The Body- Our Lesson

The other day Justin and I conducted our lesson on the Body as a Canvas in class. As nervous as we both were I feel that it went over pretty well, but definitely in need of improvement. The opening activity  to teach symmetry was fun and very effective. It got the class moving and interested right away.  I wish we had developed more of a discussion during the presentation by asking thought provoking questions to the class, getting them to think about the techniques of the artist (Judith Braun), make observations about her work, and offer insight about the images we showed. I feel that I rushed through this part and it would have been helpful to take it slowly and really observe and talk about the work. The demo went over smoothly, except it was unnecessary when Justin washed his hands. This could have been fixed if we had wet papertowels already on the table. We also should have clarified the directions, informing the students to first create an abstract fingering, followed by a more figural defined fingering. Also clarification on time to work and time for the lesson and clean up should have been more clear in order to avoid confusion felt by the students. Setting up the room was a challenge in itself. Only 2 students could work per table, therefor we had to utilize the back two tables, move them into view, and stagger all of the tables to make the classroom navigable. The 2 back tables alienated 4 students in the class. This is not something I had considered, but was brought to our attention later so placement of the tables is definitely something I need to keep in mind when setting up a classroom. When everyone was working I was trying to walk around, distrubute my attention evenly, answer questions, but also just let the students work. I tried not to budge in or bother anybody when they were intently working, but when I saw something interesting and innovative that a student was doing I had a mini conversation with that student about it. The butcher paper was definitely a distraction and should have been ripped beforehand. After the lesson and clean up we had some leftover time for a quick recap and questions concerning how the students felt during the activity and using a new part of their body. Overall thought I think it was a fun lesson that the students were excited about doing. They seemed interested in the working process. A few students told me later on that they really liked the activity and thought it was a lot of fun and they learned a lot about using another part of their body to create art.
Judith Braun video