WEEK 4 - Cutout Animation & Special FX

What are your thoughts on team teaching? How do you feel about working as a group on lesson plans and presentations? What is your experience when working as support versus lesson leader? What strengths do your classmates bring to ICA classroom?

I love teaching as a team. It's a wonderful way to be assured that you're not alone and there are people you know and trust on the sidelines backing you up. When I feel a hint of panic of not knowing what to say or if I forget to mention something important, my peers are there to jump in or remind me. Managing rowdy kids and timekeeping is a lot easier with more authorities since the lesson leader is focused on the lecture. As the lesson leader, I feel lots of pressure but I love feeding off the kids' energy and their excitement for what I show them. So it's gratifying. Being a support, I can really get to know the kids personally and help them. I've noticed my classmates have their specialties. Michelle is a natural teacher. She is organized with relevant and inspiring material and when she teaches, her lessons are focused with a process and an end goal. I envy the way she can handle many things at once. Wyatt is very reliable and thorough. He has a great eloquence with children and I can see that they learn a lot from him by the way he presents himself. I tend to become goofier, and more childlike around children while he maintains his composure as a fun-loving, approachable guy but still holds a sense of authority. That is so cool!

Cutout Animation was a blast! My group of kids organized themselves well, collaborated with each other using all the puppets they had made. In my group, Kevin took the lead and propelled the story forward while the girls just wanted to have fun. As a segway to the special FX class, I had them make splashes with their hands. I thought the backgrounds Lisa found were phenomenal and made their animations look stellar. The kids were unusually hyper, probably because of the rain. During the Special FX class, it's evident that CANDY + KIDS + NOT BEING ABLE TO EAT THE CANDY = some chaos. Other than that, it was fun. What I found most challenging was keeping awake since I was jetlagged and had no sleep the night before. I gotta remember to stay healthy to be able to have the mental and physical capacity to make a difference at Inner City Arts.