Warhol Prints

Remember when I taught this project in Honduras?

I loved it then and I still do here in Korea!

My 7th and 8th graders did a great job of carving a portrait of themselves into a piece of linoleum and printing all sorts of fun color combinations on colored paper.  They made 8 piece frames to display several of their favorite prints a la Andy Warhol!

Feeling Watched...

My Ceramics II students made portrait busts and are just starting to finish up the painting/glazing.  They look awesome, but they keep catching me off guard in a creepy, what's that decapitated head doing over there kind of way!  Just imagine noticing one of these out of the corner of your eye as you're trying to teach...

Slab Pots with Puzzle Lids

My Ceramics I students were assigned the task of creating a slab container with a puzzle lid.  Each student needed to base their pot on a theme of their choice.  They built the pot to be entirely enclosed and then cut the lid off to ensure that the lid would fit perfectly.  Here are a few of this year's final pots:

Wheel Thrown Mugs

My Ceramics I students recently completed a wheel throwing assignment.  Each student worked to complete two mugs with trimmed feet and added handles.  They used some sort of design aspect to unify the mugs and glazed them with high-fire dipping glazes (my favorite new supply this year!).  Here are a few that have been photographed thus far:

Abstract Expressionist Sculptures

We learned about Jackson Pollock.

We used wire, blocks of wood, tape, paper mache, gesso, and acrylics.

We action painted.

We got abstract and expressionist!

Funny Kid Quote

I really shouldn't dread grading so much because it always ends up making me laugh out loud.  When describing the process of learning to throw on the wheel, 9th grader Leo says, 

"It just seemed so easy when the teacher did it but it turned out to be the biggest challenge of my life next to tying my shoelaces."

and later on in the reflection,

"Anger management was the key to success in this project.  Thanks to this project I improved in controlling my temper, which I find tremendously useful."

Jeju: Part II

The second day of touring around mom had hired a taxi driver to make it easier for us to get around and allow us to see more. In the process mom had also invited a grad student who she met on the shuttle from the airport. Apparently this grad student and his wife graduated from UW-Madison for their undergrad. Mom thought we might know them, in the past I would have said there was no way as the school is massive and the chances of knowing someone are small to nil. This time I bit my tongue however as every time this happens I do seem to know them. And as was the case Caitlin knew him (Jeff) and I knew her (Crystal). Talk about a small world. Needless to say it made for a fun day of tooling around Jeju and taking in the sites. We managed to stand at the top of a volcano, walk in a lava tube, eat a delicious meal, witness idol worship and see one of the many waterfalls. All in all it was an awesome day.

Our first stop was a volcanic crater. On the hike up the crater we went by a pretty field of wheat.

Caitlin, Tommy and myself sitting at the crater.

Before we went down into one of the lava tubes. 

Abigail and Tommy at the spire in the tube. All the lights made it difficult to take the picture.

Lunch. The shell fish in the center was moving when they brought it to the table.

After it had started to cook and get mixed up. Tommy ate this up, made me realize how much he is growing up and becoming adventurous.

We didn't have time to climb the stairs to the top of the caldera but maybe next time.

Caitlin posing.

Looking at little crustaceans.

Looking for more.

Probably the highlight of the trip, running into a highs school field trip of girls and watching Tommy turn into Bieber. Look at Crystal and Abigails faces in this one.

The ladies couldn't get enough of him.

Another excellent one, Jeff definitely helped egg on the situation.

One of the many waterfalls on Jeju.

The diving women we harvest clams and other shellfish.

You thought we were done, but nope there are more, many many more. Tommy is big in Korea.

We were able to snag Tommy away to steal our own picture but we had to fight tooth and nail for it.

The waterfall, not nearly as interesting as Tommy for the young ladies.

Funny Kid Quotes

Each quarter, I get a new group of sixth graders and we start off with a collage/writing project that will help me learn more about them.  6D just finished up their About Me Collages and their descriptions are cracking me up!

"Now let's do a guessing game.  What's crispy, tasty, and bacony?  Oops, gave away the answer...I LOVE BACON!"

"I bite my nails and crack my knuckles ALL the time and I can't stop it.  My mom tells me that I really shouldn't do it, but I think she should be thankful that I don't pick my nose."

Field Trip to Paris

I compiled some of the photos my students took (and a bit of the video I took) into a quick recap of our week.  Check it out!

Jeju Folk Village

A few months back we had issues with posting on the blog because it said we had hit our quote for space. As this was right around the time that we were in Jeju I never got around to posting. Now as we have space again for some reason that I cannot explain I thought I would get around to posting some of the pictures of our time in Jeju.
The first day we trekked around Jeju by bus we went to a traditional Korean Folk Village. We figured this would be a good way for Tommy to learn a little bit about Korean history and get some information for his homework assignment. So Tommy, Abigail and myself jumped on a bus and headed out in search of this historic park.
After getting off the bus and heading in the general direction of this folk village we luckily found it. As we wondered through the village we took pictures and participated in different aspects of daily life of the past. While everything was reconstructed it gave a nice enough idea of what the past was like. It also allowed us to enjoy a day outdoors.

Tommy testing out a rice grinder. 

A rice mill to break the rice from the husks. You like how we made Tommy pose with everything. These one wasn't even movable.

One of the Jeju stone Grandpas.

Abigail and Tommy posing with grandpas and kimchi pots.

An old game requiring you to throw an arrow into the tube. Tommy one with a resounding score of 1-0.