Student Teacher Speaker Mr. K

Today we had a recent student teacher and graduate visit us in class. It was great to hear his about his student teaching experience. He had some great insights as well as advice and even some lesson plans to share with us! He graduated with a double major in Art Education and Graphic Design in December, and has been subbing and applying for teaching positions for this fall ever since. He is very savvy with technology and has a very calm demeanor, which I can tell would benefit him as a teacher! He was very personable and easy to listen to. I'm excited to see where he ends up!


The following is what I found the most important information he had to offer us! Please enjoy!

• Don't set your expectations too high, take the experience as it comes!
• Learn from your mistakes and failures, don't underestimate the power of reflection!
• Plan all summer long for lesson plans and ideas, archive!
• Take a ton of pictures and videos
• Use a webcam and rig it up to be a doc cam to use for demonstrations (great idea)
• Always make sure your CT is with you when you address or discipline students privately
• Get to know each student and each class to reach them best
• Follow the cooperating teacher's rules. Don't implement your own (this is your chance to get some new ideas and see what works for you!)
• Talk to students at their level, kneel, bend down if you have to
• Use your time to practice interviewing after graduation
• Use the question, "What does the community think about your art program?" to ask principals after interviews (gives you a sense of budget, approval by community and job security in one!)
 

 I really enjoyed what Mr. K had to say. He had so much information and advice for us! It was amazing to hear his experience, especially because he had a bit of a rocky start with one of his cooperating teachers, and he handled himself professionally and respectfully, which I admire! 

 

I can't wait to student teach! 

Observations of Mr. R's classroom

HOW DO THE STUDENTS ACT UPON ENTERING THE CLASS? HOW DOES THE TEACHER ACT? 

 The students walk into the room quietly, find their seat and get to work right away. Mr. R doesn't greet the students, he just speaks about what is on the board on days that he chooses to present extra information. It is very quiet at the beginning of class, but generally gets louder and louder as class progresses!

HOW DOES THE TEACHER GET THEIR ATTENTION TO BEGIN CLASS? IS THERE A PROCEDURE FOR LISTENING?

There is no procedure for listening, rather when Mr. R begins to speak, he expects them to be quiet. If they are not quiet, he will just pause until the students stop talking or until the rest of the class can hear their conversation. Mr. R will just begin speaking, with no "hello" or "excuse me" and so on.

COMMENT ON THE TEACHER’S INSTRUCTION (HOW HE/SHE BEGINS CLASS, DEMONSTRATIONS OF TECHNIQUES, INCORPORATION OF TECHNOLOGY, SENSE OF HUMOR).

Mr. R does a great job using the smart board for presentations of new projects. He is very dry in his sense of humor and often speaks in a similar tone. He does a great job applying real world situations to his teaching techniques and makes sure to give the students ample chances to answer questions and understand the project. He doesn't give a lot of demonstrations, rather he tells them and shows them what other students have done (via student examples) and allows the students to experiment and ask for help. He will give a demonstration for completely new techniques in beginning classes, but allows the advanced students to recall the processes from previous projects.

HOW DO YOU SEE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEING HANDLED? ARE ANY STUDENTS BEING OFF TASK OR DISRESPECTFUL- HOW DOES THE TEACHER HANDLE THIS? IS THERE A SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE THAT THE SCHOOL USES?

Mr. R does a great job keeping his students on task. The students understand that if he is walking around behind them or at their table, they should be on task. Generally, the students are always working on something in art class because they want to be. He doesn't have many issues of students doing nothing. Only a few students during my observation didn't do much art making in the classroom. Instead, they spent time on sketchbooks and preferred to work at home. I never saw any of their artwork that they worked on at home, but Mr. R says they often turn in the assignments late.

ARE THERE RULES POSTED? WHAT ARE THEY? 

There are no rules posted in the classroom, however, the students have procedures they follow and have had instilled all semester. Because I observed toward the end of the year, if these were posted, they are not posted now.  The students must be quiet, respectful, and must participate in discussions, clean up and so on. No electronics or music, and may not swear or use profanity in any way. The students did a generally good job at following the rules in the classroom. The most behavioral issues happen in resource time when they feel like they have more freedom.

