Now I know I teach 6 and 7 year olds (and for the most part, this age group goes ape-shit over anything art/craft related), but I love art, YOU love art, and I haven't found a SINGLE individual on this planet who hates art!
I have had a ROUGH few weeks, work-wise.
Summary:
- a kid peed on the floor about a month ago
- "Miss, ____ said he wanted you to go back to Canada because he hates you." - (yes, I know this kid is 7 and what he says is insignificant and his opinion of me changes by the millisecond, but this stung a little bit... I don't like hearing this kind of thing)
- "Miss, some of us want a new teacher." (to which I replied, "Cool, get out of my class. Knock on a door and see who lets you in. I DARE you. Go find a teacher who wants you like I do..." No one moved. THAT'SRIGHTBITCHES.... stupid kids...
- ANOTHER kid (or the same one... I have no way of knowing) peed on the floor last week!!!!!
- I'm convinced I have a stomach ulcer lovingly grown by my devilish, selfish, unbelievably disrespectful students
- one student stabbed another with a pushpin, lied about it, told the VP he did it, and lied to me saying "no, I swear, I didn't do it." Bitch, please.
- I ignored my kids for about 40 minutes one day because I was at a loss of what to do about the general behaviour in the classroom.... it had literally gotten THAT bad.
SO, on a new note, I've decided to reflect on this bullshit. I don't CARE why these kids are bad and I don't care to excuse their behaviour; HOWEVER, looking at it like this helps:
1)They are kids. They have very little brain and thus are not smart enough to realize they are impacting me negatively.
2) I am an adult. I can positively impact them and change their bad behaviour in a SNAP. How you ask? ART!
CLARIFICATION: I'm not saying kids who behave badly deserve something fun like art, but I AM saying that changing up a typical "academic" class for a less sit-down-quietly-and-write one IS a good idea. Also, art IS a class. They get marked for it, so it is for everyone, despite behaviour. And I promise I DID give the "good" kids more coloured paper, access to Miss Sarah's special stash of pastels, markers and stickers, and they were told specifically that they got extra art supplies because of good behaviour and good quiz marks. I feel like art is all about equality: Everyone gets to do a project, BUT if you are a little asshole all week, you get the basics... like a bedroom, a bed, a dresser, a window. If you are good, your bedroom can have some toys, maybe nice posters on the walls, and some funky curtains. Nah mean? Y'all see what I'm saying here? It makes sense in my head. Like, PhD sense! Anyway...
Art Class
We made owls with fluffy tummies last week. Fluffy was a vocabulary word. (We're talking about the weather and one of the sentences is "The cloud is fluffy and white" to introduce adjectives and critical thinking into their tiny little brains).
I got the idea from this site: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2012/11/24/paper-owl-art-project/
And this was the suggested outcome:
Naturally, as a teacher, you have to be adaptable. Can my kids who need me to breathe for them make THIS ^ ....HELLS no. SO, I made a few adaptations.
I did a step by step tutorial drawing the owl and I decided we would do construction paper tummies instead of construction paper on the WHOLE owl (this would have taken a decade).
Adorable! They were SO into it.
Haha, I made an owl with a blue and orange coloured tummy. This student was convinced he could make a better one. Haha, his was good but, bitch please, I. AM. art.
I asked them to bring in their own coloured paper and kept the project a secret. They were "pretty" good for the day because they knew art was coming last period.
Pretty solid drawings. <3
For the low-level students, I didn't even have to help them. I explained the step by steps a little more and gave them my owl drawing as a template. They just pasted the construction paper without curling the paper to make the tummy "fluffy".
For the higher level students, I let them go for it and make an owl on a background (night or day). I showed them how to "curl" the paper to make it texturized. They LOVED that their art was popping off the page. "Miss, my owl, she feathers this." <-- Sure.
This student took forever because he really wanted his owl to look like mine. <3 xoxox. :) MAN, I LOVE these kids when we have art. They are SO dedicated to the craft.
So, alas, it was a bad day (this was the day one kid stabbed another.... he did NOT make an owl. He was REALLY upset and cried. Hey, listen. The BEST punishment for these kids is 'no art' because they all go CRAZY for art.) It WAS a bad day, until the end of the day when I received LOTS of "Thank you Miss Sarah" and "I love Miss Sarah, she give me art project" and "You are nice and lovely Miss Sarah! We all love Miss Sarah!"
It's amazing what a little change up does to a class. I also "usually" let them sit with their friends and talk during Art. My rule: As long as you are speaking ENGLISH and not too loud, you can chat during art class. If they get too loud or rowdy, I take minutes off of the class. IT WORKS. Consistency!
Here are a couple of the best owls. The students who misbehaved during Art did not get to hang their owl on the wall. The kids are itching to take them down and show mom and dad now, haha.
I can't WAIT to post about this week's project: Flags of the World! Vocabulary words include "Italian", "Brazilian", and "Spanish". (There are characters from these nationalities in the stories we are reading). I decided that instead of just talking about these three nationalities, I'd make an art project out of world flags. I'll tell you ALL about it in the next post! :) I still have to take down the owls and take pictures of the flags. The paintings are currently drying and we're going to make signs so we know the country of each flag. I'm pretty proud of myself for busting out a really successful lesson on something related to the WORLD! Yessssss....
Art. Gotta love it.
Yours,
The Creative Wun
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