Day 6

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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884

Today was my second day observing my cooperating teacher’s new lessons after Spring Break. Today, I still felt tired, moody, and stressed out. My sleeping schedule is backed to being messed up as I am having trouble adjusting to the school schedule. I ended up falling asleep after school yesterday, woke up in the evening, and wasn’t able to get back to sleep until much later in the night. So I was tired this morning and not in a good mood again. This semester is really draining on me and I can’t wait for it to be over.

Today the second grade students actually did seem to understand the concept better than they did yesterday. While there were a few students who actually painted a sun, or ground, or insect, most of them followed instructions and simply painted colors. There was one student in particular who was tirelessly painting colored dots all about her page and when she showed it to my cooperating teacher was told to fill in the page better as there was still a great deal of white paper left in between all of the dots. I followed her to her seat and offered that she wet her brush and try dragging it across her colored dots to create some new, blended colors. She was intrigued by the idea, tried it out, and loved it. “Wow!” she exclaimed, “I didn’t know you could do this!” Soon the students around her followed suit and began mixing new colors together. Her paper was completely painted just moments later. I love seeing students understand new concepts and get excited about it.

The first grade students are doing an activity that I thought may be too advanced for them at first. The students are creating landscapes from torn up tissue paper and are focusing on using a variety of shapes and colors. To begin the landscape, though, my cooperating teacher walked them through creating a 3-dimensional tree from a brown paper lunch sack. The students were instructed to open the lunch sack, cut a corner off, stick their scissors in the hole from the cut corner and cut the bottom from the bag. Afterwards, they were told to flatten the bag and cut about four or five vertical strips from the bag, without cutting all the way through. This caused the bag to look hula-skirt like. Then the students twisted the bottom of the bag to create a trunk and each of the cut strips to create branches. The end product really did look like an interesting 3-dimensional tree with texture and variety. I was actually surprised that with the walk-through with my cooperating teacher, the students were able to create the tree. Only two students messed up their trees so badly that they had to start over because they cut the strips completely from the bag rather than leaving them dangling.

After the students had completed their trees, my teacher and I stapled them to their papers and they began gluing torn tissue paper to create their landscapes. Unfortunately, many of the students didn’t understand this concept and would glue entire sheets of tissue paper to their papers to create land or sky. There were also issues with the use of glue as students would completely unwind the gluesticks and complain when they broke. At one point we ran out of gluesticks and students began complaining when they had to share or use a glue bottle. My teacher explained that most teachers avoid glue bottles because of the mess they can create, but with proper instruction, the students can use them well. This gives me confidence as I’ve always been weary of glue bottles, even when I was a student. I’ve always found them to be too messy and difficult to use effectively.

The fourth grade students seem to be partaking in a somewhat difficult lesson plan. Inspired by Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, they’re creating paintings or drawings using pointillism. The students were given freedom to choose what they would like to depict and were told to color the image with dots in watercolor paint, crayon, or colored pencil. One student really embraced the idea and depicted a nuclear explosion. His red, yellow, and black colored pencil dots were really-well done and were beginning to create a successful looking image. Most students, however, were struggling with the concept. Not only were some struggling to come up with an idea for what to draw, but most were having issues with the dots. Some students drew small circles, some did incredibly large blotches, some did dashes. Several students didn’t even put dots in their paintings and drawings. Students who opted for watercolor also quickly discovered that if they put their dots too close to each other and used too much water that they would blend together and not be dots anymore. My cooperating teacher had to explain to several students that they would have to go over their images with darker colors to try to put the dots back in. I really feel that the students could benefit from a demonstration from my teacher on how to use the dots, especially since she didn’t have a completed example to show them.

<< Monday, March 23, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 >>

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Day 5

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Today was my first day back from Spring Break. I felt incredibly moody, tired, and stressed today. You would think that I would feel otherwise, rejuvenated, relaxed, and ready to get back to work because of the week-long Spring Break. On the contrary, I spent every single day of the break, from the moment I woke up to the time I went to sleep, with small breaks here and there, working on my Honors Thesis. I am so stressed about completing it by the end of April in order to graduate on time. Thankfully, I accomplished a good deal over the break, but I didn’t complete as much as I’d like. I also found a working groove and didn’t want to interrupt it by returning to Student Teaching. I have been stressed beyond belief this entire semester and I feel that if I was only Student Teaching or only working on my Honors Thesis, I wouldn’t be nearly as stressed as I am. I didn’t intend to do both this semester, but a registration error brought on this situation. Thankfully, everyone I know is encouraging me and telling me that they know I’ll accomplish everything because that’s the kind of person I am. It’s true that once I commit to something, I am severely committed and will even put my health aside, but looking at my schedule just demotivates me. My thesis is sitting at 66 pages right now, so let’s see if I can get it done in time!

Because today was Monday, I was able to see some new lessons and activities. At the elementary level, every day of the week is the same for an art educator, you just see different classes each day. Whatever I saw last Monday was the same thing I saw on every day afterwards. Today, my cooperating teacher wanted to start all new lessons, for the most part, because of the break. Even though some students hadn’t finished the previous lessons, she wanted them to start on the new activities. She emailed a copy of all of the lessons and handed me a printed version when I walked into the classroom.

It was enjoyable to see some familiar students this time. Again, an elementary art educator sees new students each day of the week, so this was only the second time that I’ve seen some of these students. I still am bewildered at how I’ll be able to learn all of the students’ names over the time I’m Student Teaching here, and I’m wondering if it even will be possible. I’m trying my best to retain the names when I hear them called out in class and during after-school dismissal. Sometimes I’ll see their names written on their artworks while they’re working, too. I’ve got a few names memorized, but not nearly the amount I had done at the high school level by the second week.