HOW DOES THE TEACHER ADDRESS SAFETY ISSUES? 

Mr. R ALWAYS makes sure to tell his students about every safety issue. He always presents the lesson and safety issues right away as well as reminds the students about the safety issues in everything they do. He has also taken class periods at the beginning of the year to go over a tour of the room as well.

HOW DOES THE TEACHER HANDLE: BATHROOM BREAKS/LOCKER/DRINKS? RADIO/IPODS? TELEPHONE? USE OF MATERIALS? BORROWING MATERIALS OVERNIGHT? CLEANING UP? 

Mr. R signs all passes for bathroom breaks at the beginning of class and expects them back in a timely manner. The students have a passbook to use, so he allows passes as long as they have room in the pass book. The students bring food into the room, which is often at the beginning of the day which he allows for breakfast purposes. They must throw it away when the class starts and may not work while there is food on the table.  When students borrow materials, they must write their name and what they borrowed on the board for everyone to see. He allows students to use their cell phones for emergencies or to get information from parents an so on with his permission and approval. (This doesn't happen very often but Mr. R is pretty good about situations like this). As I have stated in many blog posts, he has great cleanup processes where each student has a daily routine, and a weekly job to put away carts, supplies and so on. All of the students are very good at following these procedures.

DOES THE TEACHER USE A LESSON PLAN, CURRICULUM MAP, OR A CALENDAR TO PLAN UNITS? DOES HE/SHE HAVE A WRITTEN CURRICULUM? (can you see it?) WHAT DOES THE PLAN INCLUDE? 

Mr. R doesn't sure lesson plans, but he does utilize curriculum maps and previous lessons in his career for reference. I didn't ever see his curriculum maps, but he mentioned that he is behind in his planning for the school's requirements, but often gets a lot of room to wiggle from his principal. For not using plans or written tools, he does a great job keeping his room organized.

Final Reflection

Overall, this experience was very educational. I loved learning about the way that Mr. R runs his classroom. Management of students is something that I know I will need to work on in the future. I want to make sure to have a sense of respect and organization in my room while being a fun and exciting atmosphere to be in. It was very fun to see how he hands out his rubrics and allows his high school students to be very self motivated. I really enjoyed seeing this style in action. I don't know if it is the right style for me, but it seems to be what Mr. R and the students are comfortable with.

Having two art rooms to work from is amazing. I was so excited to see the classrooms available to the students. Mr. R does a great job of keeping them clean and orderly as well as comfortable and decorated. Mr. R was very big into cleanliness and safety, something I am very fond of as well. He did a great job keeping the students aware of the safety precautions and hazards of each project. I was most impressed with the cleanliness of his art room and the willingness and cooperation from the students to do their required jobs during clean up time.

I have pasted in my responses to some reflective questions below. Please read them to really get a sense of how Mr. R demonstrates the teacher standards.

Planning and Preparation Elements

Although Mr. R doesn’t use lesson plans, he does plan and prepare for his lessons. Each of the students has a grading rubric for each lesson in their sketchbook or folder. They receive these rubrics at the beginning of each semester. The semester is planned out into roughly six-week increments to complete each project. The presentation dates for the new lessons overlap with the previous projects to keep the students thinking about what is next. In terms of preparation, Mr. R is at a point in his career in which he has a lot of knowledge and experience in each lesson plan. He has smart board note taking activities ready for the presentations, and supplies and examples ready. Mr. R is a great teacher because he understands and knows his content area so well. He has personal experience and teaching experience with each of his projects, which shows in his presentations to the class. He utilizes organization in his classroom by presenting each due date and task on the board for each class to see. This allows the students to check the board for any information they might need.

