Day 1: Practicum Experience

Upon entering Mrs. T's classroom, I immediately saw a list of rules hanging up on her wall. These rules were implemented throughout the school and were the same in every classroom. This, Mrs. T said, was so that the students knew what to expect in every class. They were created as a collaboration among all of the staff and the principal. Sure enough, when I visited the high school teacher across the school, she had the exact same list posted in her class.
I was able to observe a kindergarten and a fourth grade class. To get the students' attention (she said she does this for all grade levels) Mrs. T will turn the lights off and on again quickly. They know that they are to stop talking, stop working and listen. Mrs. T also wears a microphone around her neck that is connected to an auditory system in the room so that the students can hear her better with the speakers.
When I asked Mrs. T why she wanted to be a teacher, she said that originally when she was in college, Stout as a matter of fact, she was an apparel design major. She had grown up on a farm and had been making her own clothes for some time, and would buy pattern samples and alter them. She then switched her major to interior design and soon after realized that wasn't what she wanted to do as a career. Mrs. T said that teaching art seemed like the best choice. She had always liked drawing and painting when she was growing up and knew that's what she wanted to do. When she was in college, art education students were required to take two levels of all of the studio classes, and there was less of an emphasis on education classes. She's been teaching elementary art for 22 years and knew right away when she started teaching thats what she wanted to do.

Guest speaker Jamie Nabozny

Only a few days before Jamie Nabozny came to speak at Stout, my friend had sent me a recent article published in Rolling Stone Magazine titled "One Town's War on Gay Teens." Until I read the article illustrating a few students in Anoka, Minnesota's stories dealing with their experiences in school, I was fairly unaware of how severe of an issue harassment of GLBT students in schools is.

I've always felt overwhelmed with the responsibility that comes with being a teacher. Your responsibility goes beyond teaching your subject matter. You're expected to teach kids how to have good morals, be polite, know right from wrong, be positive attributes to society and be active in their communities. In the words of John Sculley, "We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children."  It's a ton to think about and be accountable for. Even so, I entirely believe that as a teacher, you should have that passion and be willing to help kids with these other issues. To think that your job is merely to teach a student how to paint a still life, solve an equation or write in pros and you don't need to think about them after they leave at the end of the day, to me, is not fulfilling your role as a teacher. You have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for your students to learn. In addition, I believe that even outside of your classroom, you have a responsibility to keep students safe.

I was appreciative of this presentation because Nabozny gave the audience specific things that we as teachers need to be aware of in our schools. What stuck with me the most was that it isn't enough just to tell students who use words such as "fag" "retard" "dyke" or "bitch" (among others) that that language isn't acceptable in your classroom. Nabozny said a way of addressing that sort of vocabulary in the classroom can be done as easily as saying "I have a cousin who has down syndrome and I take offense to the use of the word 'retard.'" This way, students get an "oh shit" feeling, and if even briefly, they put themselves in your shoes and think about how it may have hurt your feelings or someone's feelings who has down syndrome. Teaching students to be empathetic is huge and I entirely agreed Nabozny in stressing it's importance in schools.

Guest Speaker Mrs. L

I was happy to hear Mrs. L advise us in her presentation not to have preconceived notions of where we wanted to teach or to have narrow visions. Originally, I was certain that I would never want to teach middle school and that I wouldn't like it. I was convinced that I would work well in any other setting, but absolutely not middle school. Last semester I spent my practicum experience at a middle school and I absolutely loved it and would be thrilled to teach at that level. I do believe it is important to be open minded, which Mrs. L first mentioned in her presentation.

Another point that I hadn't taken into consideration very much, partly because I haven't had my practicum experience at the elementary level yet, was the importance of management and control. As Mrs. L had told our class, we aren't just going to be teachers of art, but teachers of children. At the elementary level, you find yourself teaching many skills, not just art related ones. Mrs. L said you have to be a teacher of social skills, organization skills, problem solving skills, reading and writing skills, math and science skills. Some students will walk into your class and you may need to tell them which end to hold a paint brush or how to use a scissors. I think this is very important and plan to keep it in mind during my practicum experience. She emphasized that you need to meet the students social needs before you can meet the academic needs.

Guest Speaker Mrs. O

 I was pleased to hear that after fifteen years of teaching at one school, Mrs. O has never gotten comfortable with her curriculum. She takes risks with her lessons and it seems to keep students interested. And as she said, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but its important that she does them. I hope to never get comfortable or complacent with the way that I'm teaching because there can always be a way to make things more interesting for the students. It doesn't seem like she is ever bored with her job.

Part of why her curriculum seems so inviting is because she often lets the students decide what they want to work on. When asked if the students put forth more effort on a project if they came up with it, she said they absolutely do. This allows students to take ownership of their own learning and art making which I think is an important thing to bring to my own teaching.

The main thing that I took away from Mrs. O's presentation was that you need to ask yourself, "what do they (the students) need right NOW?" She emphasized that you can plan and prepare all you want for a lesson, but you need to be ready to change and adapt at the last minute. I think this will be extremely important to keep in mind for when I begin my student teaching. Having a back up plan, even if it's a vague outline, is beneficial.

Do you teach a discipline-based art curriculum or a choice-based one?

I plan on teaching both. Depending on the school system I'm working in, DBAE may be a larger factor in it's curriculum. The factors that make up DBAE are huge trend right now in education, and some schools will emphasize them more because they are said to validate why the arts should be taught in schools. 

While in a choice based curriculum, it is more about the process than the product, I think it is possible to let students make decisions and take ownership in their learning in a discipline based curriculum.

Both have their benefits in my opinion. I believe that students learn from teachers instruction, but they also learn from making their own decisions. Through their own trial and error, I believe, is where the real learning occurs.

Being an art teacher...which is more important? Art or Teaching? Do you need to be an artist to be an art teacher?

While both are important, I believe teaching is more essential. Being a good artist doesn't guarantee that you will also be a good teacher. Similarly, if you are a skilled athlete, you won't necessarily be a good coach. Knowing how to paint or sculpt doesn't mean you are able to teach it successfully to students. It's essential to know how to teach the material. You need to have knowledge of how children learn and grow in order to teach them. 



Its important to know your material. I believe if most parents had the option to have their child taught by from someone who was merely interested in the subject, or by a practicing expert, most would choose the practicing artist. It isn't one hundred percent necessary but to me it seems most advantageous. You wouldn't send your child who needed brain surgery to someone who was merely interested in medicine as opposed to a brain surgeon.