First Day: Positive and Negative Space

Well, day one is done! I ended up having only five students, but apparently the class total is six! I had them start out by making name tags with construction paper so they could do some coloring and individual things. I didn't really introduce myself because I felt as though the students were not quite ready to "get personal." I did have my name tag at the front so they knew who I was. 

The one student with autism in this class is actually a really sweet student. He speaks out of turn frequently and can get carried away with his thoughts, but many of the students in the class become annoyed with him and his ways. The classroom teacher also gives critical comments to this student. That was probably the hardest part about my lesson was the acceptance of disrespect in the class. 

We discussed the elements of art briefly, and the students were able to use the SMART board by discussing which picture they thought paired with which element. We then focused on space. The students learned about positive and negative space and then were able to create their own. We listened to music while they were working, but then the classroom teacher would randomly start playing youtube videos from old time movies. This definitely created a distraction for the students. 

While working, I went around to each student and had them demonstrate to me that they understood the concepts. Everyone was able to get the answers correct! Success!

I then had them guess the cost/worth of different art works in order to introduce the importance of keeping an open mind when working with art. They enjoyed writing their guesses on the SMART board as well as finding the money worth of some art. 

Overall, my lesson went almost exactly as planned...SUCCESS ON DAY ONE!

The Night Before

So...here I am. Finishing up my PowerPoint and lesson plan right around midnight the night before I go to teach. While writing this lesson, everything always seems so hypothetical. Do this with the students and then try this...But when you're actually in a classroom, teaching is so different than what you write on a lesson plan. I know for sure I have one student with autism and the rest with emotional behavioral disorders (EBD). 

Onward for art education!

Let's take on this real world.