The Classroom Environment

The classroom environment Mr. R creates is one of self-motivation. The students are required to stay on task in class and always have something to work on. They are responsible for the progress of their project as well as their sketchbook assignments Mr. R utilizes a seating chart as well as weekly clean up tasks for the students. Each week duties like putting away the supply cart or sweeping the floor, wiping tables and so on is assigned and rotated. Each student is responsible for his or her area of the classroom as well. Upon entering the classroom, the students go right to their seats and start working. They can look at the board for the due dates as well as what point of the project they should be working on to stay on task. Although Mr. R does not greet the students when they walk in the room, when he begins speaking about the project each day, they students seem to quiet down and listen to what he has to say. As a man of few words, they know that he will give them the information they need and want to know. The morale of the room changes with each class period. Some classes are very loud and have troubles staying on task, while other classes are more reserved and at work. Mr. R deals with the differences between the classes by walking around the room to observe or interact with each student every day. At the end of each class period, students must put their stools onto the tables in order to sweep the floors. This keeps the room very clean and orderly, which Mr. R utilizes for both cleanliness and safety. The students are warned when there is five minutes left of class time. During those five minutes they must stop what they are doing and participate in any clean up duties. At the end of the period, Mr. R doesn’t interact much with the students because he is getting other things ready for the next class period, which is normally held in another room. In each room, he utilizes the same classroom management, which seems to work pretty well.

Instruction

Mr. R introduces new topics to the students during the previous project. He likes to break up his presentations into shorter lessons in order to allow work time as well. He will introduce the sketchbook assignments early so they can have ample time to sketch and compose ideas for the project. Each student already has the rubric for the next project in his or her folder or sketchbook. This also includes a list of all sketchbook assignments for the semester as well. Those who finish early can ask Mr. R for advice or work ahead. When the presentation for the art making process comes around, Mr. R will notify the class in advance so they know what to expect. He often sits at a table with the student and uses student examples and sketchbook examples to teach with. He does a great job of incorporating each new lesson into the student’s daily lives. This is because he always has a real world situation in which the characteristics of the project fit. For example, when introducing the soapstone-carving project, he told the students that they would need to find something that works with the stone they choose. This is applicable in life because they need to be able to work with the limitations of any given circumstance. He also encouraged them to embrace their childlike sensibilities and play a game where they had to find what the stone resembled, just as they looked at clouds in the sky when they were children to find familiar shapes and animals. Mr. R does a great job of asking students many questions as he is instructing or introducing new concepts. He also likes to ask many questions in class in order to keep students thinking. If a student would ask him a question, he often responds in a question format in order to get his point across. This seems to be a technique that he uses a lot. This also ties in with his classroom environment being very self-motivated and self-taught. Mr. R is their teacher not to tell them the answer, but to help them find it.

 

Professional Responsibilities/Personal Characteristics

Mr. R is a very serious teacher. He takes his job as an educator seriously, as well as his students and their work. He is responsible for over 150 students a day. In order to stay organized, he has many rules in place that have been followed by his students for many years. He has a great relationship with the class and often cracks jokes and has meaningful and sometimes silly conversations with his students during and after class. As the head of the art department, and only art teacher on staff this year, he works with PLCs as well as attends IEP meetings for his students to ensure they have the best learning environment and learning opportunities. He will stay after school to allow more work time for the art students. He has such empathy for all of his students and where they come from. He is an excellent educator because he gets to know each student in a personal way. He considers the families and cultures of each student. By understanding these things, he can better reach the students, and allow them to thrive within the classroom. Mr. R doesn’t hand out compliments. When he does give positive feedback the class knows that they are really doing a great job. Mr. R likes to make his students think and work hard. By giving homework and things to do outside of class, he makes sure that they take art as a serious subject and not just an easy “A”.

Wisconsin Teacher Standards

Teachers know the subjects they are teaching. Mr. R does a great job understanding his subject. He has a Masters Degree in fine arts as well as his teaching degree. Because he knows his content area so well, he has a lot of credibility with his students. He has pictures of his kiln as well as his ceramic works hanging on his bulletin board, and has a hand thrown lamp as well as other pieces of his work around the room to show the students. It is very fun to hear him speak about his work as an artist with the students because you can see how much they respect him for his talents and teaching abilities. All of his years of teaching experience allowed him to master all of the subject matter that he teaches, which also gains him respect from his students.

