Day One

Today was my first day as a student-teacher intern in a public school art class. This blog is really just my notes and good ideas/experiences that I will want to remember and share.

Because the school was conducting semester tests, the schedule was not as usual. My mentor teacher had only two class periods today, and one was a prep period. I am not used to block scheduling, but I don't think I will have too much trouble, as it is similar to college (or so it seems).

The first class was oil painting. This is an upper level class, and the work of some students made that obvious. The test was in two parts. First, the students were alloted one hour for completion of a still-life from glass bottles. They were aware of this prior to today, as some students were completely finished. Some students did not begin until today. Students selected to work on either paper or canvas, with oil paint or oil sticks. This is my mentor's only class that won't take a written section as a part of their exam. The second part of the class was a critique. This was useful to me my first day, as it gave me a chance to hear the way the students discuss art and talk about their own work and to begin learning names. The group rotated around the room to each student's work. Each student wrote down three things: an opportunity for the artist to improve/something she wished the artist had done differently, a praise for something the artist did in the artwork, and the thing that she, the viewer, learned from/will take with her from the artwork/artist.

My mentor teacher encouraged students to share both the "grow" and the "glow" points. The students had completed three paintings for this exam. They are 33 points each including the written responses. The students have the opportunity to revise and/or finish the painting before Friday to count towards their total semester grade.

Tomorrow I will see two of the Drawing I classes.