So at my 1 day a week school I am hosting art club. (My 4 day a week school doesn't have ANY clubs... for whatever reason) Yesterday was our first meeting and it was total lunacy. There were over 30 kids there. I don't think I could have been more unprepared. LUCKILY it was our principals birthday so we made birthday cards for her. Thank goodness for that.
My 1D (one day) school is amazing. It is a very similar student population between both of my sites (80% hispanic, 95% free/reduced meals) but at this school I have:
-a classroom
-supportive staff and administration
-an environment that is not plagued by fear of doing/saying the wrong thing
When I am there I feel like I belong there. When I am at the 4D school... I feel like I am someone that the administration and other staff actively tries to hide away. Now my office/closet is being used almost every day all day for testing, so I am not even allowed access to my own supplies. I came back this morning to discover teachers had taken almost half of my only stack of drawing paper.
I have to keep telling myself-- this is not about me, it's about these kids. It's not about me. It's not about me. They can take everything from me, give me nothing, no space to work in, no supplies, it doesnt matter. I will find a way to teach art and it will be amazing and I will still be a great teacher.
Some projects we are working on:
Kindergarten is going rainbow hair portraits. 1st grade is doing Wassily Kadinsky style shape drawings. Since I can't use paint, I am using markers to color our pictures and then "painting" the marker areas with water to get a nice watercolor look to our pictures. 2nd and 3rd grade are working on 3D cityscape monoprints that we did with marker/water as well. 4th grade is working on self portraits and basic drawing techniques. 5th & 6th grade is learning drawing/shading and going to start their first still life.
I am 4 weeks behind in grading.
Sigh.
It's not about me. It's about the kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment