Oh short week, how you mess me up. I spent half the day going to the wrong places because my subconscious kept insisting it was only Tuesday.
Okay, so sketchbooks. I implemented some of those changes I talked about in yesterday's post.
One major thing that helped was simply remembering to set my timer while I spoke. When you only have ten minutes, you find yourself less easily distracted and more prone to succinctness. I pared down the examples to only a couple, one of which included my calendar mural's concept sketches. There were quite a few excited kids when they noticed that the drawings were just like the mural. Score.
I also managed to get a little more student involvement simply by writing a question on the board: "What do you think a sketchbook is used for?" leaving plenty of space to write the kids' answers below. My lesson ended up starting with this little brainstorming session (making sure that brainstorming and practicing as uses were hit upon) to sketches (brainstorming and practice again) to the day's activity.
Going outside pretty much stayed the same, but I went with my "designated drawing spot" plan, and it worked like a charm for the most part. I still ended up fixing about a half-dozen covers, but that's not really avoidable at this point. Ending class, I'm gonna have to change things a bit to maybe just review of the day's information and a little sharing time about what the kids drew. Other Art Teacher really needs a rules and procedures review lesson next week (and I do have a couple new procedures -- taking roll, discipline chart-- that need to be introduced), so we're gonna have to postpone the sketch-to-composition lesson for a week.
All in all, I think it's really just down to timing now. I'll need to sit down at the end of the week and take another look at how things went, but I'm feeling pretty good about it now.
In other news, the Boss Lady approved my tentative plan to do a real mural with the 4th grade this year. In fact, I barely got the proposition out of my mouth before she jumped on it enthusiastically. (Huzzah!) She also would love for the kids to have a t-shirt design contest for Fun Day at the end of the year, so Other Art Teacher and I will need to plan for that. We're thinking of setting up a sort of contest center and letting the kids who want to participate go to that center for supplies. When they're done, some of the faculty and staff will judge them and pick a winner. Should be fun!
Rock on, Boss Lady, rock on.
Okay, so sketchbooks. I implemented some of those changes I talked about in yesterday's post.
One major thing that helped was simply remembering to set my timer while I spoke. When you only have ten minutes, you find yourself less easily distracted and more prone to succinctness. I pared down the examples to only a couple, one of which included my calendar mural's concept sketches. There were quite a few excited kids when they noticed that the drawings were just like the mural. Score.
I also managed to get a little more student involvement simply by writing a question on the board: "What do you think a sketchbook is used for?" leaving plenty of space to write the kids' answers below. My lesson ended up starting with this little brainstorming session (making sure that brainstorming and practicing as uses were hit upon) to sketches (brainstorming and practice again) to the day's activity.
Going outside pretty much stayed the same, but I went with my "designated drawing spot" plan, and it worked like a charm for the most part. I still ended up fixing about a half-dozen covers, but that's not really avoidable at this point. Ending class, I'm gonna have to change things a bit to maybe just review of the day's information and a little sharing time about what the kids drew. Other Art Teacher really needs a rules and procedures review lesson next week (and I do have a couple new procedures -- taking roll, discipline chart-- that need to be introduced), so we're gonna have to postpone the sketch-to-composition lesson for a week.
All in all, I think it's really just down to timing now. I'll need to sit down at the end of the week and take another look at how things went, but I'm feeling pretty good about it now.
In other news, the Boss Lady approved my tentative plan to do a real mural with the 4th grade this year. In fact, I barely got the proposition out of my mouth before she jumped on it enthusiastically. (Huzzah!) She also would love for the kids to have a t-shirt design contest for Fun Day at the end of the year, so Other Art Teacher and I will need to plan for that. We're thinking of setting up a sort of contest center and letting the kids who want to participate go to that center for supplies. When they're done, some of the faculty and staff will judge them and pick a winner. Should be fun!
Rock on, Boss Lady, rock on.
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