Macy King

Student Teaching Journal Weekly Entries

Fall 2015-Spring 2016
Sept. 20-27th
This week I taught my first lesson to fourth grade. I did a oneperspective project where students were to create a cityscape. I
introduced the artist Gustave Callibotte and we looked at the way he
used perspective by finding his vanishing points and guiding lines. We
also observed how objects got smaller as they moved into space.
Overall, I am very satisfied with how this lesson went. The first
time I taught it the drawing of the buildings seemed to be slightly too
complicated for the students. A few fell behind or got lost in the
directions. The next time I taught it I flipped the steps around and
students seemed to have a much easier time following along. I taught
this lesson with a introductory PowerPoint and then walked through
each step along with students on the board. Each time I taught it I
ended up altering it slightly depending on student engagement level,
how students were handling the difficulty, and the interest of the class.
Students will finish up this project next week by adding color and
texture to their cityscapes.
Sept. 28- Oct. 3rd
This week my students in my fourth grade classes are finishing
up their cityscapes with color and textures. They are doing this by
placing a textured place behind their piece and adding color with
crayons. The day will consist mostly of work time with a brief
demonstration at the beginning of class with reminders of horizon
lines, vanishing points, etc.
I also am working on making 2nd grade samples and all grade
clay samples. I am worried that a few of the projects may be too simple
or too difficult so I am constantly brainstorming ways to alter them if I
find that they need to be adjusted.
Reflection on Last week
The workday for my 4th graders was a little more difficult than I
thought. I had to reinforce my expectations for the project frequently
and had to rethink how to explain a horizon line and vanishing point.
My last classes projects turned out the best. I think this is because I
finally understood how clear my directions had to be. I ended up
making a dont do example and a do example to act as a reference
for my students using their sharpie markers.

I struggle a little bit with classroom management because I see

so many different classes and grades a day. They are all so different
and respond to different rewards and warnings differently. I also am
okay with a decent noise level while my students are working while my
mentor teacher prefers a silent room. I struggle with finding a balance
between these two styles.
I am also mirror teaching a few of my mentors lessons to
different grades. I find that difficult because my personality is very
different than my mentors so I am consistently trying to modify lessons
that make me feel more comfortable teaching them.
Oct. 3-10
This was my first week teaching my lessons to 2nd and forth and
then mirror teaching the other classes. I am learning to love teaching
more everyday.
I taught a clay lesson to forth grade this week that had to be
completed within the 45 min time frame. Overall, I think it went pretty
well. I did a quick demonstration and explained the importance of
using our time and tools wisely. The class was able to all make their
pinch pot people and I LOVED seeing how they turned out. They all
have so much character.
I taught a lighthouse lesson to my second graders. This was
really fun too. I am trying to walk the line between giving too much
guidance where all the students projects look the same and then not
giving enough guidance where the projects are way off course. I am
still learning but it is fun to try different teaching techniques.
Oct. 11-16
I taught for my first full day along this week! I got to sub for my
mentor teacher and loved having the classroom to myself. I had fun
trying out different classroom management techniques and working
with the students in different ways. It was pretty difficult making sure
supplies were ready in between classes but I think that will be
something that becomes easier as I learn the classroom better. I still
struggle trying to find supplies sometimes.
This week I also focused on students that struggled during the
class period and tried to learn how to reengage each student into my
classroom. It was interesting trying to figure out each student and why
they had resistance towards center projects.
Oct. 17-23
This week I took over the classroom and decided to do clay with
all grades a little bit crazy for my first week. It was so much work but
so fun. I think it is smart to do all grades at once so that clean up isnt
as big of a task and that the kiln is full at each firing to maximize space
and electricity. It was exhausting but I think for the long run it worked

out best. If I ever do it again though I will definitely bring a rug for
students to stomp off clay dust when leaving the room.
Also, practical things I learned is that pinch pot projects require a
lot less prep work than slab projects. Pinch pots are also much easier
to teach because they require less steps and technical knowledge.

