Who the hell is she

At the end of March, during Spring Break. I traveled up the coast. It was a much needed escape to Santa Barbara, Big Sur and San Francisco. The spring rains brought the bluest skies and the greenest grass, this visual candy allowed me to completely forget all my projects and my teaching residency that had previously consumed 10 weeks of my life.

So coming back to Millikan jr high last wednesday was a bit of a shock for me and the students. After 2 whole weeks the students had this “oh yeah I remember you” look on their faces. For as much as I think about them and worry that they are interested in my assignments it is amazing how they can truly care less. It seems like they live from moment to moment persuaded and guided by the people around them. They are consumed with their own lives, friends and homework. They have every right to be completely self absorbed because it is such a difficult time developmentally.  I just wish I had had a wise art teacher to help me put everything in perspective back in jr. high.

So in an effort to connect the ELL book, Highpoint, with my own lesson plan, I went through the unit that they are currently studying: exploring new frontiers with Lewis & Clark. My goal is to have the students explore the new frontiers in their lives and create a book of their learning process in my class. Last wednesday we focused on visualizing 3d terrain in a 2d form on illustrator. It may sound complex but it was quite simple and enjoyable. I had the students draw a box to represent their home. Some of them created a floor plan while others just put a triangle on top of their box. I then asked them to draw another box to represent Millikan. Now with these two representations of places that they spend most of their time, I asked them to imagine the path they take to school. They were the draw the path of their journey from home to school. This is where the kids went crazy. They added landmarks and cars and trees. They created their own little world. Each peace was a unique reflection of their daily journey. Aside from being able to effectively use the tools to create landmarks the students were able to visualize their journey. This is an important skill to have. They need to be confident as they navigate through the world. Ms. Rahamin will do a follow up lesson relating their maps back to the Lewis and Clark maps.

In other news, I just got the approval from mr. christian moeller (prof for video 2), to create a documentary at millikan. I argued, with a trembling voice, that I wanted to expose the students school and home life in an artistic/abstract documentary style video taking inspiration from the long haunting school shots of Gus Van Sant’s film, Elephant.

I went out to the Millikan carnival on Thursday with a tripod and xl1 (that i had to carry all around campus after renting huh). There was high fructose corn syrup energy in every corner of the school. I was so overwhelmed, I had no idea where to began filming. At first I felt so intrusive, especially when the “popular” kids were giving me “who the hell she” looks. Well I guess I could have replied with “so girls, can I film your who the hell is she looks to become the catalyst for a healthy discourse in my UCLA design for video class where we will critique your insecurities within the larger social constructs of society.” Better not go there, right? I did get some interesting out of focus footage. You see, I am still new to this whole filming thing and there are so many buttons and meters and doodads on that camera that I would rather just push the on button and start rolling. So that is what I did and the quality is sub par.

As I was falling asleep that night I had visions of how this film will work. I don’t want it to look cheesy like a home movie. I want the kids to show their personalities and determination. At this age they are going through so much stress while trying to develop an identity. It is particularly difficult for the ELL kids who are enrolled in separate classes and deprived of the art electives. I was talking to one student, Kevin, as he helped carry around my tripod. He told me with a smile that he was interested in art, design, and acting. He said this with so much confidence and bravado. He added that he needs to get his grades up in ms. R’s class and that he hopes his hard work in my Wednesday design class will help. At that moment I wanted to give him all of the strength and knowledge to succeed. I asked if he would be interested in coming out to UCLA to shadow me throughout the day. I want to see all of them succeed. I want them to understand that they have a leg up on all the people who only know how to speak English. And if they have trouble communicating their ideas and opinions in English they can be master visual communicators.

So here is the idea for my film:

• Take photos of each student with a consistent background.

• Have students typeset an “I am ____ (strong, beautiful, smart)” statement over their photo.

• Have the students hold up their poster as they say this statement in the language they speak at home with their parents.

• Splice each of these shots with images of the students going about their life at school, showing their role in the social constructs of the school.