I learned their names quickly, especially the ones that acted up, which helped a lot when I was trying to get the class to settle down or the notorious back row of all boys would talk non stop. I didn’t hesitate to call out names or go stand right in front of that back row. I knew I had to nip it in the bud or they would walk all over me. I tried to be consistent but also tried to pick my battles so that I didn’t sound like broken record either.

Teaching digital classes was different and wasn’t something I was expecting but was a lot of fun. We went outside to shoot pictures for both digital photography and the darkroom photography. I’m bummed ODU doesn’t have a darkroom since VCU does and the kids in the high schools that are art centered have darkrooms because they send most of their students to VCU and need darkroom skills. So ODU students don’t have that when they go into a high school. I took a darkroom class at a community college about 5 years ago and was so glad to have done it. I also found out VCU has glass blowing (how cool is that) but the only school around here that has it is TCC. Seems weird the community colleges are offering more art classes than the universities. My cooperating teacher and I discussed these things quite frequently and I learned soooo much from her!

My cooperating teacher for my high school placement was so great. She’s super laid back and creative. We got along so well my placement flew by. She even said so herself on my last day how fast it went by. I can’t believe my luck! I learned alot from her in regard to how to act toward the high schoolers. Their major issue is fairness and I learned that quickly with the help of my cooperating teacher.

I tried to not get too caught up in talking to the teenagers, I didn’t really want to be viewed as their friend. I wanted them to like me but I also wanted them to know I was an authority figure. Quite a few of the students have siblings my age and I found that a few of them tried to attach to me like a sister. It was cute but I tried to keep everything related to art or school. I was curious about the art they did outside of school and some of the things that high schoolers are into now and was offered the information by a few without having to ask. Being part of the art magnet program was a great experience. Since it’s a program within the school I saw some stellar artwork from a lot of the kids. It’s also a regular high school I saw a lot of regular students taking art as an elective that weren’t really concerned about being there. It’s easy to give up on those kids. Too easy. They don’t want to be in the art room, I don’t want them there either…I kept pushing though and by the end I had so many of them thank me for taking the extra time to help them. How freaking rewarding! I was so thrilled, I thought they hadn’t even noticed me spending the extra time with them when I really wanted to see what the talented kids were doing! Teenagers are not as oblivious as I thought! There’s hope for them yet! Shew!

I did have one experience I hadn’t really expected. A girl in the art magnet program that was a total snob and had no problem giving me the look like she was sizing me up. When she found out I was 29 she made a comment about me still being in college. I had to refrain from giving her the same look she was giving me, this was probably the first time in my life I’ve ever been looked down on by an adolescent. Man the will power it took not to say something back…I just smiled and said I was glad to be finishing with already having so many additional experiences and accomplishments during my lengthy college career. The same girl (she wasn’t in any of my classes) would come to the darkroom after school and if I was the only one in there she would ask where all the teachers were and go down the list and then if no one was available she would say “you wouldn’t know the answer anyway”. A couple times I did a couple times I didn’t. She seemed pleased when I didn’t know something. This particular student is going to VCU school of art and I’m sure she’ll do great, I’m also pretty sure it will be a humbling experience for her. Since who knows how many of her classmates will be 29 with or without a husband and children.

The digital classes got to be fun even though I didn’t have any kind of experience teaching in that type of setting. Elementary school was the traditional kind of thing. One darkroom class was just enough and I was excited about getting some things developed myself. My cooperating teacher wouldn’t let me in the darkroom for any length of time due to my pregnancy so I was just able to peek in sometimes. My favorite class turned out to be Art one. Mostly non magnet students that chose to be in art for the “easy A”. They were rambunctious and loud and obnoxious and it was so much fun! They loved the clay project and I got such great results from the face jugs. I took them on a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg and saw face jugs in the dewitt museum. There were 3 art one classes altogether and 3 teachers, so I had a whole class to myself. They were so good! I got on the bus and a bunch of them had saved me a seat in the back with them at lunch I got flagged down by a 6 or so of my students who had saved me a seat to eat lunch with them. Most of them stayed with me in the gallery but I wanted them to see what they wanted to see so I didn’t make them stay with me. The group that didn’t stay with me found me to ask where the face jugs were! They DO listen! Sometimes.

For the most part, I found the high school students to be interesting and so much more fun then the younger kids. I liked the self sufficiency but did get frustrated with the lack of motivation. I think it’s gotten worse or I just don’t remember clearly how lazy I was as a teenager. Man, can they be lazy! I thought it was pretty easy to get most of them excited about a project but they were always aware of seeming too excited in front of their peers. I vaguely remember how aware high schoolers are of each other and what the other is thinking. I’m so glad that goes away!

