Entry # 15

My overall reflection for this course is satisfacton. I loved this class and have learned a lot about myself and teaching. This class has really prepared me for teaching on my own. I enjoyed the books we read and found them helpful for experiences and relation to the students. I have learned about classroom management, student interaction and furthered my lesson plan development skills. I have expanded my knowledge about secondary art education in many ways. I haven't really had much experience with older students and to be honest I have always been nervous about being in the classroom with them. After this experience and learning more about lessons to teach, I feel like I have more aware and ready to be a teacher in a secondary art education classroom. I am not as nervous to be their teacher, I feel like I can relate to them really well. My main suprise was my ability to hold it together and pull through on certain mishaps or events that werent predicted. For an example with the students who werent motivated. As for the areas I want to further my exploration, I want to be able to be more comfortable with the students and work on my classroom management. I really enjoy this class and think it would be helpful for art educatin students. Thank you for a great semester and I have enjoyed blogging with you all. Best of luck to you and you will all be great teachers :D

Entry #14

My overall teaching exprience went well. I have enjoyed working with secondary students. Our classroom was very diverse and created a challenge. The lesson I taught was a hero shrine lesson. The students needed to choose a positve hero and construct a shrine to that person. They needed to include a sculpey clay sculpture that represented their hero in someway. I really liked this project and think the students worked well on it. I think they liked to create their own shrine and include what they wanted. I think they had the hardest time choosing a hero, I think more brainstorming would be an improvement. The students worked well on their projects, some students seemed bored or unmotivated, I tried to brainstorm with them and help them get motivated or work a little harder. This was another thing I could improve on make sure everyone has an idea before we move to the next step. I also think more days would be helpful for this project. The outcomes were good all of the students finished and had a nice project. There were a few that were not very ambitious but they included what they needed to for the project. I think the discussion on the last day went well, students shared their heroes and different parts about their shrines. It was a good experience for them to open up and share ideas and opinions. I think the students really grasped the idea of honoring their hero with a shrine they created.

This was a student's Shrine to Mr. Luther King Jr. He created different colored people out of sculpey clay. I thought this was very clever.

These students created shrines to their parents and father. Both did an excellent job creating their shrines. Very nice detail and use of box space.

Entry # 13

I plan on building a community in my classroom by making everyone share their artwork, no one can continually back out of sharing. There will be times they wont want to and I wont force them but everyone needs to be a part of the classroom. I plan on keeping students on track and I will allow talking and music but it has to be in moderation and it has to work with productive classtime use. I also will do my best to evenly split the classroom, making sure there isnt any cliques or harrassment at tables. I may even rotate throughout the class time. I plan on making my rules clear and sticking to them, once it slips students will push it further and further. I will not allow bad language or discriminatory gestures or language. I plan on having group projects to help the students learn teamwork, as well as encourage students to collaborate and help one another. I will introduce many artists and many artworks that address diversity in all of these situations listed on the question to show students there is a variety of people in this world, no one is better than anyone else and we all can strive to be a postitive and productive individual and group. I want the students to respect me, so I will make myself available for them to come to with any problems or questions. I want them to know I'm proud of them so I will share this with them when they do something well! I want my classroom to be a positive fun environment and I want students to want to come to art. So I will do all that I can to make sure this happens.

Entry #12

Some issues that I have encountered with classroom management in the art classroom have been focusing on the project and talking. A lot of students tend to talk more than they work, which leads to multiple distractions. There are students who refuse to do projects or think they can't do anything so they try to get others to do it for them. Some students run around and misbehave. Language can also be an issue or appropriateness and maturity. I think some of the biggest problems that prevent success are support, encouragement, postivive influences, and discipline. Consistancy and positive encouragment are some of the main strategies that are helpful in the classroom. Something I would like to try that isn't at the field site presently? Hmm I think there is only one or two things I can really think of, enforcing ipod privelages and language use. I would try to be more strict with those, but I think for the situation these students are in they act pretty well in the classroom. Motivation with some students is tough but we have already discussed this issue.

Entry #11

There have been many times I havent been motivated to finish something and sometimes to even get started. Sometimes it is just the fact I dont feel connected to the assignment otherwise I have a lot of stuff happening at the time that forces me to prioritize and then leads to me being tired of doing homework so I either put it off or go through the motions to get it finished. Usually due dates or just the will to get it done is what forces me to finish. My lack of motivation either is overcome by taking a break or forcing myself to sit down and just work on that. If I wouldnt have overcome the lack of motivation I would have not finished the assignment which would lead to a late or not counted assignment.

How could I help students overcome motivation obstacles? well I think it is important to keep students involvled and interested in class and the subjects being discussed. It is important to include them and relate them to the information being covered. If you make a connection the students will be more involved or at least I hope. If they still seem unmotivated I would try to talk with them and brainstorm ideas or ways for them to finish their assignment.
A student like this at my field experience would be a young man who seems to sit in silence and not connect himself to the class at all. He will appear to listen and just answer enough to what it appears leave him alone and then he just sits there until you come back by. He is very quiet and reserved. I as well as the other students have tried to talk with him and connect the art project to him as well as we can. We have helped discussed ideas and get his input but nothing seems to get completely through to him. Other strategies I could employ are asking him what he is interested in, maybe accommodate the lesson to enhance his interest. This is a tough one, there isn't much I can do until he gives me some sort of feedback so I can help him. It's kind of a guess and check situation right now with him.

Entry #10

My expectations for field experience were this was going to be a very diverse school, with many cultures and social classes. I honesty was slightly nervous there might be more issues and disagreements during class. I also was very nervous about teaching a lesson, I was afraid the students wouldn’t accept me into their classroom as well as even give me the time of day. I had heard many statements about this school and wasn’t sure what to think, and based upon the first day we observed I was slightly nervous my expectations were correct. I did expect the students to work on the project and learn something about themselves or their peers. A student I encountered was a boy who seems very reserved and quiet. He works well on his projects and has talent. He seems to be nervous or not sure where to start, he doesn’t share his art with others and rarely talks with us students. He is very interesting to observe, once he gets started he goes and creates a wonderful project. It takes a little confidence and motivation. This boy seems to be Hispanic but speaks English well, he is quiet but will communicate with his peers and occasionally with us student teachers, but seems shy to. What I can relate to is shyness I tend to be shy for a bit at first, sometimes it takes me awhile to get started on my art projects as well but once I get going then I can work really well. What aspects of his identity seemed outside of my experiences were he was hard to communicate with and I’m not sure how to reach out to him. I can learn how to communicate and how to relate to students better.

Entry #9

Being an advocate is important for art programs, and I will make sure art is seen and heard about by posting art shows for the community to see as well as show up to meetings and get arts voice out there. If it works with the school and other circumstances I will arrange service learning projects where students can partake in a community mural or event that involves art and their skills. There are risks involved, it could take time away from actual cirriculum as well as cost money. Sometimes there might not be a positive response and seem like a waste of time to others. I think that balance is a key point, the school will appreciate and notice the advocacy, but it could cause friction such as stepping on toes or creating other subjects to feel left out or something on that order, I also think that there can be too much at once and cause me to become overloaded, which would be bad and not have a balance. I think I would need to learn the community as well and gain an understanding of the proper way to advocate without being overpowering or annoying.