In the Classroom
Fostering Engagement
No matter the age, I believe that in order to foster engagement within learners, I must first and foremost pay attention to my learners. The students will set the pace and direction of classroom and my goal is to adapt lesson for each class based on the group of learners within. At an elementary level, this means understanding how a student may think and making connections between their outside lives and the classroom. At the high school level, it means getting to know their interests and allowing Choice in their art making.
Incorporating Technology
For consistency and time management, I create videos of my demonstrations for lessons. This ensures that each class is being provided with the same instruction, provides more time for art making by reducing demo time, omitting transitions, and allows me to be more present in the classroom while students are watching the demonstration. I can then upload these videos onto their google classroom so that it can be viewed on their own time. This allows learners that may need more time or missed in class instruction, to view on their own time.
Reflective Action
I measure growth through reflective action. Wether it is formal research, or informally adapting upon reflection, my goal as an educator is to maintain and model a growth mindset. Feedback from students, parents, faculty and staff is an important component of assessing my effectiveness as an educator, as well as collecting data through observation. Through reflective action I am striving to provide an engaging environment, as well as, making room for students a voice in their education.
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The right is a set of graphs created from data that I collected around reducing disruptions in a kindergarten class.
