10/28 Fourth Saturday Studio-
I brought in one of my favorite kid’s books for a story time to begin our studio this Saturday. I figured this would allow the kids who came in a bit late to find a spot to sit without feeling like they missed out on some of the instructions. The story is a retelling of a story from Henry Thoreau’s Walden and tells the story of Henry’s choice to hike and his friend’s decision to spend his day working for train fare to get to Fitchburg. I figured that the length (about 5 ft) of the accordion book we would make first, would have the content possibilities opened up by the story of a long adventure trip.
http://www.henryhikes.com/books/

My plan was to keep the construction of the books pretty simple for the 1st and 2nd graders because of their grade level and also there was the possibility that we would joined by the kindergarteners as well. Given this, I know most of the time was going to be spent on filling the books with words and drawings- so I figured start with reading a story out loud.

I had all the paper cut to length and width as needed ahead of time, so for the lengthy book I asked the kids of fold the cover and the page sheets in half. I then had them tape the ends of all the page sheets together for the 5ft length and paste the back of page one to the inside of the front cover. I didn’t present this entirely clearly for everyone as one was pasted to the inside of the back cover. It was at this point that we moved to the other book construction to allow the pasted page to dry. Out of about 9 kids, about 2/3 moved to the next book. Several others at a single table were focused on creating content for the accordion book and wanted to continue with this. Susan helped these kids with drawing lessons on equestrian depiction.
The other book also began with folding the cover and all the pages in half. One of the folded page papers was then pasted to the inside of the cover. After this it was hole punch time- a sizable bottleneck considering tool shortage. I knew the on-hand punch wouldn’t make it through the thick paper and layers of thinner paper, so I brought mine. But that did mean we only had one. Fortunately, kids did not get to this point in the project all at the exact same moment. After holes, they could pick green or orange thick thread to weave through the binding holes. Susan helped out one student whose holes were so close to the binding edge that it could not be sewn together. She real quick remade the book up to that point. The next step became optional. They could cut small strips to form little books on the even pages- or just keep the book in the form it was in. Molly helped out with the pasting process that attached the cut strip page folded to the solid page behind it. One boy kept his pages whole, to make into a “Kids’ Science Experiments” book. A few kids did the tiny book page on only one or two of the papers.
A little after 11, the kids were welcomed to decorate the interior slips to go into the plastic mugs. Everyone enjoyed this, several asked to do multiple cups.
During the studio time, there was one boy who was not interested in creating the interior of the first book and was not at all interested in constructing the second book. He gathered all the push pins and made a pattern on the bulletin board down which he could slide pencils. The boy next to him asked him, pretty assertively, to stop bugging him. I repeatedly asked him how his book was coming along- in hopes of switching his focus. But he was really just not interested. With the mug he did a quick scribble drawing then experimented to see if the cup could be put together in a way that would allow him to take it back apart. Eventually he challenged me to put it together because he thought it would make no difference.
Between individuals who do not participate in the structured activity and those who focus deeply on one of the structured activities- it becomes clear that goals are personally determined and are not deemed flexible by the individual under such short term circumstances. It is possible to implement various techniques in the role of full time teacher in long term arrangements established for and understood by all, to utilize those goals instead of change them.

10/23

Third Saturday Studio- at NAU and at home

I just participated in the third Saturday kids' art studio. Each week we have had fewer and fewer students in our class. The first Saturday studio involved somewhere between 15 and 20 children. The second week involved about 12. We expected 5 kindergarteners this Saturday, but there were only 3. We will have the 1st and 2nd grade group next Saturday and I will be absolutely shocked if the decline in number continues.

The kindergarten class was fun, loose, and pretty free-form regarding format. When I met Thursday with the two other "art specialists" of my group, Susan suggested that we work on accordion style book construction with the kindergarten group. I put together an example book on Friday night and filled some of the pages Saturday morning. For the pictures inside, I illustrated water collecting into stream form in the Andes and flowing into what eventually becomes that Amazon River. A boy launches a hand-built boat, with a jungle leaf sail on the second page. Because the pages of an accordion book can all be pulled out into a great length, I wanted to use this length as the basis for the contents.

