UrbanArts - Mimi - 3 hours
I went into UrbanArts thinking that I'm going to be in Katie's class. But after I went there I found out that I was going to be in a middle school classroom for a special project. Before I went in the classroom I was told that I'm going to be participating in an graphic design activity with them which was making calendars with the students! I was thrilled to know that. I went into Mimi's classroom which primarily consisted of girls. I walked inside and the teacher introduced me to them. She told me to talk about being a Graphic Designer - what exactly that means and about the calendar project. It was interesting to shift my pace from being with kindergarteners to middle schoolers. For middle schoolers everything had to be 'cool'. So the teacher and I presented the calendar idea to make it seem interesting. We are planning to design this calendar and sell it at a fund raiser for UrbanArts. The students sounded excited but not as excited as the kindergartens. I found a way to start off that would excite them. Which was to go though all the pictures and pick out art and other pictures that interested them. It was hard to work with a bigger group and a smaller screen and eventually we were left with just two students and the others started doing other activities around the classroom. But it was exciting to converse to the two students, and continue to interest them. I spoke about the potential, the freedom of design because we are designing it all etc. I started figuring out what excited them and that point was great! We did not realize when it was time up, and their parents came to pick them up. But before they left they said they are excited about this project and can't wait to learn. I'm really excited to work with a different age group too even though I really miss my kindergarten class. I hope they are still excited about this after spring break (as next week is their spring break)
MIA- Krista- 3 hours
This week the crochet project was great! It was really well attended, we had almost 25 participants. It was interesting to see how much the age dynamics changing can change the learning dynamic too. As we had some college groups that came in, too. At the same time as usual there were people who were really great at crocheting. I find my place in this setting really interesting. I tired to walk to different groups and people about their process, and how they heard of this project. My favorite part about this is is when people who don't know each other start teaching others how to crochet, especially since the age groups, and the crowd was so diverse the learning and great fun to watch! We received some submissions from people who have already finished their pieces. The conversations are really fun too they range from: Which crocheting needle to use - life stories about crocheting. I'm happy to have such a great response to the project, and can't wait to see how the final week of this project will be. Everyone's excited!