VII.student teaching experience and reflection
VII. Student Teaching and Reflection
-What went well? What did I learn?
-I was originally worried that this unit would turn out functioning more like a science project than an art project, with less than ideal space for creative freedom. However, allowing the students to create habitats for creatures that they thought up, instead of real animals, seems to have erased that problem. I made sure they knew that no matter what animal they chose, they would still need to have a reason behind the creative decisions they made. They were all very quick to think up wildly imaginative creatures, and were excited to work on developing their ideas. The art-based content stayed exactly the same, but the creativity aspect skyrocketed. Originally, I was worried that having mythical creatures would change things too drastically. But, the point of the unit was to get them to consider how they could create an art object that best represented their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter they chose, they successfully did just that.
I was reminded during this teaching experience that, while lesson plans follow a rigid and linear format, art does not, and neither do 4th/5th graders. Also, every child is very much so on their own page when it comes to creativity as well as their interest in visual mediums. Because of this, it is important to consider how things like different attention spans, personal interests, and personality types will effect the way a student recieves a lesson. Right off the bat it was easy to see that some students followed a much more introspective and quiet thought pattern while others work through problems in a social setting. Some students were in their own world and completely involved in their work while others worked through the creative problem at hand by asking questions, expressing their findings, and looking to their peers for inspiration and support. These observations were important because they helped me become aware of how to most effectively differentiate lessons.
One of the classes we taught focused heavily on library research. It was surprising to see how interested students were in the research process. I was worried that they would be uninterested in the fact-finding component of this project but I was pleasantly surprised. This made me think of how often adults complain about the short attention span of kids. This experience at the Lab School taught me that even the most hyperactive of kids are able to concentrate and stay on task when they are personally invested in what they are doing. The effect that implementing a good engaging project has on the attention span of kids was amazing to see in action. From this I learned that as a teacher, it is important to keep working hard to make every activity both engaging and fun because that is when students lean the most.
-What would I do differently?
My current educational philosophy is that students learn best when they are comfortable being themselves in the classroom. It is important to me that the students in my classroom are comfortable enough in their environment to experiment and test their limits. Along the way they will make mistakes and express confusion, which I feel is incredibly beneficial to student learning. I believe that the classroom environment strongly influences the students comfort level and their willingness to tempt failure. This belief significantly evolved during my time at The Lab School. I realize that not every student I work with will become an artist, or stay in an art related field. However, understanding how to engage in the creative process and communicate an idea visually will help each individual succeed no matter what they end up doing with their lives.
Personally, I am a strong believer in the psychological benefits of creative activity. In my opinion, engaging in creative activities promotes a reassuring feeling of self-awareness that is hard to come by in non-creative fields. Art activities can be easily structured to indirectly support the development of important life skills like problem solving, flexibility, planning, and perseverance. Life skills such as these are best developed through working on projects as well as learning how to find the resources to best complete the project. It is hard to foster these skills by just lecturing, especially during an individuals developmental years. Art class creates a safe environment for students to learn important skills while also seeing that their peers are learning too. The students should feel OK with what they have accomplished, if they have worked hard at it. It is my personal belief in the psychological benefits of creative activity and creative problem solving that motivates me to pursue the field of art education through a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy. My goal would be to work with students in the public school system who often fall beneath the radar. What I ultimately want to do is find a new, more effective way to help students who struggle with social, emotional and experiential issues that interfere with their confidence and academic success. I hope to help them work on developing skills that will allow them to become successful in their own lives. I believe that structuring developmentally conscious art activities has the potential to reach many problem students in a new, more effective way.
Maybe this is only in art classrooms, but I have often seen more being learned from aggressive but unsuccessful experimentation than successful project completion. With such a huge emphasis on assessment in all the academic settings, as students get older they seem to restrict their creativity out of fear of failure. As students continue in the education system, they become much less inclined to learn about new mediums and processes because they associate academic success with their ability to follow strict instruction and turn in a flawless project. In reality, the projects that allow for the most intellectual development are often the ones that at some point have hit a dead end. This means that the student was confronted with an unexpected problem that they needed to solve. The problem forced the student to draw upon prior knowledge of materials and processes and call on their classmates and teachers and innovatively use the knowledge gained in a new way. In art, it is the difficult situations that end up teaching you the most. As a teacher, planning assessable lessons that reward students for combating and ultimately overcoming a measured degree of failure instead taking the quick and easy path to success is extremely difficult yet incredibly beneficial. As I gain experience as a teacher I will learn how to plan lessons that encourage creative risk and develop methods of assessment that foster growth in independent thought, creativity and problem solving. I feel that a demonstration of the development of these skills should be rewarded, as the skills learned here can reinforce a student’s ability to succeed in a wide variety of disciplines. I recognize that dynamic in myself and in many of my most inspiring peers.
