Archives: March 2014

Being the “Mean” Teacher

On the last day before spring break, I was getting frustrated at the lack of participation that one of my ELL students was showing.  Several times I had approached this student to put down the phone and actually work on the project.  This student always sat in the back and assumed that I would not notice.  Because of this, I paid particular attention to those who sat at the back.  Near the end of class, I decided to be stern and let this student know that I would not put up with this behaviour.  I said to this student that I am keeping her for detention after school.

I could see that the other students who overheard were shocked.   The student was shocked too.  Chances are, she had probably never been given detention because she is a “quiet” student.  I was not going to give in to this.  I try to treat all students equally and she is no exception.  She said that she didn’t have time to come after school.  When I told her that if she didn’t show up, she would have to face the consequences.

I was there after school for detention and for supervising students who wanted to finish their ceramic project.  I waited and waited.  5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes…my student did not show up for detention.  I was disappointed but now I know what was the next course of action.  I will need to talk to her counselor and reinforce the fact that teachers are to be respected and that our demands and expectations are not trivial.

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What is Important?

Today I had to take my first sick day.  I didn’t plan on ever being sick during my practicum.  Fueled by my desire to be a “perfect” teacher, my ambitions had pushed me over the edge.  I believe that the stress of practicum is real.  It is very real; however, sleeping for 17 hours today to nurse my illness made me realize how unimportant everything else in life is compared to one’s own health and sanity.

I am not saying this to be selfish but it is true.  We must always look out for #1 first then take care of other things after.  This makes sense right?  This program has been an extremely challenging experience for me and without the support of loved ones and classmates, I would not be here writing this post.

My relationships, my job, and my welfare are all important to me.  The stress that these aspects of my life put on me are enormous (and I’m sure on everyone else).  I do stress out easily but I manage to keep a calm and cool exterior.  I’ve heard this phrase “fake it til you make it” uttered so often by people around me (teachers and non teachers), it makes me wonder if teaching is more about improvisation than anything.  Perhaps it is better to have a rough plan of the day’s itinerary than to hammer out the minute by minute details.  If things go awry, as they often do, then I’m left with a seemingly ruined timeline and a frazzled brain.  I cannot do this day in and day out!  If there is anything that spring break has taught me, it is that I need need need time to relax, breathe, sleep, and exercise.  My goodness did I need it!  I got sick right at the start of spring break and now that it’s over, I am sick again.  Does my body have a practicum clock that goes off when it knows it has to go into “stressed out teacher” mode?

I plan on teaching tomorrow because it is an important day and because I dislike convalescing for hours upon hours on end in my boring room.  I looked at my day plans- they are so detailed.  This is good.  I look at it with a sense of ease now.  I panicked before but today I am not panicked.  Why?  Because it finally dawned on me that I can be “imperfect”.  I am here to learn and to make mistakes.  I can always rectify mistakes later.  The main thing is recognizing and acknowledging these mistakes and evolving as an educator from them.  Interact naturally with the kids and don’t be a totalitarian.  Take their temperature….

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Much Needed Break

After several days of rest, I feel that I am ready again to target the lesson planning that I needed to.   I am getting enough sleep now that I can refocus and think clearly about how to approach the upcoming weeks.  There are still several things I need to do.  Firstly, I need to plan out a unit for studio art and for special needs art.  I also need to flush out the upcoming weeks and when to introduce the artist statement and the self assessment.  I also need to figure out how I will facilitate the presentation portion of the completed projects.  I can’t express how much I needed this time off to re-energize.

This makes me wonder how exhausting it is to be a full time teacher.  Does it really get easier?  Doesn’t the work just get more stressful?  Apparently the practicum  is the toughest teaching experience one will ever go through.  I sure hope so!

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Take the Temperature…

Today was my first full day of teaching and it also happened to be my midpoint meeting.  The first two blocks were observed by my FA and I knew I had to be spot on.  I tried my best to remind the students of what they needed to do and got impatient with them as they continued to stare at their phones.  The first class went alright.  They were a new bunch and I had come in like a foreigner without any pre-warning from the teacher.  I feel that if the teacher told the class that they are expecting a student teacher, they wouldn’t be as uncomfortable.  Maybe?  They just aren’t familiar with me and that is fine because I am not familiar with them either.  In any case, I am slowly learning their names and it helps tremendously.

