Tag Archive for: Education

Today started off with an emotional moment as one of our AP students received an email from the University of Texas, the college she’s hoping to attend. She asked if she could call the school and we allowed it. Shortly afterwards, she returned and explained that she was denied from the engineering program, the program she was hoping to attend. She began crying and tried to hide her face and apologize. My cooperating teacher and I tried to console her and help her figure out what to do next. By the end of the class, we had come up with a Plan B, but it was unpleasant to go through. This student also scored a 4 at the V.A.S.E. competition recently, (the highest score possible,) but didn’t make it to the State Level. It’s hard for me to witness heartbreak in my students and I want to do all that I can to help them.

For some reason, today seemed to run much more smoothly than the previous days. While I did take time to pre-cut a lot of paper and to pre-cut a lot of clay so that I was not trying to do so in the classes, I did end up having to cut during classes anyway. Still, the classes were much quieter, less rowdy, and students were generally in their seats. Even my cooperating teacher was surprised and remarked at how orderly and quiet the classes were being. I made sure to inform the students of the proper cleaning procedures and the order of tasks they need to complete. I continuously circled the room to help students and monitor the class, and I just feel like it was a successful day. I didn’t even need to use my bell to get the students’ attention today. My cooperating teacher echoed my thoughts, telling me that I’m doing well and that she has no further critique for me at the moment.

Today I was given the chance to address a student about naming his prints an inappropriate title. While I was taking the dry prints out from the drying racks and stacking them on the appropriate class shelves, I noticed that one of the prints was labeled “Raw AF.” I was pretty sure I knew what the “AF” stood for and when I mentioned something to my cooperating teacher the AP students in the room agreed with me, confirming what I thought it meant. My cooperating teacher told me to set the prints aside and address the student about it in person. When that class came about, she asked if I would like her to address the student or if I would like to. I decided to address the student and when I asked him what his title meant, he confirmed that it was inappropriate. I asked him to retitle his prints or lose credit in the class and was happy when he renamed them “Raw.”

Although I am completely exhausted and my feet are incredibly sore from standing all day, I am happy with the day. I feel that the classes ran smoothly, students finished a lot of work and made a lot of progress, and I had a better handle on the classes. I felt more comfortable, more confident, and more successful. I hope that this trend continues, though I do hope that I feel less tired at the end of the day. I am looking forward to next week.

Also, today after school I have been invited to participate in a parent-teacher conference. My cooperating teacher does not know what the meeting is about and the student is generally well-behaved, well-liked in the class, and not failing the class. We aren’t sure what to expect. Because the meeting is after school and I don’t know how long it will run and because my daily report is due after school, I am writing my report now during my 6th period off-period. I am certain, however, that I will gain valuable knowledge from this meeting as I will be able to see how my cooperating teacher interacts with parents and holds meetings and see how parents interact with teachers. I am also hoping to be a valuable asset to the meeting, possibly able to add to the conversation. I am eager to see what I learn.

| Student Teaching Reflections |

Today my university supervisor was coming to observe me and it was my second day being on my own with my cooperating teacher acting as if she doesn’t even exist. Yesterday I was a little surprised that when my cooperating teacher said I was taking over the classes, she really really meant it. She sat in the back of the room and wouldn’t answer students when they asked what we were doing, wouldn’t cut paper when we ran out so I could manage the class, and wouldn’t answer phone calls from the Front Office. She really wanted me to feel like I was the only teacher in the room.

I was nervous about my supervisor coming as I haven’t had the time to adjust to being the only teacher in the room. I was also starting the clay unit with the Art I classes and I requested her presence in an Art I class to see me at my worst. My supervisor needs to evaluate me in times of conflict in order to assess me properly, so I recommended the Art I classes as they are obviously the most difficult to handle. Thankfully, I was able to finish my PowerPoint for the clay unit and felt much more prepared to teach the students than I did yesterday.

I am so relieved to say that everything went well again. My supervisor said that I was excellent at almost all of the criteria she needs to grade me on. While I was worried about my ability to redirect misbehaving students, she said I did so in a polite, direct manner that refocused the students on the intended task. While I thought the class was a chaotic mess, she assured me that no class will ever be calm and that I balanced the tasks of filling out hall passes, helping students, and handing out supplies well. She did inform me that I gave the students too much time to clean up which resulted in a few wasted minutes at the end of the class period, so I need to work on my time management a little bit more. My cooperating teacher repeated my supervisor, saying that she saw very little for me to improve on.

Today, I felt more comfortable with changing a few things in the classroom, as my cooperating teacher said that I could. I tried using the bell to gain the students’ attention and it seemed to work okay. I also informed the students that I would be taking over for the next few weeks so that they would stop trying to talk with my cooperating teacher. I also asked that the students remain seated in their desks after cleaning up the room as I don’t like the students crowding by the door. It makes it difficult to maneuver around the room, and creates a thick group of students that can hide misbehavior. Yesterday we had an issue with a student by the door wasting a roll of tape by making a tape ball. This will prevent that from happening again. I’m hoping that these changes will provide more stability and increase my confidence, but I still can’t help but feel that I’m in someone else’s classroom with someone else’s students. I still don’t quite feel as if I have total freedom, though my cooperating teacher says that I do.

| Student Teaching Reflections |

Today is the last day before my four-day weekend! I’m excited for the time off to catch up on work.

I don’t feel like there’s as much to report on today as it was a work day for every single class period. In AP Art, we had only two students as there were two absences. The students worked on photographing their artwork and uploading it to the CollegeBoard website. I helped one student crop her artwork and change the file type to fit the standards of the website.

