Diverse Learners and Making Accommodations

In a high school setting, there is a lot of diversity in the art room. All of the students have very different styles of learning as well as differing artistic styles. Establishing a sense of community with the students will help me get to know them, how they work and how they learn. When I’m a planning lesson, I try to think about where students might have difficulty and what might need to be adapted for students. Usually it’s that I’m making room for more time for a process, but it’s also good to consider what specific problems students might have. Some students in my cooperating classroom have IEPs, most of which suggest they get more time or hands on instruction. I had never seen an actual IEP before I started student teaching, and I was surprised at how little information was included. In my future classroom, I’d definitely take the time to talk to the other teachers about how those students with IEPs are doing in other courses and what other accommodations might help those students.

So far, most students have been pretty on track and few accommodations have had to been made. One student in a graphics design class has difficultly cutting paper and keeping her work neat, which results in good work that comes across as messy. My cooperating teacher told me that she expects the student to usually turn in messy work, but is always giving her positive feedback on how to improve the quality of her designs. These expectations for her improvement are fairly gradual, but there are other students who are messy out of laziness. Those students are hit with a higher expectation because there is a lot more certainty in their abilities. Again, this should stress the importance of getting to know the students and their individual needs. Most of the time in the art room is spent working, so there is a lot of time to go around the room and work with each student on specific individual goals for the project they are working on.

Influential Classes and Expectations for Students

My most influential courses I have taken were art courses at the University. These courses were really beneficial to my learning because my teachers had respect for both me and my prior subject knowledge, and they helped me focus my attention to skills and techniques that would benefit the quality of my work. I always felt like my teachers had clear expectations of how my work should improve, and made it obvious to me what elements weren’t working. It’s a delicate balance between giving praise and respect, and giving critical, honest input. Receiving respect for my work while simultaneously given critique on how to improve my art gave me a lot of motivation to make more successful work.

My cooperating teacher already has established a great sense of community with her students and the school. She makes it very clear what is expected of the students at the beginning of lessons, but continues to follow up with these expectations with each student individually. The ability level of the students is very diverse in some classes, so it’s very beneficial to those students who need a little more guidance to talk with the teacher individually to keep focused on expectations. My cooperating teacher has a very similar style of follow up as I do, and it’s been really helpful to see how she talks with each student. It’s given me a much better idea of how to vary discussion with students with different ability levels.

When I start teaching lessons that I’ve written, I think it will be easier for me to be very clear what my expectations are because it’s my own lesson. It’s been had to tell students what is expected of them because I’m not grading their assignments. I definitely plan of drafting a rubric for grading/evaluating each project so students can have expectations clearly listed for them.

Initial Thoughts

Every teacher gets constantly asked, “Why did you want to become a teacher?” In fact, I’ve been asked that many times by students during the first few days of class. There was a long time when I wasn’t sure why I wanted to be a teacher. Initially, I chose this career path because of job security. As long as Arts programs aren’t completely cut from state curriculum, there will be some demand for art teachers.

However when I got to college and started taking art history courses, I quickly realized that I hadn’t learned A LOT of information that was critical in my ability to understand and produce artwork. The two art teachers I worked with in high school were motivating and inspiring, and I developed a lot of respect for those teachers. But in a way, I felt that I was sort of wronged by my high school art experience. It wasn’t necessarily art history that I felt were missing from my high school art curriculum, but rather ways of thinking about art and analyzing work that were necessary for me to reflect and elevate my education to the next level. As a teacher, it’s really important that my students can come to me with questions or concepts, knowing that I will be able to provide them with information and skills critical in understanding and learning new concepts.

I wasn’t concerned much with my wardrobe because I own a lot of button up shirts and sweaters, but I quickly realized how few pairs of pants I own. I’d say the biggest change to my clothing this semester wearing pants everyday instead of jeans. I’d like to have some nicer jacket options because of the fluctuating temperature of my co-operating teachers room, but as messy as I have been getting, I don’t think that my jackets seem that out of place or character.