Question #3

I really am struggling with what to do with the students who finish early on their projects when the rest of the class needs another day or so.  What do you do with your students in that situation, and have you seen other  teacher practice successful strategies when working with this conundrum?

Winding down

With the semester winding down, new challenges are presenting themselves.  The issue of what to do with students who are finished with the project assigned when others need more time (and, in the case of the end of the semester when you can't start a new project). After talking to my mentor teacher, she suggests that the students work on an "Expression Session" (cards that instruct students to draw creative subjects). 

I like the expression sessions, however the students don't seem to like drawing them unless they are hounded.  I need to research other methods of having the students be productive in between projects without them losing interest. I really liked the idea that Jenica suggested last semester about having the students create their own set of playing cards and by the end of the semester, having a set of their own that they can play with for the last day of class, I may try this approach with my incoming students!

And I thought Monday was bad....

Well, the continuation of the art critique lesson seems to worsen. AAHHH!!! I have come to realize that I would not be a very good English teacher at this point, because after teaching this strictly writing assignment, the students tend to be confused with my instructions and need a lot of additional assistance.

I get positive feedback from my mentor teachers, so I believe I am doing something right, but I think that I need improvement on my non-art teaching skills.  If I am going to focus on large literacy based projects (which I understand if being pushed more and more), I need to practice these skills.  I think the technique of delivering long lectures based on things you want them to write needs to have a lot of question and answering during the class to ensure that the class is listening and understanding what you want them to know. 

Rocky Monday

Today was a mixed bag of ups and downs...The students started writing their critiques so it was finally a chance for me to get around and talk with individual students as they began to work, but the execution of the warm up portion of the lesson was a bit rocky.  Although I had planned for the lesson, once I began presenting, it was clear that I wasn't full proof in my ability.  I simply chalk this up to my inexperience and the fact that it wasn't my lesson to begin with, so I was not comfortable with presenting it from instinct.

In the future, I would make sure that I was confident with my lesson and let my lecture come from the heart rather than trying to recite my notes, causing me to fumble and sound like I don't know what I am talking about.  I think if I taught this lesson again in a similar format, I would need to try to figure out a way to engage them more and have them more invested into the writing project.  I know that art class isn't and English class, but the students need to learn how to talk and write about what they are looking at deeply. 

Getting Better Acquainted With Technology

So for my third post of the week, I wanted to recap the lesson that I presented on Thursday about how to write an artist critique.   I had the students take notes for this portion of the unit because they were not going to have any reference material once they began the assignment (the have a folder with the elements and principles in it, but nothing that would walk them to the steps of an art criticism).  I had them take Cornell notes, which were new to me but I liked them, however a lot of students didn't seem to know how to take notes effectively so the area where I could see this lesson improving would be for me to guide them through the not taking process a little better.

The classroom that I am in is equipped with a projector for the computer and a document cam.  Apparently switching between the two media is easy, but I did not realize this and did not demonstrate how and where to take proper notes which I could have done easily if I just switched from the PowerPoint to the doc. cam. to show them EXACTLY how I wanted them to take useful notes.

In your opinion...

I found this website when I was looking for interesting blogs for my blogging class and wanted to get your opinion about the resume portion of this posting.  Do you think it is tactful or tacky to "beef up" your resume by adding frills to it (obviously keeping all claims factual) but adding color, fonts and design? Can we get away with this being art teacher (candidates) or should we remain equally professional as our core counterparts?
 
5 Secrets for Landing a Job in Art Education

Continuing the Principles

Well, another successful day of covering the Principles of Design. The kids were a little more zombied out than the day before, but I understand that, first period is a little in the morning to be absorbing much information at all, let alone processing entirely new concepts. 

It was a fun day though, I wrapped up the principles of design with them pretty quickly and we moved onto discussing different feelings and emotions that could correspond with different pieces of artwork.  

We wrapped up the day with a game,...I handed out Jolly Ranchers and according to the flavor of candy they got, they had to either identify an element, principle or emotion that they saw in the given piece of artwork.  They seemed to like this activity, but then again who doesn't like a little treat from time to time.

From reflecting back on the day, I think I need to work on stronger opening and exiting strategies.  This is something I can certainly look up on the internet, but any suggestions of what works or doesn't would be much appreciated.

Question #2

Although this is not a long, wordy question, it is a topic that we are talking about in another one of my classes and we are trying to formulate for ourselves. So, in a summary, what is your philosophy of classroom management, and are there any theorists that have influences you or that you agree with? What works the best for those seemingly impossible, unruly kids and what what would you avoid at all costs?

First Day of Teaching

Well, today was my first day teaching and after a rough start (2hr delay due to snow and the teacher showed up ten minutes after class started).  Due to this unexpected start, I decided to start the class with a "get to know you" session by having them introduce themselves to me and give me an interesting fact about themselves.  Once the teacher arrived, the show got on the road (I needed her to be there to set up the computer that I was going to give my PowerPoint presentation from). 

Overall, the PowerPoint went well. Although I wouldn't advocate lecturing for an entire class period, which I did, the students behaved exceptionally well and I was very impressed by their patients and participation when they were called upon.  Because all of my other teaching experience involved some sort of cleanup at the end of class, I was not accustomed to having an exit strategy that consisted of anything more than 5 minutes of clean up and this was the area of the lesson that I needed to be better prepared for.

I am hoping tomorrow goes just as well, however with a little smoother exit, and I believe this style of teaching (lengthy lecture) gives me a perspective on how I will (or will not) teach and also help me become a better speaker overall.

Questions #1

Now after experiencing both of these arrangements, I was wondering what your thoughts on being a lone art teacher in your department versus working with other art teachers in the same school are.  What do you think are the most challenging aspects of each of these circumstances and what are the benefits?  If I find myself in the situation of being the new teacher in multi-instructor department, what is the best way to approach this? I would be afraid of stepping on toes of more senior faculty members, but I also want to remain independent and not be looked down on for my lack of experience.  

Zen Tangles

Although this was another lesson that I did not teach, I thought it was a great project to do that teaches kids about patters and positive and negative space.  The teacher took three days walking the students through 15 zen tangle patterns and then required them to create a few of their own.  The students then worked on combining different patterns on a pre-designed template for a octodecahedron using all 15 patterns that they practiced as a class and some of their own, drawing them in small detail with an ultra fine Sharpie.  In the end (the unit will take about 12 days total) these Zen Tangle balls look really cool.  Although the lesson involved quite a lot of process oriented instruction, it also allowed the students room for their own creativity, so overall a great combination of both (which I think is important when teaching young students new techniques).  I think if I were going to duplicate this unit I would present it very similarly, I really enjoyed learning about Zen Tangles and I think the students really did too!

http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/zentangle

Elements of Design

Unlike future posts, I have not taught yet a lesson so all I have to reference is what I have observed.  The lesson taught today was a review for the students to get them prepared for a art critique that I will continue to teach next week.  The students watched a PowerPoint and listened to a lecture on the Elements of Design that the teacher presented.  In my humble opinion, the lesson was a little long (the entire 58 minute period), however the teacher did a great job at keeping the students engaged in the lesson by randomly calling on them to point out examples of the elements in the given artwork.

If I were to teach the lesson on my own, with out a pre-established lesson plan, I would find some way for the students to have a more interactive role kinetically in the lesson, however at this time I am unsure how I would do that.

This lesson does help the students look closely at the artwork, identifying details that they would probably overlook otherwise and I certainly value that aspect of the lesson.  I would love to teach this lesson, I think that I might have the students make flash cards or something similar to that so that they can practice the elements as well as learn the definition. 

Teaching Journal

"The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create."

–President Barack Obama