Reflective Journal #1 September 3, 2019
When one attracts frogs, it is a universal symbol of transition and transformation. The universe is calling for adaptability in this new transition. During my first few weeks of student teaching, I feel like I have adapted to this new environment. The first week was a little hard with setting expectations but by the second week I have gotten into a routine with my classes. My mentor teacher allowed me to teach the level one classes on my own so I had to adapt quickly so I was able to teach them on the very first day of school. The frog symbolizes my transition into a new experience I printed a photo of a frog to represent the environment (Thomas Jefferson High School where I am teaching) and added my own detailing to represent how I am bringing my own teaching skills and imagination to this new place. I drew multiple eyes on the frog to represent how I am learning to pay attention to every student which is a continuous struggle in multiple classes full of 35 students. For the first few weeks, I have been working on learning student names so that I can build relationships and further adapt to the environment.
When one attracts frogs, it is a universal symbol of transition and transformation. The universe is calling for adaptability in this new transition. During my first few weeks of student teaching, I feel like I have adapted to this new environment. The first week was a little hard with setting expectations but by the second week I have gotten into a routine with my classes. My mentor teacher allowed me to teach the level one classes on my own so I had to adapt quickly so I was able to teach them on the very first day of school. The frog symbolizes my transition into a new experience I printed a photo of a frog to represent the environment (Thomas Jefferson High School where I am teaching) and added my own detailing to represent how I am bringing my own teaching skills and imagination to this new place. I drew multiple eyes on the frog to represent how I am learning to pay attention to every student which is a continuous struggle in multiple classes full of 35 students. For the first few weeks, I have been working on learning student names so that I can build relationships and further adapt to the environment.
Reflective Journal #2 September 24, 2019
1. For my first visual metaphor, I have chosen to draw a hawk. Hawks symbolize observation, awareness, seeing the bigger picture and freedom from mental blocks. When seeing a hawk, it symbolizes a time when someone needs to prepare for a leadership role. I am learning to be more assertive when teaching to become a leader. I ultimately want to inspire students to be creative. In my teaching, I need to reinforce more awareness, when I start losing student focus, I need to adjust my teaching. To keep student focus, I need to implement more hands on activities when introducing a lesson, rather than talking to students who are passively listening. The hawk has taught me to be more observant to how my students are reacting and if they are truly understanding. This represents how I need to reinforce better lesson plans that gain more student focus.
2. For my second visual metaphor, I have chosen an upside-down balloon with a no cell phone symbol. In my classes, several students always have their cell phones out. The upside-down balloon represents how I have let my expectations lower and I have gotten lazy about taking their phones away. The hawk holding the balloons represents how I am going to reinforce my expectations. I really need to reinforce the no cell phone expectations because it is distracting causing limited listening and understanding within each student. It is also an issue that causes me to have to reexplain directions several times to students who weren't paying attention. When students ask a question that I already went over in class, I need to encourage them to listen and be more independent.
3. My third visual metaphor is a mouth with a speech bubble. This represents how I need to add positive enforcement to my teaching. When a student does something right and exceptional, I need to acknowledge that more. Beginning teaching, it is hard not to focus on the students who are disrespectful because they take your energy. I need to be more positive in these situations and compliment the students who are doing well and having them be positive examples for students who need extra encouragement. Being positive is more encouraging than being negative and I want to encourage all students to be creative.
1. For my first visual metaphor, I have chosen to draw a hawk. Hawks symbolize observation, awareness, seeing the bigger picture and freedom from mental blocks. When seeing a hawk, it symbolizes a time when someone needs to prepare for a leadership role. I am learning to be more assertive when teaching to become a leader. I ultimately want to inspire students to be creative. In my teaching, I need to reinforce more awareness, when I start losing student focus, I need to adjust my teaching. To keep student focus, I need to implement more hands on activities when introducing a lesson, rather than talking to students who are passively listening. The hawk has taught me to be more observant to how my students are reacting and if they are truly understanding. This represents how I need to reinforce better lesson plans that gain more student focus.
