Journal 1: 1/14/2019 #TimeBlur
My first week student teaching at Rocky Mountain High School presented me with a number of new and interesting experiences. It has been a great experience so far working with and learning from my mentor teacher. I have begun to learn the ropes of the school, the students, and what it truly means to be a classroom teacher on a daily basis. Going into the week, I was quite nervous; it wasn’t necessarily a ‘bad’ nervous but more along the lines of excitement and questioning what will be coming in the approaching days and weeks. This week I spent some time in staff and department meetings, planning, and building relationships with the students in my classes. Overall, it was a busy yet rewarding week. It has been a pleasure spending full days in a school doing what I want to do day in and day out for my career. I am looking forward to how the rest of this placement goes, and what will unfold in the coming weeks.
The one thing that I was wanting to address in this reflection is how I perceived time throughout the week. Monday and Tuesday were work days for teachers, and this gave me time to learn the ropes of the school and get acquainted with the curriculum and my mentor teacher. These days were great in the sense that I was able to ease into the week and get my feet under me before students entered the classroom. While I found these days to be nice, they did seem to run a little long with meetings, organizing, and cleaning various things. As Wednesday came, students began filing into the classroom in the morning. This is where the days started to absolutely fly by. It was exciting getting to know the students and begin building that relationship. Classroom rules and expectations were laid out, and students received the department guidelines to read over and have a guardian sign as well; there was a lot of 'housekeeping' going on in the classes. This week presented some craziness in the two photo classes that I am part of this term. In both sections, about fifteen students dropped the course for various reasons. There has been a lot of fluctuation with what students are in the class. As students left, new ones came in. This gave me a great insight to what it will be like as a teacher at the start of each term. It was interesting considering ways in which to approach how to fill in the new students on what they missed the previous days; again, this is something that will come up time and time again in my career. As we enter the second week, hopefully this settles down a bit and we can get into the meat of the courses and start having fun with projects. These are just some of the reasons why it was a bit crazy and hectic the first few days. By the end of Friday, I couldn’t believe that my first week of student teaching was completed. I sat down at the end of the day at home, and I realized how tired I really was. So much effort and emotion went into this week. Like I said previously, my concept of time was so out of tune, it was hard to keep track of everything. Ultimately, it was a great week and I am excited to see what I learn from this experience in the days to come.
The one thing that I was wanting to address in this reflection is how I perceived time throughout the week. Monday and Tuesday were work days for teachers, and this gave me time to learn the ropes of the school and get acquainted with the curriculum and my mentor teacher. These days were great in the sense that I was able to ease into the week and get my feet under me before students entered the classroom. While I found these days to be nice, they did seem to run a little long with meetings, organizing, and cleaning various things. As Wednesday came, students began filing into the classroom in the morning. This is where the days started to absolutely fly by. It was exciting getting to know the students and begin building that relationship. Classroom rules and expectations were laid out, and students received the department guidelines to read over and have a guardian sign as well; there was a lot of 'housekeeping' going on in the classes. This week presented some craziness in the two photo classes that I am part of this term. In both sections, about fifteen students dropped the course for various reasons. There has been a lot of fluctuation with what students are in the class. As students left, new ones came in. This gave me a great insight to what it will be like as a teacher at the start of each term. It was interesting considering ways in which to approach how to fill in the new students on what they missed the previous days; again, this is something that will come up time and time again in my career. As we enter the second week, hopefully this settles down a bit and we can get into the meat of the courses and start having fun with projects. These are just some of the reasons why it was a bit crazy and hectic the first few days. By the end of Friday, I couldn’t believe that my first week of student teaching was completed. I sat down at the end of the day at home, and I realized how tired I really was. So much effort and emotion went into this week. Like I said previously, my concept of time was so out of tune, it was hard to keep track of everything. Ultimately, it was a great week and I am excited to see what I learn from this experience in the days to come.
Journal 2: 1/21/2019 #AddingToMyPhilosophy
For this journal entry, I wanted to experiment with calligraphy creating Chinese symbols. In my high school art career, I would experiment with this medium quite often in personal explorations, and I felt that this would be a great time to revisit it.
In my second week of student teaching, one thing that I noted coming up often was organization. As of now, I am in the process of figuring out organizational systems that work well for myself. One thing that I learned is that I prefer the ‘old fashioned’ way of keeping grades; I like having a written paper record of student scores. After all grades are written in my gradebook, I enter them into the computer. I know that this is an extra step, but I feel that this way of doing things is better for me and I am less likely to enter wrong grades or make mistakes. So far, this has allowed me to really stay on top of things and be accurate in my score keeping. This philosophy came up in my previous semesters’ teaching but I will say it again; if I keep myself and my classroom organized, my students will feel more organized as well. Organization is something that comes up time and time again.
Another thing that has come up in the early part of my student teaching experience is firmness; specifically with high school students. With this age group, I feel that it is important to hold students accountable for their actions and teach them how to be advocates for themselves. In the early weeks, there are a handful of students that haven’t turned in work, or have turned in work that is partially done. It is up to me to be honest with my scorekeeping, and not boost a student’s grade just because I like them as a person, or because I don’t like giving failing grades. I need to hold students accountable for their own actions, since they are almost adults about to enter the ‘real world.’ I have noted that being firm with students will likely lead to students rising to your expectations as a teacher.
