I am so thankful for the opportunity Ive been given to teacher assist at Walker Charter Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the short time I have spent there I have already learned so much by just being in the physical context of a classroom setting, although I've only begun to skim the surface. My cooperating teacher at Walker Academy is Mrs. Turnbull who has been so helpful and open to allowing me to learn many aspects of being a teacher.
Throughout my ten or so weeks at Walker, I have participated in many activities such as:
-Introducing myself to and meeting the entire staff of a new school
-Choosing materials to use for specific projects
-Documenting and uploading student artwork onto a website called artsonia, which is considered on of the worlds biggest children's online art gallery where teachers from around the world can upload their student's artwork
-Assisting in coordinating the schools own personal Art Prize in which any student from grades young 5's through 8th grade, or even family members and friends could submit work made with any medium
-Assisted in the display and labeling of artwork
- Entered my own work
-Created and organized voting slips for each individual classroom
-Tallied up votes for the top ten winners
-Displayed and labeled top ten works
-Created certificates for top ten and best of grade artwork
-Duties such as filling paint containers, supplying the class pet geckos with water, making copies,traffic duty, ect.
-Assisting students with ongoing projects as a group and as individuals
-Preparing and teaching my own lessons
I have taught several lessons in the classroom so far. I have used powerpoint presentations to present artists, their work, art terms, and inspirational quotes. I have given examples through other artist works, my own demonstration in class, and with students work which shows they have understood a learning concept and demonstrated it well I have assesed student learning with activities such as concept mapping, free-writing, and self reflection worksheets. I have also implemented music in my classroom and have found it to be a very good tool to utilize which assists the students to retain a more focused state when working.
A challenge I have encountered in my teaching was assisting the students who were struggling with the assignment and getting ideas from their head to the paper. In a lesson I'm doing on storytelling, I realized after my introduction to the lesson, I should have been more specific in what key components make up a story and also should have further emphasized what fantasy actually is compared to reality. The discussion of these specifics could have further developed student understanding and brainstorming, and application.
Another thing that was brought to my intention which I value strongly and want to incorporate into my classroom is my personal relationship with the students. I want to build a classroom where learning is easy. I believe learning comes from a certain kind of vulnerability, and students can only feel vulnerable when their comfortably. I think that making myself relateable and personable, will really assist in this process. Another way to help this process is to work on remembering students names. Although I see a lot of different students every day, this is a good practice to do.