Today was interesting as I saw my cooperating teacher’s new lessons. With the second grade students she asked them to paint an entire piece of paper in random colors that they would cut shapes from next week to create a collage insect in the style of Eric Carle. She read The Very Quiet Cricket and then set the students to painting.

From "The Very Quiet Cricket" by Eric Carle

From “The Very Quiet Cricket” by Eric Carle

I was surprised at how poorly the students painted, immersing as much of the paintbrush as they could in the paint, swirling the brush in the paint for several moments before placing it on the paper, not mixing the colors at all, using way more paint than they needed, and trying to wash all the excess paint in the water. It seems that second grade students may need more instruction on actually using the paint. I may be assuming incorrectly, but I feel that they could be trained to not dunk their brushes and waste so much paint. I was also surprised as my cooperating teacher gave each table a container of water and then immediately began dumping the containers of water and refilling them. She went from table to table repeating this process until the end of class. Sometimes the water hadn’t been tainted by the paint too much. I felt that my teacher may be overworking and that she didn’t need to change the water so much, or even at all, perhaps. The students were also incredibly interested in playing with the water and trying to change the color of the water. A lot of the paint contributed to changing the water’s color. Maybe if the water wasn’t changed so often they wouldn’t have the chance to create so many new colors.

Another thing that surprised me with the second grade students painting was the fact that many of them weren’t just painting random colors. Although my cooperating teacher had explained that they would be cutting the paper up to create the insects next week and that they only needed to paint colors on their papers, I found suns, grass, and even bugs being painted on the papers. Even after my cooperating teacher and I addressed these students personally, they still continued painting “things.” They didn’t understand the concept, which made me wonder if this activity should be pushed up a grade level.

A similar experience happened with the third grade students as they were instructed to draw a composition inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s close-up abstracted flower paintings. The students were shown several examples of O’Keeffe’s paintings and were told to pay attention to how the flowers were drawn incredibly large with parts of them going off the edges of the page. The students were sent to go painting and were even given calendar pages of large lilies to use as reference. Very quickly, however, I found tiny flowers being drawn with suns and grass in the background. I tried explaining to students to make their flowers larger or to draw them more zoomed in, but the concept was not understood. Some of the students did draw flowers with petals that were large or went off the edge of the page, but none of the images looked abstracted or zoomed in.

A final learning experience was with the kindergarten lesson. The students were shown images of ancient cave drawings and were given a sheet of brown paper. My teacher instructed the students to crumple up their papers to replicate the rough surface of a cave wall. The students really enjoyed crumpling up their sheets of paper, though one was incredibly hesitant of messing up the paper in that fashion. After the paper was crumpled, students were instructed to draw animals on their paper and to show the environments that they live in. I was confused as to why my teacher wanted the students to show environments as the original ancient cave drawings did not. Quickly, I realized the answer. Within minutes the students were finished drawing their animals, outlining them with markers, and coloring them with crayons. If they hadn’t been instructed to add backgrounds, they would have been finished, and even with the backgrounds, they were finished and told to free draw with the rest of the class period. I feel that this particular assignment should be assigned to a higher grade level in which they can try stylizing the animals like in the original caves. I felt that crumpling the paper was a great activity for the young students, though.

It’ll be interesting to see how the classes in the following days interact with these lessons.

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

<< Friday, March 13, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Tuesday, March 24, 2015 >>

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Day 4

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Friday Assembly

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

Today was my first Friday at Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School and it was an interesting day. Fridays at Goodwin-Frazer are called “Fitness Fridays” as all special classes are replaced with a gym class. Because art is considered a special class, this meant that my cooperating teacher and myself were in the gym the entire day. We did not teach one art class today. This will be the case for every Friday, so I am no longer looking forward to the end of the week.

The day started off with an assembly, which I’ve been told happens every Friday. The school has started a new program called P.R.I.D.E. Leaders in which students who show leadership potential are granted P.R.I.D.E. Leader badges that grant them extra privileges such as being able to walk in the halls without a supervisor. During today’s assembly, the next batch of students to be granted the P.R.I.D.E. Leader badges were announced and congratulated as their badges were granted. The system actually seems like a good idea as I hear all of the teachers talking about P.R.I.D.E. Leaders. They use it as a reward and a reinforcement for students who do and don’t have the badges. My cooperating teacher said that this is something they should have been doing since the start of the year.

After the assembly, the first gym class began. Because the 4th and 5th grade students have been watching a maturity video and starting a sexual education program this week during the art classes, I’ve already hosted two gym classes this week. One day the girls were in the sex ed program and the boys were in the gym and the next day, vice versa. Today was exactly the same as those two classes, so I did the same exact thing 6 times today. The students entered the gym, sat on the floor, were given instructions, had to run 5 laps around the track, then had the rest of the class period to play with the different stations set up about the gym. Students could play with hippity-hops, hula hoops, basketballs, soccer balls, jump ropes, racers, scooterboards, puzzles, building toys, white boards, or do gymnastics on the mats. The day was exhausting. All day I was on my feet, monitoring students, completely bored. I actually wanted to join the students in what they were doing. I would have loved to play with hula hoops, jump ropes, puzzles, building toys, or the scooterboards and racers. Ah, it looked like so much fun! I would have even liked to join the students in running laps around the track. I was so bored and sore from just standing and pacing all day. I could see why students would be excited for Fitness Friday, but for the art teacher, it’s no fun and we don’t get any fitness.

