Field Experience
Saturday Art - May 2 (2.5 hrs.)
On Saturday May 2nd, I volunteered to help out with Saturday Art. Throughout the semester students would meet in Oxford at the Art Building where they would work on miscellaneous art projects. The day I volunteered at Saturday Art was the day of their end of the year art show. The art show show-cased all the work the kids had been working on throughout their time with the program. There were several different rooms for different classes of students, all different ages. The classroom that I was assigned to help out with was a first grade classroom. When I arrived, I was instructed as to what my duties would be for that day and what classroom I would be responsible for helping out with. The other volunteers and I were volunteering from 8:30am-11:00am that morning. The art show began at 9:00am where students and their families could walk around the event to look at artwork made my them and other artwork pieces made by other students of other ages. Snacks and beverages were provided for visitors. The other volunteers and I were instructed and encouraged to look at the artwork displayed in the art show and enjoy the event until it came time for us to take down the artwork. As a volunteer, my job was to take down all the artwork once the ceremony began where students and their families would all gather in the same area. There was only twenty minutes given to take down the artwork until the ceremony was over and the students and their families would be coming back to pick up their work. After taking down all the students' artwork and giving it to them, we then had to finish taking down other parts of the art show, such as miscellaneous decorations, streamers, etc.
Before arriving the morning of May 2 to volunteer at the "Saturday Art" Art Show, I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew I would be helping out in some way and would be given specific roles or tasks for the day, but I did not know how the entire day was going to layout and run. After volunteering at the "Saturday Art" Art Show, I am able to analyze and interpret what I saw and experienced. The morning of Saturday May 2nd was much different than typical Saturday meetings because on May 2nd students were not creating any art pieces - they were displaying all the art pieces they made all the Saturdays leading up to it. There truly wasn't any work to be done until it came time to take down all the student's work when the ceremony began. Leading up to that, I just walked around, looked at artwork created by students of varying ages, and asked if there was anything that needed to be one. When the time came for the student art work to be taken down, the teacher for the classroom I was assigned to had large pieces of paper she folded to create a large folder-like way to organize each student's work. Each student had their own "folder" that was used to hold all of their artwork, big and smile. As one of their art projects, the students created suitcases that held their "passports" used to document all the different countries they "visited", or in other words created art inspired by that country. At the end of the art show, the three-dimensional art projects created by the students, such as their "Sparkle Eggs" or "Diwali Diyas", were put in the students' suitcase that was to be taken home along with all their other art work in their large folder. During the art show, it was really cool seeing students take ownership and pride over their work. I watched students run into the room where all their artwork was hung up, dragging their parents in the room, and immediately pointing out which was theirs. The students also seemed to really like their teacher, who was a junior at Miami University studying to become an art teacher. Being involved with Saturday Art was a requirement she had to have before student teaching. The art show seemed to be a great success where almost all, if not all students who were involved, showed up with their family to see all the work they had done collectively during their time doing Saturday Art.
Overall, being at the "Saturday Art" Art Show was a very interesting experience. I can't remember the last time I went to an art show that was show- casing student's work in grades kindergarten and up. I thought the art projects the students did in the classroom I was assigned to help out with were very interesting, unique, and all related to one another in a great way. As a future middle school teacher, I think the idea of having some sort of event at the end of the semester to honor the students and all the hard work they've done throughout the school year is great, no matter what content area. I can see myself implementing this idea of inviting the family of my students to come into the classroom where several assignments and projects that were done throughout the school year by the students are show-cased in a similar way the artwork was displayed at the art show. This kind of event requires a lot of planning and detail. However, if done correctly, this could be a great success with my future students. I believe it causes students to take ownership of their work and understand the importance behind each and every assignment they do in the classroom. I think a big part about teaching is creating relationships and I believe by having some sort of end of the year portfolio or show allows not only for the teacher to establish relationships with his/her students, but also with the families of each student by inviting them to come and be a part of recognizing and appreciating all the hard work put in by the students throughout the school year. Something that was apparent after volunteering at the art show was that it is extremely important for teachers to be organized. The event was organized and very professional. As a future teacher, I aim to be organized in all that I do, whether that be keeping track of grades or the overall layout of my classroom. I enjoyed being at the "Saturday Art" Art Show and found it to be an enjoyable and beneficial experience, both as a student and as a future educator.
