Open Studios and Roller Coaster Crashes

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:

The students are starting to move into their new projects!!! Kindergarteners are working on mini Monet waterlily ponds, 2^nd & 4^th graders are starting their final Romero Britto pieces, 6^th graders are starting a Dale Chihuly project, 7^th graders will be working with glass fusion, and the 8^th graders will be working on my edTPA painted jeans project.

For those who don’t know, edTPA is the Teacher Performance Assessment and is one of the criteria needed to receive your teaching license for Ohio & Illinois.  This is, as the title says, based and graded on teacher performance and is broken up into three parts: Planning the lessons, Commentary on the filmed lessons, and Assessment of student work & lesson as a whole.  The Pearson Exams (one of the other criteria to get licensure) are based on knowledge and are over information in your content area and educational theory.  Pearson exams and TPA prove a person has the brains and brawn, respectively, that a teacher needs in order to teach.

In Chicago:

This week has picked up a little bit even though I’ve still been bogged down with edTPA preparation.  Thursday evening’s fine arts event was a visit to the Chicago Symphony Center to hear US Premier of Detlev Glanert’s Brahms-Fantasie and Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 & Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op.68.  BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!  

 

Friday night was spent exploring Pilsen with my cooperating teacher where we saw the National Museum of Mexican Art, Hector Duartes’ house, and various artist’s studios that were open to the public that evening.  A pit stop at Honky Tonks BBQ proved to be extremely delicious (especially the candied bacon… NOM!) The good things just keep going and going…

Saturday evening was spent seeing one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen, Ride the Cyclone at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.  The set and the projections were amazing, the story was funny and touching, the acting, singing, and music were phenomenal.  I hope that it gets picked up to move to Broadway just so I can get a cast recording… that’s how good this show was!  AND just to show how small the world really is, a friend I did theater with back in Ohio is friends with one of the actors in Cyclone and she’ll be coming to Chicago to see the show so we’re all going to hang out and it’s going to be awesome!  For people who want to see the show, Chicago Shakes has a special deal of $20 tickets for people under 35 so take advantage of it people and see Ride the Cyclone!!!!

Gas Masks and Head Bobs

by Jacob Ward, Franklin Fine Arts Center

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 my students K-4 started working on brightly colored projects inspired by Brazilian artist, Romero Britto (whose name now has a specific head bob that goes with it when spoken to help Kindergarten  remember his name).  The older groups are continuing to wrap up their Barbara Probst photography projects.  Since Franklin’s current building was built in the 1920s and has artifacts in the hallways like a fallout shelter sign, it was hard to not take advantage of one group’s gas mask for a side photo-shoot with the sign.

As assistant assistant coach for the cross country team, The Franklin Flyers, I helped get the team on their feet for their big meet on Wednesday where several students received medals.  I look forward to seeing where they go from here!

Saturday was Franklin’s annual International Picnic where we celebrated being “One Franklin”.  Every major nationality, as well as those specific to Franklin’s students and the food establishments in the neighborhood, were represented in the buffet line.  The food was absolutely amazing!!!  The special performance of the day was Franklin’s 7^th & 8^th grade Rock Band and let me tell you, these kids rocked out like there was no tomorrow!

In Chicago:

This week has been slow on the adventure side but just as fast paced as ever!  Getting ready for observations, prepping lesson plans, planning for edTPA, and fighting off a cold have taken the majority of my time BUT I still managed to clear my schedule to go see this week’s Chicago Semester fine arts event, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at the Court Theater.  It was AMAAAAAAAAAZING!!!  Even if I wasn’t a theater person I still would have loved it!  And that is my advice to future CS students: go to the events!  You’re paying for them, so do them… even if you don’t love it, it’s still a worthwhile experience in the end.

Student Teaching Blog #1 - Fall 2015

by Jacob Ward, Franklin Fine Arts Center

Hello from the Windy City!  My name is Jacob Ward and I am a Fall 2015 student teacher in the Chicago Semester program.  Before delving into what Chicago life is like, here’s a little bit more info about who I am and where I came from:

I am a recent graduate from the University of Mount Union located in Alliance, Ohio with degrees in both Art & Theatre Education.  The purpose of coming to Chicago is to complete the requirements necessary to receive my teaching license.  About one hour away from Mount Union is my home town, which is smack-dab in the middle of farm country and is a place where everybody knows everybody.  So you can image what kind of major shift it was to move to Chicago.

I am currently living in Canterbury Court, which is one of the two housing options available for Chicago Semester students.  The building is within walking distance of Lake Michigan, and luckily enough, a ten-minute walk from my student teaching placement at Franklin Fine Arts Center, where I teach K-8^th grade art.  The past couple of weeks some of our students have been studying Henri Matisse and creating collages similar to his, making masks, and studying photography and how to tell multiple stories in a single shot.

As for city life, I have made it my mission to take Chicago by storm and part of my is to ride from end to end on each color of the “L” trains and see what their many stops have to offer.  I have successfully completed the Red, Purple, Brown, and part of the Green line so far. 

Chicago Fire Festival

Adventuring has led to multiple free events including street art festivals, concerts, gallery openings, museums, and The Great Chicago Fire Festival which commemorates the Great Fire of 1871.  At the festival were acrobats, performers from the different neighborhoods of Chicago, vendors, food trucks, the single greatest fireworks display I have seen since coming to Chicago, and the Grand Finale of setting the GRIT House on fire.  I of course have a bucket list of things to do before leaving the city and have already made a dent by just getting out and living life!

Pretty successful start to this semester, I’d say!