Art Unit using Hundertwasser as our inspiration

Hundertwasser is an incredible artist on which to base an art unit on as his work is so diverse.  This means you can use it as inspiration for so many styles of art work from sketching, painting and 3D building.

With being in New Zealand we have one of his famous buildings  the Kawakawa toilets, which are just 25 minutes from me, although a bit far to take my class, unfortunately.

From his clothes to his stamps and his paintings to his architecture there is either something or an aspect that can appeal to everyone.  There is also his philosophies which he applied to so much of this work, which brings in a whole other conversation.  The best part for me is that because of Hundertwassers styles and diversity there are going to be elements or works that people just do not like.  This also applies to me, I enjoy his quirky architecture but I am not a fan of his paintings!!

To introduce my students to Hundertwassers work, I created a power point using photos available on line (where you can find hundreds of examples).   I paired this with quotes from his philosophies which help explain his work.  Great examples are

• His refusal to use a ruler which he felt was a tool of the devil.  
• He also believed that an uneven floor was a melody to the feet.
• The world needs bright colours in order to be a happy place to live
• that mankind needs to be surrounded by nature even in a city

The power point started with photos of his buildings which received lots laughs and amazement along with oohs and ah's and look at that.. Then we got to some of his paintings and that all stopped.

It was like watching a class of owls as they blinked and turned their heads left and right and cocked them over trying to sort out his work for themselves.  Granted they were very busy with a lot of detail, but his refusal to follow any colour rules (like painting the sky green) means it takes awhile to figure some of them out.

The best part (and funny for me) was after a couple of minutes of the class trying to discuss the works positively, I turned around and said:

"But you know what....I don't like them at all"

The looks I got were priceless.  Twenty-four pairs of eyes just stared at me wide with surprise - you could see them thinking 'had she really said that?'

I just looked at them said

 "its OK not to like it, just because its from a famous artist doesn't mean you have to like it."

I explained how we are all going to have different opinions and that is fine to voice that (as long as you are not being mean of course) and its okay to like something when others do not as well.  Well that was it, they were prepared at last to pick that painting apart and really look at it from all angles.  Gone was the polite comments of nice bright colours, and out came the multiple comments of 'its weird'.

It was liberating for them to be honest about the work, we went back through the power point and used our honesty on the buildings, although in fairness the kiddos really still liked them!!

This lead us into creating our own art.  I gave the guidelines of creating a landscape in which they had to include a building or buildings inspired by Hundertwasser.  It must include at least two spiral trees (Hundertwassers symbol for life), they were not allowed to use rulers and the finished work would be painted using bright colours which did not have to follow any colour rules.

My unit had been inspired by a lesson plan I had found on line (which I can not find again for the life of me - I should have pinned it) and our own TKI Educational website.

The first session had the students sketching out their concepts. I started them with a planning page before they were allowed the good paper.  Even with the reminders that the elements will need to be large to enable the next stage to be completed there were students who wanted to do fiddly details.  A few struggled with filling the whole page or having their elements large enough to have an impact on their page.  We got together to discuss what had been done.  I followed the whole positive feedback and what they need to improve feed forward system to assist them in improving their pictures.  The kiddo's caught on pretty quickly on what needed to change in their pictures and took over their feed forward portion which was perfect.  Others in the class were quick to point out the good points as well!!!  As a result at least half the class decided they wanted to start again (so much for sketching first so not to waste good paper), and this time they really got it.

 The following session the students traced their pencil lines with black PVA glue using a squeezy bottle creating a raised glossy line.  This process took time and skill, ideally I would have loved to have given the opportunity to practice this skill separately but I did not have enough glue.   It took practice to get the pressure just right so it was not to think or thin.  For a number of students I did help with this to speed to process along, however they had to have given it a really good go before I gave help.  The glue took at least 24 hours to dry so you need to make sure you have space to lay them out :).

