Kelsey Shields
Student Teaching : Spring 2014: Pittsburgh
Placement 1, Dilworth Elementary: I started my student teaching experience at an elementary school called Dilworth. Dilworth is an urban school focused on integrating the arts into all subjects and was a fun-filled experience.
I spent eight weeks at Dilworth with a very experienced teacher. I was able to learn a great amount from her regarding classroom management, behavior management, and also what it means to create stimulating lessons based on a curriculum.
One of my most successful lessons included one in which second graders studied the art of Hundertwasser and created landscape paintings that showed visual rhythm. We began by listening to music and drawing the feel, mood, and beat as a visual representation of the rhythm they were hearing. The students were then challenged to create whimsical landscpes that incorporated pattern, texture, and high intensity colors in order to show visual rhythm.
Rhythm Landscapes
The second grade students learned about visual rhythm by first discussing what rhythm means in music and looked at the work of Martin Klimas. We then listened to instrumental songs and the students drew how the music sounded onto their paper.
The next portion of the lesson involved looking at the work of Hundertwasser. We observed his landscapes and how he used repetition in his work to create visual rhythm.
The students then drew their own landscapes and painted them with tempera paint cakes. In their paintings, students focused on using high intensity colors, repetition, visual rhythm, and pattern.
Perspective
I taught a lesson to the fifth graders about how to draw in one point perspective. In order to teach the concept, we used the iPads available at Dilworth. In the app, Sketchbook Express, the students were able to draw quick lines and boxes and I was able to project my demonstrations in the front as we went.
We started by going over one point perspective outside, and them moved to the inside of a room. When the students had practiced on the iPads enough, we moved onto sketchbooks and then to final drawings in which they designed their own room.
Tibetan Wish Flags
I introduced the first grade students to the people of Tibet and what they call Wish Flags. Each colored flag represents a different element of the earth; sky, water, air, wind, fire, and earth. Each flag represents a wish and they believe that when the flags blow in the wind, the wishes are released into the world.
We discussed as a group what comes from each of the elements and after that the students were assigned a specific element. They drew a picture to represent their element and next, wrote out a wish to match their picture.
Memory Silhouettes
I taught the kindergarteners a lesson about how art can tell a story. The students learned about silhouettes and also looked at a variety of different artworks. They were challenged to make up a story about what might be happening.
Next, we traced each student's silhouette and they drew out pictures of a memory. Those pictures were later cut out and glued onto their silhouette.
Nature Masks
I taught the first graders a lesson about pattern. We discussed what regular, irregular, and random patterns look like and then discussed how repetition can be seen in nature.
The students created their own nature drawings, which they then carved into a piece of styrofoam. We printed their nature prints multiple times in order to create a pattern.
When the prints were done, the students cut them into the shape of a mask and then added drawings, paper, string and sticks to make a mask based on sketches they had made previously.
Fieldtrip to the Carnegie Museum
The fifth graders took a fieldtrip to the Carnegie Museum of Art. While there I had the opportunity to spend the day with ten students.
A docent took us around for the first half of the day and the kids had the chance to talk about pieces in the museum and create responses to them.
For the second half of the day, we had the chance to explore on our own.