Week 6! (Feb 25 - Mar 1)

Wow, I cannot believe that student teaching is going by so quickly. I have found that it is very hard to keep up with reflecting online about my experiences within the classroom. I am really finding a place in the art room and am starting to have great relationships with each class and each student. It feels great.

This week I had my first "head day" as the teacher for every class of the day. Ms. R was in the classroom but ran many errands and got a lot ready for putting up art within the community and a district art show at a local technical college campus. It was great experience for me. I felt like I was managing behavior all day long rather than teaching!

A final peacock, colored with glitter and metallic crayons and ink

It was a day 3 of the rotation schedule, so everything that I had to teach was a repeat of was Ms. R and I did the day before. This was a big help because I had very little to prepare for.

5th grade was continuing their work on tropical birds, 2nd grade was working on coloring and painting a new lighthouse project, 3rd grade was finishing perspective drawings and coloring their fired clay peacocks, 4th grade was drawing and coloring some fantasy trees from their imagination (in contrast to the previous palm trees), 1st grade was creating boats for the seascapes and Kindergarten was painting frogs! It was a busy day, but a fun day!

Some frogs, in progress!

I was extremely tired after my head day, and was reminded of how important classroom management strategies and rapport really is. I did a much better job of moving students away from each other if they were causing disruptions, and even had a student go to the "take a break" chair. I often have a high tolerance (mostly too high) for misbehavior, so I was proud of myself.