I had a great experience as a high school student, and I would like to assume that the majority of high school students will also love it. However, everyone is different, and my guess is that maybe only half (that's probably generous) of high school graduates would be willing to go back and enjoy it all over again.
What kind of high school student was I? The girl who did it all - I took Honors classes, was a State Finals athlete every year, worked, went to church, was a leader in other clubs/committees at school, and still made time for my friends and family members.
The fears I have about working with high school students are not associated with teaching art classes as much as Spanish classes. I will without a doubt have native speakers in my room. What if they think I am speaking too slowly or am pronouncing something wrong? I'm supposed to be the most knowledgeable person on the subject in the room!
Something I am hoping to learn in this class this semester is how to develop good art rubrics for assignments. Grading can be subjective, especially in art, whereas in math class there is usually a right or wrong answer. How do you grade the hard worker who lacks drawing/painting/etc. skills, versus the slacker student who is a natural? A second thing I think I will learn this semester is how much time students need for assignments. I want to push them but not have students afraid to sign up for my classes someday. In the AP Photography Portfolio class I took my senior year of high school, we cranked out at least twice as many assignments as we did in my University's Intermediate Photography class (partly because there was lecture on famous photographers during class in college, and in high school we researched artists on our own time).
The thing I am most excited about this semester is working with students at ABCDEF High School because I am very much a person who learns by seeing and doing. Classes with field experience components are great because we get a chance to apply what we've learned instead of just trying to remember it all for when we need to apply it in the future.
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You don't have to be the most knowledgeable person in the room in your Spanish class. Don't be afraid to turn to the native speakers and ask them questions or invite them to help you teach. That is a great experience for everyone. Also your questions about grading are great. If you make assignments that are rich and that teach more than just studio skills you won't have a problem grading. Great post!
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ReplyDeleteGrading in any class is what I am going to have the most difficulty with, because more so than any other area, art is as you said, subjective. So, what one teacher might consider the “cat’s meow” another teacher might find similar to the litter box… in a manner of speaking.
ReplyDeleteI had teachers all throughout my schooling who would grade based on their personal preferences, such as basing their lesson plans on an artist like Balthus or Grant Wood, and comparing students work to theirs. There were also others who would grade solely on the amount of time and work put in to fulfilling a certain project and it’s requirements, with little reflection or consideration into whether their was any creative thought put into a project as opposed to craft or the fulfillment of a list of items.
Certainly, work applied to any project should play a valuable role in the end result of a student’s grade, but one also has to consider each individual student’s ability in the formation of a grade for a piece of work. Preferably, this would be based off of an assessment of a student’s progress over the course of the school year (through their work) and hopefully you would see improvement in the work produced and be able to format grading based on how they improve.
I find your insight to teaching Spanish similar to how I feel when I could be teaching English. I will be able to teach both Art and English, and although I am passionate about both, I feel English will pose the most problems. I have yet to build self-confidence in my English skills. I hope these issues of self-doubt will be advantageous to my teaching.... Being overly confident can be a detour to reaching students, right? I hope so......
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