Week 12: Lesson reflection

Pre-viewing: The lesson was successful. At this point in the year the kinders are more "trained." We completed the lesson about 10 minutes earlier than the other classes had. We had enough time for clean up - paint on tables and chairs - so I didn't have to worry about my next class waiting as I wiped things down. They are still developmentally sooo self-centered. When I explained the students were going to be sent two at a time to the sinks to wash their hands as we have done before, they didn't seem to understand why they had to wait because their hands were dirty.  Later in the day a third grade boy came up to me and asked, "Art is about getting dirty, isn't it?" I was so happy that he was focusing in on the process of art making and had accepted that there is a time for being messy and getting dirty.

Post-viewing: I am always amazed with how the camcorder sees things I don't pick up on in class. There are twenty little balls of energy bouncing around the room and I don't ever just step back and watch them all as a whole. I am the twenty-first ball bouncing around the room. Each table group of six students is its own little island of interactions and personalities. Every once in a while, a person travels over to another island. 

I think I am realizing that movement me is just as important for me as it is for my students. I am a kinesthetic teacher. Even when I am standing near the board, I am gesturing with my hands.  I am pretty sure my behaviors and procedures are unconsciously there to facilitate my need to be moving around. The few times I have sat at my desk while the students were working this past year I have felt so dejected and bored.

The second video showed a class that started quicker with less distractions, and cleaned up with one Indian chief orchestrating the actions, not five or six. Before viewing the video, I felt like so many students wanted to be at the sink at once. The actual difference was that most students kept to their seats even though they were vocalizing their desire to run to the sink. I also noticed in the second video that the students were responding to inflections in my voice as their cue to stop chattering and listen to what I was saying. The students tend to verbalize what they are drawing as they are drawing it, and their opinion of it. I do not think it would be possible to teach them something new and have them be quiet about it. They also moderate other student's drawings to see if others followed the teacher's directions. This is a contrast to what happens in the upper grades as the students are more peer centered. When they are off task, they look to see what their peers have done instead of looking at the teacher sample. In the lower grades, I do not have to question a student about copying off their neighbor instead of looking at the board.

I am also noticing some design flaws with my room other than its small size. The  room is not designed to facilitate movement. Watching the video of myself walking between tables in my room is like watching an auto-crosser navigate a curvy road course. My room also does not handle noise well. Students talk while they work, but I have no surfaces that absorb the noise. My voice doesn't project in my tin can like it did when I was in a regular classroom.