As I began my student teaching, the kindergarten classes were working on a Pablo Picasso unit, with a strong emphasis on his colors and time periods using them. The project was influenced by his Rose Period so students were using red, orange, yellow, pink and peach. Since Valentine's Day is approaching, our subject was hearts. Students used paint, oil pastels, scissors, construction paper and glue!

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As I completed my final week at Hughes High School, I experienced such a rush of emotions and excitement as my students completed a review game for their test (I was required by my mentor to give them a test). I had students cut their color wheel into the original pieces. With this, they could fan out their colors, revealing a few, while concealing the rest. I had students practice by showing me different color schemes including: analogous and warm colors.

Another form of review was using the large dry erase board to review facial feature placement. I would have students work together to "build" a face without talking to one another. This was a small group activity done at each table, having the students use different colors of markers. Students were to complete a face and include: horizontal and vertical axis lines, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hairline, neck, eyebrows. Then students found celebrities in magazines and analyzed their facial features according to placement information we learned together.

Students took a test and completed a course evaluation the last day. Overall, this experience was plentiful. I developed a rapport with my students and had the opportunity to teach them valuable art foundations, while allowing them to experiment with and explore the materials. At the end of their final project, there was a mutual respect for the work as students were proud of their images and I was proud of their reflection and presentation of themselves.

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After three weeks of foundational learning and experimentation with color schemes, mixing and theory, my students were ready to begin their culminating (final) project.

Seniors: At the beginning of the week, I spent two days working with students on observational techniques and facial feature placement. Students completed worksheets about themselves. The students are creating a split self-portrait where they are to present their current reality and fantasy and the struggle to find balance between the two. The realistic portion of the assignment was to be drawn and shaded using graphite. The fantasy portion was to be painted in one chosen color scheme which represents and reflects on themselves. The final element was to write about themselves on a transparency paper and tape this over their face to include an element of concealing/revealing themselves. This project turned out to be insightful not only for the students but both myself and my mentor teacher as we were able to discover more about our students through their drawings, paintings and writings.

Adaptations/Modifications: For students who required a modified lesson, I taught first about the pop artist Andy Warhol. We spent a day looking at his work, inspiration and techniques as they would be completing a self-portrait with a similar color scheme process. After learning about the artist, I presented an example of screen separations on transparency paper to show his concept of process and layering.

Students completed a self-portrait in the style of Andy Warhol. This project was successful and students had a flex assignment for those who finished early without having them move on to a new project. This was another layer to their final project.

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In my third week at Hughes High School, I had the students continue working with color mixing and color theory. This week, students created a 12 piece color wheel, complete with a range of 9 values for each color (hue), including four tints and four shades. The students created a design for their pie pieces and completed it around the color wheel.

The students completed their color mixing and painting in the following order for their color wheel:
Primary Colors: red, yellow, blue
Secondary Colors: orange, green, violet
Tertiary Colors: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet

This project was modified for my mentally disabled students. Their color wheel still included the 12 colors, but they completed theirs with one tint, the hue and one shade of each color. Example.

The students were informed that they would need to choose a color scheme for their self-portrait painting! More to follow!

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The focus of this week at Hughes was color theory. All of my students created value scale paintings, creating tints and shades for red, orange and yellow. I wanted the students to have the experience of a small color family, so we began with two primary colors and created a secondary. With all of these colors, we created three tints and three shades.

This was an extensive exercise for students to use for their final painting. Many of my students had not had experience with paint, color theory or color mixing. It was a valuable lesson for students to learn about mixing dark into light and the effect of black and white on each color.

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The first week of five weeks is finished at Hughes High School! This week, my main emphasis was on teaching and exploring color theory and color schemes with the students. We began with a powerpoint presentation and guided note taking for them to keep in their portfolios. We reviewed the color wheel and color mixing.

Their first in-class assignment was to complete a color scheme flipbook. The students wrote the definitions on each of the tabs of different color schemes. On each tab, the students glued three examples of the color schemes from magazines available in the classroom. Example.

The assignment was modified for the mentally handicap students, their color scheme flipbook was reduced to a selection of five color schemes. They were to glue pieces of construction paper down that are included in the color scheme. Next, they took color scheme crayons and created a design on the top of each flap, having two ways of showing the color schemes. Example.

These will be used over the next four weeks, as my student teaching experience will be heavily focused on color, color mixing and theory.

Arty On!