This capstone project outlines my development and implementation of a service-learning after-school club in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. The after-school club engaged junior high and high school students from the Armstrong School District (Armstrong, PA) through arts-based service-learning activities. Students interacted with peers and community partners in collaborative projects to aid the community. I used action research methods to collect qualitative data as the study unfolded. Through this process, I began to understand how service-learning affected students in our rural, impoverished area. I studied how community partnerships evolved and unfolded in an area with limited art resources. In analyzing the data, I determined practices to measure student and community growth through service-learning.
The following text contains blog entries from each weekly art club meeting, along with pictures.
The following text contains blog entries from each weekly art club meeting, along with pictures.
February 20, 2018
ART Club met for the first time this afternoon, from 2:30-4. 36 students came for the first meeting, along with one of our principals, Mike Cominos. This meeting was purely informational and allowed us the opportunity to brainstorm for the future of the club. I expressed to students that I want them to be an integral part of the planning process in projects and community partnerships. Students broke up into groups. I gave each group a stack of Post-It notes, along with some markers. I asked them to think about the major problems that we have at our school and in our local community. They were to draw or write the problems out on the Post-Its, one problem per sticky. I gave students 15-20 minutes to discuss within their groups and compose their Post-It note lists. A few students chose to work independently on this. A few groups at a time, everyone brought their work up to the dry erase board. 5 students volunteered to sort these Post-It notes into common groups, in retrospect, I now know that 2 of these 5 individuals would become the future officers of ART Club. The categories with the most Post-It notes were social issues (respect, racism, harassment, and abuse), drug/alcohol abuse, bullying, and environmental issues. After I read some of these categories aloud, I asked students to next think about how we can address these issues through our club. On their Post-It notes, I asked them to write out ideas for projects or community partnerships that would correlate with some of the issues listed on the board. After 10 minutes of brainstorming time, I asked for volunteers to share their ideas. We spent at least 15-20 minutes listing idea after idea on the dry erase board, around the Post-It notes. The entire board was filled when our session was over. Finally, I asked each student to vote on the shared ideas. They were to list their top 3 favorite ideas on a Post-It note to turn in to me anonymously. I tallied the votes after our session ended. Our local hospital received 23 votes, Orphans of the Storm (local animal shelter) received 19 votes, our courtyard also received 19 votes, and organizing a color run received 15 votes. This first meeting felt like a blur of craziness, mostly because I felt inexperienced and I had an audience from our principal. Although the students were well-behaved, it is still difficult to quiet 36 students. I was pleased with how the meeting played out, but I left feeling a little overwhelmed still. I realized that I needed to find a way of handling this many students, keeping them all occupied at once. I also had a lot of planning and preparatory work ahead of me in making our project ideas a reality.
ART Club met for the first time this afternoon, from 2:30-4. 36 students came for the first meeting, along with one of our principals, Mike Cominos. This meeting was purely informational and allowed us the opportunity to brainstorm for the future of the club. I expressed to students that I want them to be an integral part of the planning process in projects and community partnerships. Students broke up into groups. I gave each group a stack of Post-It notes, along with some markers. I asked them to think about the major problems that we have at our school and in our local community. They were to draw or write the problems out on the Post-Its, one problem per sticky. I gave students 15-20 minutes to discuss within their groups and compose their Post-It note lists. A few students chose to work independently on this. A few groups at a time, everyone brought their work up to the dry erase board. 5 students volunteered to sort these Post-It notes into common groups, in retrospect, I now know that 2 of these 5 individuals would become the future officers of ART Club. The categories with the most Post-It notes were social issues (respect, racism, harassment, and abuse), drug/alcohol abuse, bullying, and environmental issues. After I read some of these categories aloud, I asked students to next think about how we can address these issues through our club. On their Post-It notes, I asked them to write out ideas for projects or community partnerships that would correlate with some of the issues listed on the board. After 10 minutes of brainstorming time, I asked for volunteers to share their ideas. We spent at least 15-20 minutes listing idea after idea on the dry erase board, around the Post-It notes. The entire board was filled when our session was over. Finally, I asked each student to vote on the shared ideas. They were to list their top 3 favorite ideas on a Post-It note to turn in to me anonymously. I tallied the votes after our session ended. Our local hospital received 23 votes, Orphans of the Storm (local animal shelter) received 19 votes, our courtyard also received 19 votes, and organizing a color run received 15 votes. This first meeting felt like a blur of craziness, mostly because I felt inexperienced and I had an audience from our principal. Although the students were well-behaved, it is still difficult to quiet 36 students. I was pleased with how the meeting played out, but I left feeling a little overwhelmed still. I realized that I needed to find a way of handling this many students, keeping them all occupied at once. I also had a lot of planning and preparatory work ahead of me in making our project ideas a reality.
