With my work at the Spiva Center over, I was able to participate in an event put on by Pitt State itself!! As I had spent the past month teaching elementary students, it was a bit of a change to switch to high school. I noticed that the third grade students were very interested in me, what I was doing there, and what I was going to teach them. The high school students, however, baraly even noticed or cared that I was there. They stuck very much to their own groups and would even go quite the second I walked up to them. Unlike the third graders, they didn't want to talk about what they were making or why they had chosen it. I wondered often if it was because I was closer to their age, or if they had just developed a more closed off behavior as they grew older.
But again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. As the four different schools arrived with their small group of art students, we had them all sit down with a piece of paper and play pictionary.
But again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. As the four different schools arrived with their small group of art students, we had them all sit down with a piece of paper and play pictionary.
They would then take the large piece of paper upstairs, cut out the drawings, and arrange them into a story involving the circus theme that had been set. At first, they seemed to struggle with it, but eventually started creating cute, witty stories.
After that, they were assigned to do a cardboard circus project they had been told about before coming to the university. While they were allowed to develop an idea, the work had to be done in the classroom and was a competition. The best piece from all the art days that year would get their names on a plaque kept at the university.
The dynamics of the groups were all different. One group seemed very well prepared and all worked together very quickly to build their piece. Another seemed to be very unsure of what they were doing, were shy, and ran into many problems with their design. The two other groups found themselves somewhere in the middle. In the end, however, all the pieces came together and turned out to be awesome!
After that, they were assigned to do a cardboard circus project they had been told about before coming to the university. While they were allowed to develop an idea, the work had to be done in the classroom and was a competition. The best piece from all the art days that year would get their names on a plaque kept at the university.
The dynamics of the groups were all different. One group seemed very well prepared and all worked together very quickly to build their piece. Another seemed to be very unsure of what they were doing, were shy, and ran into many problems with their design. The two other groups found themselves somewhere in the middle. In the end, however, all the pieces came together and turned out to be awesome!
The last project the students did was to draw a portrait of the person sitting across from them with a circus theme. This part was particularly exciting for me because I love to draw. Some students got it down instantly and had no trouble drawing their partner. Others were terrified to even get started. Seeing this reminded me of the many lessons I had been taught about students in high school feeling that if they couldn't do something perfectly, they didn't want to do it. I attempted to remedy this by spending time with the students I was struggle individually and helping them with some techniques to make drawing their partner a little easier. Thankfully, it seemed to work and the students began drawing. It was a very rewarding day!