2. For my second visual metaphor, I have chosen an upside-down balloon with a no cell phone symbol. In my classes, several students always have their cell phones out. The upside-down balloon represents how I have let my expectations lower and I have gotten lazy about taking their phones away. The hawk holding the balloons represents how I am going to reinforce my expectations. I really need to reinforce the no cell phone expectations because it is distracting causing limited listening and understanding within each student. It is also an issue that causes me to have to reexplain directions several times to students who weren't paying attention. When students ask a question that I already went over in class, I need to encourage them to listen and be more independent.
3. My third visual metaphor is a mouth with a speech bubble. This represents how I need to add positive enforcement to my teaching. When a student does something right and exceptional, I need to acknowledge that more. Beginning teaching, it is hard not to focus on the students who are disrespectful because they take your energy. I need to be more positive in these situations and compliment the students who are doing well and having them be positive examples for students who need extra encouragement. Being positive is more encouraging than being negative and I want to encourage all students to be creative.
Reflective Journal #3 October 8, 2019
Being a student was more about observing while being a student teacher is an experience and actually doing the teaching and assessing. I am still learning everyday about how to be an effective teacher. When I teach, I learn by assessing student understanding. This tells me if my teaching is effective and I make note of what I need to explain more thoroughly and what I need to adjust. Since there are three level one classes, I get to adjust my teaching for the next class. I also listen to feedback from my mentor teacher and university coach. I learn from my mentors to improve my teaching so that my students can learn as much as they can. In the classroom, I make my teacher presence evident by introducing lessons, walking around the room and answering questions, I also ask students about their thinking behind their creations. I have gained my teacher voice and more assertiveness when it comes to giving instruction. For example, when students are talking while I am trying to give directions, I will not continue until everyone is quiet.
In a school of fish, I am still a student, I am constantly learning but I am still a leader. I am leading students and learning how to become a more effective educator.
Being a student was more about observing while being a student teacher is an experience and actually doing the teaching and assessing. I am still learning everyday about how to be an effective teacher. When I teach, I learn by assessing student understanding. This tells me if my teaching is effective and I make note of what I need to explain more thoroughly and what I need to adjust. Since there are three level one classes, I get to adjust my teaching for the next class. I also listen to feedback from my mentor teacher and university coach. I learn from my mentors to improve my teaching so that my students can learn as much as they can. In the classroom, I make my teacher presence evident by introducing lessons, walking around the room and answering questions, I also ask students about their thinking behind their creations. I have gained my teacher voice and more assertiveness when it comes to giving instruction. For example, when students are talking while I am trying to give directions, I will not continue until everyone is quiet.
In a school of fish, I am still a student, I am constantly learning but I am still a leader. I am leading students and learning how to become a more effective educator.
Reflection Journal #4 October 29, 2019
Efficient time management means getting students to the end goal. Knowing how much time to spend on a project, including instruction, ideation, creating and reflecting. Efficient time management helps get students to where they are supposed to be. For example, if they are being introduced to a new material/concept, more time may be needed so they can be successful and have a deeper understanding. It is difficult to manage time efficiently in an art class because every student works at a different pace. To manage time efficiently I have learned to break up steps and give students a certain amount of time on each step so that they can also learn how to manage their time. If there is no time restraint, some kids may spend too much time which could cause them to fall behind. The point of time management is to ensure that students are understanding concepts and have enough time to practice and explore. Time management maximizes student learning. When spending too much time on instruction students start to lose interest while spending not enough time on instruction leaves students confused so time management is all about balance. I am having a hard time managing cleanup time. It is difficult to get students to stop working and when I call cleanup time they try to rush to finish their artwork.
Efficient time management means getting students to the end goal. Knowing how much time to spend on a project, including instruction, ideation, creating and reflecting. Efficient time management helps get students to where they are supposed to be. For example, if they are being introduced to a new material/concept, more time may be needed so they can be successful and have a deeper understanding. It is difficult to manage time efficiently in an art class because every student works at a different pace. To manage time efficiently I have learned to break up steps and give students a certain amount of time on each step so that they can also learn how to manage their time. If there is no time restraint, some kids may spend too much time which could cause them to fall behind. The point of time management is to ensure that students are understanding concepts and have enough time to practice and explore. Time management maximizes student learning. When spending too much time on instruction students start to lose interest while spending not enough time on instruction leaves students confused so time management is all about balance. I am having a hard time managing cleanup time. It is difficult to get students to stop working and when I call cleanup time they try to rush to finish their artwork.