February 27, 2018
At our second meeting, 30 students were present. Some of these students were completely new to ART Club, so we may not actually be decreasing in numbers quite yet. I’ve been considering breaking these meetings up into separate junior high and senior high weeks, alternating every other week. After this decrease in numbers though, I will wait to see what the next few weeks hold as far as attendance goes. At the beginning of our session, I had some “housekeeping” things to attend to. I had set up a REMIND account for students/parents to receive text message or email announcements about ART Club. I passed out handouts to each student with instructions detailing how to set up their own account. Afterwards, I discussed officer responsibilities for our upcoming election. Interested students listed their name on a piece of paper for me, and copied down information to include in their campaigning speech. 4 students were interested in running for president, 3 students were interested in the vice president position, 6 students were willing to be secretary, and 3 listed their names to run for treasurer. The remaining hour of our meeting was devoted to brainstorming for our first projects. I relayed to students the results of last week’s voting and wrote the winning ideas on the board. I asked students to brainstorm in groups or independently, using Post-It notes again. One 9th grade student recorded ideas on the board, sorting the ideas into columns. I was honestly impressed with some of the ideas that students were offering up in our discussion…things that I would have never come up with by myself. Most all students were engaged in the discussion, and I only needed to quiet everyone down a few times. Even though there were only 6 less students from our last meeting, it felt like a more manageable amount. Similar to last week, I asked students to vote on their top 3 choices for beginning projects, and I tallied the votes after our session ended.
March 6, 2018
28 students came to today’s meeting. Two of these students were new to the club. We held officer elections first. I asked each present candidate to give their speech, before any student voted. Three students dropped out of the race before we began. Every candidate had come prepared. I was very impressed. One student had brought in cupcakes for everyone, and another student wore a shirt with her face on it to entice voters. I handed out the ballots before the candidates spoke, so that voters could make notes on each candidate. I was impressed with how many of them actually did record some notes! A female senior won president, a sophomore won vice president, a freshman won secretary, and a sophomore won treasurer. I’m excited with the results-all of these girls seem to be very motivated to be involved, and I feel that they will do a great job. I do have some worries about giving up control though. It’s difficult for me to delegate sometimes and let go, so this will be a learning and growing experience for me too. After the elections, we began some work for the hospital and Orphans of the Storm care packages. Students chose which station they wished to work at. Some students were cutting dog bandanas out of fabric, some were cutting embroidery floss and tying the ends together for friendship bracelets, and others were designing their own coloring book pages. At times, this was chaotic. I should have more clearly planned out the stations to maximize our time together.
At our second meeting, 30 students were present. Some of these students were completely new to ART Club, so we may not actually be decreasing in numbers quite yet. I’ve been considering breaking these meetings up into separate junior high and senior high weeks, alternating every other week. After this decrease in numbers though, I will wait to see what the next few weeks hold as far as attendance goes. At the beginning of our session, I had some “housekeeping” things to attend to. I had set up a REMIND account for students/parents to receive text message or email announcements about ART Club. I passed out handouts to each student with instructions detailing how to set up their own account. Afterwards, I discussed officer responsibilities for our upcoming election. Interested students listed their name on a piece of paper for me, and copied down information to include in their campaigning speech. 4 students were interested in running for president, 3 students were interested in the vice president position, 6 students were willing to be secretary, and 3 listed their names to run for treasurer. The remaining hour of our meeting was devoted to brainstorming for our first projects. I relayed to students the results of last week’s voting and wrote the winning ideas on the board. I asked students to brainstorm in groups or independently, using Post-It notes again. One 9th grade student recorded ideas on the board, sorting the ideas into columns. I was honestly impressed with some of the ideas that students were offering up in our discussion…things that I would have never come up with by myself. Most all students were engaged in the discussion, and I only needed to quiet everyone down a few times. Even though there were only 6 less students from our last meeting, it felt like a more manageable amount. Similar to last week, I asked students to vote on their top 3 choices for beginning projects, and I tallied the votes after our session ended.
March 6, 2018
28 students came to today’s meeting. Two of these students were new to the club. We held officer elections first. I asked each present candidate to give their speech, before any student voted. Three students dropped out of the race before we began. Every candidate had come prepared. I was very impressed. One student had brought in cupcakes for everyone, and another student wore a shirt with her face on it to entice voters. I handed out the ballots before the candidates spoke, so that voters could make notes on each candidate. I was impressed with how many of them actually did record some notes! A female senior won president, a sophomore won vice president, a freshman won secretary, and a sophomore won treasurer. I’m excited with the results-all of these girls seem to be very motivated to be involved, and I feel that they will do a great job. I do have some worries about giving up control though. It’s difficult for me to delegate sometimes and let go, so this will be a learning and growing experience for me too. After the elections, we began some work for the hospital and Orphans of the Storm care packages. Students chose which station they wished to work at. Some students were cutting dog bandanas out of fabric, some were cutting embroidery floss and tying the ends together for friendship bracelets, and others were designing their own coloring book pages. At times, this was chaotic. I should have more clearly planned out the stations to maximize our time together.
