Intentional Focused Observations

Classroom Climate and Culture

One thing I observed about my classroom climate and culture this week is that since many of their assignments for the class are projects that take the whole week long (art classroom), they are allowed to budget their time how they need. My host teacher will walk around trying to get students engaged and working, but if they need to sleep that day, they can sleep that day. From what I could tell, all of the students got their work done by the end of the week. I believe that this is a direct response to my students' background: the school has a poverty rate above 90%. Many of these students are working, taking care of siblings, or in another way doing more than just being a student and teenager. One question this brings up is if this was always my host teacher's strategy, or if it has developed since working at this particular school (it is her second year here, but she taught somewhere else for a long time).

My host teacher has created a very welcoming climate in her classroom. I can tell that the students trust my host teacher and are not afraid to ask for help. She has decorated the entire room with artwork, prints, and lights. She has also worked very hard through grantwriting to get students the equipment they need for her classes, which I am so excited to talk to her more about this semester. When students have worktime, she plays happy music or Disney movies on low volume. Students from other classes frequently visit her to update her about their lives, which is another sign to me that students trust her and want to talk to her. All of this shows me that creating a welcoming climate and safe classroom is nearly of the same importance as the actual content of your class. One question this brings up is what data is out there relating different classroom climates with outcomes in the subject area?

Something else I observed about my classroom climate is that the students have free seating choice and are very clustered into groups. I can tell from taking attendance when my host teacher has asked if they knew where another student is, that the students don't necessarily know all of each other. In my Padlet this week, I reflected on how my host teacher voiced this concern to me about how she regrets not taking time at the beginning of the semester for community-building, and how next week I will be bringing in some activities. This raises a question for me of how much time should I be putting into the students getting to know each other? One of my professors suggests during that first two-week period before content gets really heavy as students are filtering in and out changing their schedules. I think it's probably most important at the beginning, but most effective when also sprinkled throughout the semester.

Classroom Management

Classroom management is not very present in my classroom this semester. Cellphone use at Anderson is up to the teacher, and my teacher doesn’t have any rules about phones. When she is teaching, students are constantly on their phones or otherwise doing things on their iPads, which she has in the classroom. In the digital design class I’m in, she gives about 10 minutes of instruction at the beginning of the week and then they have the rest of the week to work on the project in class. For the rest of the week, she just sits at her desk during class, and students can come up to ask questions. I don’t think this is bad practice, because many students do come up and ask questions. However, many don’t, and many do not start their work until Thursday or Friday. My host teacher doesn’t walk around to offer help or make sure students are on track, so the work time is not really being used for many of the students. In my yearbook class, though, the students are a little more engaged since they are working on the desktops. Even then, she doesn’t walk around to make sure they are all on task.

When asking my host teacher what their phone policy was, she told me that it was up to the teacher, and also told me she wants to implement stricter phone policies, but these haven’t happened yet. I believe the main reason she gives so much work time for these projects is because the iPads they use belong in her classroom, which she got through grant writing. Thus far in my practicum though, I have not seen a student need the full 4-5 days. They either start on Monday and finish Wednesday or start Wednesday and finish Friday. Something I also think is adding to this problem is that when students ask for feedback, my host teacher usually says things look good. This causes students to not keep pushing their work further. My host teacher also told me that most of their recent projects were bad, but I rarely see her giving specific critiques that they could use to push their art further. She has told me that she tries to avoid critiquing in her classes of mainly freshmen, but I think it is causing them to not spend as much time on their projects as they should be, especially since she doesn’t think they are up to standard. In my yearbook class, I have been walking around more to make sure students are on task and answer any questions. What I have found with this particular group of students is that the majority of them are very shy, and if they run into a problem they just stop working instead of raising their hand to ask questions. In my walking around I’ve been able to help these students who have a hard time asking for help. One of these quieter students told me “you’re really helpful” on Friday, which shows me I’m doing something right.

One question I have that this experience has brought up is how do you implement classroom management later into the school year? Whether this be because your current system isn’t working, or because you don’t have a system at all, I can imagine it would be hard because students are not in the routine of it. I imagine this will be especially prevalent my first few years of teaching because that’s when I will be figuring out what works. My host teacher is always talking about how tired she is, and I can tell that it’s part of the reason that she doesn’t walk around to make sure students are working. This really worries me as I enter the profession because I don’t want to feel like I don’t have enough energy to simply interact with my students. I know burnout is real and the hours are long, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. These incidents also bring up questions for me as an art teacher of how much criticism is helpful, and how much criticism is not helpful? Art is subjective, and for theatre, it is important that we are thinking about the audience’s interpretation. I understand that critiquing for freshman would not be the same as it is for seniors, but I think it’s an important skill to practice even if it’s at a really simple level in a beginner arts class.

Assessment for Learning, of Learning, and as Learning

Of the two classes that I observe daily, I am going to focus on my Digital Design class for this IFO. I'm not really sure what grades, if any, that my Yearbook class have gotten. Each unit in the Digital Design class is comprised of an introduction to a project, research and brainstorming, and the project itself. The grades are split into 100 points per research/brainstorm sheet, and 250 points for the project itself. My host teacher said that this was so students who may not do well on the actual design portion still get points for the unit by doing the research. These are essentially the only assessments in this class. I have not seen any quizzes, tests, or other assessments being used.

When starting a unit, my host teacher presents everything on the first day, then gives the students the rest of the week to complete all the work for a project. While I understand that some students work at different paces than others, I have noticed that this is frustrating for students. Many students finish after 2 days, and spend the rest of the week doing nothing for the class. Many students don't start work until Thursday or Friday. Students have complained to me about all the online worksheets they have to do, and that it feels repetitive. Students have also complained to me about nothing in this class getting graded, so they have lost motivation to even do the work to begin with, because they aren't seeing it affect their grade.

I do agree with my host teacher on the fact that grading art is hard, and that there should be a grade given for more stuff than the actual artwork produced. If I were the primary teacher in this classroom, I would incorporate student feedback by not doing the same structure for every single unit, as many of them have gotten bored. For assessments, I would even add some quizzes to reinforce vocabulary terminology we have been throwing around such as the elements and principles of design. I would also mix it up so that students are not always working on a group project alone. For my unit that I'm teaching, I added a guided notes grade to increase student engagement for the project introduction portion, and I am very happy with how it turned out. This impacts me as a future teacher because it is a reminder that you should never get too comfortable with how things are, and you should really be listening for student feedback. Routine and structure are important in the classroom, but things do not need to be the same week to week. Students perform differently on different types of assessments, so they should all have an opportunity to be assessed in ways that they can shine at.