idea being taught was texture. The person who runs these art classes, Joey, sent out an email with four examples of art pieces showing texture by four different artists. We, as teachers, were to create our own example of our interpretation of the big idea and then take that and turn it into a lesson to teach to the kids. With the big idea being texture, I chose using methods such as stippling, scumbling, hatching, cross-hatching, and things of that sort. I drew a picture of a house as buildings in general have a lot of texture and I used these methods of adding texture to illustrate that. I had quite a few students take interest in my project and therefore they sat with me and I told them a bit about why I chose to make my piece. Many of the students just wanted to free draw, which was fine with me as long as they were having fun and just getting to take a break for the day, which is what a lot of them need sometimes. I had lots of good conversation with the students and they asked me if I was going to be there next week and that I had to promise I would come back. This warmed my heart and I definitely felt that I made an impact with them. One of the students asked if he could keep my teacher example for himself and I of course said yes because I am sure it had meant a lot to him to be able to keep it. After this session at the Boys and Girls Club, I was really looking forward to the next time I would be there!
Paola Sandoval Reflection 6 Metcalf 10/24 – 11-11:45 Today, I was back observing Mrs. Strode but in her 7th and 8th grade ceramics class. This class is mixed with both 7th and 8th grade students because Mrs. Strode thinks they work well with new people that they do not see every class period. The students were told to grab their sketchbooks at the beginning of class in order to finish their shading practice while she presented the next project. Mrs. Strode taught the students the squinting method where you squint at your piece and it limits what you can see, yet it shows the level of contrast within the piece. She also showed them the rolled-up compresses paper tool and how it can be used for blending. In the presentation, hatching, cross-hatching, scumbling, and stippling were explained. Mrs. Strode also explained how contouring worked and what it was. The dos and don’ts were talked about with making a drawing look 3D along with information on how light falls on 3D figures. All of this information was taught because the next project was about realistic drawing. After presenting for quite a while, Mrs. Strode cut it short as she felt she was talking at them for too long and that they were losing focus. I thought this was important to remember because being aware of your students focus and attention span is crucial in giving an effective presentation. Next, Mrs. Strode had the 7th and 8th graders do some more practice shading by giving them some rough, vague instructions because she just wanted them to experiment. For the remainder of the class, students got to socialize and work on their shading practice. I think this class is formatted in a cool way because Mrs. Strode explained to us that it was optional and that the students kind of decided what they wanted to learn about. It is also not a full-year class.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 7 Metcalf 10/24 - 11:50-12:20 Today, I observed Mrs. Zimmer’s kindergarten class which was exciting because she was here today and she was absent last time. Mrs. Zimmer began class by greeting all of her students and explained what they would be doing today. She talked about surrealism, what it was and explained a game they were going to play relating to surrealism. Mrs. Zimmer dismissed students by table to grab their sketchbooks and a pencil and then had them sit back down afterwards. The game was using different colored popsicle sticks where each color was a different category. There was three different colors, one represented places, one represented different characters, and one represented an activity. She had students draw one stick each and moved to a different table every time there was a new prompt. The first prompt, for example, included “an octopus”, “screaming”, and “a museum.” Mrs. Zimmer then said to draw a screaming octopus in a museum, which the kindergartners got a kick out of. Mrs. Zimmer then asked a few questions, such as “how will we know the setting is a museum?” along with other guiding questions to point them in the right direction of what to draw. The students then answered with some things that are found in a museum and it gave everyone some ideas. Mrs. Zimmer gave about 5 minutes for each new prompt and there were about 4-5 prompts total. After she revealed each prompt, she would repeat it several times throughout the next few minutes to remind the students and keep them focused. She used an energetic and easy to understand voice so that directions were clear. The students seemed to really enjoy this game and got to chat with one another throughout the process. Mrs. Zimmer then explained the cleanup process thoroughly and had the students line up at the door quietly once they were done.