Day four was awesome because I got to meet many new volunteers. One was actually a teacher from the university in Joplin. Before the students arrived, Karalee told me I would be sharing the classroom and its teaching with her while she ran the downstairs gallery (as the director was now ill). I was excited to have someone new in the room, but was also nervous at a new, seasoned teacher watching me teach. Since she had not taught the lesson there herself yet, she would be following my example on how to teach it! Luckily, upon talking to her, I learned that she was very kind and encouraging to me. We had a really good conversation about why we chose to become teachers and how it had impacted our lives.
When the students arrived, we took our first group upstairs. I was really excited to get back into teaching the lesson as I definitely felt more confident about what I was doing there. It was interesting because out of all the days I taught, this was the first that students actively spoke with me, looked at me as their teacher, and even tried to give me their finished pieces. They seemed really excited about what they were doing and wanted my approval on it. Many of them, like the student below, would even come running to me asking to photograph them with their work. It was really awesome to see such a large amount of enthusiasm!
When the students arrived, we took our first group upstairs. I was really excited to get back into teaching the lesson as I definitely felt more confident about what I was doing there. It was interesting because out of all the days I taught, this was the first that students actively spoke with me, looked at me as their teacher, and even tried to give me their finished pieces. They seemed really excited about what they were doing and wanted my approval on it. Many of them, like the student below, would even come running to me asking to photograph them with their work. It was really awesome to see such a large amount of enthusiasm!
After my first lesson, the other art teacher and I switched spots. She was now the lead teacher of the classroom and I was quite interested to see how she would teach the lesson. While she stuck to many of the same ideas I presented, when playing a game with the students where they had to guess what type of piece each painting was (ex, landscape, portrait, etc) she took the time to talk about each piece and what made it what it was. I really liked the way she engaged the students in every part of her lesson. By the end of the day, I had learned a lot and was really happy to have worked with her.