The end of fall

After three months of writing lesson plans and coming home with clothes stained with paint, the first semester of the Art After School Program has come to an end. It is bittersweet as I had to say goodbye to a group of wonderful students who were responsible for making the class as enjoyable as it was, but I am excited to start a new class in January. I believe the winter class will benefit greatly from the experience I gained this fall and I have a some ideas on ways to improve the class.

This internship has been a wonderful opportunity. It helped me to feel more confident teaching. I have always believed I would not be able to do it effectively as I am a rather shy and reserved person, but I really enjoyed teaching each week. It helps that I talked to some of the parents during the students' exhibition of all there art and I found out that some of the students really enjoyed the class. The internship was a learning experience as well. It taught me that I needed to take a step back and be more willing to facilitate. Coming from a background in art history, I have a tendency to fall into lecturing which is not a enjoyable experience for elementary students. They want to move and talk about their lives and I needed to make more room for that in the class. I hoping next year I can design some kinetic activities.

The most impact lesson I took away was that I need to structure the classes around a topic that the students find relatable. The topic of the most successful class I had was hand washing and the types of objects people used in the Middle Ages to wash their hands. It gave the students the opportunity the think about the objects they have in the lives and use and compare them to things they had in the past. They seemed more willing to talk and think about why people do certain things. The lesson did unfortunately devolve into me trying to explain water pressure and how faucets work which I was not prepared to do.

Next semester, I am going to try to take what I learned and make the classes more focused on the students. Instead of having them make unrelated objects each week, I am going to have them pretend to be a leader of their own kingdom and make art that they would like to have in their kingdom. For example, I am going to have them design their own royal outfit and make a model of a castle in which they would like to live. I am hoping that this gets them more invested in the art they make. I want them to get excited and feel that the things they are making are important.

Here some pictures from the student exhibition. I think they did a fantastic job: