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Finnick Vest

Mark McGuire

15 April 2019

ARTEDUC 4900

Elementary Reflection

During my elementary field placement I learned a lot about

being an art educator in two starkly different environments.

Going in I was worried about doing art on a cart at Winterset,

as I had never experienced it before. Although I will preach

that all art teachers deserve a dedicated space, it wasn’t

nearly as stressful as I anticipated. I noticed that it forced

me to be more timely and organized when preparing for classes. I

also learned how to be more methodical with transitions, which

is vital for any elementary art classroom.

Even though Huy had a large classroom and Winterset a cart,

both schools were able to participate in the exact same

projects. To my surprise, students at Winterset often created

more art than students at Huy, even though they had less time

due to having a more rigid cleanup schedule. I always had the

preconceived notion that schools with more resources (like an

art classroom) would allow students to be more successful. In

actuality the communities at the two schools differed wildly,


and although Winterset was smaller, the community was more tight

knit and the students’ behavior was more invested in compared to

Huy. I was not expecting to find two schools in the same

district to vary so wildly, but Huy and Winterset varied

drastically in culture, expectations, and community.

One aspect of student teaching I was happy to experience

was working with the deaf and hearing impaired students at Huy.

Although I have researched into Deaf culture, I actually did not

have a lot of experience with deaf students. While teaching I

learned about all of the technology that helps students with

hearing impairments, interacted with translators, as well as

learned how to make my lessons more inclusive. For example it

was important to find videos with accurate subtitles, and I had

one activity that I asked students to close their eyes, but

initially I didn’t realize that if the deaf students closed

their eyes they would not be able to see the interpreter. Having

experience with this community helped me, as in the future I

will know accommodations to make for students with hearing

impairments.

I also got first-hand experience dealing with a lot of

difficult issues in the classroom. There was one student I had

to talk to because he kept going on about how he was going to


kill himself and refusing to listen to anyone, including his

guardian. I never really expected to face a situation like that

during my elementary student teaching, but I’m glad that I did

because I will know more of what to do for when I have my own

classroom. At the other school there was one student who refused

to do any work, to the point the homeroom teacher said I could

choose to just not include them in lessons. That statement

really shocked me, so I went out of my way to talk to the

student as much as possible. Although he often struggled to

follow directions and participate in the planning phase, once we

got to sewing our felt food, he was eager to learn and was ahead

of a lot of his peers. I was really happy that I was able to

make that connection with a student.

I ended up liking teaching and being in an elementary

school more than I thought I would. At this moment in time I

still feel I excel more at a secondary setting, but I know I am

comfortable and successful in elementary rooms as well. It takes

less time to make connections and build rapport with younger

students, which makes it more enjoyable at the beginning. I

think the biggest drawback of elementary is only seeing the

students once a week. None of the students I worked with were

able to complete their projects, so knowing that I think I might


plan smaller scale projects for the younger students to

introduce them to new materials more often.

I learned so much from my mentor teacher. I’m glad that I

was with a teacher who had strong classroom management skills

because I was able to improve so much while I was there. She

also would let me mess up from time to time, which was actually

pretty helpful because I learn more from doing than just being

instructed. I loved working with Mrs. Zalenski, and I learned so

much student teaching with her.

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