March 13, 2018
This week’s session started with a pre-project survey. Each of the 34 students completed the questionnaire, which comprised of the following questions: 1. How do you feel about the classmates that you will be working with for this service project? 2. What are your expectations for this project? 3. What ideas do you have for starting this project? 4. What part of this upcoming project is exciting to you? What part of the upcoming project is not exciting to you? The questions this time were in relation to the upcoming projects with the Orphans of the Storm local animal shelter. After the survey, I showed a tutorial video of how to make rope dog toys from old t-shirts. Students that did not want to participate in this activity could continue working on their coloring book pages from the prior week’s session. Students worked for the remainder of the class period on their coloring book pages or dog toys. At the end of class, they had assembled 34 dog toys. The older students started to take some leadership roles in the cleanup process-telling the younger kids to clean up after themselves, organizing the materials into piles.
This week’s session started with a pre-project survey. Each of the 34 students completed the questionnaire, which comprised of the following questions: 1. How do you feel about the classmates that you will be working with for this service project? 2. What are your expectations for this project? 3. What ideas do you have for starting this project? 4. What part of this upcoming project is exciting to you? What part of the upcoming project is not exciting to you? The questions this time were in relation to the upcoming projects with the Orphans of the Storm local animal shelter. After the survey, I showed a tutorial video of how to make rope dog toys from old t-shirts. Students that did not want to participate in this activity could continue working on their coloring book pages from the prior week’s session. Students worked for the remainder of the class period on their coloring book pages or dog toys. At the end of class, they had assembled 34 dog toys. The older students started to take some leadership roles in the cleanup process-telling the younger kids to clean up after themselves, organizing the materials into piles.
March 20, 2018 – ART club cancelled, due to weather
March 23, 2018
Five students from ART Club volunteered to face paint at our school’s THON event, raising money for children in our area with cancer or illnesses. Although the event took place from 9 pm until 6 am, we were only there from 9 pm until midnight. Two 9th grade girls showed up at 8:30 pm to help me set up. We filled cups with water, moved tables and chairs, and retrieved paint brushes from my classroom. As we were walking to my classroom, they shared with me that they had been disappointed that our weekly meeting had been cancelled. They had been looking forward to seeing their friends and eating the snacks that one of their friends had planned to bring. I asked about their friend, a 7th grade boy. They shared with me that they had befriended him at the first meeting. He had been sitting by himself, so they had invited him to sit with them. They all became friends, and they’ve been taking turns bringing snacks each week!
Students seemed to enjoy their time face painting, and some of their friends even stopped over to help them. The THON participants seemed to also be excited about face painting. Many of the teams chose to get matching paintings on all of their faces.
March 27, 2018
This week at ART Club, 32 students attended. We began to brainstorm for the upcoming window painting project in Kittanning. I had met with the Kittanning mayor and a member of the borough council a few weeks ago. They want our students, along with those in LEO Club, to get involved in painting the windows of several vacant buildings in Kittanning. They hope to unify the community aesthetic with a patriotic theme for Memorial Day and 4th of July. At one of the buildings, they want to use the window space to highlight some of the clubs and organizations/teams at our school. At our meeting, they were really excited to have help from the students, and thought that their involvement would be a great opportunity for positive publicity in the community. Students had the entire club time to brainstorm ideas for these windows. I let them choose which route they wanted to cater their designs towards – the Armstrong High windows or the patriotic theme. I received back a selection of options for both, and I told students that I’d be choosing from amongst their designs. One particular group of junior high students never engages in the activities. They always have their sketchbooks out in front of them and just draw their own designs. They carry on pretty loudly, and it has become somewhat of a frustrating situation. They clearly are only there to hang out with their friends, rather than participate in the service projects. I plan on monitoring this situation and having a talk with them soon if this continues. The numbers of the club are already rather large, and it would be beneficial to cut back. I tend to forget to be thankful for these students though. Without their interest, I would not have a club for completing this research. Although it can be frustrating to deal with such large numbers, I am so grateful that they are all willing to stay after school to offer me the opportunity to collect data and give back to our community.
April 3, 2018:
There were 29 students that stayed this week for ART Club. After visiting with a woman at our local animal shelter the weekend prior to this meeting, we started making dog bowls today. These dog bowls will be one piece of the care packages for newly adopted animals that we plan to create for Orphans of the Storm. Due to our large numbers, not all students could participate in the clay processes of making the bowls. Six of my upperclassmen volunteered to continue working on the coloring book pages for the hospital instead. They worked in the adjoining art room independently. I see that this group in particular is starting to take leadership roles in this club. Two of them are already officers, but others are beginning to step up and guide the younger kids. One of these girls has a whistle on her backpack that she blows when I’m trying to quiet everyone down! The fact that they were willing to skip out on the clay experience to let the younger kids participate instead shows compassion and sacrifice. We created stations for the bowl creation along six separate art tables. Two tables were responsible for rolling the clay into slabs of even thickness. One group was responsible for measuring and cutting the base and side pieces. The last two groups attached the sides to the base and smoothed the form together. The assembly line became quite successful, once we got moving. The students at the end of the line had awhile of waiting at the beginning. They showed great patience though in awaiting their duties. Students of different friend groups meshed at these tables and started to communicate a little more to accomplish our ultimate goal. The cleanup process was a little intense. Some students definitely stepped up and helped a great deal, while others were content to sit back and watch everyone else do the work. On several occasions, I raised my voice to tell one specific group that they needed to be cleaning up, instead of goofing around (the same group that never does anything – go figure). We were able to get all of the in-progress bowls into plastic bags for finalization next week with some time to spare. I think that most of the students enjoyed working with the clay. Some told me that they hadn’t worked with clay since elementary school. I know that some rolled slabs or used scoring and slip for the first time as well. Other students who were well-experienced with clay were able to take leadership roles in the process.
