Over the past couple months of being in a classroom, there have been a couple key pieces I've noticed that create a predictable, caring, and positive classroom environment.
One of them being the teacher's attitude; if the teacher is a grump then the students aren't going to feel any motivation to do their work. What's important is to keep a light attitude (varying on age level) where your positivity provides a motivation for them to tackle their work with gusto. Another one is providing an open space for creativity and choice. If the students don't have an outlet for what they want to do, then it's going to be hard getting them interested in the assignments. While the teacher should provide a structure, the student should ultimately be responsible for how their product looks. For strategies relating to diversity, I don't know if I've used any specific ones that have been name, but more so looking at their art work based on their skill rather than a baseline that's set in mind. This, also, applies to the way they solve the creative problem at hand. It all depends on where their skills have developed so far. Otherwise, there is no reason that I should compare their work to their peers just like how I shouldn't compared their work to Da Vinci's work. In past journals, I noticed that I became a lot more aware to my classroom surroundings, student needs, and general self-care when it comes to managing things. I'm still getting used to keeping my head on a swivel in a full classroom, but I am getting better about keeping my eyes peeled for what's going on. With more students open to asking for changes in a project or adaptations, it's definitely been helpful in identifying student needs where they are prevalent. General self-care is still a work in process because while I am aware of things that need to be taken care of, I have little energy to get on top of them right now as my focus needs to remain on getting everything done for school. One of the reflexive practices that helped me assist my students was from when I talked about "Guiding Passion" in journal #2. I was worried about giving the students an opportunity to explore their ideas, and that has helped me develop lessons that leave it open to what they want to do within reason. With the recent "Bag-imals" project, they were able to choose any animal, creature, or mythical creature they wanted so long as they followed the format that was presented. Several that had struggled with being focused before jumped right in to work on these as they couldn't wait to take them home. One the ones that hasn't helped so much was from journal #4. I am still struggling with balancing time and reasoning things with myself. With being sick for 8 weeks and trying to find time to relax, it has been an uphill battle with myself to get things done. I know what I need to do to get on top of things, but I just have had little motivation and drive to start getting them done. Partly because the energy has been low for the entirety of the second half, but also because my brain is starting to sort things into tiers of importance and what needs to be dropped off the train to allow focus on the bigger things. Just like my orchestra teacher said "If you're on a train with a million dollars, don't jump off the train for that one dollar.". Don't bring everything to a halt for one small thing when there's a bigger one that needs your attention. To sum everything up, and refer to the knitting above, every little thing from student teaching has created a woven tapestry that grew every day, every week, and every month. The learning process is never going to end and it is only going to grow longer, but each knit and purl are important to the structure of the weaving. There were times where I needed to redo a row, which were the times when I needed to step back and look at the lesson to see how the students were doing. There were times where I sprinted through the knitting when my hands grew accustomed to the rhythm of the pattern just like when things went by in a flash. It had its learning curves and challenges, and it had moments of realization and ease. Each experience I had was another section made that will continue on for the years to come.
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From my first placement in a high school to a K-5, I must say that there is only one major difference--the younger students are eager to get started in making art. That being said, it was very present that creating examples of the projects would be a huge boon in order to better explain things, which I did not do a lot of in the high school classroom. In my mind, I thought that it was something just for the younger groups of students because they are more interested in the visual examples than the older students. As it were, being able to point out specific spots in the art where things struggled and share in the experience would have probably helped them figure things out as well.
As often as I can in the K-5 level I utilize the document camera in order to show the students the processes I use to create the projects that they, in turn, are working on. In my example art work, I demonstrated how to set up a very basic popsicle based mandala. Had I just explained it verbally and waited for them to get it, the lesson would have ended in a train wreck. Being able to show them step by step how to assemble a simple set-up was a huge boon in helping them move forward. In some cases, the students developed their own shapes to make mandalas from, which was fine, but for those that wanted to do the same shape easily completed it without any issue save from not waiting for the glue to dry. Visuals in art are essential because it is a visual language. I didn't realize it as much in high school because I had that mentality that the high schoolers didn't need more than images in a presentation. I, also, ran into the mindset of "I don't have time to make visual examples" when the days would roll in one after the other for the same class. I was more worried about getting through the first placement than providing everything that I could for them. It hurt both them and myself in that aspect. This really helped cement the idea that I needed to do as much as I could for my students in demonstrations, verbal descriptions, and instructional periods. In relation to the importance of professional development in becoming an art educator, there is a fine line. You don't want to be overly professional where everything is strictly by the rules, but you also don't want to just let everything become loose and willy-nilly.
The fine line is being able to remain profession in behavior, appearance, and handling situations while still being able to relax and joke around when appropriate. The latter is not difficult to do whereas finding a balance in being professional imposes that challenge. It is hard to recall specifics that I've read, having not read much in a good while, but there have been the occasional reality checks that really plug into professionalism. One being that it's required to remain flexible when wrenches are being thrown at you day after day. Just this past week, we've been adjusting the schedule and pushing things further back than anticipated. Meetings to explain fundraisers, free choice days, and other things that have been coming up. All very real life lessons and all very important. Plus, when it adds to stress of calendars and important dates, it's important to remain cool. Some times, this doesn't always work out, but usually it's when you're blindsided by things that people don't leave explanations for. One example is being notified of something changing, but not knowing the reason why until inquired about later, which didn't help with first week adapting and planning. When things like this come up, it's important to communicate in a proper manner to figure out what is going on with changes or things going on. Had nothing been said, then it likely would have turned a bit harsh. Professional development involves remaining on top of communications and interacting with people in a proper manner. This is where my metaphor comes into play because it is mix of downtime being used to unwind and how professionals need to maintain an image in entertainment. In the same way professional development reflects how we interact with people is to hold an image of our professional personas. Even though there's this persona, the professional can still relax and let go a little. I would say the best way to describe efficient time management is when you don't feel a sense of stress and that you are finishing with just a little bit of time left. In some cases, it is better to just get done early and not worry about things, but in most cases that means you rushed through and could have done a better job. By discovering the best way to manage time (both for work and break periods), it'll help with the flow of classes and projects. With the younger ages, it'll help them not to be overwhelmed with the project, and with the older ages it will help them stay focused and use time wisely.
