Archives: Reflections

Designing Tattoos

Before I started this project with the class, I was a bit hesitant as to how the class would receive this project.  Rooted in the theme of social justice and accepting diversity, I decided to introduce a tattoo design unit.  My interest in tattoo design stems from designing my own.  I spent many months thinking about what is meaningful to me and did plenty of research to find the perfect images for it.  I spent many hours drawing the tattoo and I am very proud of it.  Through the experience of designing my own tattoo, I can say that I am a changed person.  Before delving into this project, I’d like to share my own experience being a tattooed individual.

I got my sleeve as an adult.  It was certainly not a spontaneous event.  I spent many days thinking about what I want on it and I felt ready to attempt it.  For many years, tattoos have always intrigued me but I was never serious about getting one.  It just “wasn’t me”.  I am usually told that I don’t look like a person who would have tattoos.  Yes that is true.  Even I agree with that because we always believe the generic stereotypes that are prevalent in today’s society.  Despite them being more mainstream, tattoos are still an area of reservation for me.  I don’t usually go around flaunting my work but will gladly talk about the concept when asked.  I don’t do it for attention (in fact I dislike the attention.  Kind of ironic considering how noticeable it is on my arms).  I did it for me at time when I felt like I had to.  I was compelled to and put much thought into what I would get and what it should look like.  I worked for months with my tattoo artist to design the perfect sleeve.  It is now a part of me and I am proud of my accomplishment.  Although there are days when I just wish to hide it (because I can’t be bothered with people staring and pointing) I am still proud of the spiritual journey I took to design it myself.  When the experience itself was over, I felt a sense of accomplishment.  I did it.  All those painful hours in the chair are finally over.

How does this relate to teaching?  Well, I’ve been judged as a certain type of person: one that is quiet and conservative…and I am.  However, I am also an individual with a unique personality.  When I roll up my sleeves, suddenly their perceptions of me are shattered and they cannot believe I am hiding such markings that are generally reserved for the “gangsters, bikers, punks, criminals…etc”.  Stereotypes can work against you or for you.  In this case, as a teacher and in a position of authority, how can I do this to myself?  Individuality and self expression is appreciated in my classroom.  I practice the acceptance of diversity and this is exactly what I want to exhibit.  I want them to understand that you cannot judge a person just by their appearance.

For this project, I made it very clear that they are NOT to get tattoos and that I am in no way promoting the use of tattooing to express individuality.  I emphasized that this project is more about self expression than it is about tattoos.  It does not matter to me if they don’t want to get a tattoo.  The challenge comes from discovering their own interests, motivations, and symbols that would take significance in a “permanent” tattoo design.  Assuming that this would be a permanent design on you, what text or imagery would you absolutely use or not use.  I had some students tell me they didn’t want a tattoo but it does not excuse them from not doing my project.  I had to reiterate many times that this is project about themselves and not so much the concept of tattooing.

I wish I had more time with them on this project but overall, I am pleased with the results.  Here are some examples.

 

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Young Impressionists

Last week, I ended my unit on Impressionism with one of my classes.  This class was a short 5 week class so I didn’t have plenty of time to go over all the little tidbits associated with the art movement. Despite this, I believe that my students built on top of their current painting skills by adding the painting techniques used by the Impressionists.  I emphasized the use of visible brush strokes and the mixing of complementary colours to create dark “shadow” colours.  The Impressionists avoided the use of pure black paint so this was a good way to mix their own dark colours from the palette they are currently working with.  The requirements for this project were to find a picture that consisted of at least 3 colours.  They were to do a colour analysis on the image they want to paint  and do an undersketch on their good painting.  Prior to this, they had practice on a worksheet I handed out for t hem to do.  This worksheet required them to use various brushstrokes including pointillism.  They also had to practice highlighting and darkening areas with the use of creating tints and shades to their colours.  With all this practice, I believe I’ve equipped them with the proper skills and knowledge to create /mimic their own Impressionist style painting.  The results were fabulous.  I couldn’t be more happier.  The students all did very well and their use of colours, highlighting, and shadowing were well done.  During the final critique/presentation, about half of them admitted that they were happy with their painting.  Half of the class also felt that they had “learned useful techniques” they could carry on into the future.  Although the class was fairly quiet, I could feel that they were satisfied with their work.   Here are some examples.

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Ceramic Success

The ceramics class that I worked with on a multi-week long project has finally come to a close.  Their project was to design shoes under the  premise of “walking a mile in someone else’s shoe”.   They also had to make an accompanying ceramic label to go with their shoe display detailing their name, block, and a neat title for their shoe.  The process started off with an introduction  to the history of shoes and an assortment of footwear designs.  By the end of it, and 4 hours of laborious marking, the projects are finished!  They did a beautiful job and I couldn’t be more proud.  Here are some examples.