I tried to be as honest as possible with them and got pretty positive responses from the kids. There were a few instances that I wanted to shake the bejesus out of a kid or two but reminded myself that that was illegal and being pregnant in jail or trying to explain that to a 3 year old would not be any fun at all. I think being a student teacher had some disadvantages too. Some of them tried to make me there friend and thought it was ok to talk on their cell phones or swear in front of me. I quickly made it clear that it was not ok. A few of them were very resistant to all of my projects, especially in the darkroom class, and I think were glad to see me go. My rules that I incorporated were not very well received and all the students were clear about that!

Rules I had that were not previously in place weren’t anything out of the ordinary but good lord, you would have though I was trying to kill them when I told them for everyday something was late it was minus one letter grade. Or if they had partial work they got a partial grade. Oh the whining! I think a lot of these kids aren’t held accountable for their actions and I was not in the mood to put up with it, I can blame it all on hormones. The other thing I noticed that pissed me off was they lose things CONSTANTLY! Whether it’s a hand out, a permission slip, an assignment, art fee dues, it didn’t matter what the content. Good or bad, they lost it. Two girls applying to summer institute lost their letters with their appointment times and acted totally blasse’ about it because they KNEW that someone would call or email someone and take care of it FOR them. So frustrating, you could see it in their eyes that they knew that even if they missed their appointment that it would probably be resolved and they would go anyway. Students that didn’t watch my demo on the wheel thought it would be fine, even though I said it was required that they take notes. Some of them told me quite honestly that they didn’t watch or take notes but wanted to throw anyway. Um, no. They had to wait until everyone else was done and had to sit and watch other people do it until they could tell me exactly what the steps were from plugging in the wheel to putting it back together after clean up. That took SOOO much longer than just watching a demo by the teacher and taking notes to show her, I was clear to point that out.

All in all, I learned so much about teaching high school, mostly that it is the grade levels I want to teach, FOR SURE. My cooperating teacher was so helpful and I hope she doesn’t mind mentoring me in the future! She does the curriculum writing with the art supervisor for Newport News, and they’re friends outside of work, so I’m thinking it’s a good idea to stay in touch!

Pictures to post are coming.

I cried my last day of high school student teaching… more than once. All those kids want is a teacher that they know genuinely cares about them, their feelings, and tries to remain as fair as possible. That was a big thing! Fairness and trying not to show favoritism.

My last couple of weeks at the elementary school were bittersweet. I was pretty much over being there and ready to move onto the older kids. My cooperating teacher was absent from the room most of the last few weeks. I haven’t really posted anything about her because when I mentioned my blog she has repeatedly tried to get an account and get me to add her so she could read what I was posting!! ahhh! I’ve been so reluctant to post anything since she was making such the gallant effort to read my blogs. Scary.

I enjoyed working with the elementary school kids but was over the small scale sinks, furniture, toilets, etc…my back was killing me everyday and having morning sickness around smelly kids was not ideal. They were super sweet but just not self sufficient enough for me. I have my own snotty nosed kid at home that doesn’t know how to tie her shoes, I don’t think I could hand a couple hundred! Germ balls are not for me I’m thinking.

I was pleased with most of the projects I taught. Most of the were well received, executed and I got some AWESOME results. A few of the projects were put on my never again list where they can stay. I thought sock puppets would be fun, my cooperating teacher said I should do them with the older kids rather than the younger ones for better results. I was bored to tears. The little kids would have been more excited, but I tried it out with the older kids. 4th graders. They complained after 2 sessions, so we hurried and finished them up so we could move on. They were thrilled with their results and I was glad to have it all over.

Watercolor with kindergarten seems like an ok idea in theory…not so much in reality. They mixed colors even when I told them not to. Clean up was a nightmare the first time and they would not dilute the pigment no matter what I said or how I said it. (Not the whole class of course but just enough to piss me off and have a few recess buddies). The project was great, the kids liked it and I enjoyed it as well. We read Too Many Balloons the first class, the kids cut the corners off of white rectangular pieces of paper, colored them with fluorescent markers, watercolored over them, glued them onto a blue piece of paper, added yarn and tied the yarn together with a bow. REALLY CUTE! All of them looked different and the kids liked it alot. I realized cleanup needs 15 minutes rather than 10 or less, and I ended up picking 3 or 4 helpers to help me the entire class rather than 25 kids asking me to help for the ENTIRE CLASS.

First grade did sumi-e. Watercolors was a little easier since they used only blue and understood diluting them a little better. They liked printing on the paper with cardboard pieces dipped in black paint to make trees and then adding the blue wash and then glued small pink tissue paper balls all over, we talked about spring and the changes the trees were going through. It only took two class sessions and kept them focused, nothing major. I used the same clean up methods with first grade but switched up from the beginning to the end of class.