I feel as if my Friday reflections may be a bit short as this will be the schedule each week.

Thankfully, there was a bit of variety today as it was Club Day. My cooperating teacher explained to me that instead of having before- or after-school clubs, the school has decided to host three Club Days throughout the year in which the last class period is replaced with a club time. Every teacher hosts a club and every student gets to pick the one club that they would like to be in. My cooperating teacher’s club is the Serious Artists Club. She said that she added the “serious” part so that she would get mature, more responsible students who really are interested in creating art. Today, she gave the students air-dry clay from her leftover clay unit and instructed them to make whatever they wanted, but suggesting making bowls so they would be less likely to break. The students finished within half of the class period and the rest of the time was used for free draw or to color a coloring sheet my teacher had. While the students were working, my teacher was arranging all of the supplies she needed to do work over the Spring Break. I was so bored that I decided to sit down and color the coloring sheet alongside the students. Thankfully, that quickly cheered me up and ended up being enjoyable.

I still don’t feel comfortable here and I think that my relationship with my cooperating teacher may be one reason. We don’t have a bad relationship, I just feel like she doesn’t know what to do with me. Thus, I am given no instruction, information, or even acknowledgements, sometimes, as she’ll leave the room without saying anything. Her classroom is so well-organized, there’s nothing for me to clean up, her students are well-behaved, so I don’t need to work hard in order to manage them, and any time I ask if she needs any help, she doesn’t. And with no workspace, I don’t have a place to retreat to and observe and take notes. I did end up talking with my cooperating teacher today during lunch and she mentioned that she is a micro-manager and is serious about her work. I feel like she may be very similar to myself, and if that’s the case, then she may be nervous with me and not know how to handle me. I’m a bit too shy to approach her or start a conversation, but maybe it’s the same for her. I’m just really hoping that things will turn up in the following weeks.

Pharrell Williams – Happy

Here’s one of the songs that’s played at the beginning of the Friday assemblies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GLuydiMe4

<< Wednesday, March 11, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Monday, March 23, 2015 >>

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Day 3

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Today, my cooperating teacher was not in attendance as I student taught at Comal Independent School District’s Goodwin-Fraizer Elementary School. She had told me that she would not be in attendance today or tomorrow and that she had two different substitute teachers set up.

As I walked into the classroom, I met the substitute teacher and she was surprised to meet me as she hadn’t been informed that there was a student teacher. My cooperating teacher had printed out two packets of information for the substitutes and myself for each day that she would be out and I had noticed that she hadn’t included my existence on them. At both my high school student teaching experience and my middle school internship, my cooperating teachers always wrote, “I have a student teacher, Miss Brooks. She’ll be able to help you,” at the top of their substitute papers for when they would be out. Again, it seems like I’m an after-thought for my cooperating teacher.

I also noticed that today was a much better day than the previous days. I got along well with the substitute teacher and enjoyed spending the day with her. Unfortunately, I felt as if I wished that she was my cooperating teacher because of how comfortable I felt with her. She was inviting and welcoming as she spoke with me and recognized my presence. There weren’t any awkward silences between the two of us and she shared responsibilities with me as she asked if I’d like to teach the next class and told the students to ask me for help instead of her because she didn’t have an art background. I also liked the way she interacted with the students better, as she wasn’t as strict and direct with the students as my cooperating teacher. She also showed interest and enthusiasm in her inflection, especially when she spoke with younger students. She delivered the same exact lesson to the kindergarten students as I’ve observed yesterday and the day before, only this time the audio actually sounded like a kindergarten class. I also noticed that the kindergarteners grasped the concept much better as they were much more well-behaved than the last two groups and didn’t need as much help as the previous classes. This could be a class-specific difference, but I believe that the instruction was easier for them to understand and made more appealing.

If I end up teaching elementary school, I think that I’ll adopt a teaching style more similar to this teacher than my cooperating teacher. It seemed more natural to me to be enthusiastic and excitable with the young students than monotone and direct. They also seemed to respond to that style better.

Cafeteria

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

I haven’t yet reflected on the lunch duty that my teacher and I perform each day. Each day, my teacher is given 30 minutes for lunch and 45 minutes of lunch duty. My first day of lunch duty, my teacher explained to me that we were there to monitor the students and assist them. She explained that they would ask us to open things for them or to retrieve things that they forgot to pick up from the lunch line, such as ketchup, utensils, and napkins. I was a bit surprised that that was part of our responsibilities as I walked back and forth from the students and the lunch line to retrieve objects.

I felt like a waiter being called upon each time a student raised his hand.

I’m sure that this system was put in place to maintain order as students are not getting up from their seats to retrieve objects, but I felt like it was a failed opportunity to teach them responsibility. A student didn’t need to remember to grab their items from the lunch room because a teacher could retrieve it for them later. It just felt incredibly odd to me to be at the students’ whims and I felt like I was their servant. The students were also not allowed to leave their seats to throw away their trash. Instead, I was instructed to wheel around a trash can to every student at the end of the lunch period. The students remained sitting until their homeroom teacher retrieved them at the end of lunch and instructed them to line up and return the classroom.

This reminds me of an article I read recently that talked about how our students are instructed to stay seated and be quiet for the majority of the school day. It talked about how this could create restlessness, fatigue, boredom, and a feeling of helplessness as the students aren’t engaged in an active and interesting way. I’ve been constantly reminded of this point and have made an effort to give my students the chance to get up and move around during my lesson plans within an energizing opening activity.