On Saturday May 2nd, I volunteered to help out with Saturday Art. Throughout the semester students would meet in Oxford at the Art Building where they would work on miscellaneous art projects. The day I volunteered at Saturday Art was the day of their end of the year art show. The art show show-cased all the work the kids had been working on throughout their time with the program. There were several different rooms for different classes of students, all different ages. The classroom that I was assigned to help out with was a first grade classroom. When I arrived, I was instructed as to what my duties would be for that day and what classroom I would be responsible for helping out with. The other volunteers and I were volunteering from 8:30am-11:00am that morning. The art show began at 9:00am where students and their families could walk around the event to look at artwork made my them and other artwork pieces made by other students of other ages. Snacks and beverages were provided for visitors. The other volunteers and I were instructed and encouraged to look at the artwork displayed in the art show and enjoy the event until it came time for us to take down the artwork. As a volunteer, my job was to take down all the artwork once the ceremony began where students and their families would all gather in the same area. There was only twenty minutes given to take down the artwork until the ceremony was over and the students and their families would be coming back to pick up their work. After taking down all the students' artwork and giving it to them, we then had to finish taking down other parts of the art show, such as miscellaneous decorations, streamers, etc.
Before arriving the morning of May 2 to volunteer at the "Saturday Art" Art Show, I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew I would be helping out in some way and would be given specific roles or tasks for the day, but I did not know how the entire day was going to layout and run. After volunteering at the "Saturday Art" Art Show, I am able to analyze and interpret what I saw and experienced. The morning of Saturday May 2nd was much different than typical Saturday meetings because on May 2nd students were not creating any art pieces - they were displaying all the art pieces they made all the Saturdays leading up to it. There truly wasn't any work to be done until it came time to take down all the student's work when the ceremony began. Leading up to that, I just walked around, looked at artwork created by students of varying ages, and asked if there was anything that needed to be one. When the time came for the student art work to be taken down, the teacher for the classroom I was assigned to had large pieces of paper she folded to create a large folder-like way to organize each student's work. Each student had their own "folder" that was used to hold all of their artwork, big and smile. As one of their art projects, the students created suitcases that held their "passports" used to document all the different countries they "visited", or in other words created art inspired by that country. At the end of the art show, the three-dimensional art projects created by the students, such as their "Sparkle Eggs" or "Diwali Diyas", were put in the students' suitcase that was to be taken home along with all their other art work in their large folder. During the art show, it was really cool seeing students take ownership and pride over their work. I watched students run into the room where all their artwork was hung up, dragging their parents in the room, and immediately pointing out which was theirs. The students also seemed to really like their teacher, who was a junior at Miami University studying to become an art teacher. Being involved with Saturday Art was a requirement she had to have before student teaching. The art show seemed to be a great success where almost all, if not all students who were involved, showed up with their family to see all the work they had done collectively during their time doing Saturday Art.
Overall, being at the "Saturday Art" Art Show was a very interesting experience. I can't remember the last time I went to an art show that was show- casing student's work in grades kindergarten and up. I thought the art projects the students did in the classroom I was assigned to help out with were very interesting, unique, and all related to one another in a great way. As a future middle school teacher, I think the idea of having some sort of event at the end of the semester to honor the students and all the hard work they've done throughout the school year is great, no matter what content area. I can see myself implementing this idea of inviting the family of my students to come into the classroom where several assignments and projects that were done throughout the school year by the students are show-cased in a similar way the artwork was displayed at the art show. This kind of event requires a lot of planning and detail. However, if done correctly, this could be a great success with my future students. I believe it causes students to take ownership of their work and understand the importance behind each and every assignment they do in the classroom. I think a big part about teaching is creating relationships and I believe by having some sort of end of the year portfolio or show allows not only for the teacher to establish relationships with his/her students, but also with the families of each student by inviting them to come and be a part of recognizing and appreciating all the hard work put in by the students throughout the school year. Something that was apparent after volunteering at the art show was that it is extremely important for teachers to be organized. The event was organized and very professional. As a future teacher, I aim to be organized in all that I do, whether that be keeping track of grades or the overall layout of my classroom. I enjoyed being at the "Saturday Art" Art Show and found it to be an enjoyable and beneficial experience, both as a student and as a future educator.
Pictures from "Saturday Art" Art Show
Big Brothers and Big Sisters Meetings (4.5 hrs.)
