Day 5 in the classroom and first day of my lesson!

Today I only came for the last half of the day so I made it in time to be with the 5^th and 6^th grade. I wanted to be able to enjoy a little more time with my family for Easter break but also make it back in time to start my lesson.

In the 5^th grade they were glazing their mugs they had made in the class period before. This was quite the process, as it seemed like all of them had something to say about how fast the glaze dries and how it was difficult to glaze with the brushes in some places. What I noticed for the students was they put very little glaze on the brush and needed to be reminded it was ok to have a little more glaze on their brush. It has been nice to have the opportunity to work with this class as this week they are really starting to get use me being there.  I am no longer just a stranger their as they remember my name and are actually asking me for help by name. It’s hard when I was only seeing them every other week. So I’m glad that they are finally grasping who I am.

In the 6^th grade I started my first day of the plaster mask lesson. This was a lesson that my cooperating teacher has done in the past he wanted me to do with them.  Its unfortunate that we didn’t get much time to talk about his expectations for the power point because I didn’t realize that he was expecting me to talk for the entire class period until the day of. So I felt a little less prepared at that time. I thought that the information, which I wanted to give to the students, was great place for them to get started. I think they learned the purposes for masks and each of them had a great start to the project having sketches in mind. The only real dilemma that occurred was that some of the boys thought I would be good to make Hitler themed masks. I talked to each of them individually informing them that they needed to come up with something else, as this was inappropriate. I had to tell them twice before they finally took a new direction. I was definitely not expecting that to happen and I think in the future if I do a lesson like this one I will remind students that some things are not appropriate if things are questionable they probably should not be done. In my own classroom it will be nice because I will know more about discipline procedures.  Overall though I think there was a lot to learn from but I don’t think it went horribly I just think that next time there will be changes to make.