I used to believe that when art teachers went to hell, they had to do papier mache, all day, everyday. Now I know better. I find myself wishing today that the kiln had gotten fixed while I was at Hekma, that I could have had my first experience with clay in a school that had no expectations when it came to art. But here I am and I'm playing the hand I'm dealt.
I had four lessons worth of clay today. Back to back. The good news about this is, by the end of the day, I had it down (through trial by fire, but hey, I had it down, right?) The bad news is, I feel bad that those first two classes had to suffer through my learning curve. This is where experience comes in handy, and where I regret the fact that because I've moved around so much this feels like my third "first year teaching." I was having the children make shapes out of clay, and press different textures into them. I thought it was going to be "easy cheesy." But I didn't choose the best method for them to make the shapes. I chose to have them cut them out freehanded using the clay tools. Then I had them try using their hands to shape them. My TA came through for me in the end and suggested we borrow some cookie cutters from the KG's and have the children cut out the shapes, and with that, I was actually able to get through the whole lesson for the remaining two periods. But it was a stressful day, and it's showing me that there are lots of reasons why it might be a good idea to hang around here for a while.
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