Practicum Reflection - 3rd Grade

Practicum Reflection
• What things did you think went really well with the lesson?
I really felt like the whole lesson went quite well. I was super nervous because it was my daughter’s 3rd grade class. I wanted to make sure I didn’t do an art project that the kids didn’t enjoy. My daughter has known that I was coming to her class for over a month now so she had really talked me up and I did not want to disappoint. I did my lesson on tangrams and collographs. We played with the tangram puzzle first and the kids were able to create their own designs using all seven of the shapes. Once the students had come up with a design that they liked they glued it down on their “relief plate”. From there we made rubbings with multi-crayons that I had made. The students loved the multi-crayons! I told them that they could keep them and they were all so surprised and really excited to take them home and show their parents. Next, we created prints using tempera paint. The students were so creative. They made fish, rabbits, kangaroos, rocket ships, robots and a claw. The students also loved having their pictures taken with their art – they were all so proud.

• What was the student’s response to your activity/teaching? Were they receptive?
The student’s were great. They were all so happy to see me and they couldn’t wait to see what we were going to do. They seemed to enjoy each part of the lesson. At the beginning of the lesson when I was explaining the tangram and talking to them about geometric shapes and organic shapes they were all very involved. Every time I would ask the students a question, they all raised their hands and wanted to answer. A few of the students asked me if I could stay until the end of school. One little boy told me that he wished I could come to their class every Wednesday and teach them art. When I was done a bunch of the kids came up to me and told me thank you for coming and that they had a lot of fun – it made me feel pretty dang good!

• Has this experience gotten you excited to teach art?
Absolutely! I did not know what to expect and I was very nervous. I had so much fun once I got going. There are so many fun things to do with art and the kids really enjoy doing anything that is art. I felt like these kids wish that they could do more art. Their teacher told me that they don’t get to do a lot of art and I think that is so sad. I guess that is why integration is so important. As teachers we really need to try to include art in our lessons so that they do not get art deprived. I am so excited to try out a lot of art projects on my students when I have my own class. It is nice to see every student in the class enjoying themselves and really get involved. I am definitely excited to teach art.