The second block I was teaching photo.  Half of the class was spent on examining the student’s homework while the other half was left for work.  The discussion was good because the students were all engaged and interested in each other’s photos.  I think it helped that they could play a guessing game as to whose photo was whose.  They had good laughs and I asked some tough questions.  Good answers were thrown out and I was pleased with their efforts.  At the end of the class however, the students finished their photo interpretation worksheet rather early and they were left with about 15 minutes to spare.  I told them that whoever finished must start to think about what they want to do for their final project.  Most of them decided to do their own thing and it was difficult to control them.  At the end of the class however, I managed to wring them all in and told them that I did not want to see the same themes repeated in their school photos.  I am bored of the “relaxation” theme!

Lunch time brought on my midpoint meeting with my SA and FA.  It turned out well overall but there are still areas where I could improve.  These are:

1. Taking the temperature of the classroom; don’t force feed them information when they are clearly not engaged!  Try another tactic to boost their energy.

2. Feeling more relaxed with the students.  Talk with a more relaxed tone and focus on the students rather than plowing through the lesson plan.

3. Use more intonation in my voice.  Apparently I can be quite monotone. 

4. Assessment should be more about consistency rather than fairness.  Identify the objectives and mark towards that for each person.  Fairness in marking the ELLs and mainstream students is next to impossible. 

5. Focus on reflection questions and always check for understanding.  Slow down in my speech. 

6. Praise the students more.

7. Be more aware of how the classroom environment affects the energy of the students and my ability to communicate with them.

8. Talk to the students  more about their day; find different ways to connect with them one on one.

Endless list it seems but these are true.  These are areas that I need to work on and will try to accomplish by the end of the practicum.  I really need the spring break to figure things out and to relax.  Most of all, I need to rest rest rest.  These are good suggestions and I am very cognizant of the fact that I missed something or made mistakes in the things I said.  I need to be kinder to myself and understand that there is much to learn and mistakes are to be had.  I have grown though.  The biggest thing from both my SA and FA was that I have a lot more confidence in myself as a teacher and as a role model.  My tone of voice is stronger and I am less afraid to set stern consequences.  My FA even said that she was surprised at how I progressed so quickly from a shy and meek teacher to one that was commanding the attention of the classroom.  I believe that this comes with time but I truly worked hard at being a confident teacher.

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Keep it Short

The first time I did painting with a class, I didn’t realize how short of an attention span the students had.  I did my first demo on brush strokes from the Impressionists style in the centre of the room.  I asked all of the students to gather around the demo area to watch me paint.  The problem was that many of the students decided to stand behind students and eventually slouched back.  I had asked several times for them to come close but they just refused/ looked bored.  I had to focus on the demo and accept that not all of the students will be interested no matter how much I tried to engage them.

Acknowledging that not all of the students were going to stand close to the demo, I decided to paint my worksheet and hold it up each time I worked on a new portion of the worksheet.  After I spent some 15-20 minutes doing the demo, I felt like I needed to end it.  I let the students work for the remainder of the day but unfortunately, they ran out of time.  They had to wrap up their paints to use for next day.

I asked the teacher about how I conducted the class and she mentioned that I needed to keep my demos short and let them work for 75% of the class.  The students prefer to work and they want to work.  They will zone out fast if I talk for more than 15 minutes.  I must figure out how to condense my talk but do I need to do this for presenting information?  For demonstrations, I believe that keeping things short and sweet is necessary.  For longer presentations, breaking it into portions is probably best.  Add in some brain breaks and activities or discussions.

