SchoolArts - February 2011

MANAGING THE ARTROOM
How Many Students Did
You Say I’m Going to Have?

Nancy Walkup

On schoolartsroom.com, my blog for art teachers, the most discussion generated so far has been about the challenges of teaching large classes. This seems to be a situation shared by almost all art teachers. The following is a recent conversation I had online with two art teachers through school- artsroom.com.

Anonymous Wrote:

Dear Nancy, I’ve been a subscriber since I began teaching in 1993. This, by far, is my most difficult year as an art teacher. I have been blessed to have my own room . . . and a kiln. Many art teachers are not as fortunate. I have a wonderful school with supportive staff and parents, as well as some of the best students on the planet.

This year we are in a budget crunch and have class sizes in the thirties in grades two through four. I didn’t see it as a big deal last summer when we got the news. I figured I would do projects on smaller paper, do less three-dimensional projects, etc. I had no idea how hard it would be. My students come for fifty minutes, and the first fifteen minutes are wasted on crowd control, the last ten to fifteen on clean-up.

Kids are not getting the attention they deserve. We are not learning what the curriculum dictates. I can’t even mix paint with my first graders because it’s too chaotic. I have resorted to tempera in egg cartons— something I swore I would never do!

I would love to see a series of articles on how to handle large art classes (especially for elementary) and still maintain control and teach art. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Schoolartsroom Wrote: My number-one rule is “stay in your seat.” My room is too small for my students to be up and wandering around, especially to wash hands (and of course they all need to do that at the same time!). I go around with a bucket full of dampened paper towels (cut from a school roll of brown paper towels). I pass them out, the kids wipe their hands, and then the table, and then I pick them back up. I also have my tables shaped into a “U” so I can easily and quickly circulate in the middle.

F. L. Wessely Wrote:
Although I teach grades six through
eight, I am in the EXACT predicament
as the teacher in the post. Because
of the large class sizes this year, I’m
not able to have a kinetic class envi-
ronment. In the past, getting up to
sharpen a pencil or to get a different
paintbrush without asking permission
was fine, as long as it was during indi-
vidual studio time and not instruc-
tional time. This year, NO ONE
can get up without asking for ANY-
THING. It’s difficult because the stu-
dents who’ve had me for art the past
two years need to adapt to a different
management style and stricter conse-
quences, all because of the amount of
students in the class.