Ms. Eck informed us last week that she wouldn’t be in class today, and had a guest teacher scheduled, but we still decided to come since we felt we needed as much time with kids as we could get. So I don’t know if this is possible…but I do believe the number of students in the class has increased! I’m saying this because there weren’t enough seats all of a sudden, and one lucky girl got to use the teacher’s chair. I’d like to think that they all like us so much, that kids are ditching their other classes to join our Thursday design lessons. I can always dream that right? Anyway, today we passed out hand outs that showed and explained the various elements they must include on their comic book covers. Our focus with the students is to teach them how to design their covers, while they use ComicLife to make the rest of their comic book. This class was meant for them to do a lot of in class work on their covers. We gave them a time limit, and immediately collected their work when their time was up. There were some students who had difficulty with specifically what to draw, while some finished rather quickly. We ended this portion with 15 minutes left. In this time we asked one student to randomly pick a cover from the pile, and then point out to the rest of the class, if that particular cover fulfilled all the requirements we gave, and if not what was missing from it. We also asked what they noticed about the typography and images on the cover, and if they could guess what the comic book was going to be about. The rest of the class also joined in on the critiquing, and gave their comments and suggestions about that cover. We repeated this process with about 4 more covers.

We collected their storyboards again, and this time, the students were much farther along, and had done a significant amount of work on them. A lot of these kids are very talented with their concepts and drawing abilities. Its interesting to see how the contemporary cartoons and comic books of today, influence their drawing styles and story lines. I think the class was pretty successful, and was happy and surprised to see the students not shying away from critiquing eachother’s work, and in the end volunteering their covers to be critiqued by the class!

In today’s class we began with a keynote presentation showing examples of various cover designs from comic books, book covers, and movie posters, to give the students an idea of different approaches and techniques that have been used to make covers. We used these examples to talk to them about how and why certain layouts were used, and opened a discussion about what they noticed regarding the typography, iconic/graphic/photographic images, and color choices they saw in these covers. We asked them what messages they were receiving upon viewing these covers. The students generally did have comments to make about what they were seeing, but there were points where we had to help them along by asking them questions about the images. I think something that we found difficult was making sure that all the students were quiet and paying attention. The class size is about 30 kids, and even when there are two of us (leon and myself), there are still some students who aren’t paying attention and are instead talking with their classmates at their table. Commanding the classroom is still something we are figuring out at times. But we did go to those specific tables and start asking them questions, and attempted to figure out the kind of cover designs they’d be interested in. Hopefully as the classes progress, we’ll have a better understanding of how to keep the students interest and full attention.

Since the students will be taking photographs for the comic books, we gave a short lesson on techniques of using their digital cameras (there is a class set of 1megapixel cameras!). Unfortunately we had 15-20 minutes left of class, so we tried to move quickly. We had one of the students volunteer and come in front of the class to do a sample shot, and show them how they could use the camera and computer programs to convey their story through their photo. This particular girl was making a comic book about her friend Tiffany who is also in the same class. This did cause lots of giggling, but they did get an idea of how they can think about taking their pictures and the different effects and type they can apply using computer programs.

Today the students were supposed to have had half of their storyboards for their comic books completed. We did collect them, but later discovered that not everyone had turned them in, and also that a lot of them had barely started. So after class Leon and I sat down and wrote comments on every storyboard. Hopefully this will prove to be helpful, and they’ll take the assignment seriously and fully complete it by next week.

With each class I think we’re realizing that 50 minutes is a ridiculously short period of time to teach design! Maybe our 3 hour design class in ucla aren’t so bad afterall…Okay no, perhaps a 2 hour class would be better for this grade of students. I don’t think I felt as satisfied as I wanted to at the end of today’s class. But our after class discussions with Ms. Eck, are a big help, as we review how that class went and plan for the next week. She is extremely attentive and helpful!

Muir: Day 2

In our first period class with Ms.Eck today, we met the students in their computer lab. Our plan was to introduce the fundamentals of using a Mac, and how to use the program Comic life, which they would be using to create comic books. We were very pleasantly surprised at seeing a 30+ set of mac books available for use (which came with isight too!)! Ms. Eck, had told us earlier about it, but nonetheless, it was a little startling and a reminder that most middle schools now have much better technological facilities. Everything I see at Muir, I find that I unconsciously begin to compare and relate to my experiences of when I was a middle school student in a different area and time. Previously when I had the opportunity to visit with the other teachers they were describing the various facilities they have at hand, but just don’t know how to use them. Ms. Eck also said that most of these students still need to learn the basics of navigating around the computer, even though the school has what I think, such an impressive collection of Macs. Perhaps I cannot say this in full authority as I have not been to the school too many times still, but I feel that it’s not so much the lack of facilities that’s an issue, but a lack of education in how to use them in regards to both the students and the teachers.

The kids, however were thrilled about getting to use the Mac books today. Once they were all situated and ready with their Mac books on, we began by asking them basic questions to test their knowledge of the computer. When we asked if they knew what a desktop, folder, and file were, many students answered in a very cocky tone that ofcourse they knew. But when asked if they could explain what it was, the room was silent. Now we were able to open a line of discussion with them. After some thought, the kids started making comments and guesses. The most clever response I heard was from a boy who said that the folder in a computer is like a locker or safe. The lesson ran very smoothly and the class as a whole was very cooperative and interested in the lesson. Something which they really enjoyed was learning about the short cut keys, instead of just using their mouse to click on commands in the menu. In the Comic life program, you can drag images into a template of your choice. Because the macbooks had isight, students were able to capture images of them selves to insert onto their comic layouts as a test. One problem we faced was that the isight feature soon became a distraction for many students, and they kept taking many pictures before they were instructed to do so. Something else that we also need to keep in mind for our next class is to end the class earlier, so we can ensure that all the macbooks have been properly shut down. Many students had just closed their computers, instead of going through the procedure that we instructed. We also need to consider time for putting all the macbooks back on their carts before the next class enters. The class periods are too short!

In the second period class the students were starting on a poster design for a contest which had the theme “Raise your voice, remembering our ancestors, empowering our community.” Here, we were teaching various elements of design and composition, and getting them to think and brainstorm about symbols and images that come to mind when they hear this theme. This was a very interactive class. Most of the students were very participative and involved in the discussion. I don’t remember exactly how the topic of college came up, but one girl had an array of questions of what do we learn in college, how can she apply, what does she need to do, who does she need to talk to, wanted to affirm stories she had heard about having to speak to the dean of a college as a way getting accepted, how to get loans, and financial help to go to college. These were just a few of the questions she had. While some students seemed to sit their blankly (this may have been because the students range from 6^th - 8^th grade), others who usually were a little disruptive became interested too. After class, Ms. Eck told us how surprised she was to see this particular girl grilling us about college in such a serious manner, as she had never shown any interest in the past, and wasn’t her best student.