CAPE After School 2020-2021: William Estrada / Erin Franzinger Barrett

Big Ideas and Inquiry Questions

We approached our after school art program the same way we approached our daily teaching in the 2020 school year - with more questions than answers and wide open hearts. We agreed to work with our students and collaborators to create a community focused on the big ideas of comfort, play, and compassion. We started with logistical questions like, "What does an online class feel like?" "How can we create routines that honor the drastic changes we are facing right now?" and "How can we meet our social and emotional needs in an online space?" 

Online Teaching

Maestro William and I have co-taught after school art programs together for years, and we always keep our space open to ambiguity and exploration. This year took that philosophy to the 10th degree as we were faced with a totally new environment of teaching solely from our homes, connecting with students via Google Meet. What does a two-hour exploratory creative art inquiry program look like when it's happening on Chromebooks in a dozen living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and backyards around the neighborhood? NO ONE in education policy or research had studied or written about this kind of teaching on the scale we encountered in the 2020-2021 school year. As a teacher researcher, I suspect I will be reflecting for the rest of my career on what we learned over the past 14 months. The challenges and opportunities online learning presented were vast and we explored the possibilities of creating creative spaces that allowed everyone to engage at various capacities.

Resources

All students had a new Chromebook provided by the school and an internet connection provided by the city (if they didn't previously have one). All students were in their own homes or the homes of relatives or caregivers with adult supervision. Most students had an assortment of paper and pencils at home, though this wasn't consistent until we did a supply drop-off later in the fall where we provided each student a kit of blank paper, pencils, colored pencils, water color paint, scissors, tape, and other sundries. Otherwise we looked for online resources. We also began collecting digital resources we could use to play together. 

Structure

Our classes were two hours long, twice a week, after students had finished all their online classes for the day. We had to be very thoughtful about expectations for kids who had been tethered to a computer for hours already - would they want more screen time? Would they be exhausted? Would their little eyeballs shrivel up and roll out of their heads? What kind of structure would allow us to reflect on what we needed, individually and as a group? Ultimately we came up with a general routine that allowed flexibility and responsiveness. 

• 15 minutes for entering into the Google Meet and chatting

• 15 minutes of teacher-guided introduction to a tool or technique

• 45 minutes of independent work time (often with music, screen sharing of progress, excited waving around of projects in front of the camera, pet show-and-tell, and microphone muting mishaps) 

• 15 minutes for students and teachers to share their works in progress

• 30 minutes for play - students and teachers found games to play together online

Community Culture

Students always had the option to have their cameras and microphones on or off during our class time together. We emphasized that we were all guests in one another's homes, so we needed to respect each other's living arrangements and family relationships. If a student wanted to work on something that wasn't our group activity, they were welcomed to do so as long as they didn't interrupt others' work. Some students signed in just for the company. One student who came down with an exhausting case of Covid-19 signed in just to hear us talk while they napped on camera. Occasionally a student would drop in to say hello, and say they didn't feel like staying for two hours that day. Part of our work this year was holding space for our community members to find connection with one another, even if it was in ways beyond our planned agenda. 

Family and Community Cultural Capital

First Semester Project - Animal Study and Alebrijes

Students were interested in learning to draw animals. We started by drawing fantastic and bizarre creatures using a flip-book/exquisite corpse to combine elements of different animals. Then we studied drawing feathers, fur, and scales to prepare for more realistic animal drawings. In the end, we studied and developed alebrije sculptures - fantastic creatures that combine elements from different real and imaginary animals painted with vibrant designs. 

Second Semester Project - Games and Open Studio

We began second semester by experimenting with game design. We researched what makes games fun (chance versus skill, etc.).

After presenting several ideas, student interest faded. We responded by turning our attention to building community and support the emotional needs of the students through free drawing and gaming opportunities that supported their interests. This created an open format for students to work independently or collaboratively with as much or as little support as they may 

Play

Cross-Classroom Exchange