JOURNAL ENTRY #6

As I approach the end of my second placement, I am feeling grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to work with incredible art educators and young people. I learn something new everyday. One of the most important lessons I have learned this semester is that teaching is a journey. There are days that go well and successful lessons. There are also days that are exhausting and lessons that don't go as I imagined. This part of teaching allows for me to continue to grow everyday and reflect. I am so grateful for that. 

 

In elementary school we see so many kids in such a short amount of time that it can be difficult to take that time to truly reflect. However, I have found that an important part of my teaching practice is to take a moment after each day to write down a few notes. This can be notes about specific classes or lessons. It can also be my thoughts about what could come next, or how I am feeling that day. I have found that this is valuable to get my thoughts quickly on paper, and therefore have reflection that I can go back and look at again and again. This reflection is such a simple process, and only takes a few minutes, but allows for me to think though everything that happened in that particular day, and process what I can improve upon. 

 

For me, this reflection process is especially important because I am someone who internally processes and reflects. Since the days go by so quickly, there isn’t much time for that internal reflection, so taking a few minutes to reflect at the end of the day allows for me to have that time I need to think, process, and reflect. This is also important for me to remember for the students. There are so many different types of thinkers, some may take more time to get to work before they are ready to discuss what they have been working on, others may feel more confident after talking right away. 

 

An important part of our lessons is interviewing the students and hearing what they have to say about their ideas, the challenges they came across, what they learned, etc. As I am walking around recording these interviews, I have noticed the variety of different thinkers we have in our classes. Some are ready to talk through the process right away, whereas others are hesitant to talk until they get started, and have an idea of where they are going. This is important as a teacher to make sure that I am meeting the different needs of students. A big part of this is developing relationships with the students so I can get to know them as people and therefore understand how I can best help them. 

 

Relationships also help to inform what may come next for a particular group of kids. If I learn that a specific class loves painting, that may be a great studio to open up for that group. If students are excited about what they are working on, that is when they are going to be learning the most because they have a passion for what they are working on. This is one of the benefits of a TAB classroom, students are able to develop their own interests. Over the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to work in a choice-based classroom. The studios look a little different right now, but it is inspiring to see the creative thinking and problem solving that comes with the development of their own projects. 

 

Thinking about assessment is important when developing individualized projects. We have started assessing students based on the studio habits of mind. This allows for us to see where students are at, how they are growing, and not necessarily grade specific projects, but instead grade based the more well rounded student, and where they are at looking at everything they’ve been working on.