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Celebrating with Pinatas

We celebrated the end of art class with one group of special needs students by breaking their pinatas.  The day was gorgeous and the time was perfect.  The pinatas were loaded with candy and the tree was picked.  We went outside and the kids started smashing!  It was great to see and hear the laughter, enjoyment, and pride that was being emitted from all of the students.  Rarely does art class take place outside but it certainly can!  When we learn to incorporate the outdoors with art, it can be a very rich experience for the students.  Not only are they presented with the opportunity to go outside, they also learn to view art as a subject not restricted solely to the classroom.  The best part about art is enjoying the product you created afterwards!

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Social Justice Comic

When it was all said and done, the students delivered some wonderful projects.  About half of my students did not hand in their work and “chasing” them down for it is energy that I don’t wish to expend.  I’ve warned them time and time again about late marks and the due date.  I also told them when was the absolute last day to hand in their projects before they receive a mark of zero.  Still, the urgency to complete this project was simply lacking with many of my students.  Nevertheless, the work that my students produced was great.  I am very proud.  Here is a sample of their work.

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Presentations & Due Dates

Today was the first due date for one of my class’ major projects.  I warned them that I was going to collect the artist statements as well as their art projects (social justice comic).  If they do not hand in their comics today, then they face the consequence of losing marks.  They will lose 1 mark per day including today (the due date) if not handed in.  They must also hand in their artist statement with the possibility of a mark deduction as well.

I started off the class by collecting their artist statements.  Many seemed concerned and shocked that I would pull such a move.  My SA had set up the classroom so that deadlines were

rolling and flexible.  The moment I impose solid deadlines, they are in shock.  I saw many “deer in the headlights” when I demanded the artist statement immediately after taking attendance.  They were not used to such strictness in art class.   I proceeded to take them to the multipurpose room where I had my CS student set up the chairs.  There they brought their comics and everyone was encouraged to present their project regardless of whether or not they had completed it.  I told them to relax and that this is not going to be hard.  All they have to do is talk about their art project and to breathe.

The first set of students I went order from one end to the other end.   They were told to talk about

1. Title of the comic

2. Concept of the comic

3. Brief summary of their comic

The majority of the students did a very good job in presenting their topic.  Understandably, the nerves got to many of them and they slithered/ran back to their seat prematurely.  The main thing was that their ideas were conveyed and how they could relate them to social justice.   Students who struggled with speaking English used fellow classmates as translators.  This was a fantastic tactic and was much appreciated by the class.  I feel very fortunate that I can count on these students who were willing to volunteer.  In the other class, I went up to help a student with translating his comic.  I wanted to make sure that all students were going to participate.  At the very end, I did a brief wrap up asking them what they learned from this project and how they felt seeing other people’s work.  The overwhelming response to these comics was a sense of disillusionment with reality.

The majority of the comics illustrated popular or anecdotal stories.  Many of these ended bleakly with the ending of the story resulting in death of the main character.  On the flip side, there were also quite a few that had ended positively presenting an optimistic outlook for the characters in the future.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to ask questions and to give feedback for each student but I could tell that the majority of the students enjoyed being in a different room and sharing work with their peers.  Tangential questions also surfaced as a result of the great discussions we had surrounding these comics.

I was disappointed to see that at the end of the day, I only received about half of the student’s projects.  This means there will be a lot of late marks!  I felt that I was being fair by extending their deadline to a week after spring break.  Still, no matter how many times you hammer it into them, if they don’t want to do it, they will not do it.  In addition to that, perhaps I had hoped for more ground breaking stories of social justice whereby the protagonist identifies the social issue at hand and comes to a realization that solving this issue is more important than he/she can fathom. Groundbreaking and even shocking discoveries occur in the story that will lead the protagonist to this conclusion.  However, the vast majority of the comics that came from my students were ones that depict a problem that ends either positively, negatively, or ambiguously without explaining what the significance of these issues are and why they must be dealt with vigorously.  I felt that the stories were more contrived to fit a happy or dismal ending just because I asked for a “resolution”.  I believe that they all understood the concept of social justice very well and their work certainly reflects their knowledge and negativity surrounding social issues, particularly the inability to come up with plausible solutions.  Perhaps it is difficult to write this type of a comic because solutions to these social issues are hard to come by in the real world let alone in the fictional one.  Overall, I am proud of their efforts.  I challenged them and they, for the most part, realize that handling social justice issues is an ongoing job that everyone must work together at.

See pictures below:

 

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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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