March 23, 2018
Five students from ART Club volunteered to face paint at our school’s THON event, raising money for children in our area with cancer or illnesses. Although the event took place from 9 pm until 6 am, we were only there from 9 pm until midnight. Two 9th grade girls showed up at 8:30 pm to help me set up. We filled cups with water, moved tables and chairs, and retrieved paint brushes from my classroom. As we were walking to my classroom, they shared with me that they had been disappointed that our weekly meeting had been cancelled. They had been looking forward to seeing their friends and eating the snacks that one of their friends had planned to bring. I asked about their friend, a 7th grade boy. They shared with me that they had befriended him at the first meeting. He had been sitting by himself, so they had invited him to sit with them. They all became friends, and they’ve been taking turns bringing snacks each week!
Students seemed to enjoy their time face painting, and some of their friends even stopped over to help them. The THON participants seemed to also be excited about face painting. Many of the teams chose to get matching paintings on all of their faces.
March 27, 2018
This week at ART Club, 32 students attended. We began to brainstorm for the upcoming window painting project in Kittanning. I had met with the Kittanning mayor and a member of the borough council a few weeks ago. They want our students, along with those in LEO Club, to get involved in painting the windows of several vacant buildings in Kittanning. They hope to unify the community aesthetic with a patriotic theme for Memorial Day and 4th of July. At one of the buildings, they want to use the window space to highlight some of the clubs and organizations/teams at our school. At our meeting, they were really excited to have help from the students, and thought that their involvement would be a great opportunity for positive publicity in the community. Students had the entire club time to brainstorm ideas for these windows. I let them choose which route they wanted to cater their designs towards – the Armstrong High windows or the patriotic theme. I received back a selection of options for both, and I told students that I’d be choosing from amongst their designs. One particular group of junior high students never engages in the activities. They always have their sketchbooks out in front of them and just draw their own designs. They carry on pretty loudly, and it has become somewhat of a frustrating situation. They clearly are only there to hang out with their friends, rather than participate in the service projects. I plan on monitoring this situation and having a talk with them soon if this continues. The numbers of the club are already rather large, and it would be beneficial to cut back. I tend to forget to be thankful for these students though. Without their interest, I would not have a club for completing this research. Although it can be frustrating to deal with such large numbers, I am so grateful that they are all willing to stay after school to offer me the opportunity to collect data and give back to our community.
April 3, 2018:
There were 29 students that stayed this week for ART Club. After visiting with a woman at our local animal shelter the weekend prior to this meeting, we started making dog bowls today. These dog bowls will be one piece of the care packages for newly adopted animals that we plan to create for Orphans of the Storm. Due to our large numbers, not all students could participate in the clay processes of making the bowls. Six of my upperclassmen volunteered to continue working on the coloring book pages for the hospital instead. They worked in the adjoining art room independently. I see that this group in particular is starting to take leadership roles in this club. Two of them are already officers, but others are beginning to step up and guide the younger kids. One of these girls has a whistle on her backpack that she blows when I’m trying to quiet everyone down! The fact that they were willing to skip out on the clay experience to let the younger kids participate instead shows compassion and sacrifice. We created stations for the bowl creation along six separate art tables. Two tables were responsible for rolling the clay into slabs of even thickness. One group was responsible for measuring and cutting the base and side pieces. The last two groups attached the sides to the base and smoothed the form together. The assembly line became quite successful, once we got moving. The students at the end of the line had awhile of waiting at the beginning. They showed great patience though in awaiting their duties. Students of different friend groups meshed at these tables and started to communicate a little more to accomplish our ultimate goal. The cleanup process was a little intense. Some students definitely stepped up and helped a great deal, while others were content to sit back and watch everyone else do the work. On several occasions, I raised my voice to tell one specific group that they needed to be cleaning up, instead of goofing around (the same group that never does anything – go figure). We were able to get all of the in-progress bowls into plastic bags for finalization next week with some time to spare. I think that most of the students enjoyed working with the clay. Some told me that they hadn’t worked with clay since elementary school. I know that some rolled slabs or used scoring and slip for the first time as well. Other students who were well-experienced with clay were able to take leadership roles in the process.
April 10, 2018:
32 students stayed for ART Club today. 12 of the 32 students moved over to the other art room to work on either coloring book pages or decorating white handled bags for the Orphans of the Storm care packages. To decorate these bags, students began drawing dog or cat scenes and incorporating the words, “Courtesy of AHS Art Club,” somewhere on the bag. After drawing and outlining in Sharpie, they colored with colored pencil or marker. One of the 10th grade officers took the lead in this room, without me asking. She sorted bags into piles at the end of our meeting and Students in my classroom worked to smooth clay bowls from last week to finalize them. All students learned how to smooth with a metal or plastic rib tool, which none had used before. After this smoothing process, they worked in stations again to create an assembly line. Some students sculpted clay animals to add to bowl rims. Others worked to roll out slabs again, while the next stations assembled the bowls with slip. Any in-progress bowls were put into plastic bags for the next week. Cleanup went much more smoothly this time with less people involved.
