Creating Interdependence

This week went by vary fast and there was a lot to get done. I had not intended on see interdependence, since it is an assignment that we do every year, but it was happening without even expecting it to. In my clay class we have been making clay houses. They are all very different and unfortunately there was a choir event in the middle of the week. This sent the students scrambling to finish. The clay can be very tricky with drying times and a 3 day weekend coming up. The kids were right to feel panicked. I have 65 kids taking clay class right now in two sections. What I observed was students helping and teaching each other tricks of the trade or just helping if their friend was behind in class. They weren't doing each others work, but actually sharing and teaching others their skills. It is a fascinating thing to see in the art classroom. I told the kids that were done that they could do homework or free time, but they chose to help each other. I am very proud of them to be confident in their peers. I have very large classes for clay so that might be forcing them to depend on each other besides the teacher.