Practicum Observance from March 12th, 2015

Today was my partner and I’s first day of Practicum observance.  While I was a little nervous today, I feel that it was very beneficial for us to have met with our cooperating teacher prior to observing the classroom.  Our practicum observance is located in a rural community with several farms surrounding the outskirts of town and many of the students live on these farms.  Our cooperating teacher allows the students to listen to music while they are working, and the entire time we were there, the students listened to country music.  Over the course of our Practicum observance, we will be observing 3 classes from 8am-12 noon; Stain Glass I/II, Painting and Drawing I/II, and Pottery I/II.   

Many times our cooperating teacher will teach more than one class at a time.  In my opinion, I do not think I could do that because I feel that I would be an ineffective teacher and it would only hurt my students in the long run.  I wonder how this style of teaching affects these specific students?  Observing the students walking into class, many of them seem to walk in with an impassive attitude, as if they are only in this class because they needed to fill in an open spot on their schedule.  Other students enter class with a positive attitude and look happy to be here.  As the bell rang, the students gathered their supplies and current projects and our cooperating teacher gathered the students' attention by projecting her voice for all the students to hear.  There doesn't appear to be a specific procedure for gaining the students' attention.  Our cooperating teacher has the curriculum for each class posted in several areas throughout the classroom, which includes each project that will be completed with due dates posted.    

First period is Stain Glass I/II.  Students who have never taken the class are first introduced to stain glass by creating a small light catcher that is based off a pattern with which they trace the shapes onto the desired colored glass and then they cut it out with glasscutters.  The edges on each shape are then wrapped in copper tape and are rubbed on flat to avoid bubbles under the tape.  After every piece is wrapped in copper, they are soldered together and then the students have their end result.  Neither my partner nor I have ever taken a stain glass class, so we felt pretty useless during this class period.  We asked the students questions on what they were doing and the reasons why they were doing each step, and they were more than willing to answer our questions.  We knew that our cooperating teacher was an alumnus of the school we are currently attending, where there is no stain glass classes provided, so we asked her where she learned how to teach stain glass.  She told us that she learned from the former art teacher before she retired as well as a few students that she had in her Stain Glass II class during the first year of her teaching career.  I hope to be able to take this new-found knowledge into consideration when I begin teaching, in the possible case of having to teach a medium that I am not familiar with. 

Second period is Painting and Drawing I/II.  Currently the students are working on self-portraits on canvas board, in which they have to paint their portrait in the style of an artist of their choice.  The students were given a list of artists and were assigned to make a report on the artist they chose.  As I was walking around observing what the students were painting and trying to figure out what artists they chose, I noticed that a significant portion of the class chose to paint in the style of Pablo Picasso.  One adjustment I would have made to how the students chose the artists was to only allow a certain amount of students to choose each artist.  To do this, I would have created a sign-up sheet with all the artists’ names with 2-3 name slots for students to sign up for, so in this case it would be a first-come, first-serve method.  I believe this would be a successful way to have the class explore and discover a wide variety of artists as well as challenging the students in learning new painting techniques without taking the easy way out. 

Third period is Pottery I/II.  There are 26 students in this class and three of them have IEPs.  These students are helped out in the classroom by a paraprofessional, but she tends to focus on one specific student who is blind.  The other two students are for the most part self-sufficient, but once in a while need a little extra help.  There are 18 girls in the class and 8 boys, so it is clearly a female-dominated class.  Currently the students are working on pinch pots and over the course of the trimester will complete projects in coil, slip casting, slab, and on the potter’s wheel.  I believe that the way our cooperating teacher has the curriculum planned out is very logical and sequential in regards to learning the many techniques that can be used in pottery.  

When we met with our cooperating teacher a week before, we asked her several questions regarding teaching art.  Our first question was why she decided to teach art.  For years, our cooperating teacher worked for Menards working in their advertisement department, creating the weekly ads for the hardware store.  Eventually she was pushed out by younger competition and decided at that point to pursue her real dream of teaching art.  She told us that she has always loved art and wanted to help others pursue their love for art.  While she was an older student in college, she was able to complete her degree in three years and was able to teach at the high school where she graduated years before.  She also stated that by teaching art, she feels that she can give back to the community she grew up in.