On Saturday morning Pam asked if our group would like to use the sponge stamp alphabet collection she had received just that week. We took these figuring that they might fit into whatever we ended up doing with the kids. Molly grabbed a big sheet of construction paper and cut it to about a ten inch width, so the sheet was about 3' X 10". She then folded the bottom 3 inches upward for the whole length, forming a catch rail at the bottom. She then folded the sheet back and forth into 7 sections so that there were pages that faced each other and each had a folded up pocket. (She continued to add colors to the book with wet tissue paper and glued strips of paper. Her finished product was excellent.) I took some tan paper to the cutter and came back with the rectangles that would fit inside the pockets. The children used the sponge letter stamps with tempera paint to stamp their names inside the books; one letter per page- fitting the example book put together by Susan. The rectangles were filled with crayons, makers and colored pencils with different themes for each child. One child made some that went along with the Just Say No program that she has at school.
The one and only challenge of the morning was the choice made by one child to explore the space under the tables on her hands and knees. I said nothing for a few minutes to just wait and see if she would come back up on her own. Then another child scooted down his chair and said he was going to go see what she found. At that point I knelt down and simply reminded him he was welcome to use our markers while he’s here, but that he couldn’t take them home with his book- and that we were getting toward the end of our time. With that he got back in his chair. The girl under the table asked what I had told him. I told her that I discouraged him from going under the table, as we were getting on toward parent pick-up time. She then came out too.
After they were finished with the books, we provided them with plastic mugs that had paper to color inside and seal back in and also black paper frames that could have the surface scraped off to show rainbow underneath. All the kids really enjoyed these. Susan made an example mug with the frames pasted to the interior paper. One of the children followed this as well.

I registered my 8 year old son for the studio program, and he did attend the first two Saturdays. He could not be persuaded to come this time. It may have been caused by a couple different things. Last Saturday he made a creature box, but the whole thing fell apart as the morning concluded. He felt so discouraged that he threw all the contents of the box away. He brought the box home, but did nothing with his time over the week to re-create his efforts. Also, a 9:30 start time on Saturday is something perfectly reasonable to most kids. For my son to attend however, my role has meant having to get up and get ready on the same time schedule we use for weekdays. He of course didn’t really like this for a Saturday. When I got home from the kindergarten Saturday, Dylan wanted to make an accordion book. A few minutes after he got his started, I ended up with also a 5 yr. old kindergartener and a 7 yr. old 1st grader from the neighborhood. Working with them illustrated to me how poorly my accordian book would have worked for the kindergarteners that morning. I looked back with tremendous thankfulness to the quick thinking of Molly. The example she put together that very morning was perfect in terms of complexity. I watched Luke (5) and Sam (7) have very different experiences. Luke needed much help assembling the book and used each page to repeat the same drawing. Sam was able to do more of the assembly himself and used the length of the book in the development of the story.

What I learned this weekend:
Parenting has given me significant depth in terms of experience with children, however, this Saturday studio experience showed me that I will not be able to use my work with art and my children as the basis of decisions for working with other children. I may have the tendency to work off unrealistic expectations based on the art familiarity I have seen for my own children.

From where I sit right now, I reflect back on a 35 year life that has been filled with a variety of experiences, that have influenced the creation of my life's trail and the choices I make for the future. The events of my life this year brought me to a place where I had to narrow my focus for a time, so that I could utilize my strength in ways that I never have. Granted, my strength brought me through a childhood filled with stress, silence, and extreme responsibility.
With this strength, I accomplished completion of a Bachelors degree after the birth of a daughter and son, served my local and wider community as a social worker, and as a children's museum program developer.
This year I recovered from an automobile collision that provided me with experiences of head injury, broken clavicle and rib, and 7 fractured vertebrae. This took place in the middle of my pursuit of a Masters degree in Education and certification to teach art. After regaining my cognitive processing a month and a half after the accident, I found my creative focus had to be narrowed to recovery efforts throughout the day. I found that the commitments I had made to expressions of love for my family, my environment, and for humanity served as the sources for the strength required for this recovery.
Each and every morning I have always felt thankful for my existence, and each and every night I have gone to bed feeling responsible to have done at least one thing during that day that served my family, my environment or humanity.
Given the strength that was built by this, I am now able to finish my last semester of course work for my academic goal, continue to raise two wonderful children, and celebrate 14 years of marriage.