Week 6

Another exciting day at Fishers! (Not bomb threat exciting, but still exciting). Ceramics 1 is continuing to work on their practice tiles before moving on to their actual project. I took time to walk through all of the materials I have for the unit on the wheel. Ms. O loved what I had and helped refine my presentation and other materials so it made me feel more confident. She said she appreciated that I was allowing students to make the connections and discoveries about working on the wheel instead of just giving all the "answers" to them. I'm hoping that the students will respond to it during my presentation, because I ask a lot of questions and I don't like awkward silences. I'm pretty sure that won't happen though!

For Intro to 3D, Ms. O had me give a short presentation about creating various textures in clay. I had made a powerpoint for it about two weeks ago and we didn't know if we were going to use it or not this semester since they had already started the project, but this morning she asked me if I would comfortable presenting it. HERE is my slideshow. I was a little nervous since I hadn't really prepared to give a presentation, but I was honestly really impressed and proud of how quickly I was able to think on my feet and create a presentation that wasn't just me standing up at the front clicking through slides. I am a big believer in having real, physical examples for students to look at. They are much different than looking at an image on the screen. Luckily, Ceramics 1's pinch pot projects had just come out of the kiln today, so I grabbed a bunch of pots that demonstrated the various textures I was going to be introducing to Intro to 3D from those two class periods, works from past students, and some of Ms. Osborne's pieces. I placed the examples at all of the tables (about 4-5 per table), each with a different texture technique. I then tailored the presentation so that before going in depth each texture technique, I would ask them to hold up the pot they think demonstrates it based on the name of the technique. I also told them that this was peer's work that had been done in Ceramics 1, so if they enjoy this unit in clay and think the projects on the table are amazing, to sign up for Ceramics next year.

Ms. O wrote a few notes about my first presentation so I could adjust for the next two. She said my voice was clear and loud and I didn't hesitate to ask people to put away their phones, but that I said "right?" a lot and then that I should allow a longer pause before allowing students to respond to my questions. These were some of her other notes (click to enlarge).

Her feedback was helpful and I applied it to the next two classes. The second class I presented to was really difficult. This class has three special ed students and while they have peer tutors, those students can't really control their behaviors. So I was giving the presentation and one was being particularly disruptive. I would ask questions to the class and he would answer before anyone else had the opportunity so I don't think the rest of the class was able to get as engaged. But I always thanked him for his answer and then asked the rest of the class to elaborate on what he said. Then he just kept talking and talking and I tried my best to keep the rest of the class focused but thankful Ms. O was there and asked him to step out of the room and talked to him about the importance of being quiet during a presentation. I think I handled it with humor and never hinted that I was thrown off a little, but I need to think of strategies for when I'm alone in the classroom to remove a student if necessary. I think I would just ask the peer tutor to take him in the hall for a bit and then come out to talk with him after the presentation.

The third class was when I finally hit my stride. The whole class was engaged, no one was on their phone or quietly chatting to each other. I felt that was my best one yet. One thing I need to work on also is how to politely reign the class back in when I open the class to discussion or ask for answers from them. Sometimes they would continue to chat when I had moved on, and I tried to wait until it died down but then I just would start talking over them until they got the message (which wasn't long).

This was my first time giving the same presentation multiple times, and it surprised me how different each one turned out to be due to the class, new ideas I had, responses from the students, etc. What drove me nuts though was THE PROJECTOR. EVERY SINGLE CLASS PERIOD it took 10 minutes to get my computer to project onto the screen. I have no idea why it did this because we would eventually fix it, but it took the whole passing period and 5 minutes at the beginning of class to get it to work. That was so incredibly frustrating. So even when we fixed it the first time, there was a different problem every single time. Don't know how to prevent this, except to make sure I'm well educated on the technology in the classroom so I'm not just winging it.

This was a great opportunity to practice speaking in front of these classes before I lead the unit on the wheel, so I feel well prepared.

AP Drawing and 2D are really having fun with my breadth assignment and I love all of their ideas for the object morph. I did not take any pictures this week, so I'll have to remember next. During this period I graded the critique assignment on Canvas. I feel like I know how you and Gretchen must feel when grading discussion posts and responses on Canvas. It's so tedious, and some people just don't even do it. The one's who did do it however, had great responses and ideas so I'm happy with that. HERE is a PDF of all their responses and posts on the assignment. I don't know if a lot of people just weren't paying attention when I was introducing it, or if they didn't read any of the directions posted, but there was a substantial amount who have 0/45 points for this discussion. That'll be something I want to further look into.

That was about all for today! Looking forward to next week!

Here are some awesome self-portraits completed by AP (click to see full image).