Final Reflections

I was SO nervous on the week of the final UAY art show. I was super worried that it was going to be a huge hassle to get our framework to the space at UAY. Our students didn’t seem very worried when they left the last session, and it defiantly made me appreciate more all of the setup for shows my art teachers did. On the day of the show, I thought that I would have plenty of time to set up for the show before 4:30. When I arrived to UAY to set up out installation, I was surprised at how little space there was to work. I really struggled to find enough space without interfering with others installing work. As time went on, more people filled the tiny space and I was super cramped while installing the last few sections. To my surprise, our students and parents began arriving WAY early. I expected a few people to be around early, but I didn’t expect most to show up 30 minutes earlier than the show was supposed to start. We even managed to get through our awards ceremony and most of the cake before the official start to the show.

It was a very rewarding feeling to see students and their friends and families at the show. All of the students looked really happy to see their art in the show, and it was really great to get to see the work students had made. I’ve been so focused on our own work this semester that I had not had the chance to see all of the work students were making. The students had expressed their interest in exploring the work that other groups were making, and I felt similar when I was considering how I would teach lessons that would result in equally great looking projects. I really liked the found objects that some groups used, and I was probably most impressed by those students’ incorporations of those objects into their work.

The thing that most surprised me during SFA was the attitudes of the students in our group. I expected students to be more enthusiastic about being there, but they were the opposite. It was tough to balance teaching students helpful skills and getting students to be interested and having a good time. There are defiantly difficulties in teaching to a group of students who aren’t being graded and are paying for the course. There are a lot of similarities to teaching in a K-12 situation, but it’s really hard for me to truly compare because I haven’t had that experience teaching academic courses. Working with these students has shaped my preconceptions about students and how I will plan my future lessons. It’s going to be easier to start with a rigid lesson plan, and later make adaptations if students want to explore different directions. It was very difficult to get these students to express themselves and feel involved with our project because they didn’t know us very well. I think that had this been taught in a classroom with students that you already know would make this project easier. There will almost always be some students who are disinterested initially, but what makes these sectioned murals great is that they look good with all levels of interest and motivation. I’m anticipating the opportunity to teach a similar lesson again, and I hope that I can teach it again to a small group and also with a large group of students.

Previous Experiences and Adapting Our Lesson for the Future

I’ve had some really great experiences working with secondary students, but unfortunately, I have yet to actually teach an academic lesson. I’ve become pretty comfortable around students, and I feel confident in my ability to help problem solve, but most of my time with students hasn’t been me directly teaching them. Most of the time I feel like I’m teaching, it’s working one on one with students. I’ve yet to teach concepts to a large group of students at once, and I find it a little nerve-racking.

School For the Arts has been a very different experience working with secondary students. I really liked being able to talk with our small group about our ideas, even though most of the time the students had little interest in expressing their opinion. The lesson that we designed for UAYSFA was very loose in its conception, because I think we somewhat expected that our students would arrive with ideas of grandeur. It was clear that after meeting with our students that they weren’t really interested in conceptualizing upon our project and just wanted to work. We probably should have recognized that from the beginning and adapted our lesson by just providing the students with the plan. We tried hard to get out students to discuss their ideas and as a group come up with our design for the final product, but in the end the students only gave a little and the teachers had to in the end decided on a final design.

If I were to adapt this lesson for an academic environment, I would change a lot. Assuming that there are more students, the design would have to be adapted to be smaller, cheaper, and easier to build. I’d probably make all of the sections the same design, like a 1’X1’ board with a 6”x6” shadowbox. I’d probably focus the lesson more on using lots of found objects, and talk with students about how creative pairing of objects can make powerful statements. I think that making the sections smaller would make this project move much faster, which was a problem with the larger scale project. Having a large group of students would result in a very impressive installation, especially if more than one class was making sections. I think that simplifying the design is defiantly a necessity for this project, and dealing with identical sections will force students to be a little more creative when making their pieces.