The final thing that I would like to address with this week of teaching is the idea of being a caring adult figure to students. Right now, I have a couple of students in various classes that are having financial struggles due to the current government shut down. It has been hard for me to watch and listen to some of these students struggles right now. As I have been developing relationships with these students, it has been a point of mine to connect with these students and talk with them about some of these struggles that they are having. At this age students sometimes don’t want to share these problems because they are embarrassed or whatever, but I have tried to make it clear to these students that it okay to talk about it, and having a tough time is okay. I strive to be an adult that kids are able to come to and talk about what may be going on in their personal lives. Financial struggles with students will most likely come up time and time again, so this has been a good experience for me to witness first hand. Again, the relationships that I build with students is one of the most important things (in my opinion) and it is a personal goal of mine to be an adult that kids are able to come to and talk with no matter what the issue may be.
In my second week of student teaching, one thing that I noted coming up often was organization. As of now, I am in the process of figuring out organizational systems that work well for myself. One thing that I learned is that I prefer the ‘old fashioned’ way of keeping grades; I like having a written paper record of student scores. After all grades are written in my gradebook, I enter them into the computer. I know that this is an extra step, but I feel that this way of doing things is better for me and I am less likely to enter wrong grades or make mistakes. So far, this has allowed me to really stay on top of things and be accurate in my score keeping. This philosophy came up in my previous semesters’ teaching but I will say it again; if I keep myself and my classroom organized, my students will feel more organized as well. Organization is something that comes up time and time again.
Another thing that has come up in the early part of my student teaching experience is firmness; specifically with high school students. With this age group, I feel that it is important to hold students accountable for their actions and teach them how to be advocates for themselves. In the early weeks, there are a handful of students that haven’t turned in work, or have turned in work that is partially done. It is up to me to be honest with my scorekeeping, and not boost a student’s grade just because I like them as a person, or because I don’t like giving failing grades. I need to hold students accountable for their own actions, since they are almost adults about to enter the ‘real world.’ I have noted that being firm with students will likely lead to students rising to your expectations as a teacher.
The final thing that I would like to address with this week of teaching is the idea of being a caring adult figure to students. Right now, I have a couple of students in various classes that are having financial struggles due to the current government shut down. It has been hard for me to watch and listen to some of these students struggles right now. As I have been developing relationships with these students, it has been a point of mine to connect with these students and talk with them about some of these struggles that they are having. At this age students sometimes don’t want to share these problems because they are embarrassed or whatever, but I have tried to make it clear to these students that it okay to talk about it, and having a tough time is okay. I strive to be an adult that kids are able to come to and talk about what may be going on in their personal lives. Financial struggles with students will most likely come up time and time again, so this has been a good experience for me to witness first hand. Again, the relationships that I build with students is one of the most important things (in my opinion) and it is a personal goal of mine to be an adult that kids are able to come to and talk with no matter what the issue may be.
Journal 3: 1/28/2019 #ManyHats
Thus far in the three weeks of my student teaching experience, I have noted how different it is to take on the role of a full-time teacher; compared to a full-time student and a part time teacher. Going into this semester I was very nervous about many things, but I think the thing that was the heaviest in my mind was creating a management plan. I read, studied, and created a short management plan in my previous courses, but never put it into action with a real group of students. As I began teaching, I realized something very essential. That thing was everyone’s management plan is very different, and very personal. I have begun to develop the philosophy that teaching is an extension of yourself, and the best thing you can do as an educator is simply be the person you are all of the time. I have a very dry and somewhat sarcastic sense of humor, and this is very much reflected in my teaching. Depending on the student, I like to give them a bit of a ‘hard time’ and they in return do the same back to me; and it works well. One other thing that I have noted is that I am very honest and upfront with students, especially when it comes to my high expectations in classes. For example, there is a student in one of my classes that has been there a total of three times since the start of the term. The last time that she showed up (after being absent for about a week), I had a conversation with her about the work that she missed, and that it was going to take a lot of effort and full commitment on her end in order to be successful. The goal of this conversation was to let the student know that my class is not a ‘slack off’ class and there needs to be legitimate effort from both parties involved. Ultimately, I feel that just being the realest version of myself in the classroom has been the most beneficial to me learning and developing as an art educator. Comparing these experiences to my days as a student, I appreciated the teachers that were very upfront and honest, even if the class was going to be difficult. I appreciated this transparency from my teachers growing up, and that is something that is currently embedded in my teaching philosophy.
I have found that I am often switching roles from student to teacher in my days at Rocky Mountain High School. For the first couple of weeks, I closely observed my mentor teacher on his rules, expectations, and guidelines in his art classes. I watched how he organized his classes, and how he manages the space; especially when it comes to the darkroom. I observed how he builds relationships with students, and how he corrects student behaviors when needed. I watched and absorbed his expertise. This observation still continues on a daily basis; I am just trying to absorb as much information as possible from this experience. In terms of teaching, I have made it very clear that I am a presence in the classroom. I’ve been making it a point to build strong relationships with students and get to know their interests, strengths, and even weaknesses. My students have shown that they recognize me as another teacher figure in the classroom, as they often ask me questions and come to me for advice. My teaching and learning side of the brain, if you will, are often switching and working (or you could say that I wear many different hats) .
It has been a goal of mine from day one to make my teaching presence known in the classroom and make it aware to the students. Starting from day one, I took attendance for each class period and began recording grades. For about the first week or so, the first few minutes of each class period were given to me to do some ‘housekeeping.’ This would involve touching base with the students about various things such as course guidelines, fees, and equipment check out. From the very beginning, I made it aware to the students if there is any question or concern about grading they should approach me with that. Along with housekeeping, beginning with day one I started getting to know the students and create that relationship with them. I want them to all feel comfortable with me being their classroom teacher. This past week has posed something new to me as well; I have fully taken over control one of my mentor teacher’s classes. I now have full reign with first period 2-D Design, so this is one other way in which my teaching presence is being made clear to the students. Thus far, the students have received this very well and have been working hard and creating some really great artwork. As the term progresses, my teacher presence is becoming more and more evident and this has made me very excited. I am truly looking forward to soon taking over the other two class periods and learning the ropes of what it means to be a full-time art teacher.
