Archive for the “Teaching” Category

Tic Tac Toe, Ryan 5th grade

The second session of my kid’s after school clay class began 3 weeks ago and I aspire not to repeat lessons that I’ve taught for the past year, unless requested, because I have a dedicated core group of returning students.  I’m a fairly democratic teacher and give the kids a vote, though I am allowed veto power if I feel strongly about a project - and I have one of those coming up on the horizon - kids were rolling their eyes at me.  The kids had never crafted any games, so I put this on the docket for the first class of the session since the project is a little labor intensive.

I made some paper templates for classic games such as tic, tac, toe and chess & checkers, along with printing out the rules for each and also found a gazillion games on About.com, including many that use a 8×8 board like chess and checkers.  I also allowed the students to make up their own games and that is what most of them decided to do.

Rolling ball labyrinth game, Jasmine 5th grade

My daughter made a variation on the classic wooden labyrinth puzzle that I used to play as a child.  One of my great aunts kept this puzzle in her basement rec room and I would steal down the stairs while visiting and play this for hours.

Chess and Checkers board game, Natalie 4th grade

While I really encouraged the kids to make an 8×8 game because there’s so many games based on this template, only Natalie did.  She made her pieces to be used either as checkers or as chess pieces.  For checkers, she needed to make 24 playing pieces (12 each person different colors) and for chess, each player needs 16 playing pieces per player.  Her solution was to make 32 flat pieces like checkers and then she stamped different designs into the pieces which signify whether the piece is a rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, and glazed 1/2 in lavender - 1/2 in pink.  Pretty clever!

Made up game, Cole 3rd grade

Cole made up his own game with little animal playing pieces and one giant die.  I’m not sure if he has actually drafted the rules yet or not, but his game sure is cute!  Cole is my little owl obsessed sculptor - nearly every class, owl iconography makes its way into his work.

My daughter graduates from 5th grade this school year and I have warned my students that this might be the last year that I teach the clay class which is part of the after school enrichment program.  After class on Tuesday, one of the parents asked me if it truly was my last year teaching clay after school - not very fair to get their kids addicted to clay, is it?  Teaching the kid’s class is truly a labor of love - there’s a lot of work involved before, during and after class, and I don’t charge much since it’s one of the ways that I can give back to the school by making it affordable and accessible.  The PTA also provides scholarships for kids who want to take enrichment classes and that might not be able to afford it otherwise.

Most public schools have some sort of enrichment program including, sports, arts and crafts, technology, foreign languages, drama, science and more.  It wasn’t hard to get my class up and running once I proposed the class to the PTA and School Principal.  I did have to go through security screening since I’d be working with children, but since I was already licensed to substitute teach through the state of Colorado, all that info was already on file with the district.  If I didn’t have the license on file, it would have been easy to fill out the background check application, get fingerprinted and return to the school district.

There’s a demand for these kinds of kid’s activities and I could fill up my class 5 days a week if I had the energy.  It’s something to think about for those of you who are interested in teaching, yet haven’t been hired by an art or rec center, many of which are often fully staffed.

Meanwhile, I just received an email from the programming director at the Art Student’s League of Denver yesterday.  He put the call out for summer art camp proposals for next year - ack, I’m not sure I can project that far in advance.  Last summer, I taught 4 clay camps — 3 at the Art Students League of Denver and 1 at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and I’m not sure I want to do more than one or 2 camps next summer.  Teaching takes a lot out of me.

I’m almost current with my to-do list; though between yesterday and today, I’ve put in way more than my goal of no more than 2 hours of daily computer time.  Sometimes, necessity calls and I just have to oblige her - it doesn’t hurt that we’re having a bit of freezing rain today and it’s colder than heck out in my garagio.  I did manage to squeeze in a few studio hours, but it was more busy work cleaning up my kids stuff, loading their work in the kiln - but that frees up time for my own work this afternoon and tomorrow.

Toodles,

~Cynthia

Bussing Mary Cay in front of her porcelain wall pieces in her new studio

My good friend and former ceramic’s instructor, Mary Cay, has just moved into a new studio in the East End Arts District in Aurora, CO.  This makes me happy on so many fronts because this means she’s going to start making work again after a bit of a hiatus due to change in her life and she’s showing her work again.  On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit her studio as part of First Fridays Art Walk and had a blast.

There are several studios in the East End Applied Arts Gallery and Studios where she has her work space now including a jeweler, painters and potters.  The owner of the building is a potter, Walt Weinberg, which is pretty cool if you ask me.  He happened to be firing the gas kiln while the opening was going on and I took a peek at the kiln yard and the back end of the studios.  While the gallery is open Thursday - Saturday, it sounds like the artist’s studios will be open to the public on First Fridays.

Look closely...

