My current schedule and a Reflection

My schedule for the first 10 weeks of student teaching:

1st period Art with Mr. Smith - Art with 4th graders
The 4th graders are currently working on wooden name plates or name tags that can be used on their desk as a reminder of their names and can be left by the door so Mr. Smith knows they went to the bathroom. If they are acting up and not listening after their "Stop and Think warning", then Mr. Smith takes their name tag and puts it in his pocket as a reminder that they owe him recess time.

2nd period Reading with Mr. Smith - Reading with 4th graders (about 40 minutes).
On Mondays, the students listen to an audio of the story and follow along with their fingers. They also take notes from the SmartBoard of their vocabulary works and definitions. On Tuesday, they read the story out loud to each other from their "Turn It Up" books. On Wednesdays, they read the small read books at their reading level. On Thursdays, they are tested with one minute timings on fluency. This was difficult to listen to each student read aloud, time them individually and manage the whole class at the same time. The rest of the students when not being fluency tested should re-read the story from "Turn It Up" book and review their vocabulary in their notebooks. On Fridays, they read with their Kinder-buddies or go to the computer lab to work on project related to what content they are reading). Mr. Smith integrates art and drawing into reading time whenever he can. He reads from books with amazing illustrations and ignites inspiration in his students!

3rd period is my prep period

4th period Beginning Art with Ms. Mallon at High School
We are currently working on drawing lessons that focus on value. They started with contour drawing and blind contour drawing. Next, will be using value in flat shapes and then they will work up to 3-D forms with shading and value, keeping the light source or light angle in mind (all in pencil). At the end of the quarter, for the final, they will be drawing a pumpkin using all of the drawing techniques they've learned so far.

Lunch at 12:10-12:35

5th period Beginning Art with Ms. Mallon at High School

6th period Advanced Art/Sculpture
The sculpture class is doing an interesting project with paper mache where they sculpted words of their choice to make 3-D word sculptures.

7th period Middle School/8th graders - Exploratory Art
This is the class that I get to teach, plan lessons for and do grades and assessments everyday. This is a fun class to teach and a bit easier to manage with only about a dozen students. 8th graders at the end of the day get very stir crazy so the main thing I try to do is keep them busy! The curriculum for this class focuses on the Elements of Art. The first project they are working on is a wax-resist drawing in crayon with a black wash over it. The students made these into portfolios to put all of their projects in. My goal is to obtain an art teaching job at the middle school level. There currently is not a middle school art teacher right now but Ronan does have an art room. I know who would love teaching there! ;)

Hand Signals at the Elementary Level

The hand signals that Mr. Smith uses with 1st-4th graders at K. William Harvey in Ronan were classroom management life-savers!

The main one he uses when the class noise level gets too high or students are not settling down is "Give me five". Students hold up their hands and count to five along with the teachers. Students are trained to do this daily, weekly, and more often, as needed. They know what each number means because it is posted in the room and they've gone over it so many times.

One means "Eyes on me"

Two means "Quiet"

Three means "Be still"

Four means "Listen"

Five means "Hands free"

Other signals he uses: hold up hand, palm facing student for stop signal. This means this is their first warning and they need to stop and think about what they should be doing. Two fingers up (like a peace sign) mean I would like to get out of my seat. Three fingers up like a "W" means "SOS" or I need help. One finger up means I have a question or statement. A fist with a thumb between the first two fingers means I have to go to the bathroom. Students have a large wooden sign with Mr. Smith's name on it that they take with them to the bathroom. One student or one boy and girl can go at a time.

Sometimes, they have to get up out of their desks, line up again outside the classroom and come back into the classroom in a more orderly and respectful way. Most of the time the students are very excited to be in art class and want to know what they are doing. If Mr. Smith waits until they are quiet to start his instruction, they quiet down and listen pretty quickly because they don't want to miss out on his fun projects. If students continue to interrupt instruction they lose recess time or will owe him laps according to what day of the week it is. On Monday, since they are just getting back into the swing of things, they owe one lap or one minute against the wall during recess time. Tuesday, it's 2 minutes, or 2 laps, continuing this pattern to 5 laps or 5 minutes owed by Friday.

Mr. Smith doesn't use a lot of words to get students to pay attention. He does a great job of relating to students at their level and adding in humor into his instruction. He even uses funny voices an the students love it!