Kelsey Shields
Student Teaching: Spring 2014: Pittsburgh
Placement 2, South Hills Middle School:
My second placement took place at a middle school for grades six through eight. While there, I had the opportunity of seeing my students every other day for a total of seven weeks.
South Hills is a part of Pittsburgh Public Schools and is located just outside of the city. My mentor teacher had been in the school for five years and has a great deal of experience working in the woodshop, with ceramics, jewelry making, and graphic arts.
Learning under him was a privilege and learning about the mysterious world of middle schoolers was just as valuable.
Group mural focusing on value
SIXTH GRADE
I had the chance to teach a value unit to each of the four sixth grade classes.
We began by creating charcoal cityscape value scales and then moved onto learning about stippling and cross-hatching with pencil, observational drawings, and finally a collaborative mural.
Each of the students received a piece to the mural and focused on the value present in that part of the image. Placing each of the pieces next to each other created a larger image.
We also spent a day working on more abstract creations. The students were prompted to crinkle a piece of paper and fill in the wrinkles in any way they chose.
SEVENTH GRADE
The seventh graders worked on collaborative mosaics as well as a Native American symbol project.
I planned a group mosaic project in which the students created a design based on a verb of their choice then added cut magazine to color their design.
Students then had the opportunity to help with a guitar mosaic in which they cut and shaped pieces of glass to fit with the design.
The Native American symbol project involved cross-sections of wood. Students chose concentric shapes to add to their piece and chose a monochromatic color scheme to paint it in. We then discussed Native American symbols and students decided on a symbol that resonated with them to put onto their piece.
EIGHTH GRADE
With eighth grade, I decided to do a more conceptual project. We started off the lesson by watching a TED talk by Tavi Gevinson and discussing it. She is a teenager who created her own magazine and believes that people with flaws are beautiful, dynamic and human.
We next watched Anis Mojgani perform the poem "Shake the Dust." It is about shaking off the bad things and living life. He also describes people very poetically and in a few short words.
The students then wrote their own personal poems and learned how to draw facial proportions. They took their knowledge to their own portraits and drew them into scratchboard. The finished portraits were then mounted onto cardboard, which displayed their written poem.