Community & Practice Makes Better

Community

A classroom, a hallway, a building these are all community spaces. These common areas contain a diverse population: students, teachers, administrators, and custodians all contribute to the atmosphere. As I walked through the hallways to Mrs. Migliore’s classroom, each teacher that I passed said good morning.  Smiling ear to ear as I entered the art room; I felt overwhelmed with this welcome, especially because I had not even met any of these teachers.

I want my future classroom to be a learning community. I hope to bridge the gap between art history and contemporary art by creating connections that my students can relate to. I want the content to be tailored to fit my students’ interests and to be valuable in our modern society. I’m look forward to encouraging my students to be a part of their learning experience by contributing to class. Students should be responsible for their education by being active learners. My classroom will be a place for students to express themselves and their thoughts. In order to create this kind of atmosphere my classroom should feel like a safe haven. My future classroom will be an oasis, where students can leave any problems and drama outside and enter feeling stress-free. My high school experience was made better by my art teachers who encouraged me to express myself through my artwork and made their classrooms into a home away from home. The art room is such a crucial place for expression, and true expression is hard to communicate unless you are in a comfortable environment.

Practice Makes Better

I’m so glad that my placement this semester has been a simple transition. My previous nervous jitters about teaching have all been put aside now that I feel more confident than ever in my abilities to instruct high school students. Each Thursday I have been instructing the class or what I like to call practicing. Each week I learn new ways to improve my lessons and methods of teaching to better fit the needs of twenty-first century learners.

This thrilling Thursday the students were finished experimenting with different lighting for their portraits and were making these portraits into photo strips. The assignment was to open the file in Photoshop and change the image shape and size. The improvements my teaching from the first class to the third class were amazing, and I appreciate the opportunities for reflection that Mrs. Migliore has enabled me through opening up the doors to her classroom. I was able to reflect after the first class and I realized that many of the students did not know or understand how to use a ruler to matte the portrait. In the later classes I used a diagram on the board, and had a similar diagram on the matte cutting table. After this adaptation, the student’s photo strips were all the right size and matte style. I was excited to see the students work flourishing and knew that when students are offered clear instructions or expectations they benefit and their work reflects this accomplishment.