Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Art in an Envelope~ Teaching third graders about Chagall~

My daughter came home from school recently with a letter requesting parent volunteers for a program called Art in an envelope. I was intrigued and figured here was a good way to volunteer my time to her school. First off  I haven't had many chances to do much with her and her end of the building, it seems all my time is spent with my son in the preschool wing. Second I love art and there aren't any art classes for these kids so yay win-win. Third I plan to enroll hopefully in the spring to get started toward my teaching degree and here's a great way to introduce me to some of what I have to look forward to in my future career choice.

Today I met with the head of the program and 2 of the other volunteers and we discussed the basic curriculum, what would be expected of us, what grades each of us would be teaching, the artist and painting that we would be teaching about etc. The meeting went really well, I like the other ladies they all seem very nice and I believe we will all be able to work well together. None of us will be working with the same grades but I have no doubts that if an issue or questions arise these ladies will be there to help each other out. I'm exceptionally happy to say I got the third graders yay I get to teach my daughters class as well as the other third grade classes, which is awesome since I know many of these kids from pre-school on and I think that will help quite a bit since many of them also know and seem to have respect for me.

I know who the artist I will be teaching the kids about is Marc Chagall and the painting  we will be studying is  "I and the Village" now I need to speak with the 3 third grade teachers and set up the dates and times for the first class, and I also need to work out a basic lesson plan. That's where I'm a little worried. I want to teach them as much as I possibly can about the artist and his work but I want to make the 45 minutes to and hour they spend with me and enjoyable experience. I want them to learn and there will be some written work but it's art and I feel that hands on should be incorporated as well. So now I have some studying to do, first I need to brush up on my history of Chagall so I can teach it to them, but also his techniques so I can bring in some kind of art projects that go with that same theme.

I have to admit I'm super excited about all of this but I'm also a wee bit nervous. A room full of 8 and 9 year olds can be very critical and if I suck at this I don't want anyone making fun of my daughter for it. So here's hoping I can do a really rockin job as the Art in an envelope teacher.

2 comments:

  1. You will do fine. This grade level will just be happy you are there and they are doing something besides math and writing.

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  2. Thanks Roc and good point I guess if I'm not busting out a spelling list they should be pretty happy to see me.

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