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Bob Draginda
Sometimes a principal needs to bite the bullet.
Two years ago, student enrolment in our school was down, which resulted in a deficit budget, so to help, I decided to teach Grade 1 for two afternoons each week. Despite more than 25 years in education, this was my first experience teaching first grade. The learning curve was not steep—it was straight up—especially with respect to teaching art.
Following are three hints to help you teach art:
Hint 1—Enlist help from parent volunteers for anything that requires gluing.
My very first assignment was building Inukshuks. My class was a repeat of the I Love Lucy show in which Lucy and Ethel worked on a chocolate factory assembly line, stuffing candies into boxes. I began with a huge box of rocks, a single glue gun and 27 students. At first, things went well. I glued two rocks together and told the student to hold them tightly. I distinctly remember saying (as did Lucy), "This is easy!" It did get tougher, however, because I hadn’t done the math. Each Inukshuk needed 7 rocks and there were 27 students, which meant 189 rocks needed gluing and Grade 1 students all want their work done at the same time. I did learn to say: "Don’t worry and don’t cry. I will fix it later."
Hint 2—Seek advice from experienced colleagues.
At Christmas, I was thrilled to find containers with green and red sparkles, although I did think it odd at the time, as it is difficult to find green and red art supplies in December. The students loved the sparkles. In fact, sparkles were everywhere—on the floor, under the desks and in my hair. The room twinkled until February. When I mentioned my experience to another teacher, she replied: "Oh, no one uses sparkles anymore. We use glitter glue." Hmm, sparkles that are attached to the glue—an invention that rates with Post-it notes and Velcro. There is hope for humanity.
Hint 3—Maintain a sense of humour, enjoy the antics of children and be humble.
Things did get better as the year progressed, so much so that in the spring I decided we would paint. The project was cool; the children painted dinosaurs using their hands, which meant no brushes, but I was prepared. I spread paper over the desks and each child had a small amount of paint on a paper plate. I delivered instructions simply and clearly, and repeated them 12 times. The work was fabulous, and I relaxed for one minute. In a matter of seconds, however, when my back was turned, one child painted both his arms red from fingertips to elbows. Humming the theme song from Spiderman, I sent the child to the washroom. "Don’t touch anything or anybody," I said. I needed to remove him quickly before he could mentor his classmates in body painting.
Near the end of the school year, the students created simple and colourful Ted Harrison-style paintings that I displayed in the hall. As I admired the masterpieces, a teacher stopped and said, "Nice work. Did the Grade 6s do these?" Had I been modest, I would have just smiled and shrugged. Instead, I screamed: "NO! My Grade 1s did them. Can you believe it? Pretty good, huh?"
Bob Draginda is Principal of Brentwood Elementary School, in Sherwood Park.
