Carmen Lomas Garza
Reflecting on Yenawine's recommendations for image selection I believe that my teacher's choice image as an appropriate choice. The students could relate to what they saw happening, many from personal experiences. Most of them picked up on a birthday party theme right away, which is something they can very easily relate to. Many of them have seen pinata's before and know how they work, especially the Hispanic students. They had a lot to say about many little things happening all over the artwork. They were also able to put those things together into a family gathering or a birthday party.
In what ways did the image challenge them? That Carmen Lomas Garza is portraying hispanic people in Texas. They did not notice or speak of race at all. They also didn't put together that this particular race isn't in their home country, they look to be in the USA. I think those things are totally age related. The students don't think much of skin color or race. They see all different kinds of colors. Otherwise this image was not very challenging for them but there was alot for them to notice and comment on. I think the challenge was just right.
What intruiged them most? The pinata was a hot topic, as well as exactly what those people are doing standing around the possible "birthday girl". The BBQ pit, the fire, table with the cake. The idea of a family party, birthday party or reunion. They noticed these people coming together for a purpose. I think the fun of a pinata and the candy inside was most intriguing.
The scaffolding idea didn't seem to come super easy to me, unless it's so simple it went over my head and i'm already doing it. I would think that all those little details, pinata, banners, bbq, cake, tons of similar looking people built onto the idea that they had a purpose there, The reason they could have been there was a have a party whether it was a bday party or some kind of reunion. It didn't take the students long to put that together. I feel like I don't want to change their wording to much, I am afraid to give away information if I veer to far off the kids comments or the questions.
Surprises.... wow! I was surprised how disruptive this class was, or a couple of them. They made it incredibly challening to focus and listen. I was flustered. It's not a good thing when the teacher drops them off and says they have been wild. I could have gotten past general wiggles but learning later that two little girls (second graders) conspired against me to be so disruptive that they were sent back to their tables together. (I forgot they sat at the same table together). The ring leader is normally with a para but not this day! While back at her table she was banging things, walking around my room, whatever she could do! This was the hardest VTS I have ever had. Afterwards I put both girls in the "Safe Seat" and after a few minutes one of them told me that they did all that on purpose! Before I started I tried to have a heart to heart with the ring leader without the para and get her buy in, that obviously didn't matter.
I did try the "vts olympics" and the kids all did it. I will have to try it again and test it against a different group. I did indeed try this image on my friday class. Partially as a second option to submit if the first one was as terrible as I thought it was. They did great but oddly enough I think the first group noticed more and had more interesting comments. I think this would be a great image for young viewers.
I'm still shocked that those kids tried to pull one over on me and almost succeeded. After I got the confession out of the second girl who wouldn't look me in the eye I told the classroom teacher who was also surprised and told me she was going to make them miserable the next day, lol. She also told me that next time let me know and she would come in and help with them or keep the stinkers. I also had someone else tell me that when they video tape someone else takes the stinkers out. What is your thought on that? That isn't real life, although it would be much easier. That would be like putting on a fake "show" which we already do enough of through our observation system and such.
Now I am just rambling and am curious for your thoughts...
I was observed the day before this in a 25 minute K class in which I was trying to paint polar bears and stamping paint with pom poms, ran out of white paint (silver polar bears) and had 10 additional 5th grades in the back of the room finishing their previous project. Both my principal and new assistant principal were squeezed in with the big kids at a table. I didn't go over"learning targets" and my technology wouldn't work. geez!!! stressful! The funny thing is I didn't do very good but the comments I got were about other ways I could have taught them shapes (circle head shape, half circle ears) when I have in fact been teaching them about shapes for 2 months now in every way under the sun. Previous info shouldn't be a part of the NEE eval system should it? How can I re-review in depth and have them paint in 25 minutes?! I hate 25 minute classes! They witnessed the total chaos that "Art" can be and I am wondering if they don't know how to score me because they don't get art and in many ways we don't fall into the same box as classroom teachers.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI'm just curious--you've mentioned "VTS Olympics" a couple of times in your blog--what is it? And how do you do it? Is it like a warm up before you start your lesson?
Mary had suggested a sort of brain focusing yoga move to try before hand that could be like VTS olympicsish. I will post it below if I find the link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyS1eUAPmxQ
ReplyDeleteI said it wrong, Mary used the term VTS gymnastics. I tried it, they all did it, although I think nothing will help with this group.
I'd be curious to know why the para didn't come with the student she's assigned to. Your class shouldn't be her "break" time. Hmmmm. You've mentioned also that you see this group at the end of the day and medicine may be wearing off for some of them. It is interesting that their comments, despite the rowdiness of the group, were more interesting than the more well-behaved group. One suggestion: Never be afraid to stop a lesson, send students back to their seats, and have them put their heads down. I had a couple of groups last year (mixed K-1) who were out of control. If they were at their tables, I would say, 'Stop and put your heads down.' I would make them stay that way for one minute. If someone began to talk before the 1 minutes was up, I would say, "Your one minute time out just started over." And I'd start timing again until they gave me one minute of heads down and silence. Before letting them sit up and resume work, I'd say, "You just lost one minute of your art time. That makes me sad." if they were on the carpet for VTS and getting rowdy, i'd send them back to their seats for one minute of heads down. it took about two weeks, but they finally got to the point where most of the class started exercising self control. From that point on, when we were VTSing and a student got off task, I"d send the offending student off to her/his seat for one minute of
ReplyDelete"head down' time out. Once their minute was up, I invited them back. it's interesting that I haven't had to do that this year! It's time consuming and cuts in to instructional time, but i'd argue that if they are acting up, not much learning is happening anyway. The most important lesson, in my book, it teaching them how to behave in ways that LETS them learn.
As far as the NEE evaluation is concerned, maybe we could chat about this at our last meeting? I'm not really understanding their criticisms or your questions.
After watching your video Danielle I am very impressed! You were very composed and from the video, I could not tell that there was any disruption besides when you removed the two students. I could imagine after reading this that it would be extremely difficult to concentrate. I was impressed with the way you were able to manage the classroom issues and listen to students speaking at the same time. That would definitely be challenging but you did so well. One suggestion I would make after watching your video, is to gesture more. You did an AMAZING job of re-wording Q#2 in order to get the information you wanted from students. But as students talk, I would gesture to the parts of the image they’re referring to. I think with children this would be especially helpful in order to direct their attention. I think this could also help you when you are working with kids that easily get distracted.
ReplyDeleteI too noticed how most students wanted to talk about the piñata, and you’re right, it’s because a birthday party is something that they’re well acquainted with. Your comment about how the students didn’t acknowledge the skin color of the people in the image is really fascinating. I think in the future, that is something you will pay more attention to when selecting images for VTSing.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for you to try and manage disruptive students and lead a discussion all at the same time. I would do everything possible to make sure that those students who are disruptive stay in the classroom and participate like everyone else. I noticed in the video that the students you removed from the discussion were seated towards the front. I would suggest leaving those students at the front closest to the smart board but separated. Perhaps one day, have one student in the front and the other further back, and see if that helps. At any rate, I would keep those students who try to disrupt the class seated away from each other during discussion. Perhaps with time, they will find the discussions more interesting than distracting their peers.
Overall well done! Again, I was really impressed despite the difficulties you faced in this discussion. Good luck!