I have found that I am often switching roles from student to teacher in my days at Rocky Mountain High School. For the first couple of weeks, I closely observed my mentor teacher on his rules, expectations, and guidelines in his art classes. I watched how he organized his classes, and how he manages the space; especially when it comes to the darkroom. I observed how he builds relationships with students, and how he corrects student behaviors when needed. I watched and absorbed his expertise. This observation still continues on a daily basis; I am just trying to absorb as much information as possible from this experience. In terms of teaching, I have made it very clear that I am a presence in the classroom. I’ve been making it a point to build strong relationships with students and get to know their interests, strengths, and even weaknesses. My students have shown that they recognize me as another teacher figure in the classroom, as they often ask me questions and come to me for advice. My teaching and learning side of the brain, if you will, are often switching and working (or you could say that I wear many different hats) .
It has been a goal of mine from day one to make my teaching presence known in the classroom and make it aware to the students. Starting from day one, I took attendance for each class period and began recording grades. For about the first week or so, the first few minutes of each class period were given to me to do some ‘housekeeping.’ This would involve touching base with the students about various things such as course guidelines, fees, and equipment check out. From the very beginning, I made it aware to the students if there is any question or concern about grading they should approach me with that. Along with housekeeping, beginning with day one I started getting to know the students and create that relationship with them. I want them to all feel comfortable with me being their classroom teacher. This past week has posed something new to me as well; I have fully taken over control one of my mentor teacher’s classes. I now have full reign with first period 2-D Design, so this is one other way in which my teaching presence is being made clear to the students. Thus far, the students have received this very well and have been working hard and creating some really great artwork. As the term progresses, my teacher presence is becoming more and more evident and this has made me very excited. I am truly looking forward to soon taking over the other two class periods and learning the ropes of what it means to be a full-time art teacher.
Journal 4: 2/11/2019 #BalancingAct
All of these shots were taken on black and white 35mm film, processed, and scanned digitally. For this small project, I went around to the locations I have spent most of my time during the last year or so. These are the personal places and spaces in which I would balance my time time in. This is the time of my life where I began to develop time management skills.
In my opinion, efficient time management means a few different things. The first thing I would like to discuss more in detail is managing time for each class period. I have found that it is essential to allow students enough time every day to complete the required task at hand, and not feel rushed to complete something. In my student teaching experience thus far, I’ve been more attentive to my ‘wait time’ and I think that this has helped the pacing and quality of work/responses from my students. The next thing that I have been focusing on time management wise is the pacing of a course over a term. In the 2-D Design course that I have taken over, I wanted give students a reasonable amount of time to be able to work on their first project; which is a personal narrative collage. I gave students about a week and a half of in-class work time to develop and create their collage work. I would rather spend a little bit more time on a project to allow students to truly develop their ideas and craft rather than rushing them through the process. I feel that the ‘quality’ of the artwork is a lot more advanced than it would be if the students were rushed and pushed through the creative process. While I feel that allowing students to have enough time is essential to developing deep, quality ideas, it comes to a point where simply, the project needs to be done and we need to move on to another part of the curriculum. Again using the collage project as an example, we have used a lot of class time working on it and I feel that it is time to move onto the drawing part of the class. I liken this idea to sort of a ‘yin yang’ sensibility, because I do want to allow students enough class time to work on things, but at some point, I do need to push the students to the finish line so we are able to move onto other art projects. Ultimately, I do not think that there is necessarily one ‘right’ way to manage time over the course of a term, but this has been something that has worked for me thus far. The final thing that I feel that is important to address here is managing time in a given class period to allow me some time to touch base and check in with each of my students. I have realized that I cannot necessarily do this every single day, but I like to try and do this on a pretty regular basis. While this might be considered a small gesture by some, I see the value in this as I am able to really build relationships with students.
I feel that time management has helped my teaching along with student learning in a couple of different ways. The first thing being is since I am a heavy planner, considering what is going on for each day/class and the estimated time it may take helps me feel more comfortable and settle into a class comfortably. If I don’t plan things out, I definitely am a bit more nervous and scatter-brained throughout the day. I noticed that developing routines in classes is beneficial to both the students and myself. I enjoy having a somewhat predictable routine, and I think my students prefer that as well. The students have appreciated knowing what they can expect on a given day, or couple of days. This way, both students and I are able to plan accordingly. I discussed this concept a little bit previously, but I think it is fitting to address it once again. The idea of allowing students enough time to work on a given art project is essential to student learning. If students are rushed through something, they feel more stressed about getting it done rather than creating something with developed ideas and of solid craftsmanship; I have experienced this both in my teaching experiences and time as a student. My goal as an educator is not to rush and/or stress out my students to meet a deadline.
