The first half of my student teaching was completed in a clay sculpture and wheel throwing classroom in the art department at Derby High School. I was very excited about this opportunity as learning to solely manage all that comes along with clay in a classroom is very important for an art teacher. Specifically learning kiln firing, clay mixing, and glaze knowledge. My cooperating teacher was an M.F.A in ceramics and wheel thrown art. She is a master potter! She taught me the in's and out's of her classroom and how she instructs her wheel thrown classes, which have to be very sequential so the students build their skill set in the most effective manner. She spend a lot of time explaining and demonstrating to me how she mixes high-fire glazes, which clay's to use for low-fire glazes and underglazes as well as which clays work best with certain projects. I spent hours upon hours in the kiln room loading and unloading kilns and firing almost daily. With 140 students daily, work was constantly needing to be fired. My coordinating teacher also helped me during plan time with my own wheel throwing skills, or lack thereof...so I can better demonstrate and instruct my future students.
The sculpture classes are what she relinquished to me, relatively quickly in the first eight weeks. They were already started on a project, but she requires several mini-lessons, artist of the months, brainstorming activities, and critiques for the students so I lead all of those until the project they had started at the beginning of the semester was finished. I quickly established myself as firm with classroom management and the high school students seemed to appreciate the order as I had very little trouble with behavior in my entire eight weeks at the high school level. The first week was a little difficult as the classroom teacher runs a very loosely managed classroom, whereas I required a few more things of the students--which they were graceful in accepting for the most part. (Such as coming in, grabbing their work, and bringing their quiet attention to me for announcements and daily lesson information.) I loved the freedom that my teacher gave me, as she is not strong in sculpture at all so welcomed the ideas--and I felt more creative than I had in years! Ideas for assignments that aligned with objectives just flowed from my imagination, it was wonderful! My cooperating teacher likes to teach jewelry in sculpture class and also does mosaic work, but aside from that everything is clay based--which of course, is wonderful for sculpture. Management and lesson creation and set-up were definite strengths for me in the first half of my student teaching.
Weaknesses for me in this half of student teaching as pointed out by my university supervisor were to be even more strict with students in the classroom during my presentations if they goofed off, as well as developing effective methods of assessment. I am really hoping to get more insight into assessment with the second half of my student teaching at the Sixth Grade Center as with how few projects were completed in eight weeks at the high school I rarely had the opportunity to practice. In lieu of not being able to grade and assess projects I asked gobs of questions and took copious amounts of notes from my teacher and from all of the other generous art teachers in the Derby High art department. They all invited me into their classrooms for observation and answered any questions I had--which I made it a point to ask each one how they assessed their specific mediums (drawing, painting, print, and photo--both digital and analog). They were a wealth of knowledge, now to put all of my notes in an order so I can implement their shared knowledge!
Bring on the Sixth Grade Center!! Even though I've absolutely LOVED my time with the high school students, I have a feeling this will be my preferred age group. It's hard to leave them, they are begging me not to go! But I am excited about a new experience as I've not had the opportunity to work with 11/12 year olds before and am anxious to see where they are cognitively, creatively, and emotionally as young makers and humans. :)
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