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!