Week 9

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1ST

Not a whole lot to report. Students are continuing to work on their projects. They are starting to get very dry, so I'm concerned about them continuing to work on them and add clay to them. I had to announce that if their piece is dry they can't add more clay. That's about all!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2ND

Students continued to work on their pieces. I had a disappointing with one of my students, C. He was one of my favorites off the bat because after the first day of school, when we made the spheres, he came up to me and said, "Awh man, we aren't working on our spheres today? I was up all night thinking about what I want to improve!" This really made me happy and I held very high regards of him ever since. Well, he's really been struggling with the clay project and getting inspiration for it. He has great ideas, but I can tell he would rather not do anything than execute his ideas poorly. So he's been at a standstill for the past week. Then, when I finally got him on a roll, he decided to smash his project. He was laughing with his peers but I knew it was an act. So I calmly told him, "I'm really disappointed you decided to smash your project rather than take a risk. Understand that I don't care if you produce an amazing vessel, but I want you to be able to persevere through problems. If you can't persevere through an art project, how are you going to persevere through tougher things in that will hit you later in life?" He could tell I was sad and seriously, so after class he came up to me and addressed me in a little more serious tone saying that he wanted to start over. I said that was fine and that I hoped he knew I wasn't upset with him, but just concerned about these attitudes and behaviors developing when he's faced with a challenge. I told him that thought very highly of him and expect better from him in the future. It was a good conversation that I think sobered him up. Hopefully we'll be a little more productive tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3RD

Today was honestly my first bad day. During 5th period I noticed one of my students was still not making progress on his ceramic vessel. He's a freshmen and is really excited to have made friends with upperclassmen that like him and so he's been distracted. I've joked around with him saying, "D., man, when you gonna start adding some stuff to your piece?" for the past week, but today I decided not to let it die out with, "I'll get there Ms. P!" So I asked him if he was having trouble coming up with a personal story to use as inspiration so I asked if there were any books, movies, stories, that he liked and would like to use instead and he played the typical I have nothing interesting to offer and don't care about anything. His peers kind of joked about it with him and I told them to knock it off so that I could have a serious conversation with D. When they wouldn't stop I told Derrick to go to the other table to begin brainstorming some ideas. When I came over a bit later to help him brainstorm, I noticed his ears were red and his eyes were welling. I touched him on his shoulder and assured him he wasn't in trouble and I wasn't upset, which opened the flood gates. I quickly escorted him to a separate room because I didn't want him to feel embarrassed if his peers saw him. I left him there and told him to take a minute to relax and calm down and that I would be back in a minute. I went over to his friends, and since I knew they genuinely liked and cared about D., I told them that I thought I might have embarrassed him in front of them and to just be cool tomorrow and not bring it up. They all were very kind and agreed. I let Jasmine next door know the situation so another adult was aware I would be alone with a student and then asked Danielle to cover the next class so I could talk to him. I went in and sat down with D. and let him know that I was sorry if I had embarrassed him and that it was not my intention. He said I didn't embarrass him but that sometimes he just gets overwhelmed and I caught him off guard. I asked him if he was stressed out about coming up with an idea for the narrative vessel and he said yes. So I told him that as long as he explored texture and form I didn't care what the project was. I asked if there was anything that interested him in my demonstrations and he said he liked the examples with pattern on them. We looked up some artists that do geometric patterns on their vessels and we agreed that he would do that. I gave him some more time to relax before going to his next class. I felt horrible. I know I wasn't the cause, but that I triggered whatever else was going on with him. I wanted to cry when I saw his face.

So since I was shaken by that, I was not on top of my game with 7th, my worst class, and they could sense it. They pushed me so much today. I normally am very calm and collected but I definitely let them get a rise out of me and I wanted to cry by the end of the class. I am realizing that consistency is definitely a big key component in classroom management. I originally told them they couldn't sit with friends at different tables and I let that slide so now anytime I ask them to go back to their original seats they whine and tell me that I let them do it last week. I definitely will not stray from my rules next time. It just makes it so much more difficult to justify and enforce your rules during the times you really need them.

So yeah. My first bad day.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4TH

Today I had a MUCH better day. My parents reminded me to pour my energy into the students that give me pride and make me feel good so that I don't detract from their education by focusing my energy into those who are driving me nuts. I also don't hold grudges so I was able to come into 7th period with a clean slate and didn't hold yesterday against any of the students who drove me nuts. I did keep a firm grip on them, but kindly. I even had a nice conversation with one of the students that was driving me nuts. Good day!

Here is a cool piece from one of the AP girls!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5TH

Today I met with Mr. Urban to thank him for allowing me the opportunity to student teach here and give him a card. I felt like it was the professional thing to do and to leave a good impression in case something comes up. I'm not too stressed about finding a job and I'm not as stressed about finding that job AT Fishers. It would be ideal, but I am just going with the flow!

Students' last work day so I just wrapped up some grading and helped Danielle get prepped to take over again.