Second grade printed and they came out soooo good. We studied texture and did rubbings outside first. I taught them the meaning of printing and then we made cardboard printing plates with glued yarn pieces and other small cardboard pieces, that took one class, they liked doing that. When we started printing, I worked out a pretty good system and the results were pretty much amazing. I put three in the Hampton Youth Art Month show at City Hall. I saw two of the girls there during the reception dressed up , too cute. Second grade also did ink blot monsters, we studied symmetry and primary colors, secondary colors, they cut out “faces” from the ink blots, glued them onto black paper and then added monster bodies colored in marker onto the black paper. One boy did not enjoy the painting part at all, most of them did, he REALLY perked up though when I explained the monster bodies, I got some great stuff from him.I ran out of drying rack room fast since each student did 3. I ended up having to line them up in the hallway to dry which was a common practice at the school luckily.

Third grade did Grecian urns cut out from paper and we discussed designs and symmetry and figure drawing, they got to pose in “sports” positions for their class mates to sketch. Of course, they all got really into that part, but I only got good results from a few. That lesson went to my never again file. Set up and clean up was a breeze but I was bored to tears again and could tell most of the kids weren’t really into it. It was their classroom teacher that talked me into the Greek thing since that’s what they were doing in social studies. Which was fine, I’m all about cross curricular learning for the kids, but was not happy when I found out I couldn’t go into mythology. sucko!!! Super bummed, I looked through the books in the library and though pottery was cool but Hampton elementary schools do not have kilns. Double sucko!

Fourth grade did the dreaded sock puppets…too crafty. The feathers and sequins were EVERYWHERE! The custodian had me on his shit list for sure. I learned quickly to make them all crawl around on hands and knees to pick up all of the supplies and bribed them with candy. Candy is magic. Stamps with the little kids (k-2) and candy with the older grades. Thank god for candy. Secret candy of course. I had to man the hot glue gun most of the class and worked out a pretty good system with that, I only let a couple of them do it themselves and supervised VERY closely, the majority of them were scared anyway.

Fifth grade did foil masks. SUPER FUN! They spent a lot of time studying different masks from different cultures and then we discussed the importance of these masks to different cultures. We then discussed our own culture and what is important to us as Americans. They enjoyed the brainstorming activity as well as designing the masks on paper. We transferred the images to foil pieces after a demo and a warning about the sharpness of the foil. They enjoyed working with the foil and learning how to tool it to stretch it out to make it 3d. Last we used metallic colored pencils to make designs (related to the masks theme) on black card stock and taped the masks onto the card stock. So different and really well done.

For the most part I didn’t see my cooperating teacher the last half of my placement. I thanked my lucky stars though because it could have been REALLY bad and I may have not been able to get rid of her! We got along ok, but I started to get pissed when I had no idea where she was in the building and I needed supplies I couldn’t find. When she was in the room she was quick to tell me exactly how she did things and was pretty clear that she expected me to follow suit. There were a lot of useful things I learned but some of it was way too structured on how she wanted the kids to behave or the results she expected from the students. I saw a lot of the work they did before I came and what they were working on before I started teaching. It all looked the EXACT same!! Everything! It looked like little robots had made the artwork. Sometimes the colors would vary a little. The color paper, or color crayon used but the little houses the kindergartners made looked the same, the kimonos first grade made, even the self portraits second grade made!! Quite ridiculous I thought.

My last day I got lots of sweet hugs and a book put together for me by the cooperating teacher and the staff and all the students signed it. She kept telling me I would cry when my last day came. Nope, not even close! I practically skipped out of that place! I liked most of the kids but working in such a small school I think I had some major disadvantages. All the teachers were cliquey and into each others business, they constantly talked about each other and not very nice. I seemed to have to pee every time I heard something about another teacher. The conversations about the students I found interesting and liked to participate in. I’ve still kept in contact with my cooperating teacher since I figure I can use her for good ideas later down the line and it’s much better to make nice with everyone, since I learned how much teachers like to talk smack about each other!!

Started a lesson with 3rd grade this week, will take over the rest of 3rd grade next week. One grade left, first grade, then I’ll have the whole school!

Classroom management seems to get easier one day and then turns around the next. I think it’s the phases of the moon or something. I’ll have on really great class one hour and feel great and then the next class is full of demon children and then I’m wondering what happened??!

Also what is getting hard is having no where to put my students stuff! I was losing things the first few minutes of class because I don’t have anywhere to put student work! The art room is so super packed full of stuff! My husband made me folders and I’m putting them into action this week so that I can get organized!!! I can’t stand it, having stuff all over but it’s not my classroom so I don’t have a designated place to put anything. Box tops can only work up to a certain point. Having 3 classes of grades k-5 is 18 classes, then 2 lessons per  grade, equals A LOT of paper! shew! I’m hating that we don’t have a kiln! I can’t wait to see what the high school has since it’s a magnet for visual arts, I’ll be thrilled if they have a darkroom, I know they have a kiln, I’m doing clay then, for sure! Model Magic just isn’t the same. So we’ll see how things progress!