They then had to paint with watered down acrylic paint - it was meant to be water paints but the school didn't have any and as it turned out the acrylic paint made for lovely bright colours and I was really pleased with the results, almost as pleased as my students were :).  This still took a fair bit reminding not to overload their paintbrush with paint or the colours would run into each other and to not have the same colour touching each other to enable contrast.

The following are some of their great work:

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My Placement Has Finished

It actually finished a week ago but I just could not commit it to the blog that it was over.  I did not want to leave at all!  I have loved feeling like a teacher and I want to keep teaching not go back to University in two weeks to start studying again.

My wonderful class made me a book as a good bye pressie.  They worked on the theory I had taught them how to write a children's book so they should make me a book.  Each child wrote and drew a page saying what they liked about me being their teacher.   A few of them mentioned my use of an evil stare (hey why start using words to tell them off when a look can fix the problem) and how my laugh can sometimes sound wicked/evil (hehehe).  Each table group also put on a little skit for me to say good bye.  It was so wonderful and I really really struggled not to cry.  OK I cried but I hid it well.
Here are a few of the pages they created for me

LOVE how they all drew me skinny!!!!

The book is something I will treasure for years to come.

The great thing is I will be going back to the school over the next eight weeks as I am helping out with a programme there (gotta keep my face visible if there is any chance of a job).

I also still have some marking to finish and take back (should be all done tomorrow) and give them feedback/feed forward in person as well as on their assessments.

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back for my last week at my school

I cannot believe how fast that two week holiday break was.  I had so many plans for doing some blog posts about the lessons I did so I had a record to remind myself if nothing else but the first week I ended up in bed with the worst flu that I have ever had - it knocked me for six.  Of course its par for the course with teaching that you get the holiday flu/cold.

The second week was spent marking, completing assessments and binding the books they had written and still recovering so energy was very low!  And of course the best past time of all blog stalking (you can do that from bed so a great pass time).

I am back in my school for this week, its my last week which is sad in itself, but what is even worse is that I'm not getting to teach.  I'm just observing and its so hard to just sit back and jump in when needed or to get myself involved.  The neat thing is that my associate teacher has left for her overseas trip which means there is a reliever in for the next few weeks.  This relief teacher is really dynamic in her teaching and really willing to share her knowledge.  She has a complete focus on maths (which I love) and is concentrating on basic facts and multiplication with the class.  Just about all of the class has some major gaps with this area which considering they are 9 - 11 year olds is not good.  She believes in getting the students moving and playing games to learn the knowledge to ensure its deep quick knowledge not something they need to stop and think about.  I will end up learning a lot from her and I am adding to my collection of notes for when I finally have a class of my own.

I cannot believe that I have to go back to University in four weeks and spend another four months studying, I just want to teach.  Although in saying that I have been having nightmares about planning for everything for a whole year and the testing and the assessments and the marking and the students and the..... shoot got to stop thinking about it before I run to the hills screaming LOL.

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my full control has finished

My full control of my placement has finished - I still have one more week to go (after the July holidays which gives us two weeks off) but I'm just helping out.

I had so much fun teaching and loved almost every minute of it (there was the odd REALLY!! moments).  I ended up teaching for 5 weeks instead of the required 3 weeks which was fabulous of my associate to let me, mind you she loved the opportunity of being able to get caught up on everything before she headed off on her travels.

Teaching my maths unit was amazing, I loved watching all those light bulb moments happen as the kiddo's really got something.  You can actually see get go across their face as they go from total confusion to oh yeah...in a heart beat.

Through my students lack of knowledge of statistics it meant I had to change my unit plan somewhat to cater for the additional time that I had to spend on areas I was sure I would only be revisiting rather than the complete introduction of the topic/section that was actually required.  This did mean leaving some parts out (the extension activities) in order to cater for their learning needs - but hey that's the role of teaching - things change based on the needs of the students not my need to teach what I spent ages planning.

Introducing foldables as a learning tool to the class was a total hit.  To say they loved them is an understatement.  They loved taking ownership of their own learning and been able to make graphs up that reflected their own knowledge rather than what I dictated that they had to do.  I also included that they had to write an explanation of what each graph style was and was used for in their own words (to further demonstrate their understanding).  The first time they filled it out, they were all checking with me that they had it right, and if what they had done was okay.  By the end they were seasoned pro's and trusting in their own knowledge - so fantastic to see.