After our meeting, I met with our contact from the borough council and the Kittanning mayor. Another teacher, the LEO Club sponsor, met with us also. We finalized information about window painting and discussed designs. Our contact confirmed that our school would be contributing to painting two buildings in downtown Kittanning-once they windows have been cleaned. The Rite Aid building will illustrate patriotic scenes, while the other building will highlight things that have to do with our school’s clubs and community service activities.
April 17, 2018:
This week, 31 students came to the meeting. This week greatly mirrored last week. About half of the group worked in the other art class to continue with the bags for the animal shelter or the coloring book pages. The other students worked with clay, in the same format as last week. I pulled my president, vice president, and two other dedicated students aside to plan the window painting layout for the Rite Aid building. They worked so well together! I was impressed with their efforts in planning, measuring, and arranging the composition. They first drew out their idea on paper. Afterwards, they cut large bulletin board paper to draw out the forms, in proportion to the window size. They were not able to finish this all during our hour and a half together, so they asked if I could write them passes to work on it during the school day too. At least one of them came the next four days during seminar period to continue working. Although our goal was to finish the design before the next meeting, I was super happy with their dedication and willingness to put in the extra effort outside of meeting times. I told students at the end of the meeting that we might be painting at the windows next Tuesday, if the design could be finalized before.
32 students stayed for ART Club today. 12 of the 32 students moved over to the other art room to work on either coloring book pages or decorating white handled bags for the Orphans of the Storm care packages. To decorate these bags, students began drawing dog or cat scenes and incorporating the words, “Courtesy of AHS Art Club,” somewhere on the bag. After drawing and outlining in Sharpie, they colored with colored pencil or marker. One of the 10th grade officers took the lead in this room, without me asking. She sorted bags into piles at the end of our meeting and Students in my classroom worked to smooth clay bowls from last week to finalize them. All students learned how to smooth with a metal or plastic rib tool, which none had used before. After this smoothing process, they worked in stations again to create an assembly line. Some students sculpted clay animals to add to bowl rims. Others worked to roll out slabs again, while the next stations assembled the bowls with slip. Any in-progress bowls were put into plastic bags for the next week. Cleanup went much more smoothly this time with less people involved.
After our meeting, I met with our contact from the borough council and the Kittanning mayor. Another teacher, the LEO Club sponsor, met with us also. We finalized information about window painting and discussed designs. Our contact confirmed that our school would be contributing to painting two buildings in downtown Kittanning-once they windows have been cleaned. The Rite Aid building will illustrate patriotic scenes, while the other building will highlight things that have to do with our school’s clubs and community service activities.
April 17, 2018:
This week, 31 students came to the meeting. This week greatly mirrored last week. About half of the group worked in the other art class to continue with the bags for the animal shelter or the coloring book pages. The other students worked with clay, in the same format as last week. I pulled my president, vice president, and two other dedicated students aside to plan the window painting layout for the Rite Aid building. They worked so well together! I was impressed with their efforts in planning, measuring, and arranging the composition. They first drew out their idea on paper. Afterwards, they cut large bulletin board paper to draw out the forms, in proportion to the window size. They were not able to finish this all during our hour and a half together, so they asked if I could write them passes to work on it during the school day too. At least one of them came the next four days during seminar period to continue working. Although our goal was to finish the design before the next meeting, I was super happy with their dedication and willingness to put in the extra effort outside of meeting times. I told students at the end of the meeting that we might be painting at the windows next Tuesday, if the design could be finalized before.
April 24, 2018:
Attendance was way down this week…probably because students were not sure if we had a meeting or not. I think my announcement about potentially painting this week at the windows, instead of having a meeting, confused some students. 15 students came, which was honestly a refreshing change from the hectic nature of a normal attendance week. The committee of four completed the template for the Rite Aid building windows. They created a scene with a silhouetted man saluting the flag, a hill of crosses, fireworks, and planes flying overhead. All other students continued or began working on the bags for the animal shelter care packages.
May 1, 2018:
Today was an attempt at wrapping up many of the projects we had begun, since we only have a few weeks left together. I recruited 4 ninth graders and 1 tenth grader to continue making templates for the window painting. This template was for the second of two buildings that our school is responsible for painting. It will highlight school activities and student accomplishments. Two of the window panes will display the logos of clubs at Armstrong High School. The other two will highlight the recent successes of our bowling and hockey teams. These five students worked the entire meeting to plan out these windows, but did not begin the actual templates yet. I worry that we will not get finished with all of the projects that we committed to for this year…The remaining group of 16 students were supposed to help wrap up decorating bags, making dog collar bandanas, and finalizing coloring book pages. Unfortunately, there was not much working that was actually happening. I had to confiscate a makeup bag to prevent a makeover from happening and reprimanded students for using my Sharpies to draw on each other. About half of these students, mostly 9th graders, actually were making progress. We are almost finished decorating bags and will be able to decorate the food/water dishes, once they are fired this week. It is difficult to find a good balance between letting the students take ownership in this club and having to keep them confined to avoid discipline issues. I’m considering limiting this club to only high school students if it continues next year. However, I do like that junior high and high school have interacted within this group. I guess we’ll see what next year brings! Anticipating next week, I had students sign up for painting windows in Kittanning. Seven students signed up, and a few more said that they are hoping to make it. Another teacher will also be coming with LEO Club to paint next week. She had about ten people sign up.
