St. Mary's Clinical Experiences

PRIM Intro Art & Desg: Cont & Clin Exp

Art Education 442

My experience with St. Mary’s has been one of the best teaching opportunities I’ve had so far! I had the chance to work with a class of 3rd-grade students alongside my peers, Instructor Houston and Instructor Scheidler. Together, we created a series of well-planned, engaging lessons and art projects that were not only educational but genuinely fun for the kids. Over the course of our time there, I completed a total of 28 hours, gaining valuable experience and fresh ideas with each lesson we taught. It was rewarding to see the students learn new techniques and objectives—exactly what any teacher hopes for—and I truly enjoyed collaborating with my peers in such a positive, creative environment!

Day 1: The Color Wheel & Color Theory 2.0

By the end of the day, the class did quite well! I think the students enjoyed our lesson as well as enjoyed having us in there with them! We all had a lot of fun on the first day of teaching. Lenora did a fantastic job at teaching, especially with it being our first time. I do think down the road, there are things we can definitely fix, such as gaining control of our kids more often, controlling our reward system with the stickers, and holding back on using paint. I was really happy that we had the opportunity to use paint, but I think the kids went over the top with the paint as well as made it quite messy. It was a great idea on Lenora's part to put the larger white papers down on the desks to help avoid a larger mess. We also ended up going 10-12 minutes overtime, which will be kept in mind down the road when we do other lessons. We also weren’t able to start until 10 minutes after the said new time was given to us. Very much a push and pull situation, but we will make it work!

Day 2: When Music Meets Art & Emotion Through Color

I was really happy with how the lesson went on Monday, March 30th! I think it was a success all in all! It was really interesting to see how each kid interpreted the music that we played and portrayed that onto paper to make artwork. They were able to use any color they wanted and had complete freedom to choose based on how they felt about the three songs we played. I was so happy to see that when we asked if any students were willing to showcase their artwork, we had lots and lots of volunteers! They really wanted to show everyone what they felt, what they created, and what colors they used. In the future, I think if we can continue to try and take control of the class as well as keep the noise level down, it would work out well. Other than that, things are going great! Kids after Spring Break can always be a little bit crazy, so I wasn’t shocked that they were loud and jumpy, but hopefully, over time, they can continue to have fun but also calm down, all in all. I loved it!

Day 3: Marker Technique Fun-Sheet

Without Lenora with us this time around, Mary and I were a little nervous regarding how our teaching and lesson was going to go, but it went fantastically! The kids listened quite well and were overly focused when it was time for them to do the worksheet. All in all, it was great! You could easily tell they were concentrating on the given patterns because when it was their turn to work, they went dead silent. We really wanted the kids to use the techniques that they learned and use them well, which they executed quite nicely! They followed directions, they asked questions, showed us their ideas and work, and all of the above. The backside of the worksheet was an opportunity for them to explore their own designs and ideas, but also to use the same marker techniques they learned on the front side. Overall, a very successful lesson! Our next lesson follows along/ties in well with this lesson, so fingers crossed things keep going in the right direction!

Day 4: Create Your Own Stained Glass Window

This lesson, overall, I think, was a great idea to do for the kids! They really seemed to enjoy the fact of being able to create their own designs for a stained glass window. I made sure they used some of the same marker techniques that we worked on in my previous lesson, which a lot of the kids did, and I was overly happy to see them do that! I think they worked quite well for the most part, but this time around, the group was OVERLY rowdy and crazy. We talked about how this time around, they were the “worst” behaved than what they have been ever before, even the teacher had to step in a couple of times, even after we had to raise our voices for them to calm down. I think they enjoyed the lesson overall, but unfortunately, I miscalculated the size of the paper and the determination within the kids. Sadly, I made the size of the paper too large, which, as a result, made it so that some of the kids couldn’t finish their designs and coloring. I also couldn’t let them do the oil part of the project, as we ran out of time. In my free time, I will be finishing up that part of the oil. With permission from the kids themselves, I am also going to be able to cut down certain parts of their papers, specifically taking off the parts of paper that was completely white. Overall, I think it was a good idea for a lesson. I think if I were to cut the paper to the right size, it would have been better. It’s a good thing to keep in mind down the road for other lessons!