Prepwork: Write about what bothers you.
Tensions - Classroom
The ever changing and ever flickering distraction of the classroom. Depending on the day there is tension between students, tension between student and teacher, or tension between student and some other adult or family member inside or outside the building. Big idea here, tension is stressful and blocks learning from being absorbed. When tension occurs in the life of the teacher it can change their mood thus changing the entire environment of their classroom. What was once a cheerful, successful learning environment can turn into a place where frustrations run high and problem solving seems unattainable.
Example: Today I had started class when I heard a ruckus in the hallway. Upon checking on the scene I saw it was being caused by one of my female students. I looked at her, and closed my door. After getting the class back on task with their welcome warm-up (bell ringer in sketchbook) I opened my door and stepped into the hallway to chat with her about her behavior. Turns out this particular student was so stretched full with tension that she was forgetting to take a breath when spilling out the high stress details of her day. She could not even remember to breath, how was I going to get her to a state where she could learn? Or enter my room? While asking myself these questions I also had the "I need to get back in the room, I need to be checking on all my other 25+ students, I wish she would calm down." All of these selfish thoughts are running through my head causing tension while she is at almost her breaking point with her own.
Long story short, tension is contagious.
Tensions - Curriculum
Man o man, this portion of my response could be a book, but I'll do my best to be concise. My current Art I Foundations curriculum and I are like water and oil. The lack of alignment, scaffolding, relevancy, and clarity is astronomical. Nothing is defined, which leaves all understanding of the curriculum to be "assumed". We use a "big idea" curriculum, but no one has defined this to the teachers on how this should be used so everyone draws their own conclusion of what a "big idea" is and teaches according to their own personal understanding. (this does not align with MU's definition of Big Ideas) Instead, lessons are structured around formulated lessons where everyone uses a DEFINED big idea that must be interpreted the way the teacher has DEFINED it. (In most cases, I can vogue that this is not happening in two of the Art I classrooms, but no others)
The order of our current curriculum is utterly wacky. To put this into perspective our students were assessed every 6 weeks this year. Their first assessment tested their technical skills on drawing a proportional human mannequin figure, their ability to use accurate line weight to convey depth of space and shadow vs. light, use of construction lines prior to application of "confident lines" for their drawing, etc. etc. etc. The second assessment addressed form, shading techniques, and observational drawing. Their final 6 week assessment given in December of this year covered simple ideas such as; color theory and geometric vs. organic shape. Oh, and we do not cover perspective until second semester.
Sound a bit backwards to you?? That's because it is. Good news? A team of 3 Art I teachers and I get to rewrite the curriculum that will be used next school year.
Tensions - Administration
None, I am very thankful for my administrative team and their open-mindedness to change.
Tensions - Classroom
The ever changing and ever flickering distraction of the classroom. Depending on the day there is tension between students, tension between student and teacher, or tension between student and some other adult or family member inside or outside the building. Big idea here, tension is stressful and blocks learning from being absorbed. When tension occurs in the life of the teacher it can change their mood thus changing the entire environment of their classroom. What was once a cheerful, successful learning environment can turn into a place where frustrations run high and problem solving seems unattainable.
Example: Today I had started class when I heard a ruckus in the hallway. Upon checking on the scene I saw it was being caused by one of my female students. I looked at her, and closed my door. After getting the class back on task with their welcome warm-up (bell ringer in sketchbook) I opened my door and stepped into the hallway to chat with her about her behavior. Turns out this particular student was so stretched full with tension that she was forgetting to take a breath when spilling out the high stress details of her day. She could not even remember to breath, how was I going to get her to a state where she could learn? Or enter my room? While asking myself these questions I also had the "I need to get back in the room, I need to be checking on all my other 25+ students, I wish she would calm down." All of these selfish thoughts are running through my head causing tension while she is at almost her breaking point with her own.
Long story short, tension is contagious.
Tensions - Curriculum
Man o man, this portion of my response could be a book, but I'll do my best to be concise. My current Art I Foundations curriculum and I are like water and oil. The lack of alignment, scaffolding, relevancy, and clarity is astronomical. Nothing is defined, which leaves all understanding of the curriculum to be "assumed". We use a "big idea" curriculum, but no one has defined this to the teachers on how this should be used so everyone draws their own conclusion of what a "big idea" is and teaches according to their own personal understanding. (this does not align with MU's definition of Big Ideas) Instead, lessons are structured around formulated lessons where everyone uses a DEFINED big idea that must be interpreted the way the teacher has DEFINED it. (In most cases, I can vogue that this is not happening in two of the Art I classrooms, but no others)
The order of our current curriculum is utterly wacky. To put this into perspective our students were assessed every 6 weeks this year. Their first assessment tested their technical skills on drawing a proportional human mannequin figure, their ability to use accurate line weight to convey depth of space and shadow vs. light, use of construction lines prior to application of "confident lines" for their drawing, etc. etc. etc. The second assessment addressed form, shading techniques, and observational drawing. Their final 6 week assessment given in December of this year covered simple ideas such as; color theory and geometric vs. organic shape. Oh, and we do not cover perspective until second semester.
Sound a bit backwards to you?? That's because it is. Good news? A team of 3 Art I teachers and I get to rewrite the curriculum that will be used next school year.
Tensions - Administration
None, I am very thankful for my administrative team and their open-mindedness to change.
Wow!!!!! Very comprehensive thinking and reflecting on all sorts of issues. Very Impressive! I know that you are dealing with a lot this year and the first year at something new is always much harder than it will be. I can give you Carrie's intro curriculum to look at and at least that would give you some interesting places to start. I know that you are dealing with assessment too. Usually first year teachers are not given this much responsibility as administrators know that it is a transition year with a huge learning curve. BTW, I think you handled the student with the computer/bullying outburst perfectly. You truly are doing an amazing job as a beginning teacher.
ReplyDelete