Yesterday's lesson on Cindy Sherman

I thought yesterday's lesson was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed learning about Cindy Sherman and having a review of photography angles. I also liked how they included genres into the lesson, but what I found interesting was how they tied in artmakin with the construction paper and the making of props into a photography based lesson. I am not really a fan of photography probably due to the fact that I'm not very good at it so at first I wasn't really too excited about using a camera. However, when it was brought to my attention that we could hands on make something I jumped out of my seat to get my hands on some paper, scissors, and glue. I had a lot of fun with it. I chose comedy as my genre, did a straight profile angle , and made glasses, a nose, and a mustache as my prop. I also really enjoyed the teacher samples because I thought they had a lot of personality and added some fun to the lesson.

I noticed some people aroune me got done early though if they chose to not make a prop, so I would suggest making it a requirement for the lesson. In terms of the finishing early, I think it is a could lesson to always have something to do after if the students finish early. I also agree with what was said in class about how there should have been more materials, especially tape because I could have used it. I feel like having more materials could enhance the artmaking process, but having too many can be overwhelming. I do feel that they were lacking in the amount of materials though.

Preparation, Oh Boy...

I then began thinking about the artmaking process.... I did not want the assignment to be too easy for them. My teacher told me that when I was to go shopping for the supplies to buy candy and things that could serve more than one purpose, meaning had multiple possibilites to use to build and decorate the cupcakes. When I went shopping at Wal-Mart I was overwhelmed with the amount of possibilities and found it difficult to limit the candies to only 5-6. After looking over all of my options and lurking up nd down 4 candy aisles, I chose green twisty peelable twizzlers, pretzels sticks, marshmellows, green and orange candy corns, and Halloween body part candies. After getting my cupcake mixes, frosting, and supplies I went home and began baking. I made the cupcakes multiple colors using food dye, waited for them to cool, then began making my teacher sample keeping in mind that I had to think of different ways to utilize the candies and pretzels. I then started to organize my supplies. I packed the cupcakes in tins, mixed my 3 frosting colors, seperated them into cups for the tables, covered them with clear plastic wrap, seperated and divided the candies into little baggies so that I could easiy drop them on the tables before class to save time, packed some knives, paper towels, put everything together in a bag, and packed it into the car. I made 2 posters. One showed images of the 2 artists and the other showed examples of cupcakes monsters- ones not to do and ones to do, and in this way it showed the students what I was looking for and different options of how to use the candies.

In the beginning of the lesson I talked to them about the 2 artists, asked questions about what they saw, talked about how food can be used as a medium, and explained what I wanted them to do for the lesson, what supplies they had, showed them my teacher sample, and talked about the difficulties I had with designing my cupcake. However, I noticed that during 5th period the kids were getting restless which made it a bit challenging. Some started talking over me to each other and I could tell they were eager to start working- which was good because I could tell they were interested and it killed my fear that I would just hear crickets... So I wrapped it up saying what I had to say and let them start to work.

What the kids created really surprised me. Some thought of ways to use the candies in ways I didn't. They were so excited about it too! Some even said it was the best day of art ever. Not only did they get to PLAY WITH FOOD, work with it, mold it, design it, etc. but they also got to EAT IT. When some students were done early with one cupcake, they made another. It was really awesome to see them so interested in something. They expressed to me how much fun they had doing it and I was so excited because EVERY SINGLE STUDENT participated which was something I had not observed in any of the other classes I observed before. Overall it was so much fun, I would definitely do it again. Yes, it was a lot of preparation, but I think that for a one day Halloween lesson it was worth it. My teacher even complimented me on how organized I was which I was happy about because that was the most difficult challenge I had.

What to do??

