I apologize for my late blogging, I finally found my info to get back into my blog :)
I teach K-5 art at an elementary school in Blue Springs, MO. I have about 525 students this year. Due to the changes in enrollment and the fact that I haven't met all of my classes yet, I have not made the final decision on the exact class yet. My basic idea and hope is to VTS one of my 4th grade classes. My classes are 22-25 students. I have only been working with the students at my school for the last 2 years. I know that VTS was "supposed" to be touched on by the teacher before me, but I believe she only did it with the older students, who have moved on to the middle school. We have done some art discussions, but 4th grade is where I typically start presenting the idea of art discussion "how to" and deeper discussions. As for art making most of these students have been making art with our school since Kindergarten.
These students will see me a total of 40ish visits this year. Their visits are 50 minutes long. Due to an extra "Friday Rotation" I will sometimes have the opportunity to see them twice a week. My classroom is hooked up with great technology tools. I have an interactive white board that I use often. My room id long and spread out. The student furthest from the board is about 20 feet away. This could pose a problem when paying attention to smaller details. I do not have enough room on the carpet in front of the team board for all their bodies. I am thinking I will offer those in the back to pull chairs forward, or sit on the floor. I have a lot to look at in my art room. I display many prints and hope to be better about changing them more frequently this year.
I am choosing 4th grade for several reasons. This seems to be the grade that I am most comfortable talking about art with. They are mature enough to discuss these ideas and have enough schema to help with the discussions. I also have noticed that my fifth graders seem to be more silly in their discussions about art. I am the VI (visually impaired) school for the district. Currently 4th grade has the least number of VI students, which works out best.
My assumptions are that this group will do well with discussions, just as they have in the past. I also assume that it is going to take some time for the students to become comfortable with the VTS techniques. I am also anticipating a challenge with my limited technology experience, especially with video taping. Time to learn something new! I am very lucky to have a supportive principal. My principal worked with Mary for several years and saw the benefits of VTS in their school. He is excited for me to learn this skill. I am also nervous because he wants me to teach the rest of my building how to VTS next school year, and we will have school wide implementation. I hope to have a decision made on my group fairly soon and report back with more information on my kiddos.
I teach K-5 art at an elementary school in Blue Springs, MO. I have about 525 students this year. Due to the changes in enrollment and the fact that I haven't met all of my classes yet, I have not made the final decision on the exact class yet. My basic idea and hope is to VTS one of my 4th grade classes. My classes are 22-25 students. I have only been working with the students at my school for the last 2 years. I know that VTS was "supposed" to be touched on by the teacher before me, but I believe she only did it with the older students, who have moved on to the middle school. We have done some art discussions, but 4th grade is where I typically start presenting the idea of art discussion "how to" and deeper discussions. As for art making most of these students have been making art with our school since Kindergarten.
These students will see me a total of 40ish visits this year. Their visits are 50 minutes long. Due to an extra "Friday Rotation" I will sometimes have the opportunity to see them twice a week. My classroom is hooked up with great technology tools. I have an interactive white board that I use often. My room id long and spread out. The student furthest from the board is about 20 feet away. This could pose a problem when paying attention to smaller details. I do not have enough room on the carpet in front of the team board for all their bodies. I am thinking I will offer those in the back to pull chairs forward, or sit on the floor. I have a lot to look at in my art room. I display many prints and hope to be better about changing them more frequently this year.
I am choosing 4th grade for several reasons. This seems to be the grade that I am most comfortable talking about art with. They are mature enough to discuss these ideas and have enough schema to help with the discussions. I also have noticed that my fifth graders seem to be more silly in their discussions about art. I am the VI (visually impaired) school for the district. Currently 4th grade has the least number of VI students, which works out best.
My assumptions are that this group will do well with discussions, just as they have in the past. I also assume that it is going to take some time for the students to become comfortable with the VTS techniques. I am also anticipating a challenge with my limited technology experience, especially with video taping. Time to learn something new! I am very lucky to have a supportive principal. My principal worked with Mary for several years and saw the benefits of VTS in their school. He is excited for me to learn this skill. I am also nervous because he wants me to teach the rest of my building how to VTS next school year, and we will have school wide implementation. I hope to have a decision made on my group fairly soon and report back with more information on my kiddos.
I enjoyed getting a peek into your teaching context! Although you are only required in this class to focus on one class of students, I hope you will try it with various classes and grade levels to get comfortable with it. I think you'll find it's painless with the others! LOL! Kindergarten discussions are quite different from 4th grade discussions, but no less rich and revelatory. They will interpret what they see based on their schemas, just like the older ones and it is quite fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI would also strongly encourage you to REQUIRE that all students get as close as possible to the projection screen when you VTS for several reasons. The first is clearly so that they can see details. Proximity also underscores the fact that they are part of a collaborative group of problem solvers when they are physically close to the screen and one another. And as you might expect, it is also easier to zone out or not pay attention when you are farther away from the image.
I had one VI student at DYE for 6 years (from Kindergarten to grade 5). He had a degenerative condition so each year, his vision was worse and worse.(Amazingly, he insisted upon doing all of the art making without modifications!) By his 5th grade year, I would have to notify his aide when we were going to VTS and she brought special viewing equipment for him; some head gear apparatus. He would sit at my desk and view the image on my computer screen during the discussion and he participated quite well. Let me know if you have VI students that are completely without sight. I believe VTS has some experience with that and may have recommendations.
I think 4th grade is my favorite grade to teach.
I'm anxious to read about your experiences with that grade level and VTS this semester!
Fourth grade was my favorite grade during student teaching! However, I can't imagine how interesting it will be to VTS with visually impaired students... I bet it will be a wonderful expirience to hear about the things that they notice and are able to see. What a unique perspective!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear about how it goes, especially the images that you used. Will you try to choose images that correlate with your lesson of the day or do you think that it will be fine to just use any VTS specific image?