Observation 1

I was very fortunate to be able to go and observe the teacher at the local elementary school who graciously agreed to let me come and observe her classroom as many times as I wanted. I explained that I did not want to be in any position of power but simply wanted to attend her classes just like another student based on the readings that I did in my class and the discussions that we had with our mentor. The teacher gave me a spot along with the students. I was hoping that this would help me warm up to the students. I want to learn what it means to sit alongside other students and not just pretend to be a student but sincerely be a student with them, learn and play with them.

An unfinished painting of a man was shown to the students, and they were asked to critique and evaluate the painting.

One of the students said, “It is unfinished, and the body is missing.”

Another student said, “Ears are missing.” And one by one they all started critiquing the painting they saw on the screen. The teacher often encouraged the students by saying, “Excellent job friends.

As they participated well the teacher said, “You earned one more minute to talk and make art.” I found this reward system to be very helpful as it almost seemed like the kids were looking forward to that time when they could talk to their friends and make art. I am glad that after the I say, you say for the standard there was a more practical application of the standard than just the rote memorization part.

One of the students created this entire musical tune that was in harmony with her brushstrokes and soon the whole group started singing the tune and painting. It almost seemed like they were in a tribal ceremony where they were singing and painting harmoniously together. When I asked what creatures they could see in the dark sea they could all see various creatures there. I am curious of to what fosters imagination in an art classroom and how I can create an atmosphere that encourages imagination to run wild.

A few things that I observed in the art teacher’s class was the teacher was willing to take risks by allowing the kids to have creative freedom. Except for the color choices for the sea, there was freedom to play. She encouraged them to experiment, explore, and enjoy the process of creation. I also felt that the collaborative approach allowed a sense of community which nurtured their imagination as well. I know that calm environments nurture creativity and I observed that the teacher has a calm presence and has created a calm space. I look forward to incorporating some of these things in my classroom as I want imagination to run wild in my classroom. As we were leaving the class, I asked the students if I could come back again. They said I should definitely join them again in the next class. Below are some other gifts I received in this class.

We started this class with three minutes of quiet and free drawing with voices off. Even though the voices were off it was hard for some of the students to resist looking back and three of them brought little drawings for me and said it is for you, Mr. Joseph. By this time I felt like I was already part of the team. One of the students came and checked out everything that I was carrying with me. I am glad that I was participating along with the students in the free drawing as they are always curious about what I am drawing and one of them commented,  “I think your art is really cool. I wonder how you do it?” One of them was making a portrait and I showed them portraits of my children that I made. I believe this made them feel more safe them as I am a parent also.

After the free drawing time the teacher started explaining about the next project. During this time the students seemed a little bit distracted and all of a sudden in the middle of the teacher talking she just became completely silent and started looking at all the students and then said I stopped talking because you were talking. And then she said, show me quiet please.

The teacher shared a YouTube video of a book called, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It is the story of a young boy called Max who is full of mischief and what happens when he is sent to his room and when strange things begin to happen. After they watched the story, the teacher mentioned that they will be doing a play in the school partnering with another teacher and for that play they needed to make there wild things hats also. They stayed very engaged as they watched the video and it inspired me to incorporate videos in my classes in the future as well. One of the students said to me, “This is a cool story. I love it.” I never grew up with stories in an art class and I definitely want to incorporate story telling in my art classroom.

As I was getting ready to leave one of the students again mentioned that I was not too old to be a part of the group and that I should keep coming back. One of them said I looked like a kid. Is it because I behaved like a kid in these classes and sat with them that I also look like one somehow? I am slowy figuring out the importance of creating a welcoming and safe space for my students by participating in play and not just delivering lessons.

I asked the teacher if I could make an announcement related to my after school program. As their teacher allowed me to I shared that I would be running the after school meditative art making class, I got a lot of excitement from my students as they all yelled YAY. I am glad that I was able to build relationship with my students by regularly going to this classroom and I found out that my after school art class was packed and there were several students in the waiting list. I look forward to sharing more life with these amazing students.

The class started with three minutes of quiet time and free drawing with voices completely off. The teacher kept repeating to the students, “We're all quiet and making art, all quiet and making art on the white sheets.” As they were quiet for three minutes she gave them one minute to talk and draw. This gave me some ideas for my classroom management to quiet the kids down as they wait quietly for the teacher to allow them to talk as a reward for good behavior.

 The emphasis in this class was standard two: envisioning and critique to reflect. As the class started their teacher did this exercise where they did I say you say and then tried to repeat the standard along with their teacher. This reminded me of the rote memorization style I grew up in India with. I wondered if this was necessary or not as the students were even struggling to pronounce these words and I was wondering how much of this they were going to retain. I believe it promotes surface-level learning but want to be open to learning more about it.

