Week 2: Student Teaching

Wow! I am loving my student teaching experience so far. The more I get to know my cooperating teacher, and the more I work with the students, the more confident I am becoming. It feels great to spend time making art with children all day. I couldn't ask for a better job! I am learning that it takes a lot of work behind the scenes (not a surprise, just a realization of how much work!) but I am really finding joy in it.

Yesterday I taught the first graders for the second time. Last Friday I worked with them and did a demonstration of how to draw pigs. Because we are on a rotation schedule, this was my first time working with this specific first grade class. I got to introduce a lesson about drawing chickens, and worked with students to understand the basic shapes that make up a chicken. I tried to show them multiple examples to allow them to choose which way they can draw a chicken. My cooperating teacher has taught me that this helps create diversity within the student artwork, especially for the youngest students. Many of the students liked the way I demonstrated drawing (with a circle for a body and a long neck) but there were many students who looked at the student and teacher examples on the board and used them for inspiration (these included a crescent shaped body). I was surprised that they knew the word, "crescent". The best part of working closely with the students is learning their developmental levels and abilities. Each class has a range of these, so it is great to really sense which children are where. Here are some examples of the awesome work they did!

Yesterday went by so quickly that I didn't realize that it was the end of the day! My schedule for the day is quite fun, we have a prep hour from 8:00 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. which makes the rest of the day go by extremely quickly (and is a lot of work because there is no other breaks!) Even our lunch period is spent with children to finish up art projects, but if we want to take a break, all we need to do is tell the students. The students at the elementary school are really great children, and have a lot of respect for Ms. R. I am so thankful to be put with such a great teacher.





Ms. R. really wants to push me to start implementing, planning, and teaching lessons, which is a great feeling. I am confident in my abilities to teach students right now, but I am nervous to take over head weeks too quickly. I want to try to teach one to two of my edTPA lessons (three lessons surrounding a specific 1st grade class that I chose to work with) before I take on my head weeks. This way, I won't feel as stressed out as a head teacher, or while I am attempting to video tape myself and reflect on my teaching practices. The more I can reflect on serious teaching strategies before my head weeks, the better teacher I will be during them!

As I was teaching the first graders yesterday, I thought there were some things that I could have improved:

• I should have made sure that I covered ALL of the instructions I wanted the students to follow. I wrote a lesson plan for the quick lesson, but I forgot to discuss the idea of using the oil pastels to blend two colors together. This will be something I want to show the other two classes!
• I should have had a system in place to allow the first graders to go get their background papers. I didn't want to say "Okay, go!" So I counted off five students at a time to get papers. While we were waiting (which was about thirty seconds or so) I would ask them what type of chickens they would draw, which examples they liked and so on. Tomorrow, I hope to get out the past project (pigs) and look at the names on the backs of the papers to tell certain students to go work on their chicken or finish their pig. One student came up to me and said "I didn't finish my pig! Can I work on it first?" I thought to myself "How come I didn't think to finish the pigs from last time?". Thank goodness for that student, or I would have forgotten to do it again!

There was also some things that I thought I did well:

• Although I want to get through the demonstration quickly, I made sure to engage the students by asking them what they thought the next step would be. I also asked the students for advice on colors, what background I should draw and so on. 
• One student wanted the chicken to be in the woods! I asked her why would the chicken be in the woods? She didn't know, so I told her, "Maybe the chicken crossed to road to get to the woods!" Boy, I thought I was so funny and made myself giggle. The students were too young to really understand the joke, so I felt a little silly!

Today was a snow day (or rather, and ice day) for my school and surrounding districts, so i will continue with the lesson plans tomorrow! Today will be spent revising and creating lesson plans as well as tackling some edTPA reflective writing. I am finding that there is a lot to this edTPA and that it is hard to keep track of. Luckily, I have time today to really dive into my weekly tasks created by my program advisor. I think I will make a list of "to do's" for each day of each week! I completed my first task by sending home a photo and video release form for permission to video record in the classroom as I teach my edTPA lessons. This is a requirement of the edTPA, so I hope that all of the parents are fine with it!

Student Teaching!

It has been awhile since I posted, BUT today was my first day of student teaching! I got placed at an elementary school with an amazing cooperating teacher for my first nine weeks and placed with another amazing high school art teacher for my second nine weeks. After this experience, I will be applying for licensure as a K-12 Art Educator and open teaching positions for the fall of 2013. Wow!

I am also working with my University to pilot the new EdTPA system, which is a teacher's performance assessment that will be mandatory for all student teachers to pass before receiving their license to teach in any discipline in the near future. Myself and a student in Early Childhood Education will be experiencing this together, and will be working closely with our advisors and the School of Education to do the best we can! I can't wait to write about the successes and struggles of my experience and how they relate to both the edTPA and life as a student teacher. I hope to help out as many others in my position as possible, especially those in the future that I am piloting this for. Wish me luck.

As for the edTPA, it will be a lot more writing and a bit more analyzing of lesson plans, videos of presenting lessons and engaging students, and assessment procedures. By the end of this, I should have written about forty-plus pages of reflections, planning and assessment. I'm excited to see what happens! There is a lot on my plate with all of these new responsibilities, but nothing that is too scary. Plus, I have some great art educators on my side!

Speaking of which, my cooperating teacher at the elementary school, Ms. R, is pretty great. Today I got to watch her in action and saw how she ran her classroom. Although I do not have the system down quite yet, I know that I will be able to get into the swing of things soon enough! I set up five folders for art projects that I will accumulate throughout this experience, which is unbelivably helpful. She has some great ways for me to really get the most out of this experience, especially since she has had over 20 student teachers. (I think I'm her 23rd or 24th or something crazy!)  One of  my classmates just finished up with her last Friday, and had a great experience. Ms. R keeps calling me by the name of the other student teacher because we are so close together.

The students warmed up to me pretty well and were excited to see that they have a new helper in the room. I am anxious to get to know them more and really have a relationship and rapport in my classroom. It should be a fun experience! More to come on my first day experience soon!

More fun at Camp!

Explaining how we were going to make Halloween decorations for the camp's Halloween celebration

Helping fold for a day of tie dying!

Teaching about God's Eyes and how to start them.

Arts and Crafts Director at Summer Camp

I am loving my summer so far, and had to upload a few pictures to show myself in action at my summer job as an arts and crafts director for a summer camp! I am having the time of my life while learning a ton about classroom management. I'm so grateful for this experience before my student teaching placement, I can't wait to see how I do in the real classroom after I get all of this time under my belt! I love all of the campers already, they're so creative!

crayon melting project! "Crayon Paintings"

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.