I began looking up artists who use food and thought this would be a great way to introduce some new artists to the students. I found this amazing artist named Ray Villifane who carves these INCREDIBLE pumpkins---> awesome for Halloween. I then found another artist (the name escapes me right now) who uses food such as rice, food dye, beans, vegetables, fruit, etc. Most of their images were also Halloween related. I introduced my teacher to these artists and then told her my idea, which I was soo nervous about because I was afraid she was going to say no considering food is not really allowed in the art classroom. However, she gave me the ok provided I was EXTREMELY careful about organization and clean up. I introduced the idea to her for the students to work with food, specifically with cupcakes and candy. I told her I would provide everything. She asked me what kinds of candy I was thinking and what exactly would the students be doing with the food. I informed her that the students would be using this new material (food-- cake, icing, candy, etc.) to create Halloween cupcakes like skulls, witches, zombies. She told me that I had to narrow this down, make it more simple. We then narrowed it down to monsters. The students would be creating monsters with the food materials. However, I had to narrow it down even more because I was thinking they could create their own colors with food dye- mixing red and blue to make purple, but my teacher said that would be too difficult for them considering they JUST learned about the color wheel and it might be too intimidating.  Therefor, I was told to make some colors and have only 3 colors available. Also, I had to limit the number of candies and food I would be providing to the students to about 5-6. So the formula was 3 colors, 5-6 candies on each table, knives, table cloths, cups to hold the frosting, cupcakes, napkins, visual imagery, 2 artist examples, 2 posters, me, and 2 classrooms full of high school students.
Food art

My lesson at Ketcham

After a few weeks of observing the students and working with them, I realized more and more that many of them did as little work as possible especially in the studio classes. The first period class was better at getting their work done, but more sluggish, quiet, and less active considering it was first period.  By fifth period the students were wide awake, loud, loved to talked to each other, curse, bring in food, goof off, etc. Knowing that I had to teach a lesson, and fearing that what I would try to teach would be totally ignored I began thinking about what I wanted to do and what materials the students would be working with. I was just so scared of getting up in front of the class, talk, ask questions, and hear crickets or the students would do absolutely no work that day, or talk over me. So in order to solve this problem I talked with my mentor teacher. She told me that I had complete freedom to teach what I wanted and let her know what materials would be needed and when I wanted to do it. I chose Halloween. I wanted to do something really fun that would get the students really motivated and excited, especially since it was Halloween. The thought then occurred to me "Why not work with food on Halloween? What do high school kids love more than food, especially on Halloween, and especially right before lunch, and ESPECIALLY since so many kids skip breakfast because first period begins at 7 15 am." So... I began formulating and thinking... and thinking some more. How could I make this work????

My fieldwork at Roy C Ketcham

This semester I was assigned to Roy C Ketcham High School in Wappingers. I was familiar with this school because many of my friends went there back in the day and I had heard good things about it, so I was excited to see what it was like. My first day I was a bit nervous until I met my teacher. I knew her from my high school which was John Jay, about 15 minutes from Ketcham. However, I never had her an an instructor, but I knew she taught Photo at my old high school. Anyway, almost instantly I became even more excited and less nervous. I interviewed her, asked a few questions about the school and her classes, and came to find out that she taught 5 classes a day. Two classes were "Design Form," a studio class. The other three classes were photo classes, which were taught in a different room full of Mac computers attached to a dark room. I thought that this was great because I was getting to see how one teacher had to assume the responsibilities of teaching two separate courses and how she handled it. I was also told that the classes she taught were mixed grades so students in grades 9-12 were in the same class. I was also informed that many of the students had IEPs, and many of them were in the class only because they had to be. When I say this I mean that it was the only other elective they could choose if they didn't want to talk music  or home economics. Many of them were taking art because they thought it would be an easy class, which for some photo students was a rude awakening because photo is so technical and requires a lot of time.

Repetitious Compulsions

Last class 2 students performed their lesson based on the idea of insanity. I was very intrigued by the artists they chose for their powerpoint, especially Judith Scott. I was also able to particularly connect this artist to an autism lecture I sat in on a couple weeks ago in Professor Wexler's class. A speaker came in and talked to us about artists who are on the autism/ aspergers spectrum. I am really interested in this topic because I want to eventually work towards getting certification to work with students who have these types of disabilities. I find it extremely fascinating and am planning to pursue a career in this. Anyway, I was a bit distracted with the packet during the powerpoint presentation. I was trying to fill in the blanks and write down notes on all the information being given, but by doing this I was jumping back and forth from trying to watch the presentation and writing down things. It was a bit much. However, I loved the actual activity. I was so into what I was doing and working with new materials. I found it also very interesting seeing what other people were doing around me and what materials they were using. Overall, I was extremely motivated to work and had a lot of fun with what I was doing, while also learning different ways of working with the materials.