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 8 Metcalf 10/31 – 9:25-10:10 Today, I observed Mrs. Strode’s 6th grade art class. Today was exciting for me because I got to observe the students actively working on a project. It seems that in previous classes I have observed, I have happened to come in on days where lectures were given, or new projects were being introduced. This was the first art class of the day, so when the students came in, they immediately took all of the chairs down and it seemed to be pretty routine and natural for them. Once the class took all of the chairs down, they sat in their seats and socialized before class officially began. Before class, Mrs. Strode prepared stations for print making in studio A for the students so that it would not take away from class time. Mrs. Strode explained the stations and how to make their prints. She explained that she lined the tables with tin foil in order to keep the workspace as clean as possible. Mrs. Strode told the students things to look out for while printing and common mistakes to happen. There were practice pieces of paper and final print paper which were separate. The 6thgraders were to make a few practice prints before they worked on their final prints. Mrs. Strode explained that mixing ink was not allowed for this project. The students had to make at least three different prints and they would then sit down with Mrs. Strode to decide which was their best work. Printing is quite tedious sometimes and takes practice. It is easy to use too much ink or not enough ink and it is not uncommon to have to make a few tweaks to the linoleum to make the print come out better. You never really know how your print will turn out until you actually print it onto the piece of paper. These were all things that the students figured out through their practice prints and it made it so much more satisfying to them to see a final print come out nicely.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 9 Metcalf 10/31 – 11:50-12:20 I was back observing Mrs. Zimmer today which I was excited about because it was her kindergarten class and it was Halloween, so I knew the kids would be super excited. Because it is Halloween, there were a lot of other activities going on throughout the school which made the class a bit smaller today as some students were participating in them. As a result, Mrs. Zimmer allowed the students to sit wherever they would like rather than their normal seating chart. Because it is Halloween, Mrs. Zimmer explained that they were going to make spider web drawings. She already had a piece of paper for each student with their name pre-written on the back to avoid mixing up projects. When she passed out papers, she made sure to tell the kindergartners to draw on the side without their name on it. For the spider web drawings, Mrs. Zimmer began by showing how to fold their paper in order to have a guide for where to draw their lines. Throughout this process, Mrs. Zimmer would take brief breaks from demonstrating and walk around to students to help them along the way with their folding. She then showed herself drawing over the folded lines with a crayon and explained how to add “smile lines” in order to make it look like a spider web. The students were allowed to use any colors they wanted. Throughout the class period, the kindergartners began singing a song they all knew which was super fun and cute. They were singing as they worked throughout the whole class. Once class time was almost over, Mrs. Zimmer instructed them to put away their supplies and line up at the door. She did not dismiss them by table this time as the class size was much smaller on this special occasion.
Paola Sandoval Reflection 10 Boys and Girls Club 11/11/22 – 4pm-5pm Today at the Boys and Girls Club, we worked again with primarily third graders. The theme today was rhythm, and we were again given three artist examples to look through where we then needed to create our own based on our interpretation of the prompt. The piece we created would serve as our teacher example which would be laid out on our table. The kids could come in and look through all the different examples and decide which one they wanted to replicate or which station looked the most interesting to them. Replicating our teacher examples was not a requirement, but rather a guide to what our station was all about. For my teacher example, I chose to do the string pull painting to show rhythm. With this technique, you dip a piece of yarn or string in paint, lay it in a funky design in between two pieces of paper, then put pressure on the top piece of paper and pull out the string from one end. This project leaves a unique design on both pages and to me, is reminiscent of the northern lights or a sound wave, which both have rhythm. A lot of the kids seemed super intrigued by my project and wanted to come check it out. They were amazed by my piece and wanted to partake in the process. Most of them started off by following my technique and they were happy to see that they could create their own. Eventually, most of them transitioned over to free painting and created their own paintings. The station was left quite a mess because the students can get a bit carried away when they see paint, understandably so since they do not work with it all the time. Many of the kids helped me out with cleaning which was very nice as I did not even have to ask. One student asked if I could sign my original piece and asked if he could have it. I gave it to him, and I think he was super excited to be able to take it home. It was yet again, a great experience at the Boys and Girls Club.