Mall Elves and Glitterland

Jacob Ward - Franklin Fine Arts

Mall Elves and Glitterland

Greetings and salutations again, dear reader!  Here’s the skinny on what’s been happening this week in the life of Jacob Ward!  This week is a little different since it is my last week of writing a blog… Don’t worry! Next week won’t follow the normal format but will be pretty much just “Jacob’s list of Chicago things” so stay tuned!

At Franklin Fine Arts:

The school is in utter controlled chaos as we get ever closer to the Annual Winter Showcase.  The fine arts (specifically music, piano, & dance) hold precedent over everything else this week and next week as students rehearse for the big day!  That being said, the art room has had students being pulled for rehearsal left and right leaving Kindergarten as the class I have taught most consistently.  The spare class time has been spent getting some housekeeping done, including tack-firing the 7^th grader’s glass pieces.

With the students who aren’t in the Winter Showcase, Ms. Koreman and I have taken it upon ourselves put them to work to help create the scenery for the show.  This has meant carving and painting 8’ tall foam core panels into evergreen trees and the skyline of Chicago, painting 50 feet of canvas to look like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and GLITTERING EVERYTHING TO MAKE IT SHINE!  I went home with glitter in my hair, up my nose, caked on my arms, and permanently embedded in my pockets.

This upcoming week will get even crazier as the clock ticks down to show-time and my eminent departure from one of the coolest schools I’ve had the pleasure to teach in.

In Chicago:

Things are coming to an end so it’s time to cram in all that I can!  Goals for the next week and a half:

• Ride the CTA Holiday Train (which is a subway totally dressed to the nines in festive cheer)
•  Go see the Christmas lights show at the Lincoln Park Zoo
• Shop at the Christkindlmarket (The annual Christmas-time German Market)

·         These on top of my usual weekly goings-ons.

Which brings me to the list of shows I saw as a Saint this past week and those to come next week:

• David Ives’ The Heir Apparent (an adaptation of a French farce about one man’s efforts to become sole inheritor of his uncle’s fortune) at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
•  David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries (about what it’s like to work as a Macy’s Department Store Elf) at TheaterWit.
• University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert.
•  Domesticated (What happens to a politician’s family after a sex scandal breaks the headlines?) at Steppenwolf, written and directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Bruce Norris.
• Treasure Island (Yes, that Treasure Island) at Lookingglass Theatre.
• Barney the Elf (an original musical parody of the movie Elf).
• Bernarda Alba and her House (a woman locks her five daughters and mother in a house for a mandatory period of mourning and emotions unleash) at Red Twist Theatre

Until next time, peace out!

Celebrities and MORE STABILIZERS!

Jacob Ward – Franklin Fine Arts

Greetings and salutations again, dear reader!  Here’s the skinny on what’s been happening this week in the life of Jacob Ward!

At Franklin Fine Arts

This week was parent teacher conferences (not that exciting in the art room… the whole operation was open-house style with about six parents stopping in the timespan of 11 AM – 4 PM.) but I managed to spend some of that downtime researching and reprogramming Ms. Koreman’s kiln to be able to fuse glass as well as fire ceramics.  Other exciting things this week were the new projects we started!!!

The portfolio class set aside to help students get into arts high schools began working on self-portraits so I had to make an exemplar for the students to look at.  Not too shabby for 20 minutes of work.  2^nd grade had an off-day after finishing their Oaxaca animal project so they got a chance to build towers using cardboard slats that Ms. Koreman keeps for just such occasions.  The funniest moment of the day was when one student, whose mother is an architect, noticed his group’s tower was starting to fall and he started yelling to the other 2^nd graders “WE NEED MORE STABILIZERS!!!”  Definitely not a phrase you hear out of every 2^nd grader, but totally brilliant.

In Chicago

This week was all about Mount Union friendship time starting with a trip to The Second City comedy studios for an original musical sketch show with former fellow Raider, Cory Merriman.  That was followed by a Sunday afternoon adventure with Mount Union Chicago Semester Intern, Lauren Klonowski, to one of the famous “Before I Die” walls.  It’s located within walking distance from Canterbury Apartments… I won’t tell you the exact address because that would take the fun out of the hunt, but I will tell you it’s on Sedgewick Street.

Additional adventures included going to Story Club Chicago’s monthly south-side storytelling event where people just get up on stage and tell stories based on the month’s theme. The most memorable story was from an older woman who stepped up to the mic for the first time to tell her own life story of growing up in the Philippines during WWII.  If you can’t make it to the event, it’s broadcast live on WLPN every month.