Teachers know how to manage a classroom. Mr. R does a great job of establishing rules and procedures in his classroom right away. Because he is so consistent with his discipline as well as his routines during each class period, the students work very well for him. He understands and utilizes his ability to arrange seating charts as well as observing someone from a close distance in order to get them back on task. He has great respect for his students and keeps his discipline to a minimum and in private, or separate from the general classroom. He has a lot of impact on his students in the way he manages his classroom and keeps things organized.

Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons. The way Mr. R integrates different lessons in his classes is very unique. He often starts a whole new media or subject after one another in his introductory classes. By doing this, he allows them time to get a sample of different mediums and processes. This allows them a better understanding of what art has to offer in the more advanced courses in which he builds on previous knowledge from the beginning courses. Although he doesn’t use lesson plans, the lessons he teaches are very organized and structured through grading rubrics. By teaching to the rubric, the students have a higher chance of success and understanding.

Last day of Observation! (1 hour)

Last Thursday I visited the high school for the last time. It was a great day in the art room again, as most of the students were finishing their batiks (a day before the due date) and starting on their sculptures. Mr. R sat with the students for the first five to ten minutes of class reminding them of the information that he wrote on the board. He reminded them:

1. The batiks are due tomorrow
2. The sketchbooks for the sculpture plaster project are due tomorrow
3. 4/27 is the last day to turn in ANY late work.

He reminded them that if they turn anything in late, they will get a curt response. He told them that this means that he won't be the nicest to them about it, and won't accept it no matter what.

This was a good way for Mr. R get their attention. A lot of the students were working very hard in class due to this discussion. If the students were not turning in work from the past projects, many of the failing students would be asked to complete the class in an alternative setting and not be in his room anymore. One student told me that he was in that situation, and that he had a lot of work to do before the next day. I made sure to tell him that he could get it all done if he comes in after school and works during resource. He was very negative about his situation but I sat with him to make sure that he knew what he had to do (listing everything) and how much of each project he had left. This student comes from an emotional background, so I was happy to make him more comfortable with his situation.

After making sure to tell all of the students thank you and how much I enjoyed their feedback and attention in class, the period was over! Overall, it was a great morning, which went better than most! I was a little sad to leave the school, but excited to put another student teaching experience on my resume!

Last Monday at the High School! (2.25 hours)

Today I enjoyed my last meeting with 6th and 7th hour. It was a great feeling to have the students wish that I was going to stay with them until the end of the year. Even though I will miss the sixth and seventh hour classes, it feels great to have my second practicum experience coming to an end. I feel very accomplished and excited to use all of the things I have learned.

The beginning 3D students were continuing to work on their coil pots. Many of the students have finished and are now working on their sketchbook assignments for the soapstone projects. They seem to enjoy the down time in class, but often fill the hour with giggles and web surfing instead of researching and working. I'm not so sure if I like the way that the students are on such separate projects all the time. A few students are still working on late work, which is nearly six weeks late. I love the sketchbook assignments, but I will probably work to keep my students more on task.

The seventh hour class was very fun to observe. I say observe because Mr. R was introducing the painting project to them today. Most students are still working on their self portraits after the due date, but some needed the introduction today. He showed examples of student work from the past and really started a great conversation about ideas for subject matter in the paintings. Because seventh hour has three foreign exchange students (two from Mexico, one from Germany) in the class, they gave great insights about the different context that the principles of design can create in the compositions due to cultural backgrounds. It was a a very fun conversation that lasted the entire class period! What a great way to end it all.

I then spent the resource period helping the drawing students on their portraits in the separate classroom from Mr. R. I have had a great experience with these classes, and will look back at this experience fondly!

Brewer Reading Reaction

I have always approached interdisciplinary art education as a positive aspect of arts in education today. Until reading this article, I didn’t realize that the integration of other subjects into art could result in classes that deny visual art its value as a distinct discipline (31).  As art educators, we incorporate reading, English, social studies, geography, history, and even math and science into our curriculums without purposely doing so. However, it seems like all of those core classes do not incorporate art as readily within their own curriculum. Nonetheless, this is an exciting subject to read about because I absolutely stand for integration of other subjects into art education. I think it validates our subject matter and really broadens the horizons of students who have different modes and methods of learning that others.  I agree with Mr. D’Amico when he said “he did not mind teaching art in correlation with other subjects as long as it was not placed in a subordinate role…” (31).

