1. What are the important elements to create a predictable, caring, and positive learning environment?
I think a huge part of teaching is the preparation. One needs to be aware of the possible problems that might come up while the student is working on a project so by creating the project before hand can help anticipate those potential issues. As I have said before and will continue to repeat, the most important part of my teaching is RELATIONSHIPS. You need to know your students, what their interests are outside of school, what students struggle with....this helps build a platform for lessons that are interesting for the students. This philosophy embedded with the idea of relationships show that you care about your students.
2. What strategies are helpful for you to respect for diversity?
I think that you always need to be educating yourself on diverse cultures which means attending professional development days and diving into the community around you. For me I attended a night at Eaglecrest where I helped facilitate the African American club for females called Soul Sisters. As a white woman, I feel that it is a priority for my to get involved in my community and learn about diverse cultures so that I can be the best teacher I can and show authentic respect.
3. Please look back all your reflective journal entries.
-What type of self-growth did you observe through reflexive practices?
Over the past journals, I realized that I learned a lot. By capturing the moments of my student teaching experience in a reflective process taught me to take the time to understand what I was learning and where I could grow. Looking back, I saw a positive change in my growth as an educator, artist and overall confident mindset. You can tell in the beginning of my journal entries that lacked confidence from the point of pure lack of exposure and experience. Over time as I became more confident in my teaching abilities, I grew tremendously as an artist. As I took risks and learned in the classroom, my artistic practices regarding digital media grew as well (which is really great because I ended up receiving a job where I will be teaching digital design).
-What type of reflexive practices or methods did you apply to assist your students' art learning in your teaching?
I decided for my last class at Eaglecrest to facilitate a class critique in both my upper division painting class and my lower drawing level class. Over all, the critique went great in terms of having a fluid overall structure and students responding to each others artwork. I started the class explaining how it's important to reflect on our artwork and be exposed to others while also highlighting the fact of the class being a safe place to share. This went really went but I saw a difference in overall quality and in depth responses from the two levels. There were a couple of students in my lower level class that didn't take the critique seriously and would just respond with a smiley face etc. I think the next time I have a class critique, I will shorten the time with the lower level class and provide example answers on the board for more of a clear instruction.
On the other hand, my lower level drawing class did an exceptional job of reflecting and providing an explanation for their self grade when asked to grade themselves on their final drawing. I think this was a great way to eliminate any silly distractions and probe authentic and in depth answers from the students.
For my work of art, I created 4 different digital self portraits. These self portraits speak to a variety of feelings and emotions that I underwent during my student teaching experience. I chose to continue the drawing that I started on the last journal entry to make a final work of art that pays tribute to the overall experience I endured.