Expectations and Realities

Yesterday marked the end of week two.

I think I'm finally getting used to my crazy schedule. I didn't want to work while student teaching, but I don't have that choice, unfortunately. I don't feel sorry for myself, but let this much be clear: if it is AT ALL possible, DON'T WORK WHILE STUDENT TEACHING. Seriously, you're going to need all the time you can get to work on your lessons, plan for the coming weeks and try to recharge your batteries.

I spent a good deal of time over the break thinking about my lessons, looking up ideas and books I wanted to share with my students. The unfortunate thing is that most of my ideas were not in step with what the students at this school need. That is neither a reflection on me, nor on my students. You can't really "know" what is needed until you've spent time with your students.

In my opinion, rule number one in teaching is: Start Where They Are. No two 6 year olds are the same, even within one school. Which is why my number one personality requirement for a teacher is FLEXIBILITY.

This week I started my lessons with the K-4 group. My K-1 students have had limited exposure to the arts and the 2-4 kids have a wide range of exposure levels and skills. Many, if not all of them are not exposed to art or art making outside the art classroom.

So, while I remember drawing, playing with clay and paint at home, that's not the life most of these kids are living. Which means even tasks as simple as cutting shapes out of paper becomes a challenge, and of course an opportunity.

So for the smallest kids I decided to work with them on line and color. We talked about different line types (horizontal, vertical, zig zag etc..) and act them out together - one of my favorite things EVER. We talk about lines as being dots that go for a walk and then together we "walked our dots" all the way across the page (another challenge especially for the Kindergarten class).

We also talked about color families, and the kids are working on coloring their pictures in using primary colors. We explain that just as they have a family, and the school is a family, colors have families too. Primary colors are "our first, and most important color family" because they can't be mixed.

I demonstrated coloring in their lines with the markers, explaining why they shouldn't place two colors next to each other. Some of them really struggled with it, while others did very well. I'll see if I can't get some photos of the finished work in the coming week.

The 2-4 classes started working on a simple project that involved tracing geometric shapes and learning to make them overlap, each level had a different level of requirements based on the group. I know it sounds very easy- but this requires an understanding of space and transparency, which for some of my kids is very difficult.

This week almost everyone got through tracing their shapes so this week we will begin painting. At least, I hope we can use paint. Each of them had to choose warm or cool colors and the difficulty will be keeping them from trying to do it all at once. Not putting two colors next to each other, and staying in the lines requires a level of planning and fine motor control that can be difficult for young children. I'm contemplating having them paint it with watercolor, or maybe only giving them one color at a time... we will see.

Additionally because of the move towards the new Common Core Curriculum I need to write text based questions to accompany my lessons. As I understand it, so far, the new requirements mean that all courses need to further integrate reading and writing into their content. In this case, they need to read a passage, look at an image and be able to answer a question by drawing information from both places.

As I am planning to move from the overlap pre-studio activities into a larger unit on Kandinsky, I'll be writing my questions based on his work. This isn't something I've had to do before, so I'll let you know how it turns out....


Week Two -

High Points

• I still love the K-4 classes. The littlest of them are my favorites. The hugs and smiles warm my heart in a way I can't explain. But it can also break your heart when you begin to understand some of the hardships they face. It's a hard line to walk.
• A fourth grade girl gave me a small piece of candy on Friday, she was in my last class of the day. I said "how did you know I'd need chocolate?" Only teasing her of course and she said "I thought you would be tired" SO SWEET!

Low Points

• A maintained level of anxiety and stress over trying to plan for such a wide range of students.The older kids, 5-7 still elude me. Many of them already have teenage attitudes, which for urban students can be intense. Trying to come up with lessons for kids so clearly "over it" is a bit daunting.
• The discipline issues for these grades are not getting much better. One class in particular is pretty wild. My co-op, who has spent twenty years at this school tells me it's the worst she's ever experienced. One of the boys point blank looked me in the face and told me he "didn't give a s--t." I'm supposed to take over all the classes - when these kids won't behave for someone they've known for years - how can I fare any better?