Fieldwork Presentations

Today, we all presented power points based on our fieldwork experience. It was interesting to hear about everyone's experiences and how they were different, or similar. Some people had time and freedom in planning and executing their lessons while some never got the chance to do a lesson of their own. I found this to be disappointing and I'm sure they did as well. I'm sure some teachers are so busy that there simply isn't time to add anything else, but I feel sorry that their fieldwork participants missed out on a great opportunity. Luckily, I had a mentor teacher who was flexible and she allowed me to get involved and teach my own lesson that lasted 3 days! My experience was in a 6th grade class so I'm sure I missed out on some of the more complex art activities those in High Schools got to witness. At the same time, I think it's good that I went from 1st grade last semester to 6th grade this semester, and hopefully I will experience High School in student teaching.
It was enlightening to see the different classroom environments each of us encountered. Some of us had small, cramped classrooms crowded with students, others (myself included) with large, spacious rooms with tons of storage. It seemed though, that whatever a classroom lacked, it made up for in some other way. Several of the cramped small classrooms were in NFA, but they also had Smartboards and a great variety of art classes. My classroom was spacious and large, and while we had a wonderful selection of art materials, we didn't have Smartboards or even a class computer. I worked the old school way, with a chalk board and thumbtacks. It just shows us how districts and schools have different resources and we must learn to work with what we have.
It sounded like most of my fellow classmates enjoyed their placements this semester, and there were many unique opportunities. Leah worked with a blind student and really got to explore there modifications aspect of lesson planning. Several people worked with ceramics in their placements and got the experience of firing and seeing how students react so positively to 3D work. It will be interesting to see where everyone goes for student teaching and what directions we will all take, whether unlikely or planned.