This experience so far as a student teacher has enlightened me on how to balance my time between school and personal life. I dedicate some time in the morning before school and some time after school (about 2 hours or so in total) to work on things like grading, emails, and planning. This schedule has made it so on most days I am able to go home and not really need to worry about homework. I have made it a point to make this part of my daily routine, since it is essential to my mental health that I turn off the ‘teacher brain’ at the end of the day. Part of my philosophy is that at school I empty my ‘glass’ throughout the day, and at the end of the day at home, I refill that ‘glass’ for the next day. Obviously there are some days that run a little long and hectic, but I still try to reserve time for myself to rest and recover for the next day. I want to remain effective in the classroom, and part of that effectiveness is directly related to my mental health. In past semesters, it was hard to maintain that balance and I feel that it showed sometimes in my teaching; there were times where I felt that I could have been more effective if I was more rested. I am truly glad that I am beginning to develop this routine for myself; it has overall been great for my mental status. One other aspect to maintaining a healthy balance of school and home has been making art. I set aside time every weekend to do something artistically, and this has been really awesome. Last semester especially, I sort of lost tune of who I was an artist since I was swamped with work, school, and teaching. It has been truly amazing getting back into a creative routine, and I think that has been helping my instruction. A mentor of mine told me a few times that that the most effective and influential art educators are the ones who create artwork as part of their teaching routine.
I think that the best ‘trick’ in me developing my time management so far has been experience. As I have begun to gain more comfort in the classroom, I’ve gained more confidence in managing time. At the beginning of my teaching career, I really had no idea how long it may take students to complete an activity or project, but at this point I can better anticipate the time it may take for a class to do something. One other thing that came from experience, and my current and past mentor teachers, has been planning for flexibility. I have found that it is essential to be flexible in the classroom, because there will always be things that come up that aren’t necessarily anticipated. Also, this flexibility (in my opinion) has helped students be much more successful in my classes. I can’t believe how much I have learned in such a short amount of time, and it makes me excited to see how much I learn from these teaching experiences in the many years to come.
In my opinion, efficient time management means a few different things. The first thing I would like to discuss more in detail is managing time for each class period. I have found that it is essential to allow students enough time every day to complete the required task at hand, and not feel rushed to complete something. In my student teaching experience thus far, I’ve been more attentive to my ‘wait time’ and I think that this has helped the pacing and quality of work/responses from my students. The next thing that I have been focusing on time management wise is the pacing of a course over a term. In the 2-D Design course that I have taken over, I wanted give students a reasonable amount of time to be able to work on their first project; which is a personal narrative collage. I gave students about a week and a half of in-class work time to develop and create their collage work. I would rather spend a little bit more time on a project to allow students to truly develop their ideas and craft rather than rushing them through the process. I feel that the ‘quality’ of the artwork is a lot more advanced than it would be if the students were rushed and pushed through the creative process. While I feel that allowing students to have enough time is essential to developing deep, quality ideas, it comes to a point where simply, the project needs to be done and we need to move on to another part of the curriculum. Again using the collage project as an example, we have used a lot of class time working on it and I feel that it is time to move onto the drawing part of the class. I liken this idea to sort of a ‘yin yang’ sensibility, because I do want to allow students enough class time to work on things, but at some point, I do need to push the students to the finish line so we are able to move onto other art projects. Ultimately, I do not think that there is necessarily one ‘right’ way to manage time over the course of a term, but this has been something that has worked for me thus far. The final thing that I feel that is important to address here is managing time in a given class period to allow me some time to touch base and check in with each of my students. I have realized that I cannot necessarily do this every single day, but I like to try and do this on a pretty regular basis. While this might be considered a small gesture by some, I see the value in this as I am able to really build relationships with students.
I feel that time management has helped my teaching along with student learning in a couple of different ways. The first thing being is since I am a heavy planner, considering what is going on for each day/class and the estimated time it may take helps me feel more comfortable and settle into a class comfortably. If I don’t plan things out, I definitely am a bit more nervous and scatter-brained throughout the day. I noticed that developing routines in classes is beneficial to both the students and myself. I enjoy having a somewhat predictable routine, and I think my students prefer that as well. The students have appreciated knowing what they can expect on a given day, or couple of days. This way, both students and I are able to plan accordingly. I discussed this concept a little bit previously, but I think it is fitting to address it once again. The idea of allowing students enough time to work on a given art project is essential to student learning. If students are rushed through something, they feel more stressed about getting it done rather than creating something with developed ideas and of solid craftsmanship; I have experienced this both in my teaching experiences and time as a student. My goal as an educator is not to rush and/or stress out my students to meet a deadline.
This experience so far as a student teacher has enlightened me on how to balance my time between school and personal life. I dedicate some time in the morning before school and some time after school (about 2 hours or so in total) to work on things like grading, emails, and planning. This schedule has made it so on most days I am able to go home and not really need to worry about homework. I have made it a point to make this part of my daily routine, since it is essential to my mental health that I turn off the ‘teacher brain’ at the end of the day. Part of my philosophy is that at school I empty my ‘glass’ throughout the day, and at the end of the day at home, I refill that ‘glass’ for the next day. Obviously there are some days that run a little long and hectic, but I still try to reserve time for myself to rest and recover for the next day. I want to remain effective in the classroom, and part of that effectiveness is directly related to my mental health. In past semesters, it was hard to maintain that balance and I feel that it showed sometimes in my teaching; there were times where I felt that I could have been more effective if I was more rested. I am truly glad that I am beginning to develop this routine for myself; it has overall been great for my mental status. One other aspect to maintaining a healthy balance of school and home has been making art. I set aside time every weekend to do something artistically, and this has been really awesome. Last semester especially, I sort of lost tune of who I was an artist since I was swamped with work, school, and teaching. It has been truly amazing getting back into a creative routine, and I think that has been helping my instruction. A mentor of mine told me a few times that that the most effective and influential art educators are the ones who create artwork as part of their teaching routine.
