Think back to influential classes you have taken. How were expectations set to promote student success? Introduce your student teaching setting. How do you view the expectations and classroom community established in your current placement?

In the most influential classes I have taken, expectations were always posted where everyone could see them. Expectations for assignments, entering the room, cleaning up, and school conduct were posted in these classes. They were usually big, bold, and colorful so that they would catch your eye.

For more advanced classes, syllabi were given in hand and online, then discussed to make sure that there was no confusion. Even then, some expectations were posted as reminders!

My current placement has me working in two separate rooms at an elementary school and in a shared high school art classroom. Both rooms are nice and big, with plenty of space to post or project expectations. However, expectations are not posted in any way in either art room.

I think that this has caused some confusion and a little extra work for my instructor during some classes at the elementary school. There are times when students could refer to the expectations associated with the assignment on their own so that they wouldn't have to ask so many questions. It chews up so much time answering the same questions over and over again! There seems to be some management problems in the classroom at the elementary school, particularly with running in the classroom. I believe that clearly posting rules about running would help with this issue. It would be easy to go over the expectations a few times periodically, plus keeping them posted would serve as a permanent reminder that running around the classroom at full speed is unacceptable.

The high school class is really small, only 8 students, and there really hasn't been any issues with behavior. Expectations on what is expected to be done during the course of the class would be beneficial though. The students aren't very productive and they need set goals for each 90 minute block to keep them on task. I don't believe that things should be rushed, but they don't have any posted due dates and they take full advantage of the fact and constantly work on everything but art!

Student Teaching: The First Reflection

The most daunting thing about finishing student teaching is the stress associated with finding a job where I want to live. I really am looking forward to getting a job as a teacher and moving forward with my life, but I am not confident that I will be able to find what I want in the area that my family and I want to live in. However, if I had to sub for a while, I think I could live with that.

When I was in school, throughout high school and college, I had several different art teachers. I can't remember the last semester that I didn't have an art class of some sort. Some of those teachers have been very good, while others were less effective or just plain lazy. The teachers that were good made me excited to be in school and learn. They were inspirational, enthusiastic, and unfortunately, they were outnumbered. They were outnumbered by teachers that gave us due dates and cookie cutter projects. I want to teach so I can help out with the imbalance that I experienced as a student and to create passion for the arts in my students.

Luckily, the student teaching experience hasn't caused a great wardrobe change. I owned most of the clothes that I will need in order to dress to impress and look professional. The big change that really occurred, was a shift in what I wore on a daily basis. Before student teaching I was spending most of my days sculpting in a ceramics studio. It was a dusty, messy business, working with power tools and glorified mud. I went from looking similar to a construction worker some days to looking professional and it's been a very nice change of pace!