Residency- Field Community School- 3 Hours
The 7th and 8th graders continued to work on their pincushion projects. I noticed how much progress the students have made. The last time I was in, most of the students were cutting out the preliminary shapes. Today, most of the pincushions looked like the animals they are supposed to depict, with just some final finishing touches to go. Nonetheless, some students were further ahead than others. I went around and asked some of the students to tell me about their projects. One person was making a stingray and was almost finished, one person was making an elephant and showed me which pieces were going to be what. One person was creating a pincushion based on a fictional kind of monster she and her brother made up.
One way I helped was by taping rubrics to each table so the students would remember the parameters they needed to follow. I think having a reminder close by is a good idea so they don't get deep into a project only to find that it's insufficient once it's too late.
These students have to give each other feedback on their projects. To do this, they each have a sheet in which they have to find three peers and have their peers write down feedback and sign it. The teacher encouraged me to help students with that, possibly being one of the people to give them feedback. She warned me that middle schoolers tend to give vague feedback such as, "It looks cool" rather than something constructive. I also watched her give feedback to one of the students. At MCAD, when we give feedback during class, we usually display our art for our classmates and listen to what they have to say. However, this interaction between the teacher and the student felt more like a conversation, with the teacher asking questions, listening to the student's answers, and commenting on specific features of the pincushion.
The best part of the day was the third hour with the 5th and 6th graders. Instead of a normal day, we left the classroom and looked at some arts-integrated history projects done by other students. All the projects were related to civil rights in Minneapolis. Civil rights movements are one of my favorite parts of history, so this was quite the treat for me. I learned a lot, including that Field used to be an all-black school. Normally when I hear of civil rights, I think of southern states, so this was an important reminder that this was not just a southern issue, it was a national one.
Shadowing- Urban Arts Academy- 3 Hours
The first warm-up activity today was to hold a card in front of our forehead, without looking at it. Each card had a different number on it. The object was to line ourselves up in numerical order without speaking to each other. We were successful. The second activity was to play "the floor is made of lava" but with the goal of grabbing a scrap of paper that was placed across the room in a challenging spot. I think these were both good activities for warming up because they call for creative and logical thinking.
Our guest artist of the day was a hip-hop dancer. We went into the building's gym and he did some basic warm-ups and stretches with the students. (I have some disabilities in my legs, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do this as easily as everybody else, so I observed the lesson without actively participating.) The instructor spent the majority of the lesson demonstrating dance moves and have the students mimic what he was doing. This combines learning by observation with learning by doing. Eventually, the instructor brought out a mat and showed some more complex dance moves. This time, though, he had every student do it one-by-one so he could give them feedback. Individual feedback is important because everyone is different and therefore will have different issues that need to be addressed. Finally, the session was concluded by playing music and giving the students a chance to dance however they want and show off what they know. It's important to have fun and be proud of your talents.
Back in the classroom, there was a discussion on different career paths students can go into with a dance background. Some seemed obvious, like dance teacher or choreographer. Others, I had never heard of or never thought about. For example, a dancer would also make for a good costume designer because they understand how the body moves and contorts. There's also such thing as dance therapy. I'd heard of different forms of therapy such as art therapy and music therapy, but never dance therapy. What I think is most interesting about it is it can be either a form of physical therapy or mental/emotional therapy.