need advice on methods experience

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need advice on methods experience

by imerie

Feb 7, 2010

To begin with I should probably explain that my secondary methods class is run a little differently than what I have been told is the norm. For our field experience the six students in my class are dividing up a class the University billed as Painting and Drawing to be taught by "staff", each teaching one lesson. We were given no mandates for what had to be taught other than it must be 2D. We loosely agreed to try and base our lessons around the human figure so that the unit would be cohesive. This was decided after the first day of class, which was co-taught, in which the student teachers all devised an activity to try to asses the skill level of our students as well as a frank discussion on what they would be interested in learning. As can be expected from teenagers only one came forward that they would like to learn watercolor while the rest just stared blankly. As the first teacher I decided to begin with the basic technique of line drawing with emphasis on expressive line and an i...See MoreTo begin with I should probably explain that my secondary methods class is run a little differently than what I have been told is the norm. For our field experience the six students in my class are dividing up a class the University billed as Painting and Drawing to be taught by "staff", each teaching one lesson. We were given no mandates for what had to be taught other than it must be 2D. We loosely agreed to try and base our lessons around the human figure so that the unit would be cohesive. This was decided after the first day of class, which was co-taught, in which the student teachers all devised an activity to try to asses the skill level of our students as well as a frank discussion on what they would be interested in learning. As can be expected from teenagers only one came forward that they would like to learn watercolor while the rest just stared blankly. As the first teacher I decided to begin with the basic technique of line drawing with emphasis on expressive line and an introduction into color. I did several exercises with them geared towards getting across the ideas that the type of lines used can create an emotional response in the viewer and then introduced the same with color. As the large project for the section I had the students focus on creating expressive line drawings of a model in several poses geared towards creating an emotional response. I then directed them to choose one of their drawings and apply watercolor to them with an eye towards what colors provoke the emotion that they were trying to portray. For the next piece I challenged them to try using colors to change the feel of their piece, i.e, one student used a bright yellow wash on the model who was holding an umbrella rather than blue. I walked around throughout the lesson demonstrating the techniques on the butcher paper I had placed under their work. By the end of the session each student had multiple marks and painted patches where I had corrected their technique.(I have a rule never to actually touch a students art work.) However when the class had been dismissed one of the students parent came back in saying that her son had told her he hadn't learned anything. I pulled out his work for the day and showed her his progression. She responded by asking me if he had ever been given any actually direction so I pointed out the areas of improvement in the pieces and explained to her that he had been shown and corrected on how to draw his lines and apply the watercolors. Up to this point I was o.k. A little frustrated that I was being accused of not actually teaching, but generally secure in the fact that my teacher did approve the lesson plan and I did stick to it. The true problem came when the parent began telling me that she had expected her son to be learning more advanced techniques and that she had had this problem in all his other art classes. As this was my first parent interaction I didn't know how to tactfully explain that not only had her son not expressed other interests, but he still needed a great deal of work on the more basic techniques. Also unfortunately all that I have been told about the other sessions is that we are focusing on the human figure and what media each teacher is working in so I was unable to answer her questions on what exactly the other lessons were. I also had no teacher in the room with me for support as my teacher was scheduled to teach another workshop at the same time. The parent left frustrated and I went from feeling fantastic that my students had produced such great work and mostly seemed to enjoying their time with me, to agonizing over every minute in the class trying to figure out where it went wrong. I was unable to wait for my mentor to get out of class, so I left her a note on what happened and asked her to please call me. As this is my only day teaching this class I can't personally make certain that there is something geared towards this student. To have to face an frustrated parent the first time out has been incredibly upsetting and I can't reach my mentor. I just don't know what to do.

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