The Lauder and Scheiber Schools and the Jewish Hospital
I am writing my blog post both in the middle and at the end of my day. Today we teach at the Lauder School and the Scheiber school. I am looking forward to working with Ildiko putting together an art exhibition of student work for the community today and tomorrow. I am also going to work with Yaffa and a few other teachers to try and showcase any work that was produced as a result of the program. I’m very excited to participate in this endeavor.
This was my last session working with my 9th grade sections on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am most impressed with how interested and dedicated they were trying to tackle a larger project about their own self-identity. I learned many new things from the students and about their cultural identity. I also often take for granted how simple materials like glue sticks, scissors, and pencils can be so meaningful and how these students take these materials and really create some magnificent things from them.
Students were very productive in today’s work session. I wish I had more time to work with them. Students did not finish their collages because the paper they were working on was very large. At the beginning of the lesson, Ildiko and I decided that working large would be nice for students so they have room to spread out and really get into their design work. Students showed a story about themselves and really tried to be honest in their artwork. Two students in both classes made collages about their passion for photography showcasing images of cameras, lenses, and other materials related to photography. Other students were able to showcase their interests in graphic novels, poetry, going to the movies, or ice skating. I spoke with each student about the ways in which they might think about their compositions, taking the viewers eye around the page in an interesting way and trying to fill the white space as much as possible. One student today told me about his camp experiences in the summer time and drew his own logo for the camp on his collage, a symbol that represents who he is inside of the camp atmosphere. He described his camp as a camp for students interested in graphic novels, magic, gaming, and comic books.
As I went to lunch and then came back to Ildiko’s room, I noticed that students from my classes this morning had come back to work on their projects. Students commented to me that “this project was fun and they wanted to work on it more to finish.” I’m very impressed with the students’ eagerness to work further and I’m happy to hear that the projects were successful. I feel like they are gaining a whole new understanding of themselves just through coming into to work on their projects further and work with one another.
Ildiko has her art classroom organized so every student knows where the art materials are. Some materials appear to be in boxes, others in bins on shelves, and everything is labeled clearly. I’m looking forward to bringing some of these organizational techniques home with me after the trip.
The Scheiber High School
I thought my experience at the Scheiber school was interesting. When we arrived we were welcomed by the principal of the school and sat in on a meeting about the school’s mission. I was most impressed with the school’s commitment to community service and it’s dedication to the student body. The school is a public high school and Jewish and Non-Jewish students are in attendance. I soon met with the art teacher of the school, Levente Radvanszki.
Levente was a very nice person and expressed that he was a painter. We had no time to chat because we were off to start my class. My goal was to teach a 45 minute lesson with a class of 12 seniors. I conducted my art lesson about having students create a small work of art about a place in their community or outside their community in which they feel connected to and went through my presentation of work.
I started out by asking each student to tell me their names and anything they might want to share about their experiences in art classes in the school or what their favorite medium was. Students were hesitant to answer because they seemed to be a bit reserved about their English language skills and using them with me, or at least that was my initial impression. A student from the back of the room spoke for the class and told me a short story of what the class was and their grade level and what he enjoyed about the class.
Students were very polite and participated with enjoyment in my lesson. The students even let me take their artwork, that they made, home with me and the instructor and I traded artworks. Levente gave me his piece that he made in my class and I gave him a black pen and ink drawing I made on the airplane ride to Frankfurt.
I was very pleased with how the lesson went and so were the students.
I asked the students about the room we were in and they said it was a general classroom. It clearly was not an art studio. I was under the impression that the school does not have an art studio. I am going to keep in touch with Levente to get more feedback on that. It made me want to ask questions as we just did not have enough time to sit and debrief as Levente had to go teach another class. Does the school have an art space and a materials budget for art supplies? Students just pulled out what they had on them to make their artwork like pens, pencils, and highlighters. I also wondered if the students had an opportunity to explore Judaism and art making and begin to examine more questions about their own self-identity. I am going to follow up with Levente to ask him more questions about his students and the art curriculum.
I wish I had the opportunity to teach here during the week and spend more time with this class in order to make a more impactful mark in the classroom. From speaking to the students briefly, I understand that they learn about art history, different contemporary artists, and learn how to make art in the curriculum. I just want to know more specifics. The students seemed wonderful and they did end up sharing more at the end of the lesson in a share discussion about their work!
After the Scheiber school we went to a Jewish Hospital for the elderly where we comforted and visited patients, providing them with gloves, scarves, hats, and hand cream. Smiles came upon their faces when they saw us and they were glowing with joy and excitement that we were here to see them. Many of the patients had Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and do not have visitors come see them on a regular basis. I thought this was such meaningful work in so many ways and it touched me very deeply tonight.
In my adolescent years, I was a volunteer assistant art therapist in high school at a VAMC in Wilkes-Barre, PA. It made me think of my community service work within the rehab and geriatrics department, working with watercolor painting projects with patients and trying to have them work through memories and trauma from the Vietnam war.
Dedicating some time to visit the elderly is a very meaningful service and wonderful way to give back to the community in which you live. The hospital staff wages are minimal and it’s a small team who works at the Jewish hospital almost round the clock giving care to their patients. SOS International is having a discussion with us on what we might be able to do for the hospital and what that would look like:
Here are some potential options and thinking out loud tonight:
Have students in art and design classes at CESJDS make artwork for the patients at the Jewish hospital to brighten their room spaces. Just seeing artwork on the wall can make a tremendous difference in terms of their emotional wellbeing. This could be done twice a year or in the semester as a major project for my courses.
Have student volunteers from the Lauder and Scheiber schools or even CEU students complete community service work by visiting patients and providing them with some type of service: artwork, music, writing letters, poems, donating puzzle books, reading materials, or other meaningful activities for them to engage. Young people in the Jewish and non-Jewish community from Budapest and the 7th district need to become involved in this process.
Find hospital volunteer organizations and reach out to them to help out or form an abroad program to help out inside the Jewish Hospital in Budapest: http://www.goabroad.com/volunteer-abroad/search/hospital/volunteer-abroad-1
Volunteer in Hospitals Abroad | GoAbroad.com
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Everything you need to volunteer in hospitals abroad! Use GoAbroad to find programs, reviews, alumni interviews, funding, travel advice, & more.
We ended the evening by having a great tour of heroes square, City park, Andrassy Ave, Wallenberg Memorial in the 13th district, Tom Lantos memorial and finished with a great meal at Carmel with Linda and Benji from Frankel Shul Community.