The Art I classes are always the hardest, and they were just as difficult as they have been all week. Students are still working on their linoleum prints and I still feel as I did earlier this week, that my cooperating teacher’s process is more difficult than it needs to be and that students are wasting time and resources while printing and their prints aren’t as successful as they could be. One major concept that the students don’t understand is the Artist Proof, but I feel that my teacher did not teach this concept well enough. My cooperating teacher has given the students a different color of paper to print on for their artist proofs to help them see the difference, but she never actually explained what one is or what it is used for, so I feel that they aren’t understanding the concept. Some students are printing their artist proof in the middle of their prints or after they’ve printed their series. Some students are printing all of their prints on the color meant for artist proofs or are printing multiple artist proofs. Some are also including the artist proof in the series and many are mislabeling it. My cooperating teacher never explained that the artist proof is a test print to see how the print will come out. Some students aren’t liking how their prints are coming out and when told that they can continue carving and print again, they were blown away. That’s exactly what the artist proof is for; to see how the print will come out and allow you to make changes before you start printing your actual series. When I teach printmaking to my students I want to make sure to clearly communicate this fact. The same goes for labeling as almost no students are labeling their prints correctly. I have corrected so many mistakes, but it could have been avoided if the students were taught how to label more effectively.

Otherwise, the Art I classes have been the same as they have all week. Some students are printing, some are carving, and some are still working on their designs. The printing stations are still a nightmare and there’s a lot for the students to clean up afterwards.

I did feel a boost today when I helped two students who are struggling in the class to complete work or find motivation. One student had begun carving his linoleum and was struggling to actually carve the material. He was scraping at the linoleum but not carving deep enough to actually make a print. I continuously demonstrated how to grip the tool and use it appropriately, but he was unable to grip it correctly or push it deep enough into the linoleum to leave an impression. I thought about giving him a larger tool to work with and changed his Size 1 to a Size 5. I had him try to carve out his circles instead of his straight lines this time, and he was able to do it! I loved seeing the smile on his face as he finally carved the linoleum deep enough. I let him be the rest of the class and at the end was excited to see he had cut out a great deal of his design.

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Today was a pretty interesting day as far as scheduling goes. Today was a Cougar Time day, so each class was cut 10 minutes to allow for a Cougar Time between 2nd and 3rd Period. This time is set aside for students to participate in activities while led by a student leader. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of Cougar Time is as the group that comes to my classroom plays games and receives food from their student leader. I don’t really see anything educational happen and my cooperating teacher says it’s pretty much a waste of time. It looks like a fun way to break up the day, so I enjoy the variance, but it doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose. I even hear the students complain about the waste of their time.

Not only was it Cougar Time today, but there was also a fire drill during 2nd Period today. I had been told the fire drill procedure on the first day, so I wasn’t caught off guard, but it was interesting to see the drill set in motion. It looked to be about the same as the fire drills we would have at the residence hall I worked at. The students did not evacuate from the building far enough and were constantly needing to be told to back up even further. It didn’t help that there was a small concrete half-wall before a ditch area that prevented many students from going any further.

Furred

Today I finished cutting the linoleum plate that my cooperating teacher encouraged me to start as an example for the Art I classes yesterday. I had decided to draw a fox portrait with a close-up perspective. I focused on showing a lot of texture in the fur and was hoping that it would come out well. I was able to print the plate during the AP Class during 1st Period since that class is an independent group and requires little to no teacher interaction. My teacher and I were ecstatic to find that my prints came out well and even the AP students were interested in seeing them. From creating this example, I have been able to help some students achieve more texture in their designs, create more varied linework, and show them what an acceptable print should look like. I’m pretty happy with the turn out, which is surprising as I’m not a fan of printmaking. My cooperating teacher even recommended that I sell my prints.

The Art I classes were not so blissful, as usual. Today we began printmaking and it was chaotic. My cooperating teacher started each class with a demonstration of the printmaking. I found that I was unable to help students until I saw the demonstration myself because my cooperating teacher prints untraditionally. Because students did not want to clean the bench hooks after printing on them, she has abandoned that concept and adopted a throw-away concept. First off, she would not allow anyone to print until three students were ready. Once three students were ready to print, she would allow them to start a “printing station” in which they would tape newspapers to the entire table. Then they would tape wax paper on top of the newspaper and aluminum foil on top of the wax paper. They had to tape all four sides of the aluminum foil down as it would act as the inking plate. She then instructed students to place a quarter-sized amount of ink on the foil and spread it out using the brayer. She told the class to look for a “satin finish,” something girls would understand but the boys would not. I’m a girl and I didn’t even know what she meant by that. Then the students could print by spreading the ink with the brayers, applying it to their plates, pressing paper on to the plates, labeling the prints, and placing them on a dry rack. The process sounded simple, but it was a nightmare to manage.

Students were incredibly rough and destructive with the supplies. My cooperating teacher hid the ink, tape, and brayers until students needed them, so a lot of my time was spent retrieving them and hiding them again. With the supplies that were readily available such as the newspapers, wax paper, and aluminum foil, the students used an excess of, way more than they needed. I was also appalled when I saw them spreading the ink. Students would cover the entire workspace in ink when trying to spread it out, then apply an enormous glob of ink, spread more, and then complain that there was no more ink in the tube. I kept explaining to students that they should only spread the ink in a back and forth motion with the brayer in one place to keep the ink from spreading everywhere and thinning too much. Several times, the students would rip through the aluminum foil and have to recreate the printing station. Students were in such a rush to complete all of their prints and, as a result, the prints did not come out well. They were not labelled or labelled incorrectly, there were ink smudges all over them, and they were crooked on the papers, sometimes corners not even making it onto the papers. My cooperating teacher explained that 6 prints would earn a C grade and 10 would receive an A, and I was surprised to find some students settling for the 6 prints, merely accepting a C has their grade. I was quite taken aback by the students today.

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