Today my FA observed me teach the ceramics class.  I typically have trouble getting through to this group of students so naturally I was worried about my observation.  I wanted to teach well but I also wanted to be relaxed while I teach.  She called it a “performance” much like myself.  I was going to have the students gather into groups that I assigned randomly, and encourage them to share their shoes with the group.  The point of the exercise was to talk to each other about their design and development process.

The biggest difficulty I found with this is how quickly their conversations would go.  They would describe it in a couple of sentences and call it a day.  I guess I am used to the discussions that take place in university where people can elaborate for a long time.  I forget that they are not used to these sort of discussions and are probably uncomfortable in sharing.  Perhaps their ideas are there but they haven’t learned to articulate them.  I am hoping that with more class discussions, they can feel comfortable.

Another barrier to the presentation was that my classroom is not presentation friendly.  It is very long and often times, when I present, there are many students who sit in the far back who can barely see the projector.  Unfortunately, this is the set up of the room and cannot be helped.  For more formal presentations, I think I will have to address this by moving the tables aside and creating a round circle with the chairs.

During the debrief with my SA, she used the word “consequences” many times.  I need to enforce my consequences on my students so they don’t keep acting out or taking advantage of my generosity.  For instance, many students lost their concept sheets that they were supposed to hand in and I kept handing them out again.  My SA said that I should come up with a plan to make sure they KEEP their sheets or else face negative consequences for losing them.  One suggestion is that I tell the class that they only get 1 handout and no more.  If you lose it, you will have to copy a friend’s sheet.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  I agree with this because photocopying all those sheets is a huge use of paper.

The other problem I am having is how to deal with smart aleck students.  I had one in particular who would respond to my questions with “I don’t know” and roll his eyes and use sarcasm as a way to alleviate the challenging questions I would pose.  It really frustrated me to see how he was undermining my authority and my intentions for him to learn.  I’m not sure what to do but I think I will continue to just encourage him to think about his art and to mark him accordingly to the work he actually produces.  I can only push so much.

I also began marking this week.  It takes a LONG time!  I can’t imagine marking academic papers.  I marked the concept sheets based off my rubric I created.  Most students did very well except for a couple who I knew rushed it.  They deserve the low mark.  I have the rubric to back me up.