There is a common phrase in education job fairs where principals and other administrators say they can teach someone how to deliver content but they cannot teach someone how to be a good teacher. What does make a good teacher? After two and a half years of practicums and a semester of student teaching I can one hundred percent for sure say that developing relationships with students is by far the most important thing. This does not mean we need to become best buddies with students, but rather that we are attentive to their needs and provide them with a safe and predictable classroom environment. Part of creating such an environment is making expectations clear to students and enforcing classroom rules and procedures. For example, not letting students crowd the door when it is time to leave, but instead requiring students to wait to be dismissed by table. This small procedure allows for the previous class to leave quietly and the next class to enter quietly, avoiding confusion. To be a caring teacher means holding students to high expectations. If students know you care enough about them to expect good work from them, they will most of the time try to live up to those expectations. I have witnessed this firsthand in students who I know had behavior issues in other classes but worked very hard in the art room. Grading and assessment is not something that would seem straightforward in the art classroom in that art students come to class with a wide range of abilities. By assessing learning objectives such as student growth and their progress as they work on a project we are not assessing “talent,” but rather skills such as problem-solving and perseverance.
Diversity can easily be a buzzword if we do not make our approach to diversity meaningful. One way to ensure we are being culturally responsive as art educators is by introducing a wide range of contemporary artists. When students see a variety of artists as part of the curriculum, we do not promote tokenism, but instead reflect the reality of the world, and that there is more than one viewpoint on an issue and that artists come from all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. By designing the curriculum based on what the students are interested in we can make the art experience meaningful and respect the diversity of the classroom. A diverse classroom can also mean grade level performance. Some students may perform below grade level and some students perform high above grade level. By focusing projects on enduring understandings and big ideas I can allow for student choice in how to approach these themes. In a choice-based classroom, students can self-differentiate and I can help to facilitate their learning process to make sure all students are getting their educational needs met.
In going over my past journal entries I feel that I have moved past the educational platitudes we say in our practicum classes when have not yet student taught. It is easy to say what you think teaching will be like, but the reality is quite different. I think I spent too much time on my reflections being too hard on myself for making mistakes but that is all part of the learning process. Just the other day my cooperating teacher was saying you learn more from teaching mistakes because when you make one you can quickly tell if something is not working. And she pointed out that you do not stop making mistakes ever in your teaching career. That conversation reinforced the need for reflection as a teacher to see what is working and what is not working. I can’t imagine doing the same thing year after year or even from class to class. Some classes may need a seating chart and some may not. Some classes may need modified choice and some will not. The main area of self-growth I noticed is my confidence. I started off the semester as a student teacher but now feel that I am an actual teacher because I pay more attention to the small details. At the beginning of my preservice teacher experience I was worried if the students liked me but now that is not a concern. My biggest concern is that students are getting the things they need from me in order for me to help them be successful in the classroom.
Reflection is also an important practice for students. A successful classroom expectation I will take into my own classroom is having students set weekly goals and requiring a daily point for being on-task. This has been a good way for students to practice goal-setting and the daily point helps the students keep on task. One interesting thing I noticed about the daily point is that students were very honest if they thought they earned their daily point or not. By giving students the ability to grade themselves they learn to take ownership of their own learning. One reflection exercise that did not work well was a sheet that required students to document the project process from beginning to the end. The concept was solid but in practice the students would fill out the entire sheet at the end of the project and not document their ideation or struggles. I would remedy this by requiring students to show me their ideation before moving on to the next part of the project.
I chose to do a Zentangle for my art piece because I have been attending free Zentangle sessions once a week online through the Denver Botanical Gardens. This has helped me start a new art practice that has been a nice stress relief during these trying times. My final middle school lesson will be a Zentagle lesson next week to demonstrate to students how art can be used as a mindfulness activity. In an online Colorado TAB meetup an art teacher mentioned that in this time of online learning equity is a huge issue and someone told her students’ home lives were like boats in an ocean. Some had rowboats and some had yachts. Equity was an issue anyway but in online learning especially. Not all students have internet access, some students must supervise younger siblings and some students do not have a quiet place to do schoolwork. As far as art supplies go some students have canvas and paint and some don’t have paper or pencils at home. To represent this metaphor I did an ocean wave zentangle pattern with three different boats – a leaky rowboat, a sailboat, and a yacht to represent the student experience. I chose to separate each tile slightly to show a gaps that exist in education. As teachers we cannot control the outside situations of students, but we can try to fill in the gaps as best we can. Perhaps this means showing students how they can make art using what is lying around the house or perhaps this means putting together a small art kit so all students have access to the same materials. The circumstances will be different for each situation. This art piece came about in response to the online learning situation but could easily apply to any education circumstance. I know now as a teacher we can’t possibly fill in all the gaps, but it is our job to try to the best of our ability to do so.