Children’s Residential Treatment Center - Carmen Elate - Middle School and High School - 6 hours (1.5hours over 4 days)
Last week I met with Carmen Elate to discuss my shadowing of her at the Children’s Residential Treatment Center. Carmen introduced me to the other teachers at the center and showed me what the students had been working on. We also discussed possible end of semester projects and some other activities we could bring into the class--which was really exciting!
When class began, I introduced myself to the students and answered questions about MCAD and being a teaching artist. For the rest of the session the students had studio time to work on projects of their choosing. Most of the students continued to work on some gouache paintings which they had started in a previous session. Students were given paper cut to the size of their canvases to sketch and plan out what they were going to paint. After completing this, each student was given three square canvases to paint with the intention of keeping one canvas for themselves, giving one to another person, and leaving one at school. On the canvases, students were asked to pair their paintings with a quote or saying that they found comforting, inspiring or motivating. While doing this students were learning the formal qualities of painting (how to make a composition, how to use and mix paint colors) and also to pair colors and images with emotions and text. One student worked on his canvas for a while but then became tired of it and wanted to sketch in his sketchbook. We talked about what he was drawing and he asked about how to draw superheroes and I talked with him about techniques used in figure drawing and how to draw accurate proportions in the figure. I ended up making a worksheet on scratch paper that he took with him so he could practice drawing later. This made me think about how to provide resources and information in different formats for students who process information at different speeds and different ways--what does that look like for creative practices like drawing and painting?
On Wednesday I brought my pompom makers and some cardboard disks to make yarn pompoms. I had mentioned on Monday to Carmen that I had just finished making a sculpture out of pompoms and she thought it might be fun for the class. The first group of students was really excited about making pompoms and so I did a demo with the whole group and assisted individual students as they worked. One student chose to make their own cardboard disk that was bigger than the ones that I had made in order to try and make a bigger pompom and they were successful. Students were eager to ask question on ways they could continue making pompoms after the class was over so they could make a garland. Some students made bracelets out of the pompoms and others used them as hair ties. In the second group of students, only two students were initially interested in making pompoms so I did a smaller demo. After the first student made her first pompom, several other students changed their minds and also wanted to make pompoms. By the end of the session, one of the students who had been apprehensive left with pompoms hanging from his ears.
By the end of the week (Friday) the students were making pompoms during any idle time they had in other classes and outside of class. One student brought in a box full of pompoms she had made to show me. It was really exciting to see how much everyone enjoyed making pompoms, and the many ways students used their pompoms. At the end of the second session, students are asked to state a color which correlates to how they are feeling--and on Friday many students stated green--a color that stands for happy and thankful. I loved how eager students were to continue their work outside of class and am excited to see what we do next! I realize that this could be more hands on than just shadowing, but because each group is only 6 or 7 students, it is really easy for Carmen communicate with the students and see when they are ready for something new to do and I was happy to bring something different in. I’ve included some photos of the students working on their pompoms, as well as their finished pompoms!
