Urban Arts Academy: 1:30-6:00
This week I went to Urban arts Academy and taught my first lesson! It was a busy day, we went outside, instead of to the gym. The students had a lot of fun, when we got back, around three, I started to set up for the lesson. I forgot to bring the foam core we were going to use to make the plates, though! Luckily, Urban Arts Academy had some thin sheets of Styrofoam that we were able to adapt for the project! (It ended up working out better, as the students were able to lift up the plate a little and peak under to see if it had printed, because the Styrofoam was so flexible).
I laid out the brayers and plexi glass on one table—however; I should not have put the brayers out yet! The students immediately began to play with the brayers and stopped paying attention, until I decided to put the brayers back away, they would not pay attention.
I gave my introduction to the lesson, showing the students examples of patterns that a friend and I made, examples from multiple cultures, and by asking them where they see pattern in their everyday lives. We had a discussion about it, and then I demonstrated how to create the blocks.
The students got to working! Creating great images and discussing what was important to them in their everyday lives. Eventually, a few students finished their plates and asked me what to do next. I should have encouraged them to create another printing block, but I decided to show them how to print. It ended up dividing the group and eventually causing some trouble, as the group got the demonstration at different times.
Tomorrow, I will do the second half of my lesson and have my last day at Urban Arts Academy! I’m very excited to teach the rest of the lesson (creating notebooks or journals with their prints as the covers) but I’m not ready to say goodbye! I’m making sure I have extra paper for tomorrow, in case any students who were not there during the original lesson can work on it with us!
