Field experience visit two

The School-Within- School at Peabody


Today we met a new group of kids at Ms. Marla McLean‘s art class. The topic of discussion was building something on a piece of land. The teacher asked the kids, if you have to choose a place to have a piece of land, where would it be and what would you build there? The kids took a moment to think while the teacher encouraged them to think without limits. She waited for a couple of minutes until the first boy offered his answer. The answers are diverse; it went from a princess’s castle to hotels in Mexico.

Like in the previous class, the teacher wrote down on a notebook the kids’ answers. They discussed each one’s proposal and she asked them to draw it on a piece of paper.While introducing the requirements of the assignment the teacher took a sheet of paper and showed them the two possible orientations (horizontal or vertical) it was motivating to see how she stimulated them to see possible options to communicate their ideas. I think this activity was well thought-out. It implied to build skills on decisions making, problem solving and self-confidence.

The kids were drawing with color markers, in the main table in the center of the room. They looked connected with the activity and happy to interact with each other. Minutes before the activity finished the teacher reminded them that before the class finished they had to at least work in another row in the weaving project. I was interesting to see how she was building the sense of responsibility and freedom at the same time. The kids looked at her while she was talking and when she finished each one came back to work in their drawings.
After finishing their work, it was free time. Most of the kids went out to play in wooden house located in the center of the playground area. It was interesting to see the different group interaction. This group was playing all together and the previous one; each one was doing something individually.

Another thing that was fascinating to me was the reaction to music. The teacher after introducing the assignment of the day plays music on the computer. The music is from the website Pandora.com that has different kinds of music divided by type, artist and theme. Today the music was Spanish guitar ( flamenco). The kids’ reaction was instantaneous they were moving their feet, head or parts of the body while they were drawing. It made me think about the importance of social and emotional development connected with the academic development. The creation of a friendly environment not only visually but with sound it helps them relax and focus on the projects and activities.