May 8, 2018
Today we met at 2:30 in Kittanning to paint windows. Between the two groups, 31 students were present. Wow! Way more students than I was anticipating. At the beginning of our experience, I felt quite disoriented. I wasn’t quite sure how to split up all of those kids into productive groups. There was honestly more kids there than tasks to complete. The girls who had designed the templates began by taping them up on the front of the windows. Other students began by mixing our tempera paint with some dish soap and splitting it up into the containers that I had brought along. Everyone followed the templates to paint, except one 10th grader. She freehanded an American flag on the center window, since one of our template pieces was backwards. This prevented our original flag design from working correctly. I assigned some of the older, talented students to some of the more precise sections. Afterwards though, the LEO Club leader and I took a backseat as students painted. I only offered direction in rotating kids in and out to give all a turn to paint and in suggesting that students clean up paint edges or paint another coat over transparent areas. Otherwise, I tried to let the students lead. The mayor of Kittanning and a borough councilman were there to observe. They had been our contacts for organizing this project and were excited to see it begin. At the end of our session, students had painted a silhouetted soldier saluting, one firework, half of an American flag, a larger flag to encompass the entire door windows, three silhouetted crosses on a hill, and three silhouetted jet planes. We accomplished a fair amount, but next week will be needed to complete the design. Unfortunately, the paint did not cover as evenly as we had hoped it would, so students were using several coats of paint to fill in the transparency. As students cleaned up, I arranged with the mayor for another painting session next Tuesday, at the same time.
Attendance was way down this week…probably because students were not sure if we had a meeting or not. I think my announcement about potentially painting this week at the windows, instead of having a meeting, confused some students. 15 students came, which was honestly a refreshing change from the hectic nature of a normal attendance week. The committee of four completed the template for the Rite Aid building windows. They created a scene with a silhouetted man saluting the flag, a hill of crosses, fireworks, and planes flying overhead. All other students continued or began working on the bags for the animal shelter care packages.
May 1, 2018:
Today was an attempt at wrapping up many of the projects we had begun, since we only have a few weeks left together. I recruited 4 ninth graders and 1 tenth grader to continue making templates for the window painting. This template was for the second of two buildings that our school is responsible for painting. It will highlight school activities and student accomplishments. Two of the window panes will display the logos of clubs at Armstrong High School. The other two will highlight the recent successes of our bowling and hockey teams. These five students worked the entire meeting to plan out these windows, but did not begin the actual templates yet. I worry that we will not get finished with all of the projects that we committed to for this year…The remaining group of 16 students were supposed to help wrap up decorating bags, making dog collar bandanas, and finalizing coloring book pages. Unfortunately, there was not much working that was actually happening. I had to confiscate a makeup bag to prevent a makeover from happening and reprimanded students for using my Sharpies to draw on each other. About half of these students, mostly 9th graders, actually were making progress. We are almost finished decorating bags and will be able to decorate the food/water dishes, once they are fired this week. It is difficult to find a good balance between letting the students take ownership in this club and having to keep them confined to avoid discipline issues. I’m considering limiting this club to only high school students if it continues next year. However, I do like that junior high and high school have interacted within this group. I guess we’ll see what next year brings! Anticipating next week, I had students sign up for painting windows in Kittanning. Seven students signed up, and a few more said that they are hoping to make it. Another teacher will also be coming with LEO Club to paint next week. She had about ten people sign up.
May 8, 2018
Today we met at 2:30 in Kittanning to paint windows. Between the two groups, 31 students were present. Wow! Way more students than I was anticipating. At the beginning of our experience, I felt quite disoriented. I wasn’t quite sure how to split up all of those kids into productive groups. There was honestly more kids there than tasks to complete. The girls who had designed the templates began by taping them up on the front of the windows. Other students began by mixing our tempera paint with some dish soap and splitting it up into the containers that I had brought along. Everyone followed the templates to paint, except one 10th grader. She freehanded an American flag on the center window, since one of our template pieces was backwards. This prevented our original flag design from working correctly. I assigned some of the older, talented students to some of the more precise sections. Afterwards though, the LEO Club leader and I took a backseat as students painted. I only offered direction in rotating kids in and out to give all a turn to paint and in suggesting that students clean up paint edges or paint another coat over transparent areas. Otherwise, I tried to let the students lead. The mayor of Kittanning and a borough councilman were there to observe. They had been our contacts for organizing this project and were excited to see it begin. At the end of our session, students had painted a silhouetted soldier saluting, one firework, half of an American flag, a larger flag to encompass the entire door windows, three silhouetted crosses on a hill, and three silhouetted jet planes. We accomplished a fair amount, but next week will be needed to complete the design. Unfortunately, the paint did not cover as evenly as we had hoped it would, so students were using several coats of paint to fill in the transparency. As students cleaned up, I arranged with the mayor for another painting session next Tuesday, at the same time.