It’s odd to me that there’s such a stark contrast between student and teacher where the students are told to never stand up and the teachers are told to never sit down.

Tomorrow, I’m excited to meet the second substitute teacher and hope to learn new techniques from him or her. I’m hoping that tomorrow will go as well as today seemed to.

 

<< Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Friday, March 13, 2015 >>

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Day 2

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Drive-Thru Students

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

Today was my second day at Comal Independent School District’s Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School. I started off feeling incredibly moody and tired and even went to school wearing my glasses instead of my contacts. It was difficult for me to adjust to the high school schedule because it’s earlier than I’ve been used to these last 5 years or so, and now I’m having to adjust to the even earlier elementary school schedule. When my body is allowed to sleep whenever it likes, such as during the summer breaks, my normal sleeping schedule is 4:00am to noon. I am very much a night owl and find myself drowsy in the afternoon-evenings, but then instantly wide awake around 8:00pm. It can be hard for me to get to sleep early and wake up in the early mornings. I have always known that this would be a challenge for me when I enter the professional world and even wrote it as my biggest concern for student teaching during training.

Today seemed to go pretty much the same as yesterday did. Unfortunately, my cooperating teacher still didn’t really seem to open up to me. It still feels cold and awkward between the two of us and I don’t know what to do to warm it up. Whenever we speak, the conversation quickly comes to a halt and we’re in silence again. Another big issue is that I’m a workaholic and a fidgeter. I must be doing something at all times, preferably something productive. This has been an issue my whole life and I’ve had several teachers and professors address me about multitasking in their classes. When I’m listening to a lecture, I have to use my hands, such as writing notes, drawing pictures, or working on something else, like filling out my planner, writing a shopping list, etc. If I’m not doing anything, I start to zone out and stop listening or I’ll get nervous and can’t think about anything but the desire to do something. Thankfully, after speaking with my instructors, they’ve always allowed me to continue because I’m an accomplished student and still answer questions, take part in discussions, and earn high grades. This nervous tick was driving me crazy today, though, as I again felt as if I had nothing to do.

When I was student teaching at Canyon High School, I felt I had plenty to do. When my teacher didn’t ask me to take attendance, sign hall passes, grade papers, enter grades into the gradebook, or make copies, I could manage her rowdy classes, help students with their artworks, create examples for the lessons, organize and clean the room, or even just sit at my desk and work on something, such as taking notes or filling out my planner or reflection journal. I had my own personal workspace and I felt completely comfortable, welcome, and free to do anything.

Around the second or third class period, after feeling as if I had nothing to do in a well-managed, completely clean and organized class in which the students and teacher didn’t need any help, I decided to sharpen all of the colored pencils and clean out the colored pencil bins of shavings and dust. Still able to observe the class, I brought a small trash can to where the colored pencils were located and faced the class while I hand-sharpened every last colored pencil in the room. I can tell you that my hands were rubbed raw by the end of it, but several class periods had gone by and I was in a much better mood. My teacher also mentioned that the students would appreciate my work. I figured this would also help my teacher as yesterday we had a few issues of students sharpening both sides of the pencils for fun or simply sharpening pencils just to waste time or because they were fascinated with the pencil sharpener. Now that all of the colored pencils are sharpened, though, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do.

Today was also my first experience with dismissal duty as I joined my cooperating teacher outside the front of the school after the school day had ended. She instructed me to stand by one of the five colored poles and collect tickets from students before opening the car doors for them. She told me not to buckle the students into their seats, but to simply open and close the doors. I had never seen anything like this system before and was completely mesmerized. After the students came out of the classrooms, they gathered by the school’s walls by grade level. A mobile speaker was brought out and the gym teacher began reading off the names of students from signs posted in the windshields of their parents’ cars into a microphone. “Carlos Mendoza go to Blue. Susan Harrison go to Yellow,” she would announce.

I couldn’t help but think of a fast food drive-thru.

A parent would drive up to the school and flash a sign with his student’s name on it, then we would prepare the student and by the time the parent drove up to the crosswalk at the entrance, the student was ready to hop into the car and drive away. I know that this system is meant to boost efficiency, but it still seemed odd to me. The parents didn’t even have to get out of their cars as we did all of the work for them. Drive-thru students, I’ve just never heard of it before.

At least this pick-up system will help me learn the students’ names.

<< Monday, March 9, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Wednesday, March 11, 2015 >>

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Day 1

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Goodwin-Frazier Elementary

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

Today was my first day student teaching at Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School in the Comal Independent School District. I was paired with a new cooperating teacher today and met her before classes began. It was a little awkward at first as we made our introductions and my teacher went back to what she was doing without explaining anything to me.

“Can I help you with anything?” I asked.

“Umm, no, not really,” she responded and returned to her work.

I placed my lunchbag on the floor and started taking off my raincoat.

“Oh, I don’t really have a place to hang your coat. I just have this closet,” my teacher explained as she opened a closet. Her coat and purse were inside and there were several free hangers, so I was a little confused as to why she said she had no place for my things. I hung up my coat and purse and placed my lunchbag on a shelf above the hangers. I then clutched my folder and pencil bag as I glanced awkwardly around the room. “Oh, I don’t really have a place for you to sit,” my teacher responded. “Some of the classes are a little large and take up all of the seats. Here, I’ll clear off a spot on my desk. Sorry it’s really messy,” she said as she cleared a stack of papers from the corner of her desk. Again, her desk was extremely well-organized matching her spotless classroom, so I didn’t think that she needed to apologize. She cleared a corner from her desk that was just big enough to place my folder down.