Reflection Journal #5 November 5, 2019
Professional development helps teachers to become reflective. It is important to be reflective as an art educator so that I can be an effective teacher for my students. I ultimately want my students to learn about art and how to be creative. Being a good teacher means keeping an open mind and tweaking lesson plans to maximize student learning. During my student teaching experience, I attended a professional development event called "Teal Day." During this event, I met several other art teachers and we went to different workshops to learn how to improve as a teacher. One of the most impactful workshop I attended was about using differentiation to reach students with disabilities. I had been struggling with trying to figure out ways to differentiate lessons to give more access to all students. This helped give me ideas and inspiration to keep trying to engage these students. Professional development events also helps teachers learn to receive feedback in a positive way to improve. During teal days, we would write down problems that we are experiencing in our classrooms and other teachers give their own advice on how they deal with those problems. Starting student teaching at the elementary school, I had been having trouble with cleanup time and getting students to stop working. I got a lot of great ideas from other teachers to try. For example, one teacher has students make a hat with their hats so that they stop working and he can give instruction on cleanup. I have also gained ideas that I want to try as lesson plans! For example, one of the workshops talked about multi-sensory art projects. There were 4 stations, one for a sense: smell, taste, sound and touch. Each station had things that had to do with that sense, the taste one had a bunch of different snacks, sound had different instruments, etc. Each station has a poster and everyone had to come up with description words that had to do with that sense. The next questions was if you were to make a visual artwork that has to do with one of the words what would it look like what materials would you use? I would create a painting with pastel colors and smooth drippy shapes to represent a sweet taste. Then there were posters of the artist Clifford Still and you had to describe the art using only the description words from whichever sense station you were at. Professional development is like creating a potion for teaching. There are so many different places and people to learn from, these experiences are like gathering the ingredients for a potion to make teachers more effective.
Professional development helps teachers to become reflective. It is important to be reflective as an art educator so that I can be an effective teacher for my students. I ultimately want my students to learn about art and how to be creative. Being a good teacher means keeping an open mind and tweaking lesson plans to maximize student learning. During my student teaching experience, I attended a professional development event called "Teal Day." During this event, I met several other art teachers and we went to different workshops to learn how to improve as a teacher. One of the most impactful workshop I attended was about using differentiation to reach students with disabilities. I had been struggling with trying to figure out ways to differentiate lessons to give more access to all students. This helped give me ideas and inspiration to keep trying to engage these students. Professional development events also helps teachers learn to receive feedback in a positive way to improve. During teal days, we would write down problems that we are experiencing in our classrooms and other teachers give their own advice on how they deal with those problems. Starting student teaching at the elementary school, I had been having trouble with cleanup time and getting students to stop working. I got a lot of great ideas from other teachers to try. For example, one teacher has students make a hat with their hats so that they stop working and he can give instruction on cleanup. I have also gained ideas that I want to try as lesson plans! For example, one of the workshops talked about multi-sensory art projects. There were 4 stations, one for a sense: smell, taste, sound and touch. Each station had things that had to do with that sense, the taste one had a bunch of different snacks, sound had different instruments, etc. Each station has a poster and everyone had to come up with description words that had to do with that sense. The next questions was if you were to make a visual artwork that has to do with one of the words what would it look like what materials would you use? I would create a painting with pastel colors and smooth drippy shapes to represent a sweet taste. Then there were posters of the artist Clifford Still and you had to describe the art using only the description words from whichever sense station you were at. Professional development is like creating a potion for teaching. There are so many different places and people to learn from, these experiences are like gathering the ingredients for a potion to make teachers more effective.
