Week #14: Parting Advice for a Pre-service Teacher

As our time in this course comes to a close we have been asked to reflect on everything we have learned in ARTE 560 Secondary Methods for K-12 Certification.  Specifically, we are taking a look back at the advice we gave ourselves and each other from the first blog of the semester and adding to our lists.

The tips I gave myself at the beginning of the course included:

1.  Make personal connections with your students.

2.  Prepare for students with specific needs.

3.  Keep yourself happy and healthy.

Some of the things I have learned from my time during our class and my observations include:

1.  Give students individual attention and instruction.

-In my observations this was a key component of the teacher’s method.  Through individual instruction he insured that every student understood the terms, techniques, and concepts associated ceramics – a medium unfamiliar to most of the students.

2.  Allow students the freedom to work on their own and make decisions about their artwork.

-My cooperating teacher had a flourishing classroom in part due to his quiet, hands-off attitude.  Students knew what they needed to work on, and worked without being hounded or hovered over.

-Cindy Foley gave a wonderful TED Talk about making students better thinkers and better artists.  She claimed that art education could improve greatly by giving students more freedom and forcing them to be comfortable with ambiguity and generating ideas.

3.  Use technology effectively and to your benefit.

-Technology has become an integral part of students’ lives, as well as the school and art classroom.  We as teachers have to adapt to this change and make use of the new tools at our students’ disposal.

-This course introduced me to the usefulness blogs and Google Docs, both things I had absolutely no experience with before.  It also made apparent how important it is to have documents and assignments somewhere online that students can access and view them.

-The school I was observing at was completely technologically integrated with a 1 to 1 device ratio, and introduced me to the Schoology app.  The students were able to see all their documents, turn in assignments, receive grades, and view comments from their iPads.  The widespread use of technology really made the students more successful, and helped streamline classroom management.

4.  Find a system for completing all of the administrative work you need to do.

-My cooperating teacher always stressed the importance of finding a reliable system for grading – one that does not require too much time, one that is not too intensive, one that is based on clear rubrics and feedback, and one that is based in formative assessments.