studio assistant mark rooker, art491, spring 2012

course outline:
apprenticeship in metals and jewelry

Course goals

1. Acquire basic studio management skills by assisting with the operations and maintenance of the Metals and Jewelry Studio.
2. Acquire basic teaching and leadership skills by assisting beginning students.
3. Experiment with, and refine advanced metals techniques.

Grades:

The assigned duties of apprentices will vary according to the needs of program and student, and number of credit hours attempted, but a typical 3-credit semester grade will be determined by the following:

20% Weekly Operations and Maintenance duties
15% Weekly Teaching Assistance
50% Assigned Studio Improvement Projects
15% notebook

Regular semester 3-credit studio classes typically require 5 hours-per-week in class and 5 more per-week in homework, for a total of 150 hours. Students unable to commit to this workload should consider signing up for fewer credit hours.

I'll be using the standards for grades as they are defined in the 2007-2008 Undergraduate Catalog.

"A" Superior
"B" Good
"C" Average
"D" Passing
"E" Failure

Out of the total of 100 points possible, the grading scale is as follows:

100 - 98 = A+	<98 - 93 = A	<93 - 90 = A-
<90 - 88= B+	<88 - 83 = B	<83 - 80 = B-
<80 - 78 = C+	<78 - 73 = C	<73 - 70 = C-
<70 - 68 = D+	<68 - 63 = D	<63 - 60 = D-
<60 and below = FAILING

Duties and assessment:

Typically, you will be required to work one five-hour shift per week as a Metals and Jewelry Studio monitor. During that shift you will be expected to perform your Operations and Maintenance duties (see attached list), assist beginning Metals and Jewelry students, assist with demo preparation, and work on projects designed to improve the Metals and Jewelry facilities and teaching tools, while improving your technical skills. These Projects will be assigned on an ongoing basis, and will require a minimum of an additional 5 hours per week. You will also be required to keep a record your activities, hours, and details of your assigned projects. You will be assessed on your work through your reports, performance on assigned tasks, your attendance at your monitor shift, and the quality of your work.

Quality of work is defined by the following:

Studio Projects

Craftsmanship
Design
Breadth of experimentation
Documentation

Facility Projects

Craftsmanship
Function
Aesthetics
Economy

Maintenance

Thoroughness
Efficiency
Organization

Student Assistance

Approachability
Availability
Knowledge

Teacher Assistance

Craftsmanship
Organization

Reporting

Organization
Thoroughness

Attendance and work hours:

It is important to attend every class, be on time, and be prepared to work. Failure to attend class regularly and/or arriving late suggests poor motivation on the part of the student. Therefore, if more than one absence and/or three tardies are accumulated, it will be reflected in your final grade as follows: 1/3 of a letter grade penalty on your semester grade for each unexcused absence and for every three tardies beyond the two "free" absences and three tardies allowed.

You are responsible for any information missed during an absence. No make-up presentations will be given.

Aproximately one hour of work outside of class is expected for every hour spent in class. Open lab hours will be posted.

Deadlines:

Group and individual critiques rely on completed work and full student participation, so meeting deadlines is critical. A late penalty of 1 point per class will be assessed on any late assignment. Completed work is to be turned in at the beginning of class on the day it is due. If you are absent on the day the work is due, it must be handed in at the beginning of the next class period you attend. Lost or damaged work will be viewed as incomplete, so protect all completed work with great care.

Office Hours:

My office hours will be 9:30-10:30 Monday through Thursday in the Metals Classroom. Meetings can also be arranged by appointment. Feel free to come in during office hours for extra help, or to ask questions.

Other Policies:

Any art work not picked up by the beginning of the following semester will be disposed of.

If you recieve an incomplete for the course, it must be made up before you will be allowed any overrides for more advanced metals courses.

You and a a partner will be issued will assigned a drawer in the metals classroom. Personal items must be cleaned out of the drawers by the last day of finals. After that date, anything found in the drawers will be disposed of.

Only currently enrolled metals and jewelry students are allowed to use the studio and tools. "Public" tools may not be removed from the studio or stored in "personal" toolkits. Lost or stolen "public" tools will not be replaced during the semester.

Other University policies can be viewed at:

www.jmu.edu/syllabus

Access:

Currently enrolled students will have access to the Wine-Price building and the Metals Classroom 24/7 except while other classes are meeting. JACard readers are located at each interior classroom door and the southwest entrance of the building. Lab Hours can be viewed by clicking here.

mark rooker, james madison university