Introduction:
Rocky Mountain High School
Rocky Mountain High School is a welcoming and inclusive environment to all students, staff, faculty, and visitors. Their motto of Self. Purpose. Place. Is very fitting considering they all go hand in hand to serve as a reminder of the goals achieved during your time in this building, to propel you into a successful future. RMHS provides students with the privilege of choice, which in turn relates to the responsibility of their education and future endeavors. In my time in a Photo 1 class and an upper level creative photo class, I was challenged with learning a completely new medium (to me) while coming up with lessons that would benefit the students in my class. During the first quarter, the students in Photo 1 were more like teachers to me, and took me under their wing to teach me the process of photography and processing film in the dark room. These students completely embodied the school motto Self. Purpose. Place. In the second quarter, I was shocked to learn there were only seven students- a drastic change from the first quarter with around 25 students- this class was very welcoming of me and eased my nerves when they went along with my lesson ideas; which were very different from their typical day to day in this self-paced class. The students and staff I have met at Rocky have impacted my learning, and will influence my teaching in the future.
Standard 1: Demonstrates mastery of pedagogical expertise in content.
CEP Lesson #1: Collaborative Mind Map
In my first lesson plan, I had the students in my class complete an ideation activity to help them come up with deeper, more developed ideas for their midterm portfolio with the topics being reflection, whole, vertigo, and volume. I feel as though a lot of times in art classrooms, we do not spend enough time with ideation, research, and reflection, which results in better outcomes for the assignment at hand during the creating process; which in turn only helps with the success in the final product and future assignments. At the end of the midterm, students reflected on the entire process, starting with the ideation portion, and confirmed that this activity helped them to come up with deeper ideas for the content in their portfolio.
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Interdisciplinary Unit Lesson
This lesson is in conjunction with history, family and consumer science, and English, to teach students about the several aspects of the Qing Dynasty. Each subject relates to one another in subject matter so that students can get a better understanding of all aspects of the unit lesson. This is beneficial not only for teachers when planning, but for the students who may prefer one subject over another but are still getting the information needed in order to succeed in the final summative portfolio. The use of art, fashion, history, and poetry in one singular lesson helps strengthen all aspects of the unit to benefit the students overall learning.
Standard 2: Establishes a safe, inclusive, and respectable learning environment for a diverse population of students.
Data Analysis Protocol
​The data analysis protocol is a great tool for teachers who are looking to collect information to see the involvement of current students, and to involve more students in a lesson (in the future) so that each student is getting the most out of their class time and the material you are presenting them. This is a great way to come up with extensions and modifications based on the level of participation and the students’ strengths and needs. This also helps to come up with different, more effective instructional strategies to be used in the future if needed. Class involvement is very important, and this tool can help to include even more of a class population.
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Making Thinking Visible Mini Lesson/Presentation
In Making Thinking Visible, the lesson “Headlines” is a tool that benefits every student because there truly is no right or wrong answer. This style of reflection asks students to choose one main “headline” or main idea from a lesson that stood out to them the most. This is a very inclusive way for students to reflect in a way that will benefit them in the end. This formative assessment also gives teachers a good idea of the information students are picking up on throughout a given lesson.
Standard 3: Plans and delivers effective instruction and creates an environment that facilitates learning for students.
Classroom Management Plan/Syllabus
A syllabus that includes classroom expectations is a great way to start the year off on a positive note that shows students what is expected of them and what they can do to succeed in an art classroom. This is not meant to be an intimidating piece of paper that they receive on the first day, but rather it prepares them for what is to come during their time in your class. By setting standards early, the rest of the year can be spent doing what is important: learning!
CEP Lesson #2
This lesson piggybacks off of CEP Lesson #1, except this is more of a reflective piece, rather than an ideation piece. These two go hand in hand in making sure students have a well rounded experience for each lesson that brings everything they have learned from the beginning of a unit to the end full circle. By having students engage in critique, it is a self-guided, collaborative reflection. Critique highlights what students did well, what they could work on for next time, and it gives them a sense of pride to show their work to peers, teachers, and potentially other students/staff in the school.
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Standard 4: Demonstrates professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
Grading for Equity Reflection
Grading for Equity discusses grading based on biases by doing something called variable grading. This subconsciously can be harmful to the success of students when comparing grades based on the quality of the work produced. This specific chapter then discusses solutions as to how teachers can grade without personal biases in an effort to avoid variable grading. Grading equitably can be a challenge when getting a whole department, let alone a whole school on board, but in the end it benefits students, and gives teachers an outline for grading based on the work the students are turning in.
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Educational Resume
In my educational resume, it highlights every school I have been involved in that has helped prepare me for my future teaching. Not only have I had experience in art classrooms, but as well as other subjects that have helped make my practice in art classrooms more well rounded. I have experienced several styles of teaching art such as TAB, choice based, as well as traditionally structured classrooms with a curriculum.
APEX at RMHS
With my experience in the credit recovery course at Rocky Mountain High School, I had the opportunity to see what online learning looks like in a school, while students actively recover their grades for courses needed to graduate. This was an interesting experience, as full responsibility was given to students to get their required course work done by a given deadline. The teacher in the classroom reminded them of their grades, and helped come up with a plan to raise said grades, but ultimately it was up to the students to get the work done. This class was interesting because on any given day, there could be 10 students, or just 2. This was interesting to see which students were using this class to benefit them, and which students viewed it as a free period. While talking to the mentor teacher for this class, I learned a lot about what teaching is now, compared to 20 years ago.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my time at Rocky Mountain High School has helped shape my perspective of teaching, while helping me with lesson planning, trial and error through experimentation, classroom management strategies, and overall preparing me for student teaching and eventually teaching on my own. Rocky has taught me the value of a school family and the importance of collaboration with other teachers to benefit you and your students. My favorite perspective I have learned is that the teacher holds no more knowledge than the student; everyone is equal and everyone has different contributions to add to make a classroom more well rounded. I look forward to putting more of what I have learned into practice next semester.