Washington High School

This is my second semester assisting art teacher Todd Elkin at Washington High School in Fremont. The above image is of a poster in progress that a group of students were developing to enter into a contest against drug abuse. I worked with this group of students to brainstorm ideas, enlarge the sketch, and complete it. Unfortunately, the poster fell on the floor from the wall, and the janitor mistook it for trash! Before that happened, however, they did win the contest and received a cotton candy party.

My role in the classroom has been primarily to work more one-on-one with students to develop their ideas when or if they get stuck, and to problem solve with them if they have questions about the assignment, art techniques, or use of specific materials. I also help keep students on task by asking them to tell me about their artwork in general, and then specific questions in regards to their piece. Continually, I am impressed by Washington High School student’s ability to communicate their ideas and thoughts in their work, which is exemplary of Todd’s excellent pedagogy.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!
Take Care,
–Manon

starting fresh at...

Three weeks ago I started working at Washington High School in Fremont with Todd Elkin. In this initial stage, I have been observing how Todd sets up his classroom and implements projects– basically, his teaching process. I am getting to know the students more and more as I discuss their work with them individually and help guide them both in problem-solving and building technique. It took me a moment to wrap my head around what it’s like to be in high school again. Indeed, a switch from Creative Arts Charter School (K-8) in San Francisco that I’ve been working at these past two years with Leslie Keir. I’ve totally become attached to my old site and miss them, but I’m also really looking forward to get to know and work with the Washington HS community.

Todd & I brainstormed on some key focus goals for me this semester in my teaching practice:
*Scaffolding learning (in general)
*Teaching about the understanding of visual language/ becoming visually literate
*Successful implementation of Teaching for Understanding and Studio Habits of Mind teaching frameworks
*Writing lesson plans
*Classroom management

It used to be- and kind of still is a little -awkward for me looking particularly young & working with high school students because, well, I look like I could go to the high school I work at! However, there are also positive aspects to being a young teacher/mentor, in that I find students can relate to me openly. Students have been asking me about what college is like, art school specifically, and about working in the arts (for example, a student asked me today: is it difficult to make a living as an artist?). Well, I’m happy to be someone they can freely ask questions and I hope I’m being helpful.

Also, I do appreciate this blog form of documentation– it's a good tool to represent our process and make our learning visible. Looking forward to share teaching & learning experiences with all of you.
Cheers to a wonderful rest of the semester… Good Luck with midterms!

And as our dear Sonia writes,
In Peace