-What went well? What did I learn?
-I was originally worried that this unit would turn out functioning more like a science project than an art project, with less than ideal space for creative freedom. However, allowing the students to create habitats for creatures that they thought up, instead of real animals, seems to have erased that problem. I made sure they knew that no matter what animal they chose, they would still need to have a reason behind the creative decisions they made. They were all very quick to think up wildly imaginative creatures, and were excited to work on developing their ideas. The art-based content stayed exactly the same, but the creativity aspect skyrocketed. Originally, I was worried that having mythical creatures would change things too drastically. But, the point of the unit was to get them to consider how they could create an art object that best represented their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter they chose, they successfully did just that.
I was reminded during this teaching experience that, while lesson plans follow a rigid and linear format, art does not, and neither do 4th/5th graders. Also, every child is very much so on their own page when it comes to creativity as well as their interest in visual mediums. Because of this, it is important to consider how things like different attention spans, personal interests, and personality types will effect the way a student recieves a lesson. Right off the bat it was easy to see that some students followed a much more introspective and quiet thought pattern while others work through problems in a social setting. Some students were in their own world and completely involved in their work while others worked through the creative problem at hand by asking questions, expressing their findings, and looking to their peers for inspiration and support. These observations were important because they helped me become aware of how to most effectively differentiate lessons.
One of the classes we taught focused heavily on library research. It was surprising to see how interested students were in the research process. I was worried that they would be uninterested in the fact-finding component of this project but I was pleasantly surprised. This made me think of how often adults complain about the short attention span of kids. This experience at the Lab School taught me that even the most hyperactive of kids are able to concentrate and stay on task when they are personally invested in what they are doing. The effect that implementing a good engaging project has on the attention span of kids was amazing to see in action. From this I learned that as a teacher, it is important to keep working hard to make every activity both engaging and fun because that is when students lean the most.
-What would I do differently?
My current educational philosophy is that students learn best when they are comfortable being themselves in the classroom. It is important to me that the students in my classroom are comfortable enough in their environment to experiment and test their limits. Along the way they will make mistakes and express confusion, which I feel is incredibly beneficial to student learning. I believe that the classroom environment strongly influences the students comfort level and their willingness to tempt failure. This belief significantly evolved during my time at The Lab School. I realize that not every student I work with will become an artist, or stay in an art related field. However, understanding how to engage in the creative process and communicate an idea visually will help each individual succeed no matter what they end up doing with their lives.
Personally, I am a strong believer in the psychological benefits of creative activity. In my opinion, engaging in creative activities promotes a reassuring feeling of self-awareness that is hard to come by in non-creative fields. Art activities can be easily structured to indirectly support the development of important life skills like problem solving, flexibility, planning, and perseverance. Life skills such as these are best developed through working on projects as well as learning how to find the resources to best complete the project. It is hard to foster these skills by just lecturing, especially during an individuals developmental years. Art class creates a safe environment for students to learn important skills while also seeing that their peers are learning too. The students should feel OK with what they have accomplished, if they have worked hard at it. It is my personal belief in the psychological benefits of creative activity and creative problem solving that motivates me to pursue the field of art education through a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy. My goal would be to work with students in the public school system who often fall beneath the radar. What I ultimately want to do is find a new, more effective way to help students who struggle with social, emotional and experiential issues that interfere with their confidence and academic success. I hope to help them work on developing skills that will allow them to become successful in their own lives. I believe that structuring developmentally conscious art activities has the potential to reach many problem students in a new, more effective way.
Maybe this is only in art classrooms, but I have often seen more being learned from aggressive but unsuccessful experimentation than successful project completion. With such a huge emphasis on assessment in all the academic settings, as students get older they seem to restrict their creativity out of fear of failure. As students continue in the education system, they become much less inclined to learn about new mediums and processes because they associate academic success with their ability to follow strict instruction and turn in a flawless project. In reality, the projects that allow for the most intellectual development are often the ones that at some point have hit a dead end. This means that the student was confronted with an unexpected problem that they needed to solve. The problem forced the student to draw upon prior knowledge of materials and processes and call on their classmates and teachers and innovatively use the knowledge gained in a new way. In art, it is the difficult situations that end up teaching you the most. As a teacher, planning assessable lessons that reward students for combating and ultimately overcoming a measured degree of failure instead taking the quick and easy path to success is extremely difficult yet incredibly beneficial. As I gain experience as a teacher I will learn how to plan lessons that encourage creative risk and develop methods of assessment that foster growth in independent thought, creativity and problem solving. I feel that a demonstration of the development of these skills should be rewarded, as the skills learned here can reinforce a student’s ability to succeed in a wide variety of disciplines. I recognize that dynamic in myself and in many of my most inspiring peers.