I laughed so hard when I saw one of Mary Cay’s bowls on display!  It’s so subtle, yet disarming.  I told her I coveted this, and before I knew it, Mary Cay and I struck up a trade and I walked out the door with this gem.  No, I’m not feeling the urge to have a baby or anything - I just think it’s funny.

Jules and Janet

While Mary Cay hasn’t been making any new work in awhile, she has been teaching some clay classes part time.  Jules and Janet are former classmates of mine at the Art Student’s League of Denver - we took classes together a few years back.  Janet recently built a studio at her home where she and Jules work and have continued taking classes privately with Mary Cay.  They’ve been playing around with crystalline glazes and their new work is rockin’!

Pottery Party Posse

Meanwhile, the secretary at my daughter’s school begged me to teach a “pottery party” at her home after I allowed her to participate in one of my after school clay classes a month ago.  She had so much fun making a mug and thought she could round up a few of her friends for a party.  I’ve never done anything like this before nor have I ever considered it and wasn’t sure how to price an event like this.  I cut her a deal since she does so much for the school and helps make sure my after school class runs smoothly - not to mention being one of my biggest cheerleaders.  Many of the participants were interested in doing something like this again - I suppose I should decide if I want to pursue this and post something about pricing, min. & max participants etc. on my website.

There’s a fascination with wet clay that you just can’t get from a paint your own pottery shop - and many don’t have the time to sign up for a class.  They made a variety of different kinds of cups, mugs and tumblers - along with some clay jewelry.  The ladies had fun and also have a much better appreciation for handmade pottery after last night.

Meanwhile, I’m substitute teaching the next 2 days and won’t get back in my studio till Wed.  I am going to work a couple of hours this afternoon - more of a getting ready for the next extended studio session.

Have a great week,

~Cynthia

Yesterday, I finally nailed down a schedule for my after school clay class that I have decided to teach again this year.  If you’ve read any of the past month’s posts, you’ll know I have been on the fence about it - so it’s a relief for me to finally make a decision.  Instead of teaching twice a week like I did last school year, I have decided to teach one day a week this fall partly to help with burn out and also because my daughter has a super busy schedule this year including soccer practice twice a week, my clay class and a music class.  It means less of an income, but it frees up more time for me to make my own work during school hours - which is a good compromise if you ask me.

I have also been working on my website the past few days and uploaded the current enrollment form for my after school clay class to my Teaching Schedule page, along with a gallery of children’s art work which is a sub page of the teaching page. I’d be glad to hear any feedback if you have any.  Next up on  my agenda is to flesh out the gallery page for my own work which still shows under construction. Also, I am not sold on the current header image and am continuing to work on the theme template I’ve settled on.  I would like to have the colors of the little graphic icons and the text (titles, links, etc.) be in the same color family. I will be working on my website a little bit at a time when I have a spare moment or two and definitely don’t feel the same urgency as I did a few weeks ago after breaking my site.

The bear is really called “I see what you mean” by Lawrence Argent

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, I pulled my daughter out of school (with her teacher’s blessing) and headed downtown to see some of the sights and sounds of the Democratic National Convention that has taken over Denver this week.  I figured it is educational and  who knows when we’ll ever be in a city again where either party will be holding their convention.  First we traveled by light rail and went to the non partisan “American Presidential Experience” at Invesco Field.  There is so much security in town right now that it was like planes, trains and automobiles just to get there.  We were on foot from the light rail and ran into swat teams, secret service and all kinds of blocked streets which added quite a bit of travel time to our journey.  The Presidential Experience was interesting, but it is a commercial enterprise which devalues it just a bit for me.  I’m not sure I’d do it again, but my daughter enjoyed the event (especially touring through Air Force One, seeing an exact replica of the Oval Office, and seeing some of Jackie O’s Clothing) so I guess that’s what counts.

A normal 20 minute walk from Invesco Field to downtown Denver took us an hour because of road closures and other obstacles.  We arrived at our chosen lunch destination, The Market, bedraggled, hot and hungry.  Luckily the food there is delish and after refueling and cooling off, we set off for Robischon Gallery to see a political exhibit as a part of “Dialog: City” during the DNC.  In between, we saw some celebrities and almost literally ran into Senator Tom Daschle, and got caught up in all kinds of protest and demonstrators,  which was interesting but just a little disconcerting for my daughter who sort of lives in a protective bubble (like most kids should).

After spending some time at the gallery, we headed towards the convention center where many of the caucuses are taking place.  Surprisingly, we were allowed to go in and watch the caucuses after going through a security check point.  We wandered around from meeting room to meeting room and eventually went to a “watch” party which sounds way more exciting than it actually is.  We had intended to head on over to Civic Center Park where many of the demonstrators where camped out, but when I finally looked at my watch, it was 5:00 pm, so we decided to skip the park and catch a train back home.

Things are returning to “normal”,

~Cynthia