Arts Advocacy

Being an advocate for the arts is a critical aspect of teaching art. Establishing a positive sense of community would be very difficult if the educator wasn’t thoroughly involved with art. Showing your students that you care about art and are passionate, it will encourage them to do the same. Teacher enthusiasm does not only benefit the students, but parents, colleagues and administration will recognize the passions of teachers. By being an advocate for the Arts, you’re setting a good example for your students, but also shining a positive light on the art program in your district. As unfortunate as it is, arts programs often don’t receive enough funding to provide a super outstanding experience. Establishing a school wide artistic community and getting students and parents to also advocate the arts will show the district that the Arts are important in your school.

When I think about teaching, I’ve always been excited about the extracurricular arts activities. Getting students to care about their academic work is important, but it’s also important to present to students the art world beyond the classroom. Trips to local galleries, art shows, and other art events were a rare event when I went to high school. I know how difficult setting up field trips can be, but even encouraging students to attend these events by just making them known would be beneficial.

Displaying art around your school is probably the easiest way to show support for the arts. Students are always making visual work, so there is more work than there probably is space available. Rachel Ayers-Arnone at South East Jr. High has done an awesome job presenting artwork in her school. Work isn’t just in display cases but on any blank wall available. Students will appreciate seeing their work, and if students expect their work to be displayed, it might encourage them to put more effort into their piece. However, being a super advocate for art could potentially be risky. It’s important that you stress the necessity of art in your schools without being irritating to the other staff. As great as it would be to have artwork everywhere around the school, it shouldn’t intrude unwelcomed into the space of other teachers. And if your too demanding of the administration, that could reflect poorly on the department.

Classroom Management

The biggest classroom management issue I’ve encountered in the art classroom is lack of student motivation. Art making requires a lot of time and enthusiasm, and if a student doesn’t want to do any work, it’s likely they won’t finish in time or have a final product that looks rushed. There are all sorts of reasons why a student doesn’t feel motivated, but regardless of reason, the educator is going to be the main influence on students becoming remotivated to work. Student encouragement is crucial, but knowing your students well is going to be more beneficial. Knowing the individual needs of each student, an effective teacher should be able to balance attention and encouragement for every individual. The art room can be a safe haven for students, where the atmosphere can be more relaxing from the rest of their complex lives. Sometimes students need to be in the art room not working. I’ve talked to teachers about this problem, and I’ve been told that usually you just have to let them not work, and just be sure to be consistently encouraging them. Most of the lack of motivation I’ve encountered personally is lack of interest. I haven’t taught in a situation where students were graded, and I feel like that aspect will help increase low student motivation, to some extent. I’m excited about student teaching to observe the differences between the affects of an academic environment versus the afterschool activities I’ve taught.

Reflection on the first UAYSFA session

I was really looking forward to the first day of UAYSFA. I had been thinking a lot about it the prior week, trying to envision how the day would go. In our post class discussion, others had mentioned their surprise at the age range of the students. I was defiantly expecting that the students interested in the program would be older high school students who probably had some idea or expectation of what they wanted to do in our program. There are a lot more younger-aged students than I had thought there would be, and their expectations seemed to be much more social driven. I don't think that this will have any affect on how our projects develop, I was just unexpectedly surprised.

I was concerned about how much would need to be prepared for the first day. I was most concerned about finishing my example project and making it look really polished and a desirable project to make. I knew the artist trading cards would be an easy project for the students to work on, but I was concerned that there would be a lot of extra time. I’m not sure if we were unorganized, but I think the time the students had to talk and meet the other students was really positive. I think that in future SFA programs that providing students with this extra time on the first session would be very beneficial.

My developing concerns regard the timing of building our structures. I really hope that our group can finalize our concept and imagery early so that we begin designing our boxes and masonite cutouts. The sooner we can assemble our structures, the more time we’ll have to thoroughly explore our concept and make a really cohesive final piece.