Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Observation Reflections
Saturday Class Reflection
9/27/14
The two ART 309 students I observed, Sarah Sandstrom and Ashley Defreese, did
a wonderful job at managing their 1st grade classroom. The theme they had chosen was
Ice Age, and they had decorated their room accordingly with large sheets of white
paper, crumpled up to look like glacier sheets. They had also included educational posters
of ice age animals and inspirational props of fossilized mammoth teeth and the like.
Class began with free-drawing; each student drew what he or she did over the
weekend, and then they went around the room talking about their drawings. This was a
great introduction because each student felt like an integral part of the community of the
Saturday Class Art Room.
The next activity involved glazing clay objects that they had created the previous
class period. Sarah and Ashley were adamant towards not mixing the brushes used for
each glaze. This forced students to understand sharing, and while it disrupted the flow of
the class a bit (we were sometimes running around the room to find uncontaminated
brushes), it was a productive disruption because students were more involved in walking
around the room to see what glazes others had, and therefore got to see others in the
process of making their pieces.
For the rest of the period they painted with watercolor ice cubes (frozen water
with food coloring) along to music. Some students got up and danced and they worked,
and we encouraged this as they seemed happy to use their bodies. Soon I noticed that
most of the students were standing, even those who werent dancing. The students really
enjoyed the sensory aspects of this activity: the cold ice cubes, the salt used for
watercolor texture (which some of them tasted, of course), and the music and dancing.
I felt an overall rushed feeling as we transitioned between activities and tried to fit
everything in, but I dont think this was something the students noticed. Ashley and Sarah
had more planned for the two-hour period than they had time to cover. In the future, it
will be helpful to get the students personally introduced to/involved with the classroom
each day, like the constructive use of free-drawing. Sarah and Ashley did a great job, and
the kids were sad to know that this would be the last time they would see the two
teachers.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Metcalf Observation- Mrs. Finnegan: 7th Grade Art
9.5.14.
Mrs. Finnegan began her 7th grade art class by asking her students, should we
close the door on them? She was referring to the two students talking loudly outside in
the hall who were not in class right when it started at 8:50. The students in the classroom
laughed and shouted, Yes! Yes! As soon as things settled in and the two students made
in into the doorway, Mrs. Finnegan immediately started out by clearly stating the
objectives. The students were to continue from their homework, which involved cutting
out colored clippings from magazines, by mixing colors of paint to match the clippings.
She started the class off with a paint-mixing video that she had found on Youtube
as an additional resource material, and afterwards showed the students how she had
linked it onto their class website if they ever wanted to access it again.
To begin their work, Mrs. Finnegan had them create a paint-mixing pallete by
showing them how to separate and organize their colors as well as how to get their
working area set up. This took a little while, and immediately after they had finished that,
she made sure everyone knew that it had taken ten minutes to get through this step of
painting, and told them that the last five minutes of class would be used as clean-up time.
She also made sure everyone stayed pretty much on the same pace and made sure no one
actually started to paint until everyone was caught up. This seemed to be effective class
management.
One important thing I had noticed was that time goes quickly. 40-minute class
periods for art would truly force a teacher to make every single second count.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Metcalf Observation- Mrs. Finnegan: 7th Grade Art
9/9/14
This was a work day that stressed the use of the Elements and Principles of Art.
Students had learned about these vocabulary terms and all of the terms they encompass
during the previous class, so they were busy working on their sketches. Every once in a
while, a student would come up and have an informal, mini-conference with Mrs.
Finnegan about their sketches. This made use of one-on-one evaluations. She would ask,
What is an element you are using? To which they might reply, Color, and she would
follow that up by asking, How did you use the color? Are they primary, secondary,
tertiary colorsetc? Mrs. Finnegan has big posters up that show the Elements and
Principles of Art, which I often noticed students referring to as they worked on their
sketches and spoke with her. One slightly ineffective evaluation strategy she used
involved holding the students artwork back at them while she asked them what was
working and what wasnt. It was probably a reflexive move on her part, but I felt that it
made the quieter students a bit more nervous and hesitant to talk about their art because
she was staring them in the face the whole time, waiting for an answer. However, that is a
good method to force them to break out of their comfort zones.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Metcalf Observation- Mrs. Mohrman: 2nd Grade Art
9/11/14
Second graders are so much more excited about art and easily stimulated than
older grade levels. However, they also seem to require a higher volume of stimuli to keep
them engaged and are easily distracted. As Mrs. Mohrman was showing them image after
image of Frieda Kahlos self-portraits (to which they were very amazed, repulsed and
fascinated) they would loudly show their enthusiasm with ooohs and aaahs, she
would try to fit in as much content as she could before the kids would need to view
another image to stay engaged.
Mrs. Mohrman is effective at keeping the students on the same task as a whole.
For example, she did not introduce the project they would be working on (paper-collaged
self-portraits) until after she showed them images of Kahlos works. This was a good way
to keep them all working the present task, not thinking ahead of the project or getting
ahead of the other students.
Often, I noticed her giving suggestions to the students, in able to challenge them
and push their ideas further. To one student, she explained that blonde hair could be
represented as many colors, such as browns, yellows, and tans, instead of one solid
yellow. I wonder how, as Im teaching, I will be able to word my suggestions in a way
that makes the students create their own answer to a problem like that before I give them
the answer outright. I imagine that can be difficult, especially during a time crunch.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Metcalf Observation- Mrs. Finnegan: 7th Grade Art
9/11/14
Today was rough in terms of student temperament; they were quite rowdy and did
not want to focus on their work. They were supposed to be working on acrylic paintings
that they had arrived at from sketches from the previous class. Instead, many of them
were distracted and distracting each other. It seemed like they were distracted because
they didnt care about their paintings. They were working from abstract sketches, so it
could be that the students did not care because the paintings didnt mean anything to
them. Whatever the cause of the distraction, Mrs. Finnegan did not do much to keep them
collectively on track. She might come to one of them at a time and ask how their progress
was, but I think the room was lacking a communal sense of motivation or
accomplishment. One 7th grader was even on his laptop the whole time, mouth gaping,
continuously scrolling, and there was nothing the he could have been doing for this
project on the computer. I am surprised that Mrs. Finnegan allows personal computers in
an art classroom at all, as they could easily get damaged and destroyed.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Metcalf Observation- Mrs. Finnegan 7th Grade Art
9/23/14
Today was another work day, and each student was creating a
larger-scale acrylic painting. One of the students was having trouble
with an idea, and for the entire class period, she was attempting to
decide what she was going to paint.
About 25 minutes into the class period, she came up to ask Mrs.
Finnegan for advice. Mrs. Finnegan asked her to think about, things
that affect you every day. Maybe its brushing your hair, or playing with
your little sister. Maybe, its just something you think about every day,
like recycling. I could tell that the project was very open-ended and
subjective, which gives the students a lot of freedom to decide on a
topic that means something to them. When the girl still looked lost,
Mrs. Finnegan tried to encourage her by saying, this is brainstorming.
I can see how difficult it can be to inspire a student. After
observing today, I realized that in the future it would help to find out
why a student is having trouble deciding on an idea. It could be that
the student isnt passionate about the project, or the student might be
too nervous about committing to an idea because of a mastery
avoidance or performance avoidance. It might help to have a one-onone conversation to isolate and identify the cause so that the student
can move forward.

