Day 1 of lesson!

Day 1 of lesson

Today was an extremely interesting day. To begin with I spent the majority of the day at _______________ Middle/High School. Today was my day to teach the lesson to the 2D II class, and to get in my best teaching mode I decided it would best to be in the environment for an extended period of time. I will admit, I was a bit nervous. The last time I taught a lesson to an actual class, it was 3rd graders, which is a very different scenario compared to teaching sophomores and juniors in high school. It was my first time actually teaching art to high schoolers, and with any new experience often comes a tenseness of nerves.
The lesson I taught was based on the art of the 20th century. Students had previously studied the style and labeled them into 3 groups: like, neutral, and dislike. Having already completed a project in a style that they approved of, it was now time to handle one that dealt with the style that they did not appreciate. First the had to identify a style they did not like. The next step was to identify what they did not like about it. Once they had done this, they had to “fix” the art style based on their complaints. This justified complaining brought up an excellent opportunity to solve a problem.
The project is to last days. Day 1 is Discussion and getting started. Day 2 is a workday, and day 3 will be discussion, critique, and justification of opinions. So far things have been going very successfully. The students were engaged in conversation, and some have begun to work. It’s amazing to see what discussion takes place between students when you get them started and than step out of it. I am very excited to see what they develop. On a side note, Mr. H had told me after class that the students were planning to pretend to fall asleep when I started the lesson!! They couldn’t contain their laughter and the attempt failed. It was quite hilarious, and despite their attempt to test me, they are a very smart and well-behaved group. It is a small class, all girls, so I am not surprised such a tight knit group of students would conjure up a plan, and felt complimented by the gesture. Mr. H. said I handled the class very well and have been done well teaching so far. As I said before, I am very anxious to see where this project goes!!