I like to think I balance my time, but I find that is not such the case when looking back on how I have been treating my free time. Where I've written in my planner that I should be working on things for classes and getting things ready, I just laze about doing little to nothing. Then I remember what my high school mentor teacher told me--"Once you leave the school, you don't need to be thinking about it.". I need to remember to take time for myself, but not spend every hour of downtime being a potato, which I often am. I'd say that the best tip I have in relation to any time management is a metaphor I heard from my orchestra teacher in high school: "If you're on a train with a million dollars, and a dollar bill flies out the window, then you don't jump off the train or stop it for that dollar. You stay on with the rest of the money and keep going.". By this, he meant that when we're going along that we shouldn't stop for every little thing along the way or if we forget something. Prioritize what's important and then keep going and don't little minor or trivial things slow you down. If you let yourself get stopped by the little things, then you're not going to progress and will get buried by the workload. There are times when things need to be let go or dragged behind a little bit until you can pull them in again. Otherwise, you will keep struggling and get nowhere. Outside of that, one tool that has been useful is creating a spreadsheet for the students to plan out how they're going to spend their time. That includes day by day, color coded planning, and daily viewings to make sure the students are on track. This helped me to see where they should be at, where the general class is supposedly at, and how I can help them when they're ready. Of course, these are not always 100% accurate, but they do a good job of putting things into perspective for the students. Transitioning from being a student to a student teacher hasn't been that apparent. When I look back, however, I get hit with waves of nostalgia growing up as a student. I recognize moments where the instructions and expectations I determine were once instructions and expectations that my teachers gave me. These moments allow me to re-center myself on what I am experiencing and expecting of my students. In some cases, they are the same expectations that made it hard to get things done to which I can then back peddle a little and revise things. Other times, it's just simply an echo from a time before.
In terms of switching between teaching and learning, I feel that it is more instantaneous, back and forth throughout the day. One thing that I have noticed is that my brain jumps back and forth with each exchange be it small or large. It probably isn't good for the health to be constantly going back and forth as the stress isn't going to help too much, but it is just how things are being processed. Maybe it's because I feel that I will forget what I was thinking about during the day and won't be able to learn from it later. As for presence, I do feel that it has been somewhat lacking. I'm definitely on the quieter side in a group of people I don't know very well. In a high school setting, many of them are close to my age with a minimum of 4 years, so that made it a little difficult to project a teacher persona. In an elementary setting, however, I feel that I will have an easier time due to being older and taller. It won't be as difficult to establish a place of teacherness there. However, I do try to make sure I wear a button up shirt or polo for class, so that I do stand apart. Along with keeping an ID badge for Rocky helps, but usually the presence comes from how comfortable I feel with the class and the way I dress. Holding Potential
One of the things that's been in the back of my mind is how we can help the students hold onto their potential and not lose it. I did an activity where I handed out folded pieces of paper to each student and asked that they not open it until instructed to. Using the movie Kung Fu Panda as a reference, the paper was blank showing that it wasn't the paper that was important but what they did with it. Some of them were pretty interested in hearing this kind of metaphor while others dismissed it. I know not all of them are going to continue with art, but I want them to know that they have the unlimited potential to make anything of themselves. Time After going through the past couple weeks of seeing different work flows, one thing I've found is how time can speed by like on a stopwatch during a one-hundred meter dash or how it can seem to drag on like an hourglass slowly dropping pieces of sand. This reflects in how some students are quick to finish and push me to think of ways to deepen their learning while others progress at the speed of the hourglass. It's all about balancing out ways for each student to challenge themselves but to not fall behind with other projects. Guiding Passion With students that are clearly advanced and moving forward with their designs, I want to make sure they are given opportunities to explore their own interests and bring them into the art room. One way in doing this is that I've set up a side tab in the Google Classroom where they can look at a couple side project ideas. The intention is that if they are finishing early with projects consistently that they have a couple things they could look into doing in between main projects. This is, also, time where they could be working on their own personal projects that they may not have enough time for outside of classes, homework, and other activities they participate in. In relation to the first couple weeks of teaching, it started relatively simply with a few hints of nervousness now and again. However, it gradually picked up pace to a point where I felt like I was in a trapeze act above fire trying to balance an egg on a sewing needle. Then, it all came to a pause and all the nervousness and stress resolved. Whether it's because everything was sorted or the brain turned something off, I won't know until later.
That's why with this piece, I created a wall of sheet music where one side is filled with notes and articulation. The key is unknown and the clef a mystery lending to the confusion of everything that was going on in my head. Eventually it comes to a stop leading over to the second side where the stress is gone. It's a simple progression of notes in my home town clef, the alto clef. All the notes from before have been removed and now it's just pleasant progression forward. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2019
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