Riiiiing….Riiiiinnng….RIIIINNNGGG!!!
I am shaking my hand bell in a vigorous attempt to get
the attention of thirty-eight wiggly kids. The bell is shrill—and I’m glad it
is—because while I am naturally loud, my voice can’t compete with thirty-eight
chatty kiddos. The first five weeks of teaching I simply raised my voice a lot
to be heard (and became hoarse). Not today. My three dollar thrift store bell
was a wise investment, if I may say so.
It’s been over a month since I last blogged, but I
anticipated that gap. It’s been super busy. As of today I’ve taught art for
seven Wednesdays and I felt it was time to update my readers about how it’s
going.
First, let me begin by giving a shout-out to every teacher
on the planet. I knew teaching would be challenging—and it’s even more
challenging than I’d expected. I’ve always appreciated teachers for all they
do—but even more so now that I’m the one trying to communicate with kids each
week.
If you read my last blog post you know that I am teaching
art to kids at an elementary school. It’s one day a week, but for a newbie like
me, that’s enough for now. It takes a lot of energy. The kids range from
Kindergarten through eighth grade, so there’s a big span in terms of ages, personalities,
fine motor control and art experience. I see each grade every other week. There
are 310 students. Some kids like art. Some don’t. Some kids listen. Some don’t.
Does it get to me--the ones who don’t listen? Of course! I’m human, and I’m
busting my butt to teach them. But I won’t dwell on that right now. I’d rather
share a few stories about the kids who are glad to be in my art class—or funny
anecdotes from my first seven weeks of teaching. Here are a few recent
conversations in the art room:
Fourth grader: Mrs. Sarah, Alex says I don’t have a
leg muscle. (Boy flexes his calf and I do see a smallish muscle contract.) Is
he right?
Me: Of course you have muscle! I can see it right
there. But this isn’t a body-building competition so let’s take a seat and flex
our creative muscles instead.
Kindergartener: (Crying as he shows me his box of
watercolor paints.) My yellow paint is ruined forever.
Me: Don’t worry kiddo, your green just got confused
and mixed itself with the yellow a little. After all, they are neighbors in the
box. We’ll just clean it off with a paper towel. See? Good as new.
Fourth Grader: Why are we doing scribble-scrabble
with crayons? Are we back in preschool again?
Me: No, not at all. But we’re working in the style of
the artist Eric Carle, who layered color and had a very loose style, so you’re
making a lot of free-flowing lines on your paper. It’ll look awesome!
First grader: Mrs. Sarah, I missed you SOOOOOOOO
much!
Me: (heart feeling happy) Thanks, kiddo! How sweet.
Good to see you, too.
Seventh grader:
Can we make slime this year in art?
Me: It sounds fun, but I don’t think I’d get approval
from the office for that. But we’re going to use air dry clay, and we’ll paint
and draw and do lots of different projects. You’ll have to make slime at home.
For the older students our current projects are still life drawings. The younger kids are making animals in the style of Eric Carle,
author and illustrator of The Very Hungry
Caterpillar, and many other books.
By Wednesday night I’m exhausted but slowly I am increasing
my teaching stamina. Many of the kids are having fun and learning new
techniques, and that means a lot to me. Every week I learn a little more about
teaching, and while it’s hard for me to stumble, at least I’m learning. Yep,
it’s official: I’m a teacher and definitely a student, too…
