Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The First Week....

I can't believe that the summer is gone and I'm back in high school (especially after graduating from college!)! But, thankfully it is to teach art, my favorite subject. And it has been a good expirence so far. The teachers' in-service meetings went smoothly last week. I tried not to look too lost when I got to the meeting, didn't want to give myself away too quickly! I helped my cooperating teacher set up the classroom for the remainder of the week.

Soon Monday rolled around and it was time to actually meet students. Freshman orientation took up our time on Monday. I met most of my 5th period, Art I class, which is mostly full, with freshman, and a few sophomores.

Tuesday... I think I met the whole school! This is going to be a fun age group. Skill level ranges are all over the place there are some very talented students and others who just want to have an easy class. We went over classroom rules and the assignment syllabus.

Wednesday: I really liked being a teacher-in-training today. During Advanced Art I was able to help students with portraits. One student was pretty irritated and flustered and kept telling her friends that she was a terrible artist and that she couldn't draw even if she wanted to, so I got out some drawing paper, sat down next to her and walked her through the portrait process. When we were done her drawing was the best out of her group of friends. I think she was just scared of the white paper and being laughed at by her equally scared, and self conscience friends.

I am looking forward to the rest of the week and getting back into a routine!

4 comments:

  1. You made a great point about the debilitating effect that self-consciousness can have on students. I've seen this happen in classes for all subject areas. I would imagine that anything a teacher can do to instill confidence and/or lower the social risks associated with volunteering a wrong answer should help to engage more students in the lesson.

    I'm going to present my first full lesson on Monday to an algebra class. When I conduct the participatory activity I have planned, it will be interesting to see how high or low the general confidence level turns out to be.

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  2. You're going to do great Amelia!

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  3. I KNEW you would be a GREAT teacher..very kind and caring..and able to teach!..Wow...I am so impressed...!

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  4. Great Job Milly! I am so very proud of you!!!

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