I think that the best ‘trick’ in me developing my time management so far has been experience. As I have begun to gain more comfort in the classroom, I’ve gained more confidence in managing time. At the beginning of my teaching career, I really had no idea how long it may take students to complete an activity or project, but at this point I can better anticipate the time it may take for a class to do something. One other thing that came from experience, and my current and past mentor teachers, has been planning for flexibility. I have found that it is essential to be flexible in the classroom, because there will always be things that come up that aren’t necessarily anticipated. Also, this flexibility (in my opinion) has helped students be much more successful in my classes. I can’t believe how much I have learned in such a short amount of time, and it makes me excited to see how much I learn from these teaching experiences in the many years to come.
Journal 5: 3/04/2019 #PD
This project involved me considering where most of my 'Professional Development' has occured thus far; the art education studio. I have spent a great amount of time here reading, researching, and adding things to my tool belt. All of these things have become of great value as I began teaching full-time.
While sometimes the idea of ‘Professional Development’ may seem a bit dry or boring at times, I have seen the merit from it in my early teaching career. The most impactful thing that comes from professional development is further developing your teaching skills and how you craft a curriculum. I also feel that participating in various professional development events lends itself to helping you as a teacher be a lifelong learner. As each year passes, students are also changing in various ways (ie. technology use). I feel that if you are working with the youth it is essential to keep yourself updated and current in how to be effective in the classroom. Just because a lesson works well one year in one classroom does not mean it will work the same way next year. It is key to always be looking for ways to improve what you are doing in the classroom.
Thus far in my teaching career, I have participated in a few different forms of professional development. One of the first things that I was part of at Rocky Mountain High School was attending a meeting where a keynote speaker presented. This speaker talked to us all about looking for positivity throughout your day. Even seasoned teachers will get down on themselves for various reasons, so this speaker emphasized searching for the positives. I found this quite useful as I began my placement at the high school level. Another thing that I have participated in during my time at Rocky has been attending an IEP meeting for one of my students that is currently in photography. I found great value in this for a couple of different reasons; one of those being that I was part of the process to help a student succeed in my class and other classes. The other reason is that I gained a deeper understanding of what the IEP process looks like for students. I feel that just being present in that meeting made a world of difference for that student.
There are a couple of other parts of PD that I’ve been part of thus far, but it is more related to the schooling part of my career. For example, I have taken a lot of ideas and practices from two books that I read in my ‘Methods in Art Ed.’ course: Talking About Student Art and Assessment in Art Education. Both of these books have served as great resources so far in my teaching practice. They are full of different things that I can pull out and try in the classroom at any given time to help develop student thinking and learning. Those books sort of lead into my next point about PD: research. I’ve noted that for most of my lessons, I do a good amount of research prior to teaching. I am always searching and looking for new things to present to my classes. Most of the time, I look for new artists to show and new ways to approach an assignment. This idea goes back to one of my original points: lifelong learning.
There is one final thing that I want to talk about in terms of professional development, and that is personal reflection on my own practice. In my early teaching experiences in art education courses, my reflection process was a lot more formal and structured with writing and responding to what happened in the class. I’ve noted that this early reflection process built my reflection skills into what I am doing now in student teaching. While I still do some formal reflecting with writing at this point in my life, I have developed some other processes that seem to work well. One of those has been making art, specifically, getting back into traditional photography processes. This has helped me get back into the swing of things and understand some of the struggles that my students may be going through in my classes. I also will say that I have come to the realization that when I am photographing, I will often reflect on my teaching during the day or week. I consider things that went well and ways to modify a lesson for it to be better. Creating art has been very useful for the reflection process. The other thing that I do often in terms of reflecting is talk with my mentor teacher. We talk many times throughout a given week about what is going on in my classes and consider ways to approach various situations. We will chat about teaching, students, and collaboration methods. These conversations hold great value in my development as a teacher, I willingly take any advice given to me. Reflection about my teaching performance has been a major part of my professional development.
While sometimes the idea of ‘Professional Development’ may seem a bit dry or boring at times, I have seen the merit from it in my early teaching career. The most impactful thing that comes from professional development is further developing your teaching skills and how you craft a curriculum. I also feel that participating in various professional development events lends itself to helping you as a teacher be a lifelong learner. As each year passes, students are also changing in various ways (ie. technology use). I feel that if you are working with the youth it is essential to keep yourself updated and current in how to be effective in the classroom. Just because a lesson works well one year in one classroom does not mean it will work the same way next year. It is key to always be looking for ways to improve what you are doing in the classroom.
Thus far in my teaching career, I have participated in a few different forms of professional development. One of the first things that I was part of at Rocky Mountain High School was attending a meeting where a keynote speaker presented. This speaker talked to us all about looking for positivity throughout your day. Even seasoned teachers will get down on themselves for various reasons, so this speaker emphasized searching for the positives. I found this quite useful as I began my placement at the high school level. Another thing that I have participated in during my time at Rocky has been attending an IEP meeting for one of my students that is currently in photography. I found great value in this for a couple of different reasons; one of those being that I was part of the process to help a student succeed in my class and other classes. The other reason is that I gained a deeper understanding of what the IEP process looks like for students. I feel that just being present in that meeting made a world of difference for that student.