May 15, 2018
Round two of window painting! 16 students showed up this week. I spoke with the LEO Club leader and decided with her that they weren’t going to be needed this week. We had too many kids last time around. The group that showed up was a nice number for the amount of work to complete. Some students came last week, but others were new to the project. At the beginning, we took some pictures at the two other buildings that will be painted in the future. The owner of one of these buildings was there and was included in these pictures for the newspaper. The second of three buildings had been cleaned and prepared this week, so I sent the four girls who had created the first template to this building to work. I gave them free reign to create whatever scene they wished. They collaborated with one another and devised a plan. At our first building, all remaining students split up into groups, organized by me. I tried to match tasks with students’ ability levels. The younger kids were tasked with adding final coats to the parts that had been painted last week. The older students added new details to complete the scene. One pairing in particular was surprising to me. A 7th grader and a 10th grader chose to paint together. I don’t recall ever seeing them interact with one another before. They worked well together though, one being short and the other tall. They alternated in painting the white and red stripes on the flag of the door’s windows. Two 7th grade boys, who typically misbehave in their regular art classes, have also demonstrated great character this week. I placed them on the task of painting over the silhouetted soldier. Painting over this dried paint only started pulling up past work and making it look more streaky and transparent. They meticulously patched up all of these streaks though and worked as a team. One would stand on the outside of the building to search for streaks, pointing out these areas to the one on the inside of the glass. On several occasions, they used wet paper towels to clean up sloppy paint edges. I was really pleasantly pleased with their contributions. At the end of this session, we had completed the first buildings’ work. Students added two more fireworks, a bouquet of flowers in the soldier’s hand, water underneath the planes, and clouds in the sky around the planes. At the second building, these girls had begun a silhouetted mother, holding a baby, grass along the base of the window and a sun in the sky, and the beginning of “USA” in the middle of one of the windows. If all goes according to plan, we will conclude the window painting next Tuesday.
May 22, 2018
Today we finished the window painting project. 17 students came to help this week. They primarily focused on completing the second building, which they had begun last week. I sent three students across the street to the first building. They painted the words “AHS Art & LEO Clubs” on one of the finalized windows. All other students split into groups to accomplish the tasks before them. Half worked on painting windows to the left of the doors. They finished the “USA” and the grass along the base of the window and painted patriotic flowers coming up from the grass. A few groups of students rotated through painting these flowers, so there were several different styles. Students painting windows on the right side of the door finalized the silhouetted woman and completed grass along the base of the window, fireworks in the sky, and a white picket fence. A reporter from a local newspaper came by to conduct interviews with some of the students during our session. I saw a change this week in a group of eighth grade students. In prior weeks, they acted out of immaturity. They would not help clean up materials, use my markers and paints to draw all over their bodies, and carry on loudly without heeding my requests to quiet down. This week, they acted with so much more maturity! They were helpful and spoke to me with respect. Before they left, they asked if they needed to help clean up any of the materials. I’m not sure what prompted this change. I did allow them to work on their own special part of the project, and they were interviewed for the newspaper. I wonder if this responsibility drew these leadership qualities out of them. It was refreshing to see them change their behaviors in such a positive way! All of the participants got along very well together today. They were helpful in cleanup and were supportive of each other’s efforts. They offered each other encouraging words and joked around with one another. A great end to this project!
Round two of window painting! 16 students showed up this week. I spoke with the LEO Club leader and decided with her that they weren’t going to be needed this week. We had too many kids last time around. The group that showed up was a nice number for the amount of work to complete. Some students came last week, but others were new to the project. At the beginning, we took some pictures at the two other buildings that will be painted in the future. The owner of one of these buildings was there and was included in these pictures for the newspaper. The second of three buildings had been cleaned and prepared this week, so I sent the four girls who had created the first template to this building to work. I gave them free reign to create whatever scene they wished. They collaborated with one another and devised a plan. At our first building, all remaining students split up into groups, organized by me. I tried to match tasks with students’ ability levels. The younger kids were tasked with adding final coats to the parts that had been painted last week. The older students added new details to complete the scene. One pairing in particular was surprising to me. A 7th grader and a 10th grader chose to paint together. I don’t recall ever seeing them interact with one another before. They worked well together though, one being short and the other tall. They alternated in painting the white and red stripes on the flag of the door’s windows. Two 7th grade boys, who typically misbehave in their regular art classes, have also demonstrated great character this week. I placed them on the task of painting over the silhouetted soldier. Painting over this dried paint only started pulling up past work and making it look more streaky and transparent. They meticulously patched up all of these streaks though and worked as a team. One would stand on the outside of the building to search for streaks, pointing out these areas to the one on the inside of the glass. On several occasions, they used wet paper towels to clean up sloppy paint edges. I was really pleasantly pleased with their contributions. At the end of this session, we had completed the first buildings’ work. Students added two more fireworks, a bouquet of flowers in the soldier’s hand, water underneath the planes, and clouds in the sky around the planes. At the second building, these girls had begun a silhouetted mother, holding a baby, grass along the base of the window and a sun in the sky, and the beginning of “USA” in the middle of one of the windows. If all goes according to plan, we will conclude the window painting next Tuesday.