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

Clinical Observation- Mrs. Mohrman: 2nd Grade Art

11/13/14
Metcalf was hosting a special exhibit with works that were
submitted by teachers in the IAEA, and chosen by judges to represent
the submissions. An 8th grade student named Ella Zona was one of 40
students who were selected to have their work in a travelling show
(she had made the work the previous year, when she was in 7th grade).
Mrs. Mohrman began the class by telling the students that they were
going to take a mini field trip up to the gallery room at Metcalf. There,
they would be looking at the works of art and following a worksheet
that Peggy hands out to them. The worksheet has them draw sketches
of 3 artworks that they like, and write about four points: the Subject,
the Mood, Art Elements that they see, and how it Relates, or what the
artwork means to the students. Mrs. Mohrman goes through an
example with them on her board with Van Goghs Starry Night, and
walks them through how they would answer by asking them many
questions. The children have very simple interpretations for the image.
One student says the image is happy, and another says its calm.
When the students go to the exhibit, it is hard to get them to
concentrate because this gallery room has swivel chairs that the kids
just want to play in and fight each other for. Children at this age always

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

want to be moving around and getting that kinesthetic stimulus.
However, when the kids do concentrate, it is worth the work to see
their wheels turning as they make quick sketches of the artwork
observationally.

Clinical Observation- Mrs. Finnegan: 6th Grade Art

11/13/14
Today, Peggy Finnegan was having the students work on their
value-based self-portraits. Before they even entered the classroom, she
handed them a worksheet and told them a preview of exactly what
theyd be doing and what materials they needed. That way, they were
more organized while getting settled in. She handed them a worksheet
that included steps towards shading eyes, which they were focusing on
today.
One student asked a question, Why are we using ebony
pencils? So, Peggy exemplified the question to the rest of the class to
see if they had any answers, which many of them were eager to share,
to make values dark. A different student came up to Peggy during
the class period to show her how he discovered a new way to draw
with the ebony pencils in order to make freckles. She decided to tell
him that they would display his paper in front of the class so they could
see what he was doing, and they did so using the Document Cam. The

Whitney Johnson: Art 201: Fall 2014

student was flicking his ebony pencil onto the paper, in a manner
similar to pointillism but with a bit more vigor. Soon, the rest of the
class was trying this new technique out, and they were all flicking their
ebony pencils on their papers. The classroom was full of productive
noise. Peggy asked them if they remembered the 6th grade art
standard which had something to do with experimenting with new
ways of expression.