There are a couple of other parts of PD that I’ve been part of thus far, but it is more related to the schooling part of my career. For example, I have taken a lot of ideas and practices from two books that I read in my ‘Methods in Art Ed.’ course: Talking About Student Art and Assessment in Art Education. Both of these books have served as great resources so far in my teaching practice. They are full of different things that I can pull out and try in the classroom at any given time to help develop student thinking and learning. Those books sort of lead into my next point about PD: research. I’ve noted that for most of my lessons, I do a good amount of research prior to teaching. I am always searching and looking for new things to present to my classes. Most of the time, I look for new artists to show and new ways to approach an assignment. This idea goes back to one of my original points: lifelong learning.
There is one final thing that I want to talk about in terms of professional development, and that is personal reflection on my own practice. In my early teaching experiences in art education courses, my reflection process was a lot more formal and structured with writing and responding to what happened in the class. I’ve noted that this early reflection process built my reflection skills into what I am doing now in student teaching. While I still do some formal reflecting with writing at this point in my life, I have developed some other processes that seem to work well. One of those has been making art, specifically, getting back into traditional photography processes. This has helped me get back into the swing of things and understand some of the struggles that my students may be going through in my classes. I also will say that I have come to the realization that when I am photographing, I will often reflect on my teaching during the day or week. I consider things that went well and ways to modify a lesson for it to be better. Creating art has been very useful for the reflection process. The other thing that I do often in terms of reflecting is talk with my mentor teacher. We talk many times throughout a given week about what is going on in my classes and consider ways to approach various situations. We will chat about teaching, students, and collaboration methods. These conversations hold great value in my development as a teacher, I willingly take any advice given to me. Reflection about my teaching performance has been a major part of my professional development.
Journal 6: 4/08/2019 #ChangeOfPace
*This artwork represents my growth in each placement. The two different colors depicted are representative of the two different placements. With each passing day, I feel that I am growing as a teacher.
As I enter the second phase of my student teaching experience, I can easily say that there are a couple of things that I will take from my experiences at the high school level that are applicable to the elementary level. One thing that I will mention (and I know that I’ve mentioned this a few time before) is organizing myself and my materials on a daily basis. Since at the elementary level where I will be teaching six 45 minute classes per day instead of three longer periods, remaining organized will be essential. There is not much time to be wasted in these short class times, and fumbling around for things is not an effective use of time. Another thing that I feel is worth mentioning here is flexibility. At the high school, I noted a few instances where I needed to modify and scrap things if they did not work with a classroom full of students. I know for a fact that this will be applicable to the students at Bacon ES. Each day and each class of students is vastly different, and no two classes will ever be the same. Depending on the needs of the students in the art room at a given time, I will need to be able to be flexible in my teaching. If I notice that students aren’t very engaged with a PowerPoint or video, I may need to get rid of it and move onto something new. I have found that forcing things upon students is not the best approach in developing students’ artistic abilities. The final thing that I would like to mention about things I can utilize in this new placement is on relationships. At the high school level, I really developed and fostered strong relationships with students in each of my classes. These relationships helped dictate my instruction; based on how I knew the students helped me deliver more effective instruction for that population of students. This applies to elementary students as well. It will me much harder to get to know every student at the elementary level since there are many many more (nearly 600), but doing so will have its’ merit. From what I saw at the high school, taking the time to get to know students showed a great reward at the end, and I think students enjoyed my class more that way.
As I have transitioned from the high school to the elementary level, there have been a handful of things that I’ve had to adjust or look at differently in terms of my teaching. There is quite a large difference between high school aged students and kindergarteners. One thing that I noticed almost immediately was the type of language that I need to use with younger students. At the high school level, I was more able to be very upfront when it came to addressing student behaviors and/or expectations. Addressing behaviors at the elementary level has been different; often times I put it back on the student on how they should correct their behaviors. Ultimately, it has been about tweaking the kind of language I use to talk with students. Another thing that has been different at this placement is how I teach students how to use/do certain art techniques. At the high school level, I was able to show students pretty much from start to end how to correctly do something in the art room. With younger students, I notice myself breaking up demonstrations into much smaller portions. I will show students one step, have them do it on their own, show another step, have students do that step, and continue until the process is completed. The way I scaffold things to students is much different at the elementary level. The final thing that I want to address here is the pacing between the different ages. In teaching high school students, I found that there was much more time to observe and see what students were doing. Also, I only taught three classes that were 90 minutes long per day. With younger students at the elementary level, the environment is much more fast paced. Classes are 45 minutes long I see six different classes; needless to say, there is not very much down time. So far, since I’m still sort of getting my feet wet, there has not been a whole lot of time to observe in depth. It seems like there are constantly things going on where students need my help or something needs my attention. It is very different from the high school aged students, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. With nearly everything, the more experience that you have, the better your skills become.
As I enter the second phase of my student teaching experience, I can easily say that there are a couple of things that I will take from my experiences at the high school level that are applicable to the elementary level. One thing that I will mention (and I know that I’ve mentioned this a few time before) is organizing myself and my materials on a daily basis. Since at the elementary level where I will be teaching six 45 minute classes per day instead of three longer periods, remaining organized will be essential. There is not much time to be wasted in these short class times, and fumbling around for things is not an effective use of time. Another thing that I feel is worth mentioning here is flexibility. At the high school, I noted a few instances where I needed to modify and scrap things if they did not work with a classroom full of students. I know for a fact that this will be applicable to the students at Bacon ES. Each day and each class of students is vastly different, and no two classes will ever be the same. Depending on the needs of the students in the art room at a given time, I will need to be able to be flexible in my teaching. If I notice that students aren’t very engaged with a PowerPoint or video, I may need to get rid of it and move onto something new. I have found that forcing things upon students is not the best approach in developing students’ artistic abilities. The final thing that I would like to mention about things I can utilize in this new placement is on relationships. At the high school level, I really developed and fostered strong relationships with students in each of my classes. These relationships helped dictate my instruction; based on how I knew the students helped me deliver more effective instruction for that population of students. This applies to elementary students as well. It will me much harder to get to know every student at the elementary level since there are many many more (nearly 600), but doing so will have its’ merit. From what I saw at the high school, taking the time to get to know students showed a great reward at the end, and I think students enjoyed my class more that way.
