Altoona Area Elementary School Student Teaching
My second half of student teaching was spent at Altoona Area Elementary Schools, where I independently taught thousands of grades k-5 students across 4 separate schools. This busy schedule allowed me to gain skills in time management and exposed me to teaching both on a mobile art cart and in a classroom. Below are the variety of lessons I taught throughout this experience!
5TH GRADE
CLASS AMUSEMENT PARK
For this lesson, students became architects and engineers by designing and creating their own thrill ride for a class amusement park. Students were allowed access to a variety of simple materials to experiment with and collaborated with peers on how to best achieve their idea. This project really let the creativity and innovation of each student shine, and seeing the amusement park come together was exciting to all!
GESTURE FIGURE DRAWING
For this one-day lesson, students learned about the studio art practice of gesture figure drawing and its connections to emotions, movement, and fluidity. This practice not only replicated upper level studio culture, but also got students out of their seat, moving around the classroom, and engaged in both modeling and drawing. Students were encouraged to choose model poses from popular culture, resulting in a high energy classroom of engaged and excited students.
4TH GRADE
THANKYOU X MURAL
For this lesson, students looked at Graffiti artist ThankYou X and collaboratively created a mural that ties in with both the artists' ideas and their own identities. Students were excited about the artist because he painted all the buildings for one of their favorite social media apps, Snapchat. This connection to their personal lives and popular culture engaged the students and provided a talking point when discussing ThankYou X and his artwork. Every student was proud to have contributed to the eye-catching murals within each elementary school building!
ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURES
For this 2-part lesson, students celebrated Earth Day by imagining 2 drastically different futures for our planet. We began the lesson by learning about the terms utopia and dystopia and what they represent when it comes to our environment and planet. Students then depicted an Earth that contrasts these two potential futures using a mixed media artistic approach.
3RD GRADE
RELEVANT ROBOTS
For this project, students created robots that would improve our Earth by using up-cycled materials. After discussing robots from popular culture, we began with a "pair and share" of what type of robot they would like to invent that would improve the lives of themselves, their community, or the entire world. After students came up with their ideas, they used a variety of found object materials to make their robot invention a reality. Some of the robots students invented could pick up litter, recycle, support them, save lives, and many more ideas! This project really got students to consider how they could make the world better and become an inventor for their futures.
SUPERHERO SELFIES
For For this lesson, students envisioned themselves as a superhero that best fits their personal identities. After brainstorming what type of Superhero they would be based on their interests and characteristics and talking about contemporary comic artists, students created their custom self-portraits. I taught the background portion for this lesson in a multitude of variations throughout my four elementary schools, including collaging and decorating newspaper, creating a landscape background, and creating comic action superhero names.
2ND GRADE
FOLK ART TOWNSCAPES
For this project, students learned about folk art and created their own townscape of their community. This lesson allowed students to contemplate what is important to them within their town and create an artwork that represents their locational lives. They also learned about and reviewed important art terms such as background, middle ground, and foreground to create their artwork.
CHARLES MCGEE PAPER SCULPTURES
For this lesson, students learned about artist Charles Mcgee and his use of opposites to create unity in art, including unity among people of difference races. They were also introduced to complementary colors and their effectiveness in art making. Students then created their own line sculpture inspired by Mcgee that emphasizes beauty in opposites.
1ST GRADE
ABSTRACT PAINTED SCULPTURES
For this project, students created abstract paintings and turned them into interchangeable sculptures! On day one, students learned the definition of abstract and created their own unique painting on a piece of cardboard. When they arrived on day two, their paintings had been "magically" changed into pieces that they could build and create a sculpture with! This was a very exciting project, and students loved how their sculptures could be changed and played with as many times as they'd like!
SYMMETRY INSECTS
For this one-day lesson, students learn about insects and their importance whilst creating a unique symmetrical bug of their own. This lesson was important because it taught students about the most populous animal on Earth and led them to a higher appreciation for insects. They also learned about the various body parts and their uses to create their own imaginative bug. They learned a new vocabulary word that holds relevancy in both art and math, and got to experiment with a new artistic medium and process.
LITTERBUGS
This lesson challenged students to up-cycle trash into unique insect artworks! After reviewing the parts of insects learned in the previous symmetry insect lesson, students created their own "litterbugs." This lesson was a great way to show kids how they can take care of insects and other animals by using less trash and finding ways to reuse what they have!
KINDERGARTEN
SCRIBBLE CREATURES
Inspired by the book "The Beautiful Oops" by Barney Saltzberg, this process based lesson taught kindergarten how they can turn accidents into beautiful new works of art! Students had a great time getting creative with turning their scribbles into new ideas. This lesson helped students in understanding that it is okay to make messes and accidents in art, and how sometimes it can make the final product even more unique!
EARTH DAY BOTTLE FISH
For this Earth day project, Kindergarteners turned plastic water bottles into colorful fish! After learning about the impact of plastic pollution on sea creatures, students paint their own fish while helping to keep a plastic bottle out of the ocean. Kindergarten had such a fun time using paint and creating their environmentally friendly art projects!
BEE PRINTS
For this lesson, students learn about the importance of bees and create their own honeybee artwork! On day one, students created beehive backgrounds using bubblewrap as a print. On day two, students drew their own bees and collaged all their elemnts together onto their painting!