Towards the beginning of the semester Rod Northcutt and Kate Currie visited our ART 195 class where they discussed the Kinetics Festival that would be happening towards the end of April, as well as an opportunity to work with an after-school program at Kramer Elementary School called Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Kramer Elementary is located in Oxford just minutes away from campus and includes students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Students from Kramer were paired with a Miami student that served as their "big brother" or "big sister." Each Miami student would help their "little" with homework, play with them after school, etc. Every meeting took place on Mondays from 4-5pm in the school cafeteria where students would be provided with an after-school snack. The principal of Kramer would be present for each meeting as the chaperone to make sure all students were accounted for and were actively participating and doing what they were supposed to.
Before beginning my experience with working with Kate for preparing for the Oxford Kinetics Festival, I didn't quite know what to expect. Before our first meeting at the school on February 23rd, Kate shared with me a Google Doc that contained all the lesson plans for each meeting leading up to the Kinetics Festival. In the lesson plans were brief descriptions of what we would be doing for each meeting and how we would make sure all the students were successful in preparations for the festival, while having fun of course. My job as a volunteer was to assist Kate in everything she did, such as passing out materials to students, explaining what was to be done that day, cleaning up materials, and any other job she may need me to do associated with the lesson plan for that day. I was there to make her job easier and to help out in any way I could.
In the past, Kate had worked with Big Brothers and Big Sisters in creating something for the Kinetics Festival. Last year the students created puppets where they put on a puppet show at the festival, which was not only very successful but also very fun for the students involved. This year the students were working on creating their own solar system that contained planets, asteroids, and moons that were individually created by each student. Students created their planetary object by doing paper mache where they had the freedom to make their object as big or small as they liked. After creating their planetary object, they were encouraged to name their object and paint it however they liked. Once all students had finished creating their planetary object, Kate and I created a map showing where each student's planet was in the solar system and how it either orbited the sun, another planet, or was on an elliptical. Each student received a copy of the map with their planetary object location/orbit highlighted. At the final meeting, we went outside where each student had their name placed on the ground in order to practice how our solar system looked and how each planetary objected interacted with others. This demonstration of the different interactions would then be presented at the Kinetics Festival.
As a future teacher, I believe I made several connections to the teaching field and to myself as a future teacher. One thing I really enjoyed about the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization was that each student was given the assistance and attention that they not only needed, but deserved. As a future teacher, I will have 20+ students in my classroom and I will strive to make sure each and everyone of my students truly feels and believes that they are important individuals that bring something unique to the classroom atmosphere. One of my main goals and focuses when I have a classroom of my own is to establish a positive classroom environment and relationship with all of my students. I saw this positive environment in Big Brothers and Big Sisters and saw how having positive relationships can truly make a difference in children's lives. Another thing I really enjoyed about Big Brothers and Big Sisters when preparing for the Oxford Kinetics Festival was that each day Kate and I came to the school, the lesson plan for that day encouraged choice and creativity for all students. As a future teacher, I want to have lessons for my students that provides them with different choices in order to allow them to do their best and demonstrate their individual creativity.
Overall, I found my experience working with Big Brothers and Big Sisters to be not only beneficial as a future teacher, but a fun experience. Although I will be teaching middle school math and language arts, I've learned how art can be incorporated in fun and meaningful ways in all subject areas. I enjoyed working with Kate in preparation for the Kinetics Festival and learning more about space. It was very interesting to see students of different ages, race, and cultures create their own planetary object and then come together as a group to create a demonstration of their own solar system they created.
Shown below are the dates I assisted Kate, brief descriptions of what was done that day, and images for some of the dates.
February 23 (1hr.)
- Introduce project members
- Give a quick overview and handout about the full scope of the project
- Discuss basic structure of a solar system
- Discuss scale of stars vs. planets vs. moons (gas vs. rocky planets)
- Demonstrate differences in scale using giant balloons, regular balloons, and ping pong balls
- Discuss effect of mass on gravitational pull and orbits - use kids to demonstrate orbits
- Make call models using playdoh
- Go table-to-table to talk about what size object might their creation orbit and what might orbit it
March 16 (1hr.)
- Apply final layers of papier mach to the planetary bodies
- Work out surface decoration of solar bodies
- Discuss dynamics of the whole system interaction
- Coordinate any transportation needs for Kinetics Festival
March 30 (1hr.)
- Surface treatments on the final version of the planetary bodies
- Run through the physical interaction/performance
- Send home reminders of Kinetics Festival to families
April 13 (1hr.)
