Reflection of EDUC 450 experience
This course, EDUC 450, has been an excellent experience and learning opportunity. Not only did I get hands on experience in a classroom, I also had opportunities to teach and influence a classroom of students in a high school setting. I was placed with the photography teacher at Fort Collins High School. Being an art education major with a concentration in photography, I was very excited about this placement, knowing it would be very informative and a great view into the topic I want to teach in my near future. I was also placed in a painting classroom, which gave me a great insight to new projects, ways to approach a lesson and an art studio culture that I would like to create in my future classroom. Unlike other classes that I have taken to prepare me to transform from a student into a teacher, this class has been most helpful and more useful to me than reading a textbook or hearing a professor's lecture. I was able to work with students and get to know them as the semester progressed, helping me to become a part of their class and eventually someone they looked to for advice and assistance, letting me use my knowledge and actually teach. I really enjoyed being in the classroom during studio days when the students were working on their projects. It was then that I was able to work one-on-one with students helping them improve and grow with their work. I also was able to learn a lot through teaching two lessons, which in my case consisted of creating and introducing two new photography projects. I learned the importance of early planning and how to adapt lesson plans to a high school class, with only having previous experience with elementary or middle school lessons. I was pleased with the outcomes of my lessons and how I became more comfortable being in front of a class introducing a lesson and interacting with students. In addition to learning from being in the high school classes, I also gained a lot of knowledge from the 450 seminar class that followed. I now am aware of many different teaching strategies that I want to incorporate into my teaching and have an understanding of how they can be applied successfully in a classroom through examples of master teachers at FCHS. There are many key points that were addressed throughout the semester that I believe will also help me to become the great teacher I want to be. These include: be yourself when teaching, leave your ego at the door, proximity is a great management tool, know the importance of questioning and most importantly get to know your students and build relationships. I think that if I am able to keep these in mind as I begin teaching it will be very beneficial. This experience has helped to me step foot in high school art classrooms and have a first hand experience of both the classes and the behind the scenes planning and organization that occurs as a teacher.