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Y.A.S. aka “Young Asian Syndrome”

I have said this many times but I will say it once more.  Being a young woman of Asian descent has given me more heartache than one can imagine.  I have been told regularly that I look younger than my age and I can acknowlege this because I believe it.  I have told many colleagues, friends, and peers that I feel “inferior” sometimes because of this.  It is a general stereotype that Asians tend to look alot younger than they are and to an extent, I believe it is true.  I have gone through many experiences when I feel that my appearance is detrimental to my quality of life.

Practicum is one example of how looking young and tiny works against me.  All of my students tower over me.  Some of them even look older.  Psychologically, I feel unauthoritative.  How do I overcome this?  I tried to compensate by dressing older and wearing some makeup.  Maybe I will even put my hair up.  I decided this week to wear heels so I feel “taller”.  All of this is in my head because none of these external modifications can change how mature of a teacher I am.   I am also vertically challenged.  This only contributes to the frustration of looking young.  Recently, I spoke to a teacher and she expressed the same sentiments.  She told me about her battle with YAS and the reality of teaching.  Be tough but nice.  That’s all it boils down to.  Do not give in to them!

How will I overcome this innate feeling of inferiority?

1. I will continue to present myself maturely.  That is, I will address students with respect and demand the same level of respect back.

2. I will not give in to students who try to coerce me into doing something that I don’t believe they deserve.  Ie. Friend staying in the class with them; leaving to buy food; doing other work in class; not bringing in their homework

3. I will present myself professionally.  Continue to dress appropriately and look groomed.

4. Do not talk down to students.  This is the last thing I should do in my position.  It makes me seem extra bossy than I am or should be.

This is an interesting post but legitimate nonetheless.  I am sure I am not the only one who deals with this.

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Three Musketeers

The headache started in the morning when I arrived to set up for my first class.  Even though I knew that I needed plenty of time to set up and had arrived 40 minutes before class started, I still wasn’t finished setting up on time.  I had a student come in and help me with the chairs (luckily) but he would continue chatting with me.  This chatter, which I normally love, was in fact distracting.  I felt like my mind was in many places and I couldn’t focus the way that I needed to.  What I needed to do was to set up the individual stations and set up the glazes, bottles, and paints.  When the bell rang, I was mostly prepared but I still wanted to make things nicer.  For the most part, everything was in place and ready to go.  Mentally, I was still all over the place.  I had to gather my thoughts and focus on the task ahead- that is, presenting to this class and going over the notes I had prepared the night before.

I had to do a glazing demo which went well.  I think it did anyway.  I made sure to cover all the key aspecs about not getting glaze on the bottom or on the edges of the tiles.  In addition to that, I had to stress that the brushes be kept in their respective glaze jars so as to not mix them.  Doing the demo actually slowed my racing mind which was good.

When they were working, some of the kids work so fast while other work so slowly.  How do I find a balance between these two?  I am still working on this.  The kids who were “done” glazing were told by me to draw more designs for future tiles.  Because we had so many, I thought this was the most appropriate activity.

The class after was my ceramics class.  This class included the three most difficult students I had to deal with.  They were not cooperating and fooling around so my SA gave them detention.  After school, I came in to work with them and they worked very well.  The invididual working time was conducive to getting work done rather than sitting together and goofing off.  After that, I wanted to have a quick chat with them.  I was brutally honest and told them that their disruption gave me headaches.  I communicated that they worked very well on their own but that together, they lacked the discipline to complete any work.  They also distract each other from completing work.  I told them that what they were doing was disrespectful and that I want them to succeed.  The last half of my practicum teaching this class must end pleasantly.  This is their goal and they must cooperate.  First they will sit apart then if they’re good, they can sit together.  I felt good talking to them one on one.

The highlight of my day was working with the Challenge kids.  These kids are the ones who do enriched courses and today was a workshop day for them.  I signed up to teach them an art history workshop about Impressionism.  Unfortunatley, due to miscommunication, the workshop didn’t start until 20 minutes later when I finally found the students.  The students were more engaged than a regular class and one student was a whiz at art history.  I hope I inspired them to continue learning!