- Full Dress Rehearsal
- Run through twice
- Get list of what students will be at the Kinetics Festival
April 19 (1/2hr.)
- Performance at Oxford Kinetics Festival, located in Millett Hall
Towards the beginning of the semester Rod Northcutt and Kate Currie visited our ART 195 class where they discussed the Kinetics Festival that would be happening towards the end of April, as well as an opportunity to work with an after-school program at Kramer Elementary School called Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Kramer Elementary is located in Oxford just minutes away from campus and includes students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Students from Kramer were paired with a Miami student that served as their "big brother" or "big sister." Each Miami student would help their "little" with homework, play with them after school, etc. Every meeting took place on Mondays from 4-5pm in the school cafeteria where students would be provided with an after-school snack. The principal of Kramer would be present for each meeting as the chaperone to make sure all students were accounted for and were actively participating and doing what they were supposed to.
Before beginning my experience with working with Kate for preparing for the Oxford Kinetics Festival, I didn't quite know what to expect. Before our first meeting at the school on February 23rd, Kate shared with me a Google Doc that contained all the lesson plans for each meeting leading up to the Kinetics Festival. In the lesson plans were brief descriptions of what we would be doing for each meeting and how we would make sure all the students were successful in preparations for the festival, while having fun of course. My job as a volunteer was to assist Kate in everything she did, such as passing out materials to students, explaining what was to be done that day, cleaning up materials, and any other job she may need me to do associated with the lesson plan for that day. I was there to make her job easier and to help out in any way I could.
In the past, Kate had worked with Big Brothers and Big Sisters in creating something for the Kinetics Festival. Last year the students created puppets where they put on a puppet show at the festival, which was not only very successful but also very fun for the students involved. This year the students were working on creating their own solar system that contained planets, asteroids, and moons that were individually created by each student. Students created their planetary object by doing paper mache where they had the freedom to make their object as big or small as they liked. After creating their planetary object, they were encouraged to name their object and paint it however they liked. Once all students had finished creating their planetary object, Kate and I created a map showing where each student's planet was in the solar system and how it either orbited the sun, another planet, or was on an elliptical. Each student received a copy of the map with their planetary object location/orbit highlighted. At the final meeting, we went outside where each student had their name placed on the ground in order to practice how our solar system looked and how each planetary objected interacted with others. This demonstration of the different interactions would then be presented at the Kinetics Festival.
As a future teacher, I believe I made several connections to the teaching field and to myself as a future teacher. One thing I really enjoyed about the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization was that each student was given the assistance and attention that they not only needed, but deserved. As a future teacher, I will have 20+ students in my classroom and I will strive to make sure each and everyone of my students truly feels and believes that they are important individuals that bring something unique to the classroom atmosphere. One of my main goals and focuses when I have a classroom of my own is to establish a positive classroom environment and relationship with all of my students. I saw this positive environment in Big Brothers and Big Sisters and saw how having positive relationships can truly make a difference in children's lives. Another thing I really enjoyed about Big Brothers and Big Sisters when preparing for the Oxford Kinetics Festival was that each day Kate and I came to the school, the lesson plan for that day encouraged choice and creativity for all students. As a future teacher, I want to have lessons for my students that provides them with different choices in order to allow them to do their best and demonstrate their individual creativity.
Overall, I found my experience working with Big Brothers and Big Sisters to be not only beneficial as a future teacher, but a fun experience. Although I will be teaching middle school math and language arts, I've learned how art can be incorporated in fun and meaningful ways in all subject areas. I enjoyed working with Kate in preparation for the Kinetics Festival and learning more about space. It was very interesting to see students of different ages, race, and cultures create their own planetary object and then come together as a group to create a demonstration of their own solar system they created.
Shown below are the dates I assisted Kate, brief descriptions of what was done that day, and images for some of the dates.
February 23 (1hr.)
- Introduce project members
- Give a quick overview and handout about the full scope of the project
- Discuss basic structure of a solar system
- Discuss scale of stars vs. planets vs. moons (gas vs. rocky planets)
- Demonstrate differences in scale using giant balloons, regular balloons, and ping pong balls
- Discuss effect of mass on gravitational pull and orbits - use kids to demonstrate orbits
- Make call models using playdoh
- Go table-to-table to talk about what size object might their creation orbit and what might orbit it
March 16 (1hr.)
