So, today I have a new student teaching schedule. The fist 10 weeks or so I spent 1st and 2nd periods at K. William Harvey Elementary School and the rest of the day with the High School/Middle School art teacher. She teaches one 8th grade art class during the last period of the day and the rest of her classes are High School: Beginning Art, Advanced/AP Art, or Sculpture classes. My favorite class so far, is probably the 8th grade class because I've had the privilege of teaching them from day 1, until the last day of the Quarter which was yesterday. They have a ton of energy and big hearts. I love that they act like kids one minute and then young-adults the next.
You never know what to expect!
Today, I will swap my schedule and spend most of the day at the Elementary school. Yay! It will be fun and less grading. This is the first day of the new quarter and I will probably help Mr. Smith with his grading because it is all due by Friday.
A couple of the 8th grade girls also volunteered to help me get the sets ready for the Dracula play the middle school students were producing. It was a ton of fun and a ton of work on top of my already over-committed schedule but the seeing the play all come together almost perfectly was a reward in itself! The art students who helped me also discovered they loved set design and that they are amazing artists! One of my students was impressed that I was bragging to her twin sister about what a great artist and illustrator she is. She was shocked and didn't really think she's that great of an artist but she is! It is fun to see middle schoolers interact and see that at their best and worst. Most of the time they are kind and somewhat on task but they are always a bit crazy and that class was chaotic at times. Somedays when I would lose the reigns and lose control of the class, I'd never be able to get it back!
I discovered a few tricks of the trade that I learned from my field supervisor and mentor teachers:
1) Always have a warm-up for students so I can take role and change gears for the class. Get them into the routine so they come in, sit down and know exactly what to do without reminders. This may take a week or a month!
2) When the bell rings, it's my signal to let them go but they do not need to line up at the door (against school policy because of safety reasons) and I get to choose when to let them go. This is really hard when lunch is next but I try to take a quick walk around the room to see if floor is a mess or the paint brushes and/or pencils are cleaned up and put away AND THEN let them go. This doesn't always work because some kids just ignore me and leave anyway because it's lunchtime!
3) Planning and grading fairly is very IMPORTANT. I don't feel I did a very good job at this 1st quarter but it was my first time using the "GradeBook" software and grading art so I think I did OK. I mostly did the grades for the 8th graders and they were mostly graded on participation because this was only a 1 quarter exploratory art class where they learn to use different materials/mediums and try different techniques. All of the work they did in a mere 10 weeks is impressive!
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