Week3 Blog3

1. Some argue that teaching is too demanding and complex to expect teaching to be very reflective about their work? What do you think?

 

yes education is a field under appreciated.Very long work days/weeks, not including bringing work home, Mental exhaustion on a daily basis, Low pay, we are often portrayed negatively and blamed for the educational status of the country. High stress job - demanding parents, difficult students, unrealistic educational expectations from the administration/state (ie. No Child Left Behind), non supportive administrators, etc. But it is also the most fulfilling job in my opinion, why wouldn't you want to be the best you can be. Reflection on your work (if implemented correctly) can help you feel better about all those cons and help improve the learning experience of all your students. With the amount of vacation time we receive there is no reason to say "I don't have time to reflect on my work"

 2. When you think about a classroom problem, do you try to see it from different "angles"?

 

Not as much as I thought I did before this course. Its easy to blame your students for their misbehavior and punish them for it. But if you take the time to analysis why they misbehave you can possible reduce the misbehavior in the future.

 

3.  Do you think that teachers should play leadership roles in curriculum development, program development and school reform or just stick to their work in the classroom.

I think we can only changing how we are perceived by others is by standing up and showing everyone. I myself hope to one day after more experience to lead such areas, but for now I'm want to learn what I can from my students and fellow teachers.

Do a little digging. Do you know who wrote your curriculum? When was it last

changed? How is it different from(or the same as) your own schooling

experiences?

 

In my school district we have BYOC Build Your Own Curriculum... I hate this program. Going into this program I thought I could layout how, what, why I teach, but the design of the system is horrible. It is not user friendly. Basically the idea is you share your lessons in a the areas of the curriculum agreed upon by the other elementary art teachers in district, thus allowing for any new art teachers to grab a lesson and teach it. This works great for math, or science teachers, but not for art. My biggest complain about BYOC it there is no way for you to attach a picture exemplar to the lesson you create!!! pointless! 

I have based the broad areas of my curriculum off Columbia Public School's curriculum and plug my lessons into the grade levels appropriate. 

I must say that is one good thing about teaching a subject that administration doesn't care about, they don't check up on you to insure you are following the exact curriculum. As long a there is cool stuff on the walls their happy.

I often think about lessons I like in art as a child and teach a similar project. like my clay owls I teach to 1st grade, my mom keep my clay owl on the wall until high school (when my sister broke it). Plus I find parents are 50% more likely to keep ceramic art then drawings or paintings.