I saw a killer adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 at Steppenwolf, home to ensemble member Tracy Letts who happens to be the husband of Mount Union alum Carrie Coon (Gone Girl & HBO’s The Leftovers).  Once again being a Saint has paid off… I had a third row seat FOR FREE!!!  Like I said, 1984 was great but the real gem this weekend was Burning Bluebeard at The Den Theater.  Words cannot describe how incredible this show was (this is the 3^rd year it has been resurrected if that is any indication of how popular it is).  The show, a tragedy about the disastrous fire at Chicago’s Iroquois Theater that killed 600 people and changed fire code/safety precautions for theaters across the nation, was brought to life by the least expected type of performers: clowns.  A tragedy performed by clowns… may sound odd but it works, it works really well.  The Ruffians (the acting troupe) are comprised of trained clowns, tumblers, and acrobats and if for some reason Burning Bluebeard doesn’t return next season, make any effort to find out what they are doing and go see one of their shows!

BONUS:  I saw Bluebeard on opening night so there was this super high energy and representatives of the press all over.  Also in attendance were familiar faces (celebrities in my mind) from other shows I’ve seen including the actress who played Miss Buncle in Miss Buncle’s Book and two of the actors from Story of a Story: The Untold Story. Totally radical evening all around!

Until next time, peace out!

12000 lbs of onions and Two Grecian Urns (trickle trickle trickle)

Jacob Ward – Franklin Fine Arts

Greetings and salutations again, dear reader!  Here’s the skinny on what’s been happening this week in the life of Jacob Ward!

Before I begin let me just say Christmas came early this year and here’s what Chicago gave to me: four weeks of coughing, three presentations, two head infections (nasal and ear)… and a partridge in a pear tree!  Keep reading for a deeper explanation:

At Franklin Fine Arts:

I can’t say that there has been much happening at school this week especially since there were only three days (Wednesday was off due to Veterans Day and Friday was end of the quarter in-service) but the brightest highlight of those three days was finally getting to melt and mold Plexiglas with 6^th Grade for the Dale Chihuly project they have been working on.  Super cool and super easy project (all we used was a toaster oven set to 450 degrees to melt the Plexiglas until it was pliable and the students wore multiple layers of protective clothing so they could manually mold the piece).  It’s definitely a keeper project!

  While the other student teachers were in regular in-service, Ms. Koreman and I were at the Chicago Public Schools Department of Arts Education conference co-presenting on assessment in the art room.  This was our 3^rd presentation(2^nd for CPS Dept. Arts Ed.) in one week’s time so we have been nothing but go go go.  The presentation was over how to structure formative assessment in the art room for your advantage and was a total success.  For those who don’t know there are two main types of assessing student learning: Summative & Formative. When I explained the two types of assessment to our audience of 35+ art teachers I used the apropos analogy of Thanksgiving: Summative assessment is like “the dinner”.  Why didn’t my pumpkin pie set?  Nobody is eating the green bean casserole, what do I need to change so they will next time?  Formative assessment is “in the kitchen”.  Taste the mashed potatoes, do they need salt?  Turkey not brown enough?  Leave it in the oven longer or turn up the heat.  All of your formative assessments should be used so that when you reach “the dinner” things are how you as the teacher want them to be.

In Chicago:

It has been a busy week in Chicago Semester terms.  On Veterans Day, the students and staff of CS volunteered at the Greater Chicago Food Depository where we repackaged almost 12,000 lbs. of onions to go out to those who are in need of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Pictured is fellow student teacher Natasha Holsinger as we rocked our hairnets and aprons. 

For Thursday’s fine arts event we went to see the Duncan Dance Chicago dance troupe perform original pieces choreographed in the early 1900s by the famous and ill-fated Isadora Duncan (One Grecian urn, two Grecian urns, and trickle trickle trickle…)

Student teaching is starting to hit some of us hard health-wise.  Good news: the humidifier has eradicated my cough.  Bad news: I now have a dual ear and nasal infection to deal with (Future Student teacher note: CVS’s Minute Clinic is your best friend in these situations, they’ll do pretty much anything shy of sewing a body part back on).  Luckily these infections aren’t contagious or affect my ability to move about the country so even though I feel gross, I don’t feel sick (which is nice and I am still faring better than some of my comrades).

Additional adventures this week included: Terrence McNally’s The Lisbon Traviata at the Athenaeum Theatre and The Nerdologues story telling event “A Night with the Stars” featuring cast members of Improvised Star Trek.

Until next time, peace out!