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The crazy train arrived at my class!!!

That's about the some total of it, the crazy train arrived and let every bit of crazy out!!  The whole class was all over the place on Friday and it drove me NUTS!!!

They could not stop talking, mucking around, pushing, shoving, picking on each other, the works.  It was the end of the week which had had some huge pressure with speech finals and practicing new song for assembly, new teacher, big maths concepts (which they are really really starting to get, even the ones who were struggling), and a few changes in schedule.  On top of that the whole schedule was thrown out of the window on Friday with catch up, speech finals (for our top four) and assembly practice. 

It meant I did NO actual teaching, and it felt like all I did was crowd control, and it felt like I was trying to control a crowd of monkeys - and cheeky ones at that.

At lunch time all I felt like doing was crying, it was either that or tearing my hair out.

It did not help that my associate teacher was out of the room either so I had no back up what so ever.  I have learnt that she is trying to stay out of the classroom to allow me to teach without her interrupting - but she's not meant to - but it is also leaving me feeling unsupported.  Even when I let her know what the day was like at morning tea time, she offered sympathy and said some days it just feels like that, but she did not stay in the room to back me up.

I do understand that it helps me grow as a teacher to have to cope in that kind of teaching environment, and it helps develop my coping skills (see looking for the positives) and next year if I get a job I wont have that kind of help so I need to know how to do it....but... I'm still a student and back up would have been nice/helpful and not to mention needed!!

The amazing thing was that despite the bad rehearsals we had for our performance at assembly using the mean, mode and medium song from scholastic's Study Jam (from  http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/data-analysis/median.htm) using the instruments the class had made from recycled materials, the actual performance was amazing and I was so proud of them!!!  I guess what they say is true bad rehearsal great performance -  I just wish it was not 10 bad rehearsals LOL.

The positive assembly was a great way to finish my first week with full control, and next week will be another week, although it will still be all over the place as I have my exams next week.  Will just have to see how it all goes.

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Do not know whether to cry or just grin and carry on!

That's a bit what it feels like today.  It was day two of my full control and my associate was off doing meetings all day - she was not there yesterday either.  It feels a little like I am being used as an unpaid relief teacher at the moment - thing is, she is not meant to leave me alone with the class - and so far she has hardly been there while I have been teaching!!!

At the staff meeting tonight I learnt of sports training that I now need to fit in, a visit to a home for the elderly for half a day (been on the books for a while but my associate forgot to mention it) and a whole school, whole day project next Wednesday which I now have to come up with a plan for and it must have an Art focus (no issues really, thought it out in the staff meeting and have already formulated it since being home). 

I know it is just the life of a teacher and these things happen.  But when I see the gaps in knowledge of these kiddo's it just makes me want to cry. 

They had to add a string of simple one digit numbers today, over half of them struggled, and a quarter of them had no idea of what sort of strategy to use to add them up (making tens and making fives). All of these changes effect their maths time the most. 

When I am meant to be teaching both statistics and time during my seven weeks I cannot afford to loose any teaching time.  As it is with how long that it is taking to teach the graphs and graph language I wonder if I will actually get to teach the topic of time at all!!

Today I also had to throw my literacy plan out the window as my kiddos have to do their speeches in front of the class tomorrow and they had been given very little class time (it was only started last week).  I decided that they needed a good solid go at it where I could really help them.  On top of that I had to spring a new list of requirements on them that my associate thought of this morning, which threw them for a loop and meant they needed extra support, but we got there for most of them.

Yup definately felt like crying today, silly thing is its not so much for myself (even if I do not get to use all my planning), but rather for my kiddo's...

Does anyone else feel like that?

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I got to teach my kiddo's

Thursday I finally got to teach the first part of my Maths unit - it went so great!! EXCEPT they knew almost nothing about graphs - no exaggeration at all.  These are kiddo's between 9 and 11 years old and should have had really decent exposure to graphing since they were five.  I should have been building on their existing knowledge, extending them and introducing the new knowledge that the older ones need for next year.