As I have transitioned from the high school to the elementary level, there have been a handful of things that I’ve had to adjust or look at differently in terms of my teaching. There is quite a large difference between high school aged students and kindergarteners. One thing that I noticed almost immediately was the type of language that I need to use with younger students. At the high school level, I was more able to be very upfront when it came to addressing student behaviors and/or expectations. Addressing behaviors at the elementary level has been different; often times I put it back on the student on how they should correct their behaviors. Ultimately, it has been about tweaking the kind of language I use to talk with students. Another thing that has been different at this placement is how I teach students how to use/do certain art techniques. At the high school level, I was able to show students pretty much from start to end how to correctly do something in the art room. With younger students, I notice myself breaking up demonstrations into much smaller portions. I will show students one step, have them do it on their own, show another step, have students do that step, and continue until the process is completed. The way I scaffold things to students is much different at the elementary level. The final thing that I want to address here is the pacing between the different ages. In teaching high school students, I found that there was much more time to observe and see what students were doing. Also, I only taught three classes that were 90 minutes long per day. With younger students at the elementary level, the environment is much more fast paced. Classes are 45 minutes long I see six different classes; needless to say, there is not very much down time. So far, since I’m still sort of getting my feet wet, there has not been a whole lot of time to observe in depth. It seems like there are constantly things going on where students need my help or something needs my attention. It is very different from the high school aged students, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. With nearly everything, the more experience that you have, the better your skills become.
Journal 7: 5/07/2019 #WrappingItUp
*For the final journal entry, I wrote a letter dedicated to all of my students that I taught this semester and in semesters previous. Students are at the center of what we do as teachers and I wanted to honor that. I felt that writing a short letter to students would be a good way to wrap up my teaching career at Colorado State University.
Based on my teaching experiences thus far, I have come to note a few things that lead to a positive learning culture. The first thing that I will mention is based on relationships. Letting students know that you care is an extremely important thing to have in a classroom; if students feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in a classroom, learning will be a challenge. Building strong relationships with students has become deeply rooted in my philosophy, and I feel that this is one of the most crucial part of my teaching. Most of my instruction is based on my relationships with students; for example, I know that there are some students that I can give a ‘hard time’ and other students do not respond well to that. A lot of what I do as a teacher stems from relationships that are built on trust and respect. One other element that I believe leads to a positive and caring classroom environment is having set routines in place for students. Younger students especially thrive on these set routines; knowing what comes next is comforting. That comfort leads to willingness to try new things and create opportunities for learning. The final element that I want to address about crafting a positive learning community is providing students the opportunity to have fun in the art room. From my experiences as a student teacher, I’ve seen the merit in creating opportunities for play and laughter. One example I have for high school students, is to allow moments where they are encouraged to talk, collaborate, and work with their peers. Working in teams helps students facilitate teaching one another. This was very apparent in teaching students how to use the darkroom. Students were often sharing with each other their successes and what they did to result in success. An example of what this looks like with second grade students is a lesson where students used blocks to build a wall. The block wall served as a visual for students on a brick wall pattern. The act of playing, collaboration, and building hooked the students’ attention and harness their energy into the learning at hand.
Student teaching provided me with the opportunity to experience and teach students from a very diverse background, age, and culture. In my now nearly 16 week experience I learned a few useful strategies to helped me to be aware and respect all audiences. One strategy that became useful in my teaching on a daily basis was being cognizant of the pronouns I was using, and getting in the habit of utilizing gender-neutral pronouns. Growing up and going through college, it became very easy to refer to a group of people as ‘guys,’ or saying, ‘hey you guys!’ I never said this with the intention of hurting anyone in the room, but it is truly important to be inclusive of everyone in the room (because chances are, there will never really be a classroom filled with just boys). As I became more aware of the language I was using, I took measures to fix it. With high school students, I would often refer to my class as ‘team.’ At the elementary level, I would refer to a class as ‘artists.’ Another strategy that I used many times in my student teaching semester was to showcase artists from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I feel that it is important to show students that artists come from all over the globe, and don’t necessarily look or sound one particular way. For example at the elementary level, I showed the artwork of Brazilian artist Vic Muniz in conjunction with an artist from the United States. In the art room, it is crucial to showcase artists from all over the world with a range in backgrounds. The final thing that I want to talk about is something that I picked up during this semester, and will be applicable to my entire career as an educator. That one thing is simply having an open mind when it comes to diversity; I think that teaching in a diverse population is one of the greatest things about teaching. Having an open mind is a great way to get to know students, and allowing students the opportunity to teach you about their background or culture is something that I have truly enjoyed about teaching. Also, this really encompasses my philosophy about being a lifelong learner since I am constantly hearing, reading, and researching about new things to show students. Diversity is a beautiful thing and I strive to keep an open mind as I enter my teaching career.