- Apply final layers of papier mach to the planetary bodies
- Work out surface decoration of solar bodies
- Discuss dynamics of the whole system interaction
- Coordinate any transportation needs for Kinetics Festival
March 30 (1hr.)
- Surface treatments on the final version of the planetary bodies
- Run through the physical interaction/performance
- Send home reminders of Kinetics Festival to families
April 13 (1hr.)
- Full Dress Rehearsal
- Run through twice
- Get list of what students will be at the Kinetics Festival
April 19 (1/2hr.)
- Performance at Oxford Kinetics Festival, located in Millett Hall
Pictures from Big Brothers and Big Sisters Meetings
Kinetics Festival - April 19 (3 hrs.)
On Sunday April 19th, our entire ART 195 class attended the Oxford Kinetics Festival, an event we had been preparing for for several weeks. The Oxford Kinetics Festival aimed to involve the community of Oxford by having people socialize and interact through miscellaneous activities or watching various acts. While there, I saw several different types of activities for visitors to do, such as "disco knitting", Lego building, as well as different attractions to watch, such as jugglers, women interpretive dancing in bird costumes, and a catapult competition. The Kinetics Festival took place at Millett Hall on Miami University's campus. Originally, the event was supposed to be held outside but due to rain on the day of the event, the festival had to be held inside in the hallway and on the basketball court. There was no booth that was similar to another booth and the entire event radiated with individualism and creativity. Before walking into Millett Hall, I knew I was going to see things that were unusual to most people, including me, and things that were well-thought out and creative.
Leading up to the Kinetics Festival, our class collaborated both inside and outside of class in order to come up with ideas as to what we would do for the festival. Originally we thought we would do two different things for the festival and have students in our class which project they wanted to work on. However, we realized that with the amount of time we had left until the day of the festival, it was not realistic to make two different projects. We wanted to devote all of our focus, attention, and creativity to one project in order to be the most successful given the small time frame we had. As a class, we were encouraged to write out ideas onto a Google Doc that was shared with everyone in order to make progress during every class meeting. Eventually, we collaboratively agreed upon a project idea to do for the Kinetics Festival. The booth we created invited people, mostly kids (even though most of us college kids made our own fish), to create their own fish using several different art supplies and then attach their fish to a zip-line, where their fish would then race other fish. This change in location the day of the event caused us to problem-solve how to set up our zip-line, but resulted in a better, more successful way to set-up the zip-line. Students were given miscellaneous different options and choices for how to decorate their fish. There were several different colors and "bodies" of fish they could select, different colors and shapes of fins, as well as stickers and markers to personalize their fish. Once students finished decorating their fish, hot-gluing their fins onto their fish as well as a wooden block with hooks on the end, they walked up the aisle to then attach their fish to the zip-line. Once their fish was hooked onto the zip-line, their fish would then race with another fish created by another person.
It was really fun to see kids get so involved with not only the creation of their fish, but also racing their fish on the zip-line against other fish. Even as a class, several of us would compete with one another and had a lot of fun racing our fish (even though my fish didn't win once). A lot of the kids wanted to race their fish over and over again and only left the booth because their parents dragged them out of there after being there for a long time. Not only did the kids seem interested in the fish zip-line, but also their parents seemed very intrigued by what we created as a class. Several parents asked us why we made something and also found it interesting that we were a college art class at Miami made-up of people with several different majors, most of which don't pertain to art.
As a future teacher, I found preparing for the Kinetics Festival to be a very beneficial and rewarding experience. In my future classroom, I would love to have project-based learning assignments where students work in small groups over a long period of time to create various assignments. In addition, I would like to have at least one whole-class assignment, similar to what we did with the Oxford Kinetics Festival, that would require my students to actively engage with their classmates, as well as their community. I found not only preparing for the Kinetics Festival to be extremely beneficial, but also attending the Kinetics Festival to present our work to be a beneficial experience as a future teacher. As teachers, things happen all the time that are unexpected and unplanned which require you to "think on your feet" or "go with the flow." This is exactly what happened the day of the festival. We weren't expecting to be inside Millett Hall and were planning on setting up our area in a different way, especially the zip-line. However, we made it work with what we had and used the space and our resources to our advantage. Initially, I wasn't sure how I felt about participating in the Kinetics Festival, but I believe it was a very successful experience and I highly enjoyed working with my classmates both before and during the event.
Pictures from Kinetics Festival