I felt really awkward right from the start and honestly, it never got better. It seemed from the very beginning that my cooperating teacher was indifferent about my presence. She seemed to ignore me as she didn’t explain much, tell me what she was doing, give me advice, or ask about myself. I’m not a strong chit-chatter, myself, so I would occasionally ask a question or make a remark, but after my teacher gave little back to respond on, the conversation would die and we would be in silence again.

Thankfully, the classroom that I am in is a dream; definitely the kind of room I would like to work in. Unlike my classroom at Canyon High School, the room was immaculate. Everything was completely organized, labeled, and color-coded. Each of the tables have a large colored sign hanging from the ceiling marking the table as “Blue,” “Red,” “Green,” or “Yellow,” and there were bins of markers, colored pencils, crayons, and other supplies each marked with a matching green, red, blue, or yellow tag. The markers were then organized into colored cups, all the red-colored markers in a red cup, the blues in a blue cup, and so on. As an incredibly organized person, myself, I felt ecstatic and right at home. I’ve heard people say that it’s just not possible to have an organized art room, but this proves otherwise.

Classes began and I was instantly shocked at the level of the students. I always underestimate elementary students of what they are capable of and at what level they can speak and act. The students knew to enter the classroom, sit on the rug, wait for instructions, go to their seats, and take the bins of supplies with the matching colors to their tables. I’m never around young people so it surprised me that they acted like small adults. Perhaps elementary won’t feel as much like babysitting as I was anticipating.

I was surprised with how my teacher acted, as well. She was very direct with the students and seemed a little harsh when she corrected their behavior. When a student misbehaved, her tone was strong, forceful, and a bit scary. She was quick to make her point clear. She also didn’t seem to teach how I expected an elementary teacher to teach. Her voice carried no enthusiasm as her tone stayed flat and her message sounded uninteresting. She seemed to talk to the young students like she would talk with anyone. If I had only heard the audio from her instruction, I would have guessed it came from a business meeting, not a kindergarten class.

Unfortunately, my teacher also seems to use a follow-me teaching style as I saw what the second grade students were working on. The students were creating Gustav Klimt pattern cats as they drew cats and then filled them with patterns and gold paint. The only issue was that every single student’s cat looked exactly the same. My teacher explained that she gave all of them a coffee lid to trace for the head and then had a step-by-step lesson to show them how to draw the rest of the cat’s body. The cats were really well drawn and were in an interesting pose that was large so that they could be filled with pattern, but the students didn’t have to put any thought into the drawing process. I feel that students should have the opportunity to flex their creative skills and draw their own cats, perhaps with small reference pictures to help.

As the day ended, today, I felt incredibly out of place at the elementary level. Everything went fine and nothing seemed challenging, I just didn’t enjoy the day as much as I did at Canyon High School. It may also be because I never felt comfortable with my cooperating teacher. She just didn’t seem to want me there or to know what to do with me. I never feel comfortable when I don’t have a place of my own, especially a chair with a desk. For some reason, I feel incredibly uncomfortable if I don’t have a desk to sit at, in all scenarios, so without somewhere to sit I felt awkward and unable to take notes. At my previous student teaching placement and even my internship before this I had at least a chair, which boosted my confidence.

I’m hoping that things will turn up. Hopefully my relationship with my cooperating teacher will improve and I’ll find my place in the classroom. I also hope to find enjoyment at the elementary level, especially since I’ll be here for almost two months and will be certified to teach at the elementary level. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

First Day of School

<< Friday, March 6, 2015 | Student Teaching Reflections | Tuesday, March 10, 2015 >>

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Day 32

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Today was my last day Student Teaching at Canyon High School. It was very bittersweet as I have come to love something about each of the students. I met my goal of learning every single one of their names and took the time to learn about them as individuals. I also became familiar with the teachers, the school, and the schedule. Today, I actually felt like this was just a normal day and then realized that it will all be changing again on Monday. Monday I will start Student Teaching at Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School with a new cooperating teacher.

Today I gave my cooperating teacher a small gift and thanked her for her service. I really enjoyed her critique, suggestions, and feedback. I thought that she was an effective mentor and I’m glad that I got paired with her. Although we may not have the same teaching styles, I still feel like I learned a great deal from her.

During some of my classes, students were sad to see me go. A large group of boys gave me a group hug after I announced that it was my last day and throughout the day several students stopped by during passing periods to give me a hug and say bye again. My cooperating teacher said that it’s moments like that when you know you’re doing something right and that you’re there for a reason. I really enjoyed learning which students really enjoyed being with me.

Today my cooperating teacher was pulled out to substitute for another class again. I feel like she’s been pulled out every single day this week. This gave me a final chance to flex my teacher muscles as I managed the classes during their work days. It was difficult to get students to work again; this time because it was Friday and they were all looking forward to the weekend. I can’t count how many times I heard, “I don’t want to work right now. I’ll do it over the weekend.” It didn’t help that my teacher extended her Friday deadline to Monday because of the shortened class periods this week. I really struggled getting students to work diligently.

I made sure to take photographs of all the student work from the lessons I created, though I wish I could have seen them finished. The clay creations from Art I are still sitting on the back shelves and I don’t know when they’ll be worked on again. The students keep asking me when they’re going to paint them, but it’s all up to my cooperating teacher. The Painting III/IV students were supposed to have finished their paintings today, but several of them did not, and some of them looked rushed or were turned in unfinished. I’m not sure if extending the deadline again would have benefited them or not because they tend not to work when the deadline isn’t close. Some of them also don’t appear to care about deadlines at all as one student who was nowhere near finished would not work on her piece today. I’m still learning how to set deadlines, yet remain flexible with the curriculum.