As I look back at my art journals from my student teaching semester I noticed one thing in terms of self-growth: confidence. With each passing day and week, I found that I became much more comfortable in the teaching role in K-12 classrooms. Looking back at the beginning of my student teaching experiences, there were a lot more nervous thoughts going through my head. But as time passed and I got to know students more, I found that I was much more able to be myself in terms of who I am as a teacher. Slowly but surely, I have found management systems that work well for me and projects that work well with my teaching style. One example that I will mention in terms of management is about side conversations among students while I am instructing. Early on in practicum and student teaching, it was easy to let side conversations slide by. I noticed that if this were to be happening, there’s a very good chance that students would come up to me asking questions that I just explained to everyone. As the semester progressed, I became more strict with the talking and side conversations while I was trying to explain things. From this, I noticed that less and less students needed to come up to me afterwards for clarification. One other thing that I feel is noteworthy here is time management directly related to clean up. In my elementary placement, I noticed that when working with wet materials (ie. paint), clean up would take much longer than cleaning up with dry materials. There were a couple of instances where I would instruct students to begin cleaning and since time was short, I would need to help in order to get the class out on time. As time went on, I became much more attentive to the clock and began instructing students how to clean up with six minutes left of class; this would allow five minutes of clean up time. Prior to that, I would give students only four minutes to clean and that was not enough. Being extremely aware and attentive to those precious seconds made a huge difference in my time management skills.
Based on my teaching experiences thus far, I have come to note a few things that lead to a positive learning culture. The first thing that I will mention is based on relationships. Letting students know that you care is an extremely important thing to have in a classroom; if students feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in a classroom, learning will be a challenge. Building strong relationships with students has become deeply rooted in my philosophy, and I feel that this is one of the most crucial part of my teaching. Most of my instruction is based on my relationships with students; for example, I know that there are some students that I can give a ‘hard time’ and other students do not respond well to that. A lot of what I do as a teacher stems from relationships that are built on trust and respect. One other element that I believe leads to a positive and caring classroom environment is having set routines in place for students. Younger students especially thrive on these set routines; knowing what comes next is comforting. That comfort leads to willingness to try new things and create opportunities for learning. The final element that I want to address about crafting a positive learning community is providing students the opportunity to have fun in the art room. From my experiences as a student teacher, I’ve seen the merit in creating opportunities for play and laughter. One example I have for high school students, is to allow moments where they are encouraged to talk, collaborate, and work with their peers. Working in teams helps students facilitate teaching one another. This was very apparent in teaching students how to use the darkroom. Students were often sharing with each other their successes and what they did to result in success. An example of what this looks like with second grade students is a lesson where students used blocks to build a wall. The block wall served as a visual for students on a brick wall pattern. The act of playing, collaboration, and building hooked the students’ attention and harness their energy into the learning at hand.
Student teaching provided me with the opportunity to experience and teach students from a very diverse background, age, and culture. In my now nearly 16 week experience I learned a few useful strategies to helped me to be aware and respect all audiences. One strategy that became useful in my teaching on a daily basis was being cognizant of the pronouns I was using, and getting in the habit of utilizing gender-neutral pronouns. Growing up and going through college, it became very easy to refer to a group of people as ‘guys,’ or saying, ‘hey you guys!’ I never said this with the intention of hurting anyone in the room, but it is truly important to be inclusive of everyone in the room (because chances are, there will never really be a classroom filled with just boys). As I became more aware of the language I was using, I took measures to fix it. With high school students, I would often refer to my class as ‘team.’ At the elementary level, I would refer to a class as ‘artists.’ Another strategy that I used many times in my student teaching semester was to showcase artists from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I feel that it is important to show students that artists come from all over the globe, and don’t necessarily look or sound one particular way. For example at the elementary level, I showed the artwork of Brazilian artist Vic Muniz in conjunction with an artist from the United States. In the art room, it is crucial to showcase artists from all over the world with a range in backgrounds. The final thing that I want to talk about is something that I picked up during this semester, and will be applicable to my entire career as an educator. That one thing is simply having an open mind when it comes to diversity; I think that teaching in a diverse population is one of the greatest things about teaching. Having an open mind is a great way to get to know students, and allowing students the opportunity to teach you about their background or culture is something that I have truly enjoyed about teaching. Also, this really encompasses my philosophy about being a lifelong learner since I am constantly hearing, reading, and researching about new things to show students. Diversity is a beautiful thing and I strive to keep an open mind as I enter my teaching career.
As I look back at my art journals from my student teaching semester I noticed one thing in terms of self-growth: confidence. With each passing day and week, I found that I became much more comfortable in the teaching role in K-12 classrooms. Looking back at the beginning of my student teaching experiences, there were a lot more nervous thoughts going through my head. But as time passed and I got to know students more, I found that I was much more able to be myself in terms of who I am as a teacher. Slowly but surely, I have found management systems that work well for me and projects that work well with my teaching style. One example that I will mention in terms of management is about side conversations among students while I am instructing. Early on in practicum and student teaching, it was easy to let side conversations slide by. I noticed that if this were to be happening, there’s a very good chance that students would come up to me asking questions that I just explained to everyone. As the semester progressed, I became more strict with the talking and side conversations while I was trying to explain things. From this, I noticed that less and less students needed to come up to me afterwards for clarification. One other thing that I feel is noteworthy here is time management directly related to clean up. In my elementary placement, I noticed that when working with wet materials (ie. paint), clean up would take much longer than cleaning up with dry materials. There were a couple of instances where I would instruct students to begin cleaning and since time was short, I would need to help in order to get the class out on time. As time went on, I became much more attentive to the clock and began instructing students how to clean up with six minutes left of class; this would allow five minutes of clean up time. Prior to that, I would give students only four minutes to clean and that was not enough. Being extremely aware and attentive to those precious seconds made a huge difference in my time management skills.