Special Education Presentation:

***The term special doesnt apply anymore, outdated, implies different
Inclusive pedagogy capture more hearts and minds
Part of being a teacher is creating climate that is inclusive lasting
impacts on students
Children with differences we expect less when we should not lower
expectations
Just may need more assistance and tools to get there
After 1990:
Access: Educated in the same place
Same curriculum
Must show progress in general curriculum
Highly qualified teacher same assessment
Model of Inclusion:
Physical inclusion same place/ same time
Curricular inclusion access to same content
Social inclusion connected with others
Who are kids with disabilities?
1. Learning and cognitive disabilities
2. Behavioral or affective impairments
3. Sensory or physical disabilities - vision, hearing, gross motor
90% if students with IEP are students with invisible disabilities
BIG questions:
How do I better reach my students who do not speak
English?
How much assistance is too much with students with low
motor skills? Lucas? Diego?
Differences
1. Learning differences
2. Behavioral differences

3. Temperament differences
4. .
Learning areas:
conceptual
language
visual spatial
organization
memory
attention
psycho-social
fine motor
EX - think about accommodations that can be made easily to meet
students needs in more than one way. Ex. math homework write on
board, write in agenda, post on class website, and repeat at beginning
and end of class
A successful teacher:
Passion - #1 attention grabber, what makes a teacher great
o Make sure to not get caught up in classroom management
and focus on the passion aspect of teaching as well
Be an active learning seek opportunities to be more
knowledgeable about my content area and indulging in the world
Travel teach from experience
Humiliation protection definition of adolescence: the 24 hour a
day 7 days a week 365 days a year effort to avoid
embarrassment
o Kids are forming identity
o Creating a classroom climate based on RELATIONAL TRUST
Attitude - what do you see or feel when you look at kids?
o Kids with disabilities deficiency, label, test scores and IQ
score, poverty and poor
o Possibility, potential, somebodys child, a whole child with
talents and possibilities who needs experiences and
teaching
We explicitly teach the communication, behavior, and social skills
needed
o Some kids dont know how to start a conversation, how to
listen, how to have dialogue, body language
o Make visible the invisible in content, behavior, social,
behavior THINKING OUT LOUD how you solve through a
problem

Moving from classroom management to building an inclusive

learning community:
o Positive
Rules are what we want not what we dont want
What will make our art room successful?
Then asking students who are violating our rules for
success to check there behavior and ask themselves
if that is violating one of our rules
o Behavioral
o Interventions
o Support
o IE students POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT, make
relationships built on trust
o Teach the behavior you WANT, not what you dont
want
Instead of punishing we TEACH & REINFORCE
But what does that look like?
We provide cognitive apprenticeships: apprenticeships in thinking
and teaching learning to learn strategies
o TEACHING HOW TO LEARN
o How to take notes, how to highlight
o

Making accommodations early to state standards and make visible

expectations:
EX. Steps of a dialogue or conversation of discussion, 5 point bullet
points
Def SCORE , what it means to be an active listener could
apply to art LOOK, LISTEN, THINK, RESPOND
Setting up for my students how we view a piece of artwork
TEACH. Think out loud
Cant internalize everything that students bring to the classroom too
much for one person
Goals of education to are related to the Selves:
Self-concept
Self-regulation
Self-monitoring
Self-esteem
Self-awareness
Self-determination

Self-control

LESSON IDEA for 5th grade:

teaching my students how to follow directions, importance of listening
Write out directions for table groups to work together to follow
Spend the last 20 min reflecting on what each group created,
how are they different? Did you follow directions? Was it hard?
Which words are important to listen to?
Curriculum adaptations:
1. Quantity
2. Input the way instruction is delivered to learner; visual aids,
enlarge text, plan more concrete examples
3. Participation
4. Time
5. Difficulty
6. Level of support
7. Output how can or do students respond to instruction
8. Participation
9. Alternate goals
10.
Substitute curriculum
Giving students hope always remember that we are there for
each kid not always about making a project place for
inclusion, empowerment
DR. TROY MARIAGE email mariaget@msu.edu
In proposal what is it about this kid that is important to me?
Oct. 23-29
This week I am trying really hard to take information from the
conference and from class and implement it into my classroom
practices. I am focusing on my management skills and definitely
learning a lot on the balance between a well-managed classroom and a
strict classroom. I am finding that the more I focus on management
though the less I focus on building individual relationships with my
students. This week I tried to focus on both by introducing the lesson,
explaining the flow of the class, and allowing my students to work
independently so that I have more time to move around the room and
ask students how they are doing. I miss the first two weeks where I had
more freedom to sit down at each table and get to know my students.
I have also realized that I tend to do really big projects in that
they require a lot of materials that are messy and difficult to manage.
They are so fun and I will definitely do them in the future. However, I