Overall, it was a pleasant day, but odd to think that I may never set foot in Canyon High School again. “Have a great life!” I called out to the students after the bell rang as I may never see some of them again. It’s always odd to me to think that I will get to know some of these people really well in a short amount of time and then never see them afterwards. It’s odd, but that’s how it would be when I’m a teacher as well. At least I’m not one who gets all choked up about having to say goodbye. I enjoyed my time at Canyon High School and I hope that this trend continues.

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Day 31

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Today was another shortened day as classes were delayed until 10:30am. Because the students still went to all of their classes, they were all reduced in order to make up the two hour difference. This meant that we had two days in a row with shortened class periods that made it difficult to get the students to work. With such little time in the day, they felt like they didn’t need to work. I’m not sure how a teacher might combat this. Today was a workday for the students, so perhaps making it an instruction day may be more beneficial. Work days can be difficult to get students to actually work and when they’re cut short, it’s even more difficult.

Lately, my school has been short on substitute teachers. Because of this, my cooperating teacher has been pulled out of the room to substitute for another teacher several times in the last two weeks. Today she was called out of 2nd and 3rd periods, so I was left in charge of the classes. Because it was just a work day, it was simple, but it was still a challenge to get the students to work. It was especially difficult for 3rd Block as students were unmotivated and rowdy. I tried my best to assist students and manage the class, constantly reminding the class that their new assignment is due tomorrow and that they have no time to waste.

During 4th Block, something happened that astonished me. Yesterday, an incredibly skilled student had painted a photo-realistic bird on a large piece of paper and I was discussing the background with him. He was convinced that he wanted to crop the paper, which would not meet the criteria standards and I thought would hurt the piece. I was talking with him about background options, but he wasn’t liking any of them. Finally I convinced him to try some kind of background and if he really didn’t like it, then we could crop the picture and paint the background white again. I tried to explain that once he cropped it, that’d be it and he couldn’t go back, but with trying a background, he could always paint over it. After class yesterday I saw his painting on the drying rack with a gorgeous array of colors. I was thrilled with the background he had added and thought that it really enhanced the piece.

Student Work

Student Work

Today, my teacher found the student painting over the entire background with white paint at the start of the class. She had also liked the colored background and began freaking out when she saw what he was doing. “What are you doing?! Don’t do that!” she cried. She called for me to come over, and I also pleaded that he stop and think about what he was doing. The student explained that he didn’t like the background and that he just wanted to paint it all white and crop it down. I talked with the student for a bit to figure out what to do. The white wasn’t thick yet, so some of the colors were still coming through. I thought that it looked interesting and added a unique texture, so I offered he continue that around the entire background. I also suggested he only use dark, cool colors when he explained that he hadn’t liked the bright yellow colors in the background. He decided to paint the background white and then figure out what to do after that.

The student continued painting over the background when suddenly my teacher came and grabbed the painting from him. “Nope, you’re done,” she said.

“But-but!”

“Nope. I said you’re done. You’re not ruining this any more than you already have.”

“But Ms. Deatherage,” I began, “the damage is already done.” I tried to stop my cooperating teacher because he hadn’t even finished painting over the background. Now it looked incredibly unfinished. If he at least painted the whole thing white, it would look more unified.

“Nope. You can have it back after we grade it.”

“Well, isn’t it going to get a really low grade for not being finished?!” the student pleaded.

“I don’t know,” explained my cooperating teacher. “Miss Brooks will be grading this. What grade would this get?” she asked me.

I suddenly felt put on the spot. “Well, it’s obviously unfinished. Half of the background hasn’t even been painted…”

“You can get it back after we grade it,” my teacher concluded as she tacked the painting to the wall where students are required to place finished work.

“But it’s still wet!” the student called out.

The student wasn’t very upset, but I still felt odd. I would never take a painting away from a student like that unless they were throwing it in the trash. If a student is working on a painting, then it’s not finished and shouldn’t be turned in. Although the original background was better, there wasn’t anything we could do at the point where half of it was already painted over. The student should have at least been able to paint over the whole thing and then try out a new background or do whatever he was thinking to improve the piece. This situation may have also hurt the student’s ego, security, or even how he feels about his skills and decision-making. I was just very taken aback by the whole ordeal.

Throughout Student Teaching, I have definitely learned that students will hate their artwork more often than they will like it. I have amassed an enormous collection of artwork from students who didn’t want to keep their artwork or even threw away their artwork. I have been salvaging all of the artwork I can. I believe that when students have more control over the assignments and what they are creating that they will come to like their artwork more. I feel that students should have more freedom in this regard. I’m really sick of seeing artwork in the trash or hearing of students wanting to paint over the whole thing. Hopefully this won’t be as big of an issue in my class.

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Day 30

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Today felt like a rushed day because it was an Early Release Day for the Comal Independent School District. All of the classes were cut short to allow the students to get out two hours early and, as a result, it was difficult for the students to complete work in such a short amount of time.

Today was another intersting day of observation as the classes seemed to be even more out of control today than they did yesterday. 1st Block was fine because it’s AP and there’s only four students, but the 2nd Block class was wild and crazy. Before class even started, several students were at the front of the room, one student messing with the computer, one sitting at the teacher’s desk, and others standing around not getting their work out or working. One student was even wearing my cooperating teacher’s glasses.

