Hello All!
Happy February! We have been getting further into the semester and I am adjusting to my schedule nicely. This week has been a productive yet somewhat low-key one, as I only worked at one of my residencies and was not scheduled to begin anything for my Teaching Artist Shadowing. I got to DeLaSalle on Tuesday to find that they were in the midst of a Spirit Week, which consists of 5 out-of-uniform days, each with a different theme so students can dress up and show school spirit. Tuesday was "Twin Day" so many students were dressed up like one another. While the students and teachers were enthusiastic about the dress-up day, the assignment they were working on seemed to shift the mood of the classroom. Students were asked to participate in (and initially graded on) submitting an entry to a national coloring contest, one featuring a black and white image of the white house featuring the statement "We LOVE our presidents!". As students began to finish and turn in their drawings, the teacher noticed a few submissions that definitely would not have been fit for the competition. This sparked some political conversation in the classroom, leading the teacher to make the coloring contest optional and make a formal apology to the class for the assignment that was not appropriate for all. This was a very interesting experience for me to be a part of, as I do have a strong political stance and opinion on our new president. Without pressing my own opinions, I was glad to take part in as well as facilitate the conversations around the assignment as well as the state of the nation. While the coloring contest was the main focus of the two Intro classes I was present for this week, the teacher and I also spent some time preparing their next lesson which will entail drawing 4 close-up images of the same object from different perspectives and using different techniques. I drew up the layout of the paper they will be working on and gave a short demonstration on how to measure and mark their paper so that they will meet the size requirements for the assignment. This was exciting for me, as I felt like I was finally able to start contributing directly to the curriculum! I have also began to discuss with the teacher some possibilities for creating my own lesson plan that I will teach at the end of my residency. I'm already looking forward to it!
Until next week,
-Roman