Holy Angels Academcy - Dan Dimond - 4 hours
This was my first week at the Academy of Holy Angels. It was very interesting to be back in the classroom with my former Art teacher, Dan Dimond. Since it was my first day there, my day was mostly observational. I had the opportunity to engage with a handful of students, though I focused on listening and getting a feel for the dynamic and teaching style of Dan.
Our plan for my 40 hour placement is that I will be there to observe and help in his drawing class, painting class, and AP art class. It is a couple weeks away from the end of the Trimester at Holy Angels, so the students in the Painting class were working on their final projects. I really enjoyed seeing what they were working on and what they had made throughout the trimester, and talking to the students about their work. It felt good to be helpful and assist with some technical problems some students were working on regarding mixing colors or application.
Next there was the Drawing class, which was starting to learn about the generic proportions of the body. This was a good opportunity to see Dan lecture and understand more about his approach to the subject. Something I really like about his teaching style is that it is very high energy, maintaining a sense of humor that seems to keep the kids attention. His classroom is relaxed but efficient.
The last class of the day was AP art, which was a group of students who are obviously very comfortable with each other. This class is rarely lecture and generally focused on work-time. Dan describes it as a big group of independent studies. My purpose in this class will be to offer feedback and some extra perspective to the students as they work on their concentration and breadth. As my first day in the classroom, I got to know a handful of the students but am yet to really get to know them and be immersed into their classroom experience.