The next thing was to choose one color to paint the background with pink, orange yellow green blue, or any of their favorite colors and then be a fruit or animal of their choice. The only rule from the teacher was that everybody is original. Everyone got busy but as I started doing my work slowly eyes started turning and one by one students started looking at me. There was a student in the row in front of me who slowly started engaging with me and bringing me little drawings to give me an idea of what I could draw along with them. The note from her said, “Give you idea?” I said I would love to get ideas.

As she did that, another student who was sitting right next to me offered another idea saying that maybe I could draw a cat and gave me a cat. Even though in the beginning I was fearful that no one would interact with me it was amazing to see how quickly the students warmed up to me.

Students reviewed their works in groups of two where they discussed what color they would use, what they would draw, and if they would erase any parts or keep working on the drawings. This gave me an idea to do pair-share activities in my class. As we were departing several students were curious if I would come back again and gave me hugs before I left. I was amazed at the openness of these little ones towards a random stranger like me and their willingness to accommodate me and quickly see me as part of them.

Observation 2

We started day two again with 3 minutes of quiet and free drawing with our voices off. We were reminded to be quiet and make art. Even though I had only shown up the second time in the class I saw a lot of smiles and heads turning and being curious about what I was doing in the classroom. This time some students from two rows in front of me came to me to see what I was doing. I kept drawing with them and within just a couple minutes of me being in this class, another student brought me a little drawing as a gift. This made me think about my presence as a teacher as in this setting I am just a student but when I become a teacher, I want to be approachable. In this class, it all started with a warm smile and I remember how a warm smile from some of my teachers helped me feel comfortable and welcome.

Students were going to participate in a play in which the background of the play would be created by the students themselves. The students were very excited to do this work as the teacher explained how they would create the background for the play rainbow fish. The class was divided into five groups. This gave me the idea to create activities for different tables. Butcher paper was given out and enough paint to start creating the ocean. The colors the teacher recommended were blue-green black and white. Immediately I started hearing imaginations run wild. This helped me understand the importance of creating atmospheres where freedom of imagination is nurtured.

After free drawing, we reviewed standard two again and did some evaluations where one of the students said, “The man looks angry and very serious.”

Another student said,  “There should be mountains and flowers in this painting.” I wondered if the student was saying that to compensate for the seriousness that was venting from the artwork or not. Even though they had to repeat the entire standard along with the teacher a couple of times I still feel like this is a good exercise to learn to evaluate and critique artworks and to have a critical eye. Some students were not done with the last project so they finished their projects while the teacher introduced the new project.

Students started singing, painting, and creating stories related to life in the ocean. I was able to record this story by one of the students related to what happens in the dark sea. Apparently, all the fishes were afraid of the darker part of the sea as there were sharks and octopuses that could get them in this part of the ocean. A student invited me to play a part in the story asking, “Mr. Joseph do you want to be in the dark sea?” I said yes, and I started painting with them and started participating in the story as we were painting. I was encouraged that I could play along with them and started reflecting on not being a serious teacher in my classroom but taking time to play with my students as well.

Observation 3

Another thing I observed was the way the teacher said class class. There was so much gentleness and compassion that it almost seemed like the love with which the teacher was speaking, the students were naturally giving in and paying attention to that gentle and kind invitation to pay attention. I wonder, if the teacher would have tried to grab the attention of the students with strictness or frustration would there be the same effect. Then the teacher explained some parts of the project.

King super bags where collected and flipped upside down and folded and everybody started to paint little horns to put on there hats. Just like the previous class I heard students making stories around their hats and naming themselves to be different creatures in the jungle and playing. One of the students said, “ I am the monster of the jungle.” Another one said I want to protect all the good people in the jungle.” Seems like this sense of good and bad is ingrained in us from a very early age. I hope this sense of kids being heroes and justice for the oppressed does not go away as they grow up because of conditioning.

I am glad that the students accepted me as one of their own despite my fears of how they would accomodate me. As we got to know each other more in the six classes, I got to sit and draw with them and as each day students brought me little gifts with it all starting with one students who asked me if she could give me ideas to draw. I hope to be that one teacher who genuinely sees the students for who they are. I am glad I was able to learn alongside these precious students who taught me how to accept a stranger unconditionally and show love. I look forward to embrace diversity, practice empathy and create an inclusive environment were I can promote self expression for my students because of what I learned in these observations.

More gifts from the students