I used the suggestion from Runde's Room (http://www.rundesroom.com/2012/10/math-journal-sundays-pop-up-bar-graphs.html) about doing a diagnostic assessment through getting the class to write down all the graphs that they know...

Out of a class of 24

• 22 knew pie graph (great - except they kept telling me it was because of fractions)
• 20 knew bar graph (not bad really)
• 12 knew line graph (but only 2 could tell me what it was)
• 5 knew tally graph
• 6 said photograph (and yep they meant photograph not pictograph)
• 4 said circle graph (not to bad as it is another name for pie graph)

and then I got a whole lot of words that had graph in it (like photograph) and several kiddo's had blank paper.

When I put that data in a sort of bar graph (no scale, no even spacing, no labelling, no title), half of the class were convinced that it was a great graph and they could see all they needed and were prepared to argue their case!

I was so glad I followed up the idea I got from Runde's Room otherwise I would have gone in rather blindly expecting them to have some quite big base knowledge that is either missing or as happens completely forgotten!!!

Day 2 (Friday), I was meant to start to introduce mean, mode, medium, range however it was planned for a two day event (to then be built on over the weeks) and I knew I would have to start again on Monday, so I talked it over with my AT and said I would rather do one of my graph 'review' sessions and start mean etc on Monday.  She agreed with me.

So I thought once I started talking about strip graphs my kiddo's would show an oh yeah look or sound and they would recognise it from previous lessons (they should have been doing this from 2nd year in school and these guys are 5th and 6th year of school).  It did not happen, not one of them had any idea.

I have realised that I am going to have to completely fold back my lessons and half of each session that I have planned will not happen - all my worksheets that were designed for interactive practice may go out the window or what was meant to be one hour sessions may have to be two hour sessions or I teach two graph styles and then we have a practice day for those two styles otherwise I am overloading them with info and they are not getting to practice.  I am making sure that the lessons have a huge interactive part (so they are not listening to me drone on) and they have to write about each graph in their own words in their foldable (which they are loving!!!).

It just scares me as to how much I have to cover in the four weeks, the older kiddo's need to know this stuff before moving on next year where it starts to become more sink or swim schooling, where the schooling is definitely more build on existing knowledge that you MUST have not teaching from scratch.

I do not want to let these kiddo's down and it worries me that I might.

I tried to discuss it with my associate who really did not seem that concerned!!!  And when the next door teacher came through to talk about the student conferences that are to start next week (need to fit that into my planning now too), she made the comment that she shows the students their data on a graph and that at least gives them some exposure too and some understanding of graphing and covers that area!!!!!!  I had to pick myself up off the floor with that one - that is how she is going to cover graphing in the curriculum for her class. 

I am so trying not to judge and I really bit my tongue about saying anything to my associate - after all who am I to comment but a 3rd year student teacher - BUT I am judging somewhat.  When I see all the wonderful teachers in the blogging world and the extent they go too and who have so inspired my lesson planning and her teaching of stats will be a one hour conference with the students in a group (not even one on one) it makes me wonder if this may be why this knowledge is missing in my class (most of them were in her class last year).  But then again it may have been an off the cuff comment that really did not mean to sound that way, so once again I must be careful in my judgement - and for that matter what I say - no point going somewhere when I do not have the full story.

We were told in Uni that a lot of teachers have hang ups about teaching maths and for some if a change in the programme comes up that is the first thing to go out the window.  When I was discussing it with my associate she reckons most of the problem is that there is such a focus on number knowledge that things like statistics and time and geometry and measurement (the strands) get forgotten.  I do not think my associates argument is all that valid as everyone of the strands builds on base number knowledge - there is adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplication and fractions in all areas!

Oh well I cannot change what previous teachers may or may not have taught this class all I can do is go in and teach them as best as I can and hope that what I am doing will make a difference to their knowledge base - I so do not want to fail them.

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