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o’ mice an’ men

The single most important trait of a good teacher is possessing the ability to ADAPT to different situations.  For most of my life, I have planned out everything to the detail.  These plans were meant to guide me and remove any risk of unwanted surprises.  Of course, as the saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. Robert Burns couldn’t have said it better.   I will never forget the moment when I read how the mouse’s home was upturned and ruined by the human plow.  You can plan and plan and plan but things often turn out to be different.  I was saddened for the mouse and saddened for me.  I was in Grade 12 and on my way to university next year.  What if my life plans go astray?  What will I possibly do?

Luckily, over the years, I have learned to adapt to different situations.  Changes are thrown at you and you must respond by thinking quickly on your feet.  One wrong move and you’re a goner…especially on practicum.  I have seen some students shine and some go down in flames.  What makes for a successful practicum?  There are a number of factors that will affect whether or not a teacher candidate will succeed, scrape by, or fail.  I’ve boiled it down to the following variables.

1. SA & FA

2. Students in the class

3. What you’re teaching

4. Where you’re teaching

5. Personality

6. Administrators

7. Connections

8. Flexibility

Simply put, who you work with and where you work are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.  If you happen to have a personality conflict with your SA, FA, Administrator, or fellow colleague, be prepared for rough waters.  No matter how hard you try, working with people who you do not agree with will wear you down over the course of 10 weeks.  The biggest milestone however, is making it to 5 weeks.  Psychologically, if you can overcome 5 weeks and hit spring break, you’re good to go for the last half of practicum.  Of course, this is all internal and when it comes down to it, YOU are the only thing standing in YOUR way of succeeding at your practicum.  If you happen to be tired all the time, prone to breakdowns, have a difficult time dealing with stress-inducing situations, then it may prevent you from doing well during your practicum.  I can speak for myself.  Sometimes, I lack the proper motivation to get me out of bed and teach.  This is the honest truth.  I am not perfect and I am often tired.  I am tired from worrying.  I worry a heck of a lot.  What separates me from those who will flounder is the fact that no matter what, I will always bring myself to work and do my very best.  Even if you’ve had a rough day (or night), you go to work being the professional that you are supposed to be.  Treat the students with respect and remember that you are here to help them learn.  Do what YOU can to light the flame of imagination in their minds.  I am reminded fairly often that I am here, in this program, at this school and with these students because I wanted to EDUCATE and GUIDE the younger generation.  Perhaps I have an idealistic view of what art education can  do for the children but my intentions are honest.

This post was inspired by the need for me to change my lesson plans last minute.  Last week I was told that I was losing one class and today I was told that I needed to cut the first Photo class in half to give time for some students to process film.  This film should have been processed in the last class.  I was a bit frustrated at the fact that I needed to change my plans minutes before I actually teach it.  How do I modify something that I spent hours planning? Luckily I was able to shift things around and make it work but it really showed me how much flexibility a teacher needs.  Be prepared but most of all, be prepared to be FLEXIBLE!

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Classroom Setup

The setup of the classroom is absolutely essential to the success of a teacher’s instruction.  I never realized this until I actually had to set one up, especially one which required a projector, laptop, and a screen.  I attempted to set up my regular art room and found that the screen was just much too far for people at the end of the class to really see anything.  This can’t be helped.  This is the set up of the classroom and I cannot move the screen.  The next dilemma I faced was setting up the photo lab with a projector and screen.  Luckily they had a screen but the set up of the room was problematic.  I did not have in my possession, an extension cord for the projector.  Where the screen was to be set up, I could not find an adequate place for the projector.  The projector was either too far off to the side due to cord length limitations or the screen would be too angled.  Dilemmas!

I decided to fiddle around with the other power outlets in that room.  Fortunately, there are many outlets in that room to power all of the computers.  This meant that I could find the most ideal location for the projector, unhook the cables from the computer, and plug in what I needed.  Luckily, it worked!  I will be using this set up tomorrow.  I am so glad I went in after school to set up the place beforehand.  I did not want to freak out the day of.  The other good thing about teaching a short class is that I don’t need to do many presentations!

Tip of the day: always do a full run through when setting up your projector, screen, and laptop!

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