I loved reading that 85 percent of fifth graders in Brewer’s intrinsic art experiment practiced art at home. Even with practicing art at home, he found that art instruction played a key role in their drawing techniques and aesthetic preferences (33). I also enjoyed reading that linkages between learning in the arts and learning in other subjects are, “perhaps strongest and instrumental instruction most justifiable when an art program exists in its own right, when there is a specific need for instrumental outcomes, and when there is a conscientious effort to facilitate transfer” (33).

 “Studies from the National Arts Education Research Center (1991) were considered as early indications of success in defining how the arts contribute to learning across the curriculum in secondary schools” (34). I think this is a great quote that tells us that the arts have some positive effects on education, but aren’t being fully considered or truly proven. One of the things that frustrate me with art education is that we are always advocating, always working so hard to make sure that skeptics know why art is so important. Have we not proved that art can incorporate other subjects? Have we not shown that arts make children happier, more involved and excited about school? Although this doesn’t apply to absolutely every student in the whole world, arts bring something to the education system that many classes do not. We even bring in other subjects to our own, unlike some others. Art Education is an amazing all-encompassing subject that gives a real world analysis of when and why we will use this in real life… whether we are studying art, math, science or literature.

While reading the article, I didn’t find a lot of it to be ‘quote worthy’ or extremely new information to me, rather, I took the big picture of the article into consideration. I thought this article highlighted integration of other subject in the arts as a positive thing, something that will help us justify our subject. The big thing that I want to remember from this article is that no matter if art education is an amazing subject to integrate other curriculum, it is still art class, and my students are in the art room to create, learn and understand art in a more comprehensive manner than before. I also hope that by learning art fundamentals, they can make connections between their subjects on their own, without making it a mandatory part of my teaching, more like a happy by-product. 

Best Reading Reaction

While reading “Lemonade or Merlot?” by Harold Best, I found his writing to be very easy to read. He had many things to say, mostly about music, but also how those thoughts related to his view of multiculturalism in education. I enjoyed reading his first hand account of multiculturalism through music, and how music can be a metaphor for diversity and multiculturalism. All of the notes come together in a way that “no beat dominates. Rhythm and meter must answer to contribute integratively to final architecture” (6). Even the language he used seemed artistic. He had a way of writing that was very fluid and exceptional. I found the most meaning in the following quotes:

“Music brought me into an increasingly peaceable sense of unity among musics that analysis and practice in the academic world did not fully satisfy” (4). In this quote I think he really nails why art is important in schools, whether that is music, theater or the visual arts. Art is something that satisfies parts of our human condition that other academic disciplines cannot.

“…Hierarchies that are radically multicultural because they stretch all human minds without disdaining any one of them; they honor the inborn ability of every human being while granting to the wiser and more gifted a place of leadership and example; they understand that true service and humility are identical twins; and in teaching, they show that wisdom and authority shine more brightly that knowledge and power” (5).

The quote that most inspired me was this: “I’ve been talked into something. Yes, I have. But I have not been talked into everything. My teachers merely lit a few enduring candles and the music showed me the rest of the way” (6). This really made me think of my dream as an educator, and how I hope to light a few enduring candles in my student’s minds to keep them loving the arts.

In the article, “Multicultural Art Education” by Stuhr, I enjoyed the definition of the human relations approach to art education. Just like Best’s article, I found some quotes and theories that were the most important to me:

“Students learn to respect one another regardless of race, class, gender, or exceptionally the United States will eventually reach its goal of equality for all…” (173). In this quote, it really spoke to what art can do for children as well. Art is a human condition, at least that is what the philosopher Tolstoy referred to it as. Art is something that makes all humans equal and is a part of our human nature to create. In this way, it brings all types of people together for one common purpose. In thinking about lesson planning, this would be a great segway from art history into a community project.

Stuhr wrote a lot about how curriculum focuses on the western culture. I agree that a lot of the things I learned in high school and even in college is based on the western world, or more closely the United States. Whether it is integrating the overall idea of unity and multiculturalism or incorporating different specific cultures within my classroom, I would like to integrate much more information that students might not learn anywhere else.