That's not teacher led inquiry but a tic beneath my eye...! :) A little overwhelmed still. I keep going over in my head what I want to do. I think I have caught a little ADD from my students. It is contagious isn't it? Okay, so I am still working out what I want to do, and what my question is. Every single day I am learning something new.. about the kids, the school, their learning, their challenges, etc etc. I think this may be why I am hitting a wall.. I have challenges with my students but a lot of that is due to not really knowing them well. Which is sometimes good. I have not placed expectations on what they are capable of.. so they surprise me and surprise their teachers. However, not knowing more about them also makes it hard. I don't know their strengths, weaknesses, challenges.
So in the beginning I was thinking about doing something with Art and student engagement. The thing is though.... art is engaging. Every single grade is very willing to do art and getting messy is just a bonus. I started teaching 5 minute lessons at the beginning of my 5th grade classes. It is lessons that build on each other and right now they think it is pretty easy but they are doing it and hopefully learning something. I decided to try it in a couple of 4th grade classes as well because their teacher mentioned that they really needed help following step, by step, instructions. Art lessons are step by step. My biggest struggle in class is that 40 minutes once a week isn't enough to get in depth. The kids get impatient to get dirty so I am trying to find ways to continue to talk about art concepts, art history, artists, while students are working.
Okay so... that's where I am at... still questioning, still unsure, but still discovering things.
Journal 5
Emotions: ACCCCKKK overwhelmed
Thanks Holly for the 5 min. lesson Suggestion :)
ReplyDeleteTrisha,
ReplyDeleteYou are so funny! Just so you know, I hit many walls while doing teacher inquiry! It's just how some of us work! Don't worry, that TIC under your eye will go away, and those walls will break through to something amazing, you just have to persevere! So, maybe you need a new question that allows you to collect data every day, something that you can do with all grade levels, and then you could compare how different aged students react to _____ whatever ____ is! Go back to the wonderings, the things that bother you, the noticings, what new questions arise? Again, just so you know, I am changing my question in what seems like a weekly basis! We sure do work a lot alike! Let us know where you may want to go from here so others in your group will be able to leave comments to your new thinking!
Holly
Trisha,
ReplyDeleteI too feel like things are really up in the air and, as Holly mentioned, that is really the process. It does come together in the end though. I like her suggestion -- since you work with multiple age groups, it is an ideal situation to compare and contrast differences between them.
That is an idea Treena... well that is something that occurs every day but what aspect about their differences could I compare?
ReplyDeleteWow! I love the idea of your five minute lesson. It is so important for the students to learn about art not just do it. I like comparing different ages, seeing that you are able to interact with all the students. Lucky! How do you plan on monitoring the differences?
ReplyDeleteTrisha,
ReplyDeleteIn my very brief foray into art instruction I began each class with a mini-lesson. If you can build on them each week, that will be even better. You also have the option to keep the lesson similar throughout your day (4th and 5th grade could be about line in art, for example). Then you could really tailor your room to let them visually steep in the concept your working on.
Thanks Aaron :) I agree it is something I should integrate across grade levels!
ReplyDelete