Never Again

I vow to never mix spanish school children and tempera paint again. Today I had my first art class in which I was totally in charge of the lesson (with a teacher present always). I naturally planned to do the color wheel. something that is very simple and a good way to start off an art class...Well, it ended up being a good way for me to gauge how much these kids are  capable of doing (or not doing).  here is what happened:

1... i made and printed out a blank color wheel

2... i also (ambitiously) made and printed out a work sheet for working with tints and shades (adding white or black to a color in a scale)

3... THEN i even thought that the kids would finish with THOSE 2 early (we have 2 hours!!) and so i made an assignment for them to do a "creative" color wheel where they incorporate a colorwheel, and comlimentary colors in a drawing of their own. i feel like an idiot for thinking that this would even work.

...i get to class and realize that we dont have news papers for covering the tables, cans to fill with water for brush cleaning, or palates for mixing colors. (this is definitely my fault, but the school also has INCREDIBLY limited resources) they had an art teacher who retired, i wonder what happened to all those materials she used? did she have any??

...so its slow to get class started, i'm running around distributing papers, running to the bathroom 2 floors down to get paper towels for brush cleaning. and i used my water bottle to fill with water as the communal  brush washing station.

OK FIRST OF ALL THESE KIDS DO NOT SHUT UP! THEY TALK AND THEY SCREAM and they ask the same question over and over and over ...AND THEN there's the language barrier.

{i REMEMBER being their age, and NONE of my classes were ever this unruly, and its not just because i'm an assistant, its EVERY class}

then we realize the paints are in the other room. so we go get them. then we realize they are totally TOTALLY dry. i try putting water in it. and nothing. ofcourse. its tempera, not water color. i was desperate. so LUCKILY we had other paints in bottles that i poured out into the caps of the dried paints. got each little pod set up. and started explaining the assingment...

*these kids dont know how to color in the lines STILL!! they're in 4th grade...

*they spilled the one water bottle full of painty water on this poor kid Guillermo, (who i sometimes think is kind of weird. he doesnt have common sense) um, so we had a giant puddle of painty water on the desk (his crappy color wheel was destroyed when water was spilled all over it) his back pack got wet. the floor was soaking wet. i dont know how to say MOP in spanish. so me and the teacher are cleaning up with TOILET PAPER...then he finally sent someone to get a mop. then they were spilling paint all over the desks and the floor. only a few kids actually finished their color wheels...in 2 HOURS! the vast majority did not. forget about the "tints and shades" project and F the "creative colorwheel project"... god finally intervened when i somehow managed to get the class room cleaned up.

it wasnt THAT BAD...i didnt DIE. it was a nightmare project that was just a huge headache, and  that i dont know how educational it was for the kids (but i sure learned alot). so it was kind of a waste of time. but not really because i learned a lot and will be TOTALLY re-adjusting the projects that I thought I was going to do with the kids for the year, and really (and i'm sorry to say this) DUMB IT DOWN. 

I talked with a teacher-friend of mine and she said when she went to america for 4 years she was horrified to come back to spanish classrooms. she said american kids dont yell and scream in class. spanish kids are very unruly. and i dont know what the teacher training system is in spain, maybe my school is not a very good school, maybe its not reflective of the rest of spain, but i dont think the kids are really learning THAT MUCH. class time is not used efficiently. I remember doing a lot more in class when i was their age. i remember a lot more order and control and respect for the teacher. anyway, i'm glad i did this project because NOW I KNOW.

i'm supposed to do this color wheel project with the 6th graders. but i refuse to use paint. that was a nightmare. maybe i can do it with color pencils? i know thats lame, but it still works, and ATLEAST it wont be such a HUGE headache and basically just a giant shit show.

I wote up a really great lesson plan for the first graders and gave it to my 2 teachers, my coordinator and the head mistress. the headmistress and the coordinator were very impressed. but i'm waiting to hear back from the teachers because i think they have a more realistic idea of what the kids are capable of. I already know that I have to eliminate some projects just based off of what happened today. 

i'm so tired now.