am going to try to better balance the big projects with simpler 2D

projects that work on skills and techniques.
Nov. 1-Nov6
This week I taught all new lessons to my students grades young
fives through fifth grade. I am trying to teach a range of mediums so
that I have experience teaching with different materials and knowledge
on how to manage different processes.
Y5s/K mixed up chameleons focused on building painting
techniques and skills
1st Crayon resist hot air balloon
2nd painted dream houses
3rd printmaking
4th painted clay people pots
5th grid drawing teacher portraits
With each of these lessons, I found that they improved greatly
my second round of teaching them. My improvement was especially
evident teaching grid drawing to fifth grade. I found that it was best
going through a whole demonstration and then allowing students to
begin working independently with steps written out detailing exactly
what they need to do first. I then found that after 10 min of
independent work to announce that if students need help getting
started to head back to the demo table to watch one more time. This
repetition helped underscore how to first get started working on the
grid.
My unit plan lessons wrapped up this week with forth grade. I am
really happy with the final product of the Getting to know YOU lessons.
I made a display of their buildings, murals, and people pots and the
students seem to be very proud of their work and effort. I love hearing
them share their work with their friends and family. I think one thing
that I would change would be teaching the perspective cities after
making the two 3D projects to wrap up their schools and ideas.
Nov. 9-13
This week we are finishing up a lot of projects from the previous
week. It is so fun to see how the projects are wrapping up. I think that
the hot air balloons with first grade was successful. They are
aesthetically pleasing as well as utilize student knowledge of shapes
and lines.
Second grade finished up painting their dream houses and I
learned a lot about classroom management when using paint in the
room. I am also slowly learning how to manage hand washing in a
quick and productive way.
Overall, I am still trying to maintain a productive and safe
classroom that still allows for really creative projects that require

multiple materials and steps. The balance between classroom

management and the art process is still difficult for me to make sure
that I am maintaining. I really dont like to yell so it has also been
interesting trying out different techniques to earn students attention. I
have tried hand clapping and lights flashing so far and havent decided
on my favorite yet. I will probably always use a few of them and mix it
up with each class.
Nov. 16-20
This week I am focusing closely on classroom management,
noise level, and movement around the room. I am trying to limit
movement by placing supplies on the table groups and only allowing
movement with permission. This also helps with pacing the students.
Conferences are this week too. Only one students parents came
to see us and we discussed their sons growth in the art room and
things that he could work on while at home. I thought it was interesting
that no other parents even stopped by to quickly see their students
progress.
We also have a lot of half days because of conferences and
thanksgiving break. It is difficult to know what class is where on each
project because some are really behind while others are really ahead. I
think for my first year teaching I will always keep a calendar with me
so I know what each grade needs to work on each day. There is so
much to keep straight!
Nov. 23-27
This week was super chaotic because of the half days last week
for conferences and the half day on Wednesday. All of the classes are
on different a schedule now, which is getting difficult. It is hard to
remember where each class is and what part of the project they are
working on. Luckily, this week was mostly just wrapping up previous
projects and finishing work from before.
I have noticed that the energy of kids increases drastically when
a break is coming up and that at this point in the year kids are
beginning to grow tired of school routines and rules. Students are
beginning to be more talkative because they now know their
classmates much better. My mentor gave me helpful hints in to
reinforce expectations at the beginning of each class and to remain
consistent throughout.
Nov 31- Dec.4th.
This week went well. It was more of a catch up week after the
Thanksgiving break because a lot of classes didnt see art the previous

week. It is getting more difficult assessing where each class is on each

project, who missed a day, etc. I am using my calendars more and
more.
I am having a few students goof around with materials more now
than ever before. I am trying to figure out the best way to address this
issue. Towards the end of the week, I began to start each class with a
mini review of the expectations and rules in the art room and
explained again what will happen if materials are used incorrectly or
unsafely. That seemed to work with my upper grades but my
kindergarteners and first graders didnt seem to follow along as well. I
had to take scissors away from two kindergarteners because they were
swinging them around and using the irresponsibly. This seemed to get
the point across a little clearer the importance of being safe. I think I
could have avoided this situation if I was firmer on material safety
earlier on.
I am beginning to get sad thinking about leaving my students
behind. I feel like I am FINALLY at a point where I know most students
names and their personalities. It is crazy how long that takes! It is
going to be hard to say goodbye.
Dec. 7-10th
This week was difficult knowing it was my last week with each student.
I put in a lot of effort in expressing my joy being around them and what
an honor it has been to get to know them. I had so much fun finishing
up all of their projects with them this week. I especially LOVE how the
still life flowers from second grade turned out. Every one of them is
beautiful!
I am reflecting this week on all that I have learned these past
three months. It feels like so long ago where I was nervous to do my
first lesson. I feel much more confidant in the front of the room and
running the class. I love being able to teach my own lessons and see
how to modify them for each class. I think the most valuable thing that
I have learned is that each class is extremely different and as a teacher
it is important to realize those differences and to modify classroom
management and lesson planning to meet those differences.