Everything was going smoothly…until…

There were two parts to their task during my art lesson that day.

My first step of instructions was very clearly laid out. It was short in length with modeling and students reciting/reviewing. It went smoothly, all students were very engaged and focused during the first task. They were very engaged in their first task of creating them stem and leaves. Their attention of focusing on step 1 was longer than I expected! My focus of the lesson was to have clear, short instructions and refrain from repeating myself which goes hand in hand with having concise modeling of steps. Everything was going well as I saw they are really well focused on their step 1 task. All of the students were on task and knew what to do.

The flow of my lesson and sticking to clear instructions was going well until I brought them altogether at the carpet to explain the following step. That was when everything went to spiral out of control in terms of my clear & concise instruction focus.  I took a glance at the clock and somehow I started to panic! I thought I was running behind and was worried that they might not be able to finish their step 2 task before lunch time. Somehow my panic and stress took over the fact of reality that students didn’t necessary need to finish and that I didn’t really need to stick to the timing of my intended lesson if my students were still so engaged minus the few that were ready for the next step. My mind at that split moment as I glanced at the clock was: I needed my kids to have enough time to produce my intended art result. So, in order to “meet” my intended “students’ art product,” I skipped my original instruction routine: explain, model, and review with my students. I blended the explain and model together for a quick 101 break down of what they needed to do. Then, I “quickly” sent them back to their tables to continue the rest of the task. I realized I forgot to do the review part as they headed back to their tables. “Oh no!” I thought! I didn’t want to interrupt them again as I knew most were focused again on their work. I was trying to find a good timing to readdress the step 2 instructions again….

I am not happy with how I rushed through my instructions and left some students’ who needed explicit visual/hands on review of directions in confusion. I addressed the confusion during the last bit of the lesson as a class and apologized to the class that I understood some of the instruction were explained too quickly and it was tricky to remember all the steps. I am still impressed at their result despite my rushing of instruction. I wished for future lessons, I will keep in mind of ensuring the learning process is calm, flexible and enjoyable! Go with the flow of the class. And, not stress out about the time. And, that it’s okay if we don’t get to finish our intended work, they can always continue during another time perhaps during centre time.

I will attach a photo of their work after I have put it on the wall.