Throughout the entire class period, my teacher was not able to get the class managed, and this is the easiest Art I class of the day! She kept egging students to start working, telling them to have a drawing done by the end of the day, and instructing them to stop goofing off and get back to work. It seemed like no matter what she did, she couldn’t convince them to work. Finally, she pleaded, “Fine, I’ll just bribe you to work! Anyone with a drawing done by the end of class will get a lollipop or other candy!” The class was still rowdy and unproductive, but several students earned the reward by the end of class.

The next period started as my teacher was called out of the room to substitute for another class. I jumped into the lead and tried to take more control over the class. I had everyone be completely silent so that I could deliver the information. I told the class that they had the option of working on their clay or on the new drawing assignment, but those were the only choices. I also explained that because the drawing assignment is due this Friday and the clay has no deadline at the moment, they should probably work on their drawings. I questioned the students to make sure they understood and set them to work.

One student was incredibly reluctant to start drawing because he doesn’t believe in his abilties, so I decided to inspire him with word art, a form of art made using words. After showing him some examples and asking him how he could integrate it into the current drawing assignment, he was suddenly excited. “Oh…I can do that! I can write words, so I can make art with words!” he exclaimed and immediately set to work. He had a finished drawing by the end of the class period. I felt proud to have inspired him and I hope that he’ll continue with this confidence throughout the year after I leave.

My teacher returned shortly and, together, we managed the class and kept them productive in the short amount of time that they had. I kind of felt that my teacher needed my help, so I decided not to return to the back of the room.

I did the same for 5th Block, aiding my teacher in assisting the students and managing the class. 5th Block was better today, but still hard to deal with. My teacher started off the class with a new seating chart, which really only moved about four or five troublesome students. The students were confused and unhappy with the change, but thankfully obliged without any issues. The seating change seemed to make a huge difference today as the disruptive students were quiet and not troublesome. They actually completed work, although it took one student a lot of coaching to get started. Overall, the class was loud and unproductive, but that seemed to be the trend with all of the classes today. Perhaps the Early Release Schedule was throwing off the students or making it feel like they didn’t need to accomplish something in the shortened amount of time. Between the two of us, my cooperating teacher and I helped students stay on task and figure out what they were working on.

During 7th Block, my university supervisor came to observe me at Canyon High School one last time. My cooperating teacher wanted to instruct, so I was asked to assist. I circulated the room and tried to help students get started on their pop art paintings. It was difficult to get some students to put away their electronic devices and pay attention to the presentation that my teacher repeated from yesterday.

After the observation, my cooperating teacher and university supervisor sat down with me to give a final evaluation. Thankfully, everything was what I was expecting, which shows that I am good at reflecting upon my own strengths and weaknesses. I know where I’m at and what I need to improve on. I’m glad that there weren’t any surprises. Basically, I am skilled at instructing, setting instructional outcomes, creating PowerPoints and lesson plans, and lecturing. Anything to do with planning, delivering information, creating assignments, etc. I have nailed down. Where I need to improve his mainly classroom management. I still need to work on my “teacher voice.” I need to find a way to get the entire class to stop talking, pay attention to me, and keep their attention on me. I also need to find procedures for dealing with incorrect behavior and act on them. This is my least favorite part about teaching and it’s what I most need to improve on.

Thankfully, my university supervisor explained that this is where most new or student teachers struggle, and they quickly learn the ropes and improve within a few years. She’s confident that I’ll find my place in my own classroom and will make a successful art educator. That’s a comforting thing to hear. I’m looking forward to a bright future!

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Day 29

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Today was an interesting day as I stepped down from my podium, returned to the observing position, and allowed my cooperating teacher to reclaim her position as the primary teacher. I felt way less stressed as I walked into the classroom knowing that I wasn’t responsible for anything today. It was also a bit odd though as I felt that I needed to fill my cooperating teacher in on what’s going on, especially since she was absent the last few days, so that she could pick up where I left off.

I was surprised at first that my cooperating teacher did not ask me how things have been going, where the students are at, or anything. At first, she seemed to ignore my existence. Finally, she asked if there was anything new to report, and I filled her in on where all of the students are at. I told her about what each class is doing, how they are progressing, and let her know that I finished grading all of the artworks and quizzes from all of the classes and entered them into the grade book. “It’s all graded, so you just need to hand it all back and catch up with the students who were absent,” I explained. The weirdest part, though, was when she asked me to move from where I was sitting.

“Can you find a different spot to sit? I want to be able to get to the hall passes easily. You can sit in the back where I’ve been if you like,” she said. I was incredibly confused as I’ve been sitting at this desk since my first day of Student Teaching. This was the desk that she instructed me to sit at, explaining that it was my space to work and observe. Anytime that a student needed a hall pass, I would pull it out from the drawer and fill it out for them which actually seemed to help my cooperating teacher. With this process, the hall passes were guarded and my teacher didn’t have to stop what she was doing to fill out a pass. I don’t know where this sudden change came from, but I obliged as I moved to the back of the room.

It is different being at the back of the room. Several times students asked where I was as they couldn’t see me. I also felt very removed from the classroom. Before when I was observing, I would walk around the classroom, help monitor and manage the classes, and interact with and assist the students. Today, I wasn’t sure if my teacher wanted me to or if she would rather me simply observe. I walked around and assisted ocassionally when I began feeling too removed. I don’t mind being at the back of the room if that’s where my teacher would like me to be as I can still observe and learn, I’m just confused about the change.