Reflective Journal #6 November 19, 2019
In my first placement at TJ, I learned that using technology is important. The high school art room was very big which made it a challenge for demonstrating to a classroom full of 30 students. Using technology could help solve that problem because every student can see the smart-board. Understanding of technology has helped me in my current placement at Southmoor elementary. I used the smart-board to show students images of artists and informational videos that get them motivated. This ensures that every student can clearly see the images so that they can make observations and interpretations. Before student teaching, I had the assumption that technology wouldn't be necessary in an art room but it really helps especially when showing demonstration videos to a huge classroom. During my first placement, I would print a different photo for each table and I learned that it overcomplicated things. I tried to talk to the whole class about each image when they could barely see the printed photo. Now I am only choosing a few artworks to choose the elementary school students because they are able to think deeper about an artwork rather than gaining surface knowledge about a bunch of different images. I have also changed my lesson plans to include more about contemporary artists and artists all over the world. I assumed that it would be easy to include diverse artists but it is hard to find artists who focus on a specific topic from different backgrounds. I am taking more time to research and plan to gather good images from different perspectives to show students. |
. Reflective Journal #7 December 3, 2019
To create a predictable, caring, and positive learning environment, it is very important to come up with clear expectations and routines. When expectations are implemented, students know what to expect and what kind of behavior is acceptable. Beginning my second placement at Southmoor elementary school, I realized that I would focus on behavioral issues using negative language like "Don't, no, can't, etc." Instead of using negative language, it is more beneficial to award positive behavior and use language that fosters improvement. Instead of saying something like "Don't say mean things" I would change it to "We need to be kind to our classmates because how would you feel if someone said something mean about your artwork?" In my future classroom, I will take the time to create posters that uses positive language and imagery that expresses appropriate behavior so that students know what is expected of them. It is also important to implement routines. At Southmoor, students knew to meet at the carpet everyday and wait for instruction.
In creating a safe environment that fosters respect for diversity, I try to show artists of several backgrounds so that my students feel represented and valued. I also show techniques from different parts of the world. For example, I created a lesson about Batik and showed artwork from Africa, China and Indonesia showing that this technique is used all over. Working in Denver Public Schools, a diverse district, I made sure that every voice was heard and that all students feel welcome. During my placement at Thomas Jefferson, students created a self-portrait. When looking at how to draw facial features, it was mostly pictures and videos of white people. I tried to find more images and videos of people of color to create an inclusive environment. In an art class, it is very important to show artists from all different backgrounds because the "art world" tends to favor white men by mostly displaying their works in museums. If I only taught students about European male artists, I would be enforcing the patriarchy. I want my students to know that anyone can be an artist and just because the "art world" considers European male artists to be the best doesn't mean it's true, it just means that people of minority are underrepresented.
When looking back at my reflective journal entries, I have observed self-growth in leadership and assertiveness. Starting student teaching I wasn't confident in myself and wasn't clear with my expectations but I have really seen a lot of growth in this area. I am more confident and assertive with my expectations to foster a positive learning environment. For example, I have learned that waiting time is extremely important so that students are more active in listening and know that they are expected to pay attention when I am giving instruction. To reflect on my effectiveness in teaching, I always ask students if they have any questions whenever I give instruction to make sure I am giving clear instruction. I also assess on student performance and make adjustments in my teaching if needed. For example, in my endangered species collage lesson, I did a demonstration using magazines to tear up pieces to create an image. I noticed that a lot of student were using half of the magazine image and pasting it on to their paper as is, instead up ripping and cutting the magazine pages. This informed me that I need to explain more thoroughly that in collage, we use bits and pieces to create an image, rather than glueing the whole image on to our paper. This worked well because after explaining this, students fixing their collage by tearing their magazines into smaller pieces. During my social justice gelli plate lesson, I noticed that students didn't really understand the idea of layering when creating prints so I did a demonstration. Instead of making it a requirement I explain that if they were struggling they should come to the demonstration table and only three students came. This didn't work well because it's hard to admit when they are struggling. I should've demonstrated in small groups so that all students could see the process. By assessing student art learning, it helps me to reflect on my own teaching and improve on explaining concepts so that they could be more successful.
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