Reflections
Courses Taken:
Teaching for Learning I
LIBS213 – 3 credits
Gain a historical overview of education and art development theories and philosophies. Models of art and design education such as student-centered, discipline-based, standards-based, and curriculum based teaching are also discussed. Required for Teacher Credential Preparation and Community Arts Engagement minors
Teaching for Learning II
LIBS313 – 3 credits
Students will synthesize art and design education theories and philosophies emphasizing aesthetic development in youth and adults, museum and community settings, public practices, critical pedagogy, classroom management, ESOL, Special Education, health and safety, engaging teaching styles, and best practices. Required for Teacher Credential Preparation and Community Arts Engagement minors. Prerequisite: LIBS214 Teaching for Learning
Teaching Internship/Early Field Experience
ACTS336 — 2 credits
Students intern as TA’s for credentialed art teachers in diverse K-12 public schools to expandand reflect on their understanding of arts education theory in conjunction with the reality of the public school system. Required for Teacher Credential Preparation minors. Can be taken as an elective for all other students. Prerequisite: SSCI212 Teaching for Learning I or instructor’s
Internship Goals
1. Learn more about how children of different ages behave and interact.
2. Get a first hand view of what its like to have the resources and limitations of a classroom.
3. Observe how teachers address problems and facilitate learning.
4. Learn about lesson planning and demonstrating tasks.
5. Gain experience with smoothly running a classroom.
My Role and Responsibilities
1. Arrive 5 minutes ahead of time for each internship
2.Call or email if you expect to be late or are unable to come
3. Be Present and engaged in the classroom
4. No cellphone, ipad or laptop use, unless I am on a break or it is being used for internship work.
5. Assume an active learning posture. Ask what you can do to help. Have a notebook open as much as possible. Observe, draw what you see, take notes, actively work on the ACT Internship assignment for that week by keeping the prompts in mind and focusing your observations.
6. Take initiative + schedule 3 short meetings with the mentor to: define goals + expectations, ask for feedback, and followup to ask any questions you have about the profession, participants or the class environment
7. Ask permission to take photos of participants or their work or artifacts in the environment.
8. Actively communicate and work with ACT Instructor and Community Mentor to make this a successful experience.
9. Express gratitude
10. Tell my teacher if I see any concerning behavior that may be innapropriate or dangerous.
11. Ask any questions that could help the class run smoother.
12. Do not take things into my own hands without my teachers approval.
13. Stay focused and diligent on completing tasks.
14. Listen and reflect on what I am seeing and try to find any biases or things that can be improved on.
Share an example of an "encouraging, praising, or inspiring" tactic to get students to do their art lesson, or behave in class.
My mentor will often use fun chants to get students attention and will calmly continue to instruct even if a student may be misbehaving. She finds that staying calm and continuing with the class will make that student more likely to behave like the other students or that a nearby classmate will remind them of the instruction. It is nice to see how she can keep lessons progressing as students individually learn how to behave from experience in these settings. When a student has done a successful job with their work my mentor often will show the class what a successful project looks like to inspire them to make their own just as well, at the same time she is praising a student who followed instructions and created a fun project.
Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?
https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves?language=en
1) If children really can teach themselves, what is the role of the teacher?
2) Imagine using this idea in the classroom. Describe how you would set up an experience like this in an Art classroom.
What is the role of the teacher?
The role of the teacher is to provide encouragement and tools necessary to keep the students on a path where they will learn. Students are capable of learning on their own but the teacher is a leader which helps them stay on track as much as possible.
To create an alternative education like the one discussed in the video in an art classroom would require that students do not all start working at once. You can have a few students volunteer to begin the activity while the others observe. The students demonstrating will be gaining understanding through experience and the students watching will be learning through observation.
Created by an international team of architects and designers concerned about our failing education system, The Third Teacher explores the critical link between the school environment and how children learn, and offers 79 practical design ideas forfuture focused Teaching Environments.
Pick one you support and write a short reflection.
#71 Consult with kids
This idea particularly caught my attention over the others. I think it is very important that people are able to have a say about things they are involved in in order to help facilitate positive experiences for all. Children are often looked down upon and told that their opinions are less important then that of their elders or that they will feel differently when they mature more, but I think children are still valid in their opinions. If we tell children that their needs and wants are just as important then they will grow up to feel confident and having the initiative to incite changes becuase they will have previously experienced how they can achieve their goals. Students who feel their needs and wants are not met will gain a resentment towards educational institutions based off of their experience. Access to education that values students experience is key in creating solutions that reach far beyond the classroom and reaches into their social lives, careers, and accomplishments.
All students and community members in arts organizations deserve equal access to a high quality arts instruction and education regardless of race, culture, language, religion, national origin, place of residence and socioeconomic, legal status or gender. I have used the lens or lenses of ( Specify: race, culture, language, religion, national origin, place of residence and socioeconomic, legal status or gender) to observe my classroom or community site.
1. Observe the field, participants, teaching practices, curriculum, lesson plans and resulting art or design work in your internship through one or more of these lenses. Is their equal access? Implicet Bias? Preference? Celebration?
Lens(es): Gender
Observation: Students of different genders all are able to work together and are required to do the same tasks. Oftentimes they choose same gendered peers to work with on partnered projects and social interactions, but some are more open to being around those of the opposite gender. No explicit bias, and there is about a half anf half ratio of female to male.
2. How about when you were the student or community member's age? How did you experience Arts's Equity or Social Responsibility in either the classroom or community arts organizations in which you participated
Lens(es): Socioeconomic Status
Reflection: I have seen students of lower socioeconomic status not be able to keep up socially or mentally with those students who come from wealtheir families. The more money a student comes from the more willing their guardians will be to pay for tutors, better supplies and technology that can make students learning drastically improve. Students who are only able to get the most required things will have a harder time being able to keep up with those who have more resources.
My Teaching Philosophy:
1. The purpose of teaching is to work with different peoples abilities to interact and understand each other and to gain skills to operate society as functionally as possible
2. The purpose of learning is to bring your understanding of the world to as vast places as possible and to be able to maximize your skills and knowledge
3. The role of the teacher is to keep the spark of excitement alive in whatever topic they are teaching and to pass that on to the learners
4. The role of the student is to become their best version of themselves through developing a wide range of knowledge
5. The methods used to foster teaching need to constantly be tweaked in our every changing society
6. The history of learning has changed based on need and technology available and will continue to do so
7. The assesment of teaching is very difficult to do because there are many factors which can help or hurt the dynamic of the classroom both due to the teacher and external factors
8. The assessment of learning is not only reflected in participation and ability to complete tasks
9. Schools are places to shape the youth and that is a powerful thing the faculty needs to take as a priority to do so ethically
10. The future of the classroom may call for a revision of my previous ideas and re-evaluation is always a good way to keep yourself and those around you on the right track