Today was an interesting opportunity as I was able to observe my cooperating teacher in a new light. Although I have been observing for weeks, I had a new perspective. Because I have taught in this classroom as the primary teacher for a few weeks, I could now observe my teacher with new insight. I could see how she handled situations I struggled with and notice techniques that I used that seem to be more effective than hers. I was pleased to find that the classes were about the same as when I was in charge, so perhaps my classroom management skills aren’t in need of as much improvement as I may have originally thought.

The advanced classes, (AP, Painting III/IV, and Painting II,) are not difficult to handle and they went about the same as they always do. It was the Art I classes, (2nd, 3rd, and 5th Period,) that I was most interested in observing. I immediately noticed that the 2nd and 3rd Periods were actually less managed and more wild than when I was in charge. Students were incredibly verbal, way more confident in moving about the room and messing with each other, and were more combative in getting to work. They felt comfortable wasting time and picking on my teacher. My cooperating teacher was very friendly and playful with the students, so I’m trying to figure out whether I need to lighten up a bit or if it would benefit my teacher to harden down a bit. The 2nd and 3rd periods did go pretty well, but the 5th Block class was not as successful.

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Day 28

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Today was a pretty good day overall and I am happy with my results. Today was the last day that I will be acting as the primary teacher in the classroom. Today was also the day my cooperating teacher decided to take her “free day” which she is awarded for having a Student Teacher. She was allowed to take the day off while I taught the class without a substitute in the room. It was only me in the room, but I felt comfortable and confident.

Today, my Art I students took the Printmaking quiz that I worked on last week. There were three versions, one for EA Special Needs students, one for integrated Special Needs students, and one for the rest of the students. My cooperating teacher advised that I give the Special Needs version to students who were also just struggling in the class, but may not necessarily be identified as Special Needs. I found it difficult to remember who to give each quiz, especially since I was supposed to do so in a way that no one knew there were different quizzes. I ended up making one mistake, giving a student who is struggling in the class a “normal” quiz. After grading his quiz, though, he actually did well on it and would have only gotten one more question right on the Special Needs quiz. It’s difficult to keep track of all of the students with their individual needs and try to meet their needs in a private manner. This is something I will need to continue working on.

After grading all of the quizzes, I was pretty happy with the results. Most of the students did really well and there weren’t any questions that most of the class missed, meaning that my quiz seemed fair. I was especially worried about the diagram of a print I had put on the quiz that asked students to read some information such as, “This is Lindsey Brown’s fourth print. She plans on making ten prints in total. She wants to title it “Fox Eyes,” and then label the print using the information. Almost every single student succeeded with that part, which made me very proud. Many of the students did not label their prints correctly, so I’m glad to see that they can at least do so on a quiz.

Other than taking the quizzes, the rest of the class periods were work days in which students were continuing their clay creatures. Several of the clay creatures dried over the weekend, but we did have a few casualties. An elephant lost its head, a fox lost its horn, and several creatures had cracks or breaks. I worked with the students to repair their pieces and hope that they will dry without breaking this time. I’ve still been working with students to try to make their pieces strong in the first place so that their pieces won’t break when they dry.

I still found it difficult to manage the Art I classes when they were working on their clay creatures, but I’ve been told that it’s just always going to be that way. Thankfully, today was a lot better than Friday. Students were still out of their seats, needing hall passes, refusing to work, on their phones, messing with friends, needing my help, and all of the other activities that generally go on every day. I feel that I am learning how to generally manage these classes. I’m just worried about another serious event coming up, but hopefully I’ll be better able to handle it now.

There’s really not much else to report as it was a pretty chill day. I administered my quiz and found it to be fair and successful. I graded the quizzes along with other artworks that I’ve been struggling to find the time to grade and started handing back work. I made lists of the students who were missing work or were absent for the quiz and will be checking in with these students tomorrow. I entered all of the grades and feel caught up on everything. I am proud of my work today and look forward to tomorrow.

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Day 27

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Today was an odd day as it was good for the most part, but I had one of my worst classroom management issues.

Today, my cooperating teacher was pulled from the room as the school was short on substitute teachers. She was asked to sub for another class, so I was the only teacher in the room all day. I wasn’t worried as I’ve subbed for my teacher several times and have been the primary teacher for almost two weeks now. Plus, it was Friday, and the classes are usually easier to handle on Fridays.

The classes did go well for the most part. I was direct with the students about what I expected from them at the end of the day, even though it was a work day, and I reminded them about the quiz that they’ll be taking on Monday. I helped students continuously and seemed to bond with the students as well as they talked to me about their interests and told me that they didn’t want me to leave after next Friday. I felt that the classes were productive, yet fun. I was feeling pretty good about everything, but then 5th Block occurred.

5th Block is notoriously the hardest class to control and the most tiring class of the entire day. I was expecting today to go smoothly as it was another work day and because the Special Needs students had let me know that they were not going to be in attendance today. We have a group of about 10 Special Needs students that come to the class each day, so without them, the near-40-student class would be greatly diminished. I thought that this would make the class quieter, more focused, and easier to handle. Unfortunately, I had several issues and did not address them all correctly.

The class began as normal with several different students needing me for several different reasons. I was taking attendance when I received a call from Tutorials asking for one of my students. When I told the student he needed to report to Tutorials, he wouldn’t go at first. Students needed to get a drink, go to the bathroom, needed my help, and some even needed to turn in assignments from last week. I felt overwhelmed for just one person. Finally, everything was settled and the work day began, but there were some students I just could not get to work. It’s hard to motivate students to work, help students who need assistance, manage students who are misbehaving, and keep an eye on the entire class at the same time. Teaching is way more than I was expecting. I just don’t remember seeing this many problems when I was in high school as a student.

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