I’m reading “Too Many Balloons” to the Kindergarten classes and then we’re making collages based on the story, the kids responded really well to the project and they’re coming right along. Coloring was fun, I’m really learning just how SPECIFIC you have to be with the little kids! They follow my examples almost to the letter. So if I don’t color something all the way for demo purposes, neither do they.

The rest of the week went pretty well, continuations of all the other lessons. I’m HATING the sock puppet lesson. I was planning on having the younger students do the lesson, my cooperating teacher suggested the older students to get better results. They actually seem to like it more than I thought they would. However, I’m liking it A LOT less than I thought I would. Thinking I’m ditching that. They kids are having a great time doing it, but I’m not seeing the purpose so much. I wanted the kids to do self portraits which turned into animals, fine, but now I”m manning the hot glue gun most of the class. Not fun. I don’t trust 4th graders with a hot glue gun, but they still need it for some of the items they’re attaching. Chucking the sock puppet thing. blech.

Also this week, it was a short week for students (3 days) because of staff development. Went to the one at the school. Nothing really interesting there. Went to the all day one for art teachers, pretty cool! Got lots of great ideas and lesson plans from all of Hampton’s elementary teachers! A few of the teachers I thought were awesome, that have been doing this forever and have really well developed lessons. Also a lot of young teachers  in their first few years of teaching with really fresh ideas and lots of energy.  I’m glad I got to go to that and got a few email addresses to contact them.

The kinks that I noticed after teaching the first class I think I worked out for the most part during the 2nd and third classes.

Clean up had been a night mare!!!!!!!! I had planned out in my head pretty well how to teach the actual lesson and manage the students during the rest of the class but had not thoroughly thought out clean up! After middle schoolers doing everything after being told once in an orderly fashion, I was not prepared for the craziness that was cleanup! ohmigod….Children were running a muck while I tried to line everyone up at the sink. That took way too long! After that my cooperating teacher gave me some hints on how to keep a more orderly cleanup.

The next class went better during cleanup. The kids were interested in the lesson, enjoyed doing the ink blot paintings and this time I picked 2 helpers from the beginning of class to help throughout so no one else would ask me. I filled up a small plastic container with soap, water and paper towels at the beginning of class so that they would be ready at the end. I gave each student one to wipe their hands and table at the end of class. One of my helpers was having a rough time rinsing the paintbrushes at the end of class and wasn’t very coordinated and got the floor soaked. A few students had practically painted there hands, naturally the color wouldn’t come out and I could hear their teacher yelling at them in the hall, obviously wanting me to hear, that they should be washing their hands in art class. I’m thinking they shouldn’t be painted their bodies in art class, which I clearly stated to the third 2nd grade class.

The third time I taught the lesson, everything went much more smoothly. The lesson went well, the painting was well received the helpers did their jobs and I had put a bucket of water in the sink to assist with paintbrush rinsing. Everything went pretty good! Third times the charm I guess.

Today I taught my first 5th grade class. The “big kids”. Middle school smart asses in the making. It was fun though to exchange a little witty banter that you for sure don’t get with the little kids! We started with a lesson on masks. I picked helpers at the beginning of class to pass out books and the same kids to pick them up. I had them use the text book, my cooperating teacher suggested using the table of contents to have them look up the chapter, which they did. I made print outs of masks and some handouts of mask uses. I had the read a few paragraphs, that went pretty well. They started to get a little noisy when I was transitioning the lesson from the book to discussion. They all wanted to talk to each other about mask ideas. I got them back pretty quickly and the remainder of the class was uneventful, I’m glad they are so excited about it!

I taught my first class on Friday, 2nd grade. We did ink blots, they really enjoyed it and got into it. We talked about Primary and Secondary colors and then the difference between asymmetrical and symmetrical, which they’re teacher thought was great since they were starting a math lesson in symmetry the next week. Score for me!

My cooperating teacher requested that all teachers please put name tags on their students. They are 2 other student teachers in the building, but one is part time special ed and the other is all day in first grade. They have 20 names to learn. I have 375. MOst of them were happy to oblige with understanding, but I was surprised that some of them flat out said no. WE’ll see how many teachers remember.

The 8th grade students glazed their masks today. They were so into it and were focused during the whole class. It was great to have my practicum spread out over most of the semester so I got to observe the lesson from the beginning to the end…just about. I won’t get to see the masks after they’ve been fired w/ the glaze.

I was kind of sad to know I might not see the kids again. Can’t wait to start student teaching!