A Rocky Road

The rocky road on getting my degree in Art Education has happened.  When I first joined the major this year, it was perfectly possible for me to complete it by spring of next year - 2017.  I thought I could handle it, but much to my disappointment having to work practically full time and go to school full time was just not possible.  I was really frustrated because I felt like I had failed myself, my parents, my dreams, etc because I'm not succeeding at that goal.

I went and had to sit down and think for awhile.  What could I do about this?  Do I just give up?  A part of me felt like that...And then, an opportunity at my work showed itself.  I'm possibly going to be offered the full time manager position at my work, and it's exciting and nerve racking.  I know I can do it because I've been a part of running the store for almost the last year, but it's a lot of responsibility.  So a spontaneous, disheartened part of me knew that I could grow from this position in the company, and going back wouldn't need to happen.  I could just manage stores for the rest of my life.

And that's where more thought came in.  I looked at all the classes I have left to do.  I'm SO CLOSE.  I could indeed manage doing two classes while working at Family Video as the manager.  I was hesitant for ARTED308, but I can get 38 hours at Family Video a week and take care of 40 hours in the field experience if I can do something early in the morning.  It should be possible, and I'm hoping it happens.  The whole point of doing this - staying in college part time and working full time is that for my last year (Fall 2017-Spring 2018) I will have saved up enough money that I can NOT WORK at all.

That's where all this came from.  I cannot work and attend school full time at the same time.  I want to be able to put in 100% effort, and having to worry about money makes it so I can't.  And that is incredibly disappointing.  But, I've come to that realization, and I know now what I need to do to get my degree.  That is what is mattering to me right now.  I've had some hurdles to jump over, I've been having some problems getting to the finish line, but I am going to get to the finish line.  Whether it took me four years, or six years of college, I am going to do it.  My mom might not be thrilled that I'm doing things the way I'm doing them, but I'm going to get it done.  I want this more than anything, and I'll get through this rocky spot in my journey.

Topics of Discussion (Questions 1-5)

As you can see, part of the requirements of the ARTED208 class is keeping a blog.  What's really cool is a lot of student continue to use the blog through the rest of their education and into their teaching, along with using it as an important example of their readiness to be student teachers in our Benchmark II interviews.

One specific requirement for my current observational teaching is to answer a certain set of questions that reflect on the students, the teacher, the classroom, etc.


1. How do the students act upon entering the class?  How does the teacher act?

I definitely could see a difference as the grades moved up in age.  6th graders entered the class with extremely high energy and talkative with one another.  7th graders came in quietly giggling with one another, and 8th graders came in even quieter and took their seats while being on their phones.  The teacher waited till the bell for the period to begin rang before addressing the class - unless some statement given to the first couple of students to tell the others wasn't being followed; such as students getting out supplies after the teacher stating not to do stuff.

2. How does the teacher get their attention to begin class?  Is there a procedure for listening?

The teacher gets their attention for class by talking in a loud, clear voice and beginning to talk.  It is expected the students will put away their phones and stop their conversations.  I am assuming this is because the teacher has gained a level of respect from them.  There really is no procedure for listening - it is expected that when he is talking, no one else is.

3. What is the current project?  What are the objectives?  What materials are being used?

Sixth graders are currently working on a painting project that involves tracing a posterized version, 3 layers, of themselves.  After that, they pick one color to develop a dark, a medium, and a light of, to paint in their tracings accordingly.  The idea behind this is to not frustrate the students that their work isn't perfect, but allowing them to trace - it gives them confidence in their drawing skills.  They use graphite pencils, tracing machines, and paint.

Seventh graders are working on a drawing project that works to develop value.  Students could choose between different categories such as, "tattoo drawings, pets/animals, things that are black and white, etc,".  Learning Targets include, I know how to use a wide range of values to show strong contrast, I know how to draw with clean lines and have crips values, and I know how to create great transitions between values with my blending stump. For materials, they use a variety of graphite pencils, paper, blending stumps, and erasers.

I sadly had to leave before I was able to sit in and see what the eighth graders were learning, but I will definitely be talking about their projects in the near future in my blog.

4. Comment on the teacher's instruction.

The teacher has essentially gained the respect of most if not all of his students.  They listen to him, and behave pretty well - even if some get off task and distracted.  He keeps things professional with the class, and doesn't seem to have a sense of humor really.  The class is technology oriented through their computers, drawing tablets, tracing lights, etc.

5. 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?

I would say classroom management is handled when problems arise.  I say this because the students all seem to respect Mr. B, and disciplining issues rarely happen.  Some students do get off task - especially with his 6th grade group right now, but he handles it through their discipline algorithm.  The school district created this algorithm because of discipline problems, and from my understanding, it's the first one that's actually worked.  How it is set up, the student gets two official verbal warnings.  After that, they get sent into a quiet place away from the rest of the students.  Both the students and the teacher take time to calm down, and then the teacher takes a moment to ASK the student why they are doing what they are doing.  It's really question based and not accusation-like.  After that, the student is let back into the classroom if they come to an understanding, but if the student continues to misbehave they are sent to the office and either get a minor or a major referral.  Depending on the severity of the offense.

Cooperating Teacher Observations

One thing Mr. B has cooperating teachers and student teachers do at the end of the day/lesson is go over some questions he has made to help guide us and teach us things that maybe we were unclear of during our time.  There's about twenty questions, we need to pick four and answer a minimum of two.  It also includes a "tip of the day," or our way of expressing something we would like to be different or changed.  There is also a check list of "the perfect teaching day," and it shows how we did - or how we felt we did.

Today was the second day of Lindsey's and my lesson.  We are doing portraits with finger prints.  The students were allowed to find someone who inspires them and then we would put the photo on a transparency for them to trace the outline of the person onto the paper.  Today was the tracing portion of the day, and while we had stated a time limit to them, we didn't do a very good job of enforcing it.  80% of the students flew through it, but there was the 20% that lagged a little and even one didn't get it done.  Which was disappointing.

The questions I answered were:

1) Name one area of weakness/problem you encountered today.  Describe how you overcame it and how you might prevent it from happening next time.

My demo was a bit weak on what to trace of their projected image.  I did a good job grabbing their attention, and going into the demo.  I asked questions to specific people and explained what to do, but wrapping up was weak - I didn't have much of a conclusion.  There really wasn't a way for me to overcome this.  Next time, I'll make sure to prepare my demo's even more and make sure I know what to say to come full circle.

2) Which student do you feel like you built bridges with today? Why?

I felt I built a bridge with *Allie today.  She was having a lot of difficulty understanding what to trace due to the transparency being too dark to tell parts apart.  I showed her how to use the original image to eyeball the difficult areas.  I made sure it was okay for me to draw on her paper, and then gave her a visual example on how to do such.  After a few minutes of letting her gain comprehension and try and work on the tracing by herself, I came back and praised her for taking what I gave her and using it herself.

My tip of the day was: "I wish I would have jumped into interacting with the students sooner.  I was a little unsure of my place in regards to the classroom, but I was also uncomfortable with how close I am in age with them!  I found myself talking to them more like my babysitter years; which would may be more joking than authoritative, and I wanted to avoid that.  It's hard because I listen to the same music they do!  Taylor Swift!"



So far, I'd say the team teaching is going well!  I did have to scold a couple boys in regards to messing around by our recording equipment.  I plan on being the "bad guy" tomorrow at the start of class and taking a few minutes to remind them on proper etiquette.  The recordings are part of our grade, and if we can't record because someone stopped it, that is really bad.