V: Student Teaching Experience Reflection
What went well & what I learned
From this experience I learned a lot about classroom management and being prepared for class. Classroom management is something that is very hard to learn about outside of a classroom. Being in the class, I was able to learn a lot about how I address issues and how I like to manage classrooms. I know that I am not very loud, but having the bell to ring really helped to get the students attention. I think that in the future, I would have some sort of way to get students' attention. Kelsey and I didn't have very many management issues since we were lucky enough to have a great class of students.This experience really showed me how prepared I need to be. Teaching isn't one of those things were I can just go in and wing it. I need to know what kind of questions I am going to ask and what kinds of things I am going to say. As the year went on, it was easier to be prepared because I knew the students better and I knew what the classroom dynamic was.
I think that our curriculum worked well for the students because we couldn't ask too much of them since they are so young. We wanted less
structure and more freedom for the students to use their imagination. The idea of place really let us do that. We gave them the structure of materials and subject matter of place but what they did after that was completely up to them. The students did an amazing job of taking the idea and running with it.
At first, creating objectives was a little confusing because we really didn't know how they would work in a classroom. I learned that
it is very important to know what the students are going to be learning and what the objectives are because they should be aligned with the standard. I think that something that would have helped me personally, would have been to write the learning target somewhere as a reminder of what the students would be working on and working towards.
A surprise occured during the semester when the students were getting really into their projects and we actually extended
the time on the first lesson. The lesson was only supposed to be two and half days but it actually extended to four full days. It was awesome to see the students so into their work and it was a good experience for me to see how meeting students needs in the classroom worked.
I think that organization and clean up was a bit of problem for me, partially due to the fact that my car served as an
art classroom. It was fairly easy to stay organized until the second lesson started and we started having to haul boxes in and out of the car. It was hard to keep all the students' boxes organized and together. We were able to make it work, but it would have been nice to save some time not unloading boxes and taking them down over and over again. Clean up went pretty smoothly, it was just a little difficult to get students to help their friends clean up once they were done. They become more distracting than helpful so we would walk around and try to get students to help clean up.
What I would do differently
From this experience I learned that I need to be more relaxed and not always worry about what can go wrong, but instead try embracing everything
that is going well. I learned that I need to have more closure at the end of the class. I didn’t really think about it until I got to the end of a class and
didn’t really have a way to determine if the students had learned anything. I told them that I was impressed with the amount of art that they had created, but I wish that I had some questions prepared to ask them at the end. I learned that questioning is something I avoid because I am afraid that no one will have an answer. I need to get over this however and make some intriguing questions that have endless amounts of answers, that way I engage the students until the end and can provide a conclusion to the class.
In the future I want to think about more about what the students are learning opposed to what they are doing. I often go around and ask
the students what they are working on, but I think I need to ask more questions to get them thinking about their art. I want to ask more specific questions about each student’s art and why they did certain things. I also want to ask students if they have discovered anything or learned anything new while they were creating their art pieces.
Something I would really like to work on is doing more research for motivation or anticipatory sets. I want to maybe search for fun
videos and books. I think that it is also a great way to get students on track for what they should be focusing on that day. Something I would have done differently would have been planning every single thing out. There were some things in my lesson that I didn’t think about until it was time
to teach. For example, having the students pair up was much more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I also had students go outside and pick up leaves or sticks to add to their special place if they wanted. However, I didn’t think through how they would do this. I told them if they went out they had to go with a buddy, but we ended up going out as a large group and all getting objects. I think that worked best so that students weren’t going in and out of the classroom. Another thing I wish I would have thought of was where finished artwork that was ready to critique should go. Some students had them in a pile, some were on the floor, and some were on the tables. I think that maybe collecting the artwork and then pairing them that way could have been more effective. There are some things that I kind of brush over and don’t think about until I am teaching. I am thankful that this experience is able to show me all of the little things I should be thinking about.
From this experience I learned a lot about classroom management and being prepared for class. Classroom management is something that is very hard to learn about outside of a classroom. Being in the class, I was able to learn a lot about how I address issues and how I like to manage classrooms. I know that I am not very loud, but having the bell to ring really helped to get the students attention. I think that in the future, I would have some sort of way to get students' attention. Kelsey and I didn't have very many management issues since we were lucky enough to have a great class of students.This experience really showed me how prepared I need to be. Teaching isn't one of those things were I can just go in and wing it. I need to know what kind of questions I am going to ask and what kinds of things I am going to say. As the year went on, it was easier to be prepared because I knew the students better and I knew what the classroom dynamic was.
I think that our curriculum worked well for the students because we couldn't ask too much of them since they are so young. We wanted less
structure and more freedom for the students to use their imagination. The idea of place really let us do that. We gave them the structure of materials and subject matter of place but what they did after that was completely up to them. The students did an amazing job of taking the idea and running with it.
At first, creating objectives was a little confusing because we really didn't know how they would work in a classroom. I learned that
it is very important to know what the students are going to be learning and what the objectives are because they should be aligned with the standard. I think that something that would have helped me personally, would have been to write the learning target somewhere as a reminder of what the students would be working on and working towards.
A surprise occured during the semester when the students were getting really into their projects and we actually extended
the time on the first lesson. The lesson was only supposed to be two and half days but it actually extended to four full days. It was awesome to see the students so into their work and it was a good experience for me to see how meeting students needs in the classroom worked.
I think that organization and clean up was a bit of problem for me, partially due to the fact that my car served as an
art classroom. It was fairly easy to stay organized until the second lesson started and we started having to haul boxes in and out of the car. It was hard to keep all the students' boxes organized and together. We were able to make it work, but it would have been nice to save some time not unloading boxes and taking them down over and over again. Clean up went pretty smoothly, it was just a little difficult to get students to help their friends clean up once they were done. They become more distracting than helpful so we would walk around and try to get students to help clean up.
What I would do differently
From this experience I learned that I need to be more relaxed and not always worry about what can go wrong, but instead try embracing everything
that is going well. I learned that I need to have more closure at the end of the class. I didn’t really think about it until I got to the end of a class and
didn’t really have a way to determine if the students had learned anything. I told them that I was impressed with the amount of art that they had created, but I wish that I had some questions prepared to ask them at the end. I learned that questioning is something I avoid because I am afraid that no one will have an answer. I need to get over this however and make some intriguing questions that have endless amounts of answers, that way I engage the students until the end and can provide a conclusion to the class.
In the future I want to think about more about what the students are learning opposed to what they are doing. I often go around and ask
the students what they are working on, but I think I need to ask more questions to get them thinking about their art. I want to ask more specific questions about each student’s art and why they did certain things. I also want to ask students if they have discovered anything or learned anything new while they were creating their art pieces.
Something I would really like to work on is doing more research for motivation or anticipatory sets. I want to maybe search for fun
videos and books. I think that it is also a great way to get students on track for what they should be focusing on that day. Something I would have done differently would have been planning every single thing out. There were some things in my lesson that I didn’t think about until it was time
to teach. For example, having the students pair up was much more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I also had students go outside and pick up leaves or sticks to add to their special place if they wanted. However, I didn’t think through how they would do this. I told them if they went out they had to go with a buddy, but we ended up going out as a large group and all getting objects. I think that worked best so that students weren’t going in and out of the classroom. Another thing I wish I would have thought of was where finished artwork that was ready to critique should go. Some students had them in a pile, some were on the floor, and some were on the tables. I think that maybe collecting the artwork and then pairing them that way could have been more effective. There are some things that I kind of brush over and don’t think about until I am teaching. I am thankful that this experience is able to show me all of the little things I should be thinking about.
