Teaching: DAY 3

I cannot believe how unbelievably fast my teaching experience went. Today was both my last day of teaching the lesson and of observing at the high school. It was such a fantastic, enlightening experience. Ms. G was ever-so helpful in giving us feedback for our last day. She said that we did a great job of running the critique. We were worried that we would not have time to get through all of the students, but yesterday she suggested to us a critiquing method that she calls "1, 2, 4." With this method, the students begin by each reflecting on their own pieces. They consider what they did well and what could be improved, as well as the different ways they successfully incorporated the elements and principles of design, as well as the vocabulary from the lesson (tint, shade, value, and atmospheric perspective.) Then, they partner up with another student and the two discuss these concepts about each others' pieces. Finally, two groups of two come together to create a group of four, and the four students decide amongst themselves who was the most successful in incorporating the ideas from the lesson. The groups then present one at a time at the front, so the rest of the class can see their work from a distance, and they discuss the successes of one or all of the drawings. The class is able to make comments at this time as well. This technique, Ms. G explained, is a good way to move rather quickly through the critique so the students were able to have some work time to finish up and frame their drawings. Also, holding the drawings up for the class to see from a ways away allows them to view the drawing as a complete picture, rather than just focusing on some of the tiny details. The critique did work out rather well. Some of the students needed prodding as we walked around to truly discuss the quality of their artwork. A few spent the time just sitting around unless we asked them specific questions. But as the groups presented up front, they did a good job of pointing out the specific techniques that the artists addressed, such as creating convincing atmospheric perspective by muting the colors in the background, or blending several different colors to create shadows rather than using black. These were concepts that they did not understand at all at the beginning of the project, so it showed a great amount of growth, meaning our lesson was successful. Ms. G commented on how impressed she was with the outcomes for most of the class. I am so happy that we accomplished teaching a lesson that the students both enjoyed and learned from. That is the reason I decided I wanted to become an art teacher-- I wanted to show students that even though art can be challenging and frustrating, they are all capable of growing and learning if they devote themselves to their work. I could see in the faces of the students that many of them were thrilled with their outcomes and impressed with themselves. When they realize what they are capable of, they begin to believe in themselves, and soon they feel as if they are unstoppable.