May 22, 2018
Today we finished the window painting project. 17 students came to help this week. They primarily focused on completing the second building, which they had begun last week. I sent three students across the street to the first building. They painted the words “AHS Art & LEO Clubs” on one of the finalized windows. All other students split into groups to accomplish the tasks before them. Half worked on painting windows to the left of the doors. They finished the “USA” and the grass along the base of the window and painted patriotic flowers coming up from the grass. A few groups of students rotated through painting these flowers, so there were several different styles. Students painting windows on the right side of the door finalized the silhouetted woman and completed grass along the base of the window, fireworks in the sky, and a white picket fence. A reporter from a local newspaper came by to conduct interviews with some of the students during our session. I saw a change this week in a group of eighth grade students. In prior weeks, they acted out of immaturity. They would not help clean up materials, use my markers and paints to draw all over their bodies, and carry on loudly without heeding my requests to quiet down. This week, they acted with so much more maturity! They were helpful and spoke to me with respect. Before they left, they asked if they needed to help clean up any of the materials. I’m not sure what prompted this change. I did allow them to work on their own special part of the project, and they were interviewed for the newspaper. I wonder if this responsibility drew these leadership qualities out of them. It was refreshing to see them change their behaviors in such a positive way! All of the participants got along very well together today. They were helpful in cleanup and were supportive of each other’s efforts. They offered each other encouraging words and joked around with one another. A great end to this project!
May 29, 2018
Our second to last meeting during this school year…17 students stayed after school. Each student was responsible for glazing one of the bisque-fired food/water dishes that had already been constructed for the animal shelter. A few students had to glaze more than one in order to finalize all of the dishes. Some chose to incorporate patterns or designs, but most kept it simple with solid colors. Everyone was engaged and waited patiently to share glaze colors that other students were using. The cleanup went smoothly and quickly, and I put all of the dishes into the kiln to be fired at the end of the meeting. The students did not need the entire an and a half to finish glazing, so a group of the upperclassman started a game of Pictionary to pass time. I was pleasantly surprised to see new friend groups still interacting with one another today. They had not reverted back to the separated groups from 14 weeks ago.
Our second to last meeting during this school year…17 students stayed after school. Each student was responsible for glazing one of the bisque-fired food/water dishes that had already been constructed for the animal shelter. A few students had to glaze more than one in order to finalize all of the dishes. Some chose to incorporate patterns or designs, but most kept it simple with solid colors. Everyone was engaged and waited patiently to share glaze colors that other students were using. The cleanup went smoothly and quickly, and I put all of the dishes into the kiln to be fired at the end of the meeting. The students did not need the entire an and a half to finish glazing, so a group of the upperclassman started a game of Pictionary to pass time. I was pleasantly surprised to see new friend groups still interacting with one another today. They had not reverted back to the separated groups from 14 weeks ago.
June 5, 2018
At our final club meeting of the year, we assembled the care packages for Orphans of the Storm, readying them for delivery. Each finalized package contained a decorated bag, a glazed water/food dish, a braided rope dog toy, and four dog bone treats. I also brought in pizza for the students to eat as a thank you for all of their hard work during our 15 weeks together.
June 8, 2018
Seven students met me at Orphans of the Storm animal shelter to assist in delivering the 24 care packages. Today was their first day of summer! They got to hold and pet some of the animals waiting to be adopted, while they had their picture taken in the main office of the shelter. They were so excited to hold the kittens and puppies and didn’t want to give them back! The shelter employees were appreciative of our contributions, and the kids helped to pick out which bag would be given out later on that day for an upcoming adoption. Afterwards, we toured the shelter for about an hour. We quickly walked through the rows of barking dogs in kennels and ended up in the “cat room.” The students were fascinated by the 10 or 15 cats that were allowed to just roam around this room freely. Everyone who showed up today seemed to genuinely enjoy their time with animals.
At our final club meeting of the year, we assembled the care packages for Orphans of the Storm, readying them for delivery. Each finalized package contained a decorated bag, a glazed water/food dish, a braided rope dog toy, and four dog bone treats. I also brought in pizza for the students to eat as a thank you for all of their hard work during our 15 weeks together.
June 8, 2018
Seven students met me at Orphans of the Storm animal shelter to assist in delivering the 24 care packages. Today was their first day of summer! They got to hold and pet some of the animals waiting to be adopted, while they had their picture taken in the main office of the shelter. They were so excited to hold the kittens and puppies and didn’t want to give them back! The shelter employees were appreciative of our contributions, and the kids helped to pick out which bag would be given out later on that day for an upcoming adoption. Afterwards, we toured the shelter for about an hour. We quickly walked through the rows of barking dogs in kennels and ended up in the “cat room.” The students were fascinated by the 10 or 15 cats that were allowed to just roam around this room freely. Everyone who showed up today seemed to genuinely enjoy their time with animals.