Fieldwork day 4

Today's fieldwork experience opened my eyes to the less glamorous side of being an art teacher.  All the extensive behind the scenes work that goes into the prep and organization of the classroom that truly makes you a successful teacher.  For example my mentor teacher got many of her supplies today and needed to go through all the boxes to make sure everything was there and then put it away.  As she took inventory i took everything out of the packages and stored in where I was directed around the room.  This is very important because you always want to have up to date and a sufficient amount of supplies.  My mentor also stressed the importance of proper care when using materials because quality makes all the difference.  This was hard work and took both prep periods.  

During lunch we also put the students first project on display in  one of the cases in the lobby.  My teacher told me this is important to show the students they did a good job as well as to show off to the administration.  We not only put student work in the display class but also properly labeled the wrk with the title of the project, the standards it met, the class who worked on it and some background information on the project.  This is a way to link the project with the common core and explain why we are teaching these particular ideas to the students.  

While some students works were put on display others were graded and handed back to them.  This was something really important to see because some students become really upset and anxious when they get their grades.  My mentor teacher simply expressed how she got their grades and went over the grading criteria again with the students.  By letting them know what was expected of them they can judge whether or not they met the requirements.  A rubric on the back of the project with a number scale also helps to reinforce these ideas.  I found these tools for assessment really helpful and plan to implement them in my classroom.