Picasso Inspired Peace Bouquets
Today I began my internship as one of the teaching interns for P.A.I.N.T. International. P.A.I.N.T. International, for those who might not know, is a program in which students from the University of Wisconsin-Stout are given the opportunity to teach local children and international children, from Botswana, art lessons created by art teachers from the Menomonie area and surrounding school districts. It was an incredible first-day experience.
As the lead teacher, my job was to mirror the lesson previously introduced to the class period prior to mine, which was presented by the mentor teacher for this week Mrs. Julia. As I began my instruction I asked “who has been a part of this program before?” this helped me gauge the number of new students. I proceeded to explain what our program was about, and why we use skype while creating our art projects. I wanted to do this to help students feel more comfortable with the cameras while they are making their artwork. I then went over an important aspect of the classroom, the expectations. This is a way for me to remind the students that although we are outside of the classroom, there are still rules we have to follow; however, one mistake I think I made right away was that I introduced ourselves as students, rather than instructors, in the explanation of the program and therefore some students did not take the experience as seriously toward the end of the lesson.
The lesson began with an introduction of our featured artist, Picasso. We were creating a project based off of Picasso’s color lithography print The Bouquet of Peace. Mrs. Julie provided many posters and books with large images, including one poster that showed a large image of The Bouquet of Peace, so that the students could better understand what we would be creating.
During my introduction of the project, I found a few errors in my presentation. I feel as though I did not present a lot of the information to the students in Botswana via the skype camera. Additionally, during the actual making of the work, I would have to be reminded a couple times to show the students in Botswana some of the steps I was taking to create our paintings.
A few other difficulties I had, which I think are common with any first day, is that my classroom was not managed properly. Students continuously disregarded the rules and their energy levels seemed to rise higher and higher throughout the lesson. I reflected on this issue, and I found that maybe a reminder of the rules would allow for us, instructors, to be better listened to. Another issue is that it seems like we teach right as the students are waking up, and all of their energy is just entering their bodies and brains. That is one issue I am yet to be able to think of a good way to resolve.
In conclusion, I think my first experience was one of great success! I was proud to see that students were able to easily follow along and be able to finish creating their works on time. Below I will share some of the masterpieces we made together.
- Marko Pechnik
