Week 5 (Feb 18 - Feb 22)

This week was a busy and fast week! Monday started out with my supervisor coming to observe me with the first graders as I introduced my edTPA mixed media seascapes. The students did a great job using the art supplies to create their backgrounds. They learned about scumbling and what space is in art. Crayon, marker and water were used in the backgrounds, giving them a new experience with mixed media.

The water station was a popular place! They loved watching the marker bleed into waves.

A finished background waiting to dry!

 It was a good day for me to receive feedback on my teaching because I started video taping my teaching for evaluation. I thought that I may have overwhelmed the students with a lot of vocabulary in the middle of the lesson, which I did! Both my supervisor and cooperating teacher had some great things to say, but also mentioned how I could slow down and create more visuals and steps for the students to follow. This was all great feedback that made me much more comfortable during my lesson with my focus group. I thought I would be nervous to get taped, but I really felt comfortable and prepared! The edTPA lesson plan format really gets me thinking about absolutely everything in the lesson, classroom and about the students, so I was ready to go!

Wednesday was an early release day for the students at the elementary school, and was a special program called Snowfest. Ms. R and I worked with students to do a snowflake relay race in the gymnasium. Each grade has a "buddy" grade (such as fifth grade and second grade, first and fourth and third and kindergarten) so they were lined up with their buddies. The students had to relay with their groups from one end of the gym to the other while keeping a paper snowflake on their heads. It was a blast! The students quickly found out that running with the snowflake on their face was faster than walking with it on their head. I even worked up a sweat demonstrating for them. It was a great day that made me feel like a part of community within the school. The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing and changing artwork within frames around the school.

The elementary school is covered in artwork, which really adds life to the school. It is a feat to put it all up and down, but there are so many cooperative teachers, student teachers, volunteers and high school helpers that make it all work.

On Friday I had my first student teacher seminar at the University. It was a day spent in informational meetings about Love and Logic, Commencement and Licensure. The afternoon was spent with my fellow art education student teachers and supervisors reflecting on our times in the classrooms. The end of this week really has be excited to be a teacher!