Best Advice for a new teacher
Barth Quenzer
Visual Arts Teacher
It can be summed up in three deliberate words: Discipline with Dignity (which is actually the name of a classroom management book).
Students seem to be very concerned with equity in the classroom; what is fair and not fair. We are taught in the Teacher Ed. Programs to bring democratic principles into the classroom. Pure democracy in the classroom is an unattainable ideology. Once teaching the teacher becomes the dictator by deciding seating charts, rules and expectations, curriculum, and even the general attitude and classroom atmosphere. Students notice that each teacher’s classroom management strategies are different. Is it any wonder that some students push the limits of a teacher’s guidelines to find out where the limits actually exist?
A seasoned teacher would tell you to expect the unexpected. Under any circumstance, act on classroom management issues with dignity, or at least give it your best shot. The last thing students need is another explosive teacher. Students need to witness a teacher who can effectively apply reservation, care, and deliberation to issues as they arise. With this approach, a teacher can practice democratic principles in the classroom.
My perception about students changed for the better one momentous day. This came after reading an article about neurological research being done on the difference between the adult and adolescent brain. Specifically, they were looking for physiological differences. In conclusion, they found that the adult and adolescent brain were fundamentally the same, except for one, small area. This specific area of the brain had to do with a person’s ability to reserve oneself just long enough to consider the short-term or long-term consequences of an action about to be taken. The area of the brain responsible for moments of self-restraint long enough to consider the effects of an action in an adolescent’s brain was considerably smaller than that of the adult’s brain. Altogether, this is not too surprising. But its implications for a teacher are monumental. Now, the teacher can expect that students will make mistakes, and the teacher no longer needs to take personal offense by feeling that the student’s action is an attack on the teacher. Like an epiphany, I began to see the students in a new light, and I was less offended by their actions, and instead reminded them of their place, the expectations, and the consequences of their actions. I had to do this repetitively. I could almost see that little area of their brain growing with every mistake made and then corrected.
Try to give students the opportunity to correct their actions. They will appreciate it.
Do what it takes to learn the students’ names.
Make phone calls home to report the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Parents of problem students will be ecstatic when you deliver some positive news about their child. Opening a bridge of communication home can effective change a student’s attitude and performance in the class.
Make good with the secretaries and the facility managers in the school, as they can provide you with anything you would need. They are your best friends… always!
A few thoughts from an old horse, for what it’s worth -
AUTHENTICITY: Your students deserve to be taught by a master artist. I was far from one myself when I started teaching art, as my background was in English Literature. I took drawing, painting and sculpture classes at the Art Students League of Denver 6 hours per week for 5 years. As I became a more accomplished artist, I became a more effective teacher.
SHOW AND TELL: Let you students see what you are currently doing in your studio, talk about your work, invite them to your gallery openings, talk about the business of fine art from an insider’s point of view. Likewise, invite them to bring their work in. Praise them for past efforts.
ASSUME: Make the correct assumption that EVERYONE is an artist. Demystify the phony cult of the artist as “special-magical-person”. Don’t talk about talent. Instead, talk about effort and desire. Talk about passion.
RESPECT: If you feel you must touch your students’ work while it is in front of them, ask permission. Treat them like artists. Expect them to reciprocate the respect that you are modeling, and do not tolerate disrespect.
LOVE YOUR PROJECTS: If you don’t have fun doing your own assignments, they probably won’t either. Don’t presume to teach a project that you have not done at least twice yourself. Have your prototypes on hand to show your students at the start of a new project.
LEARN RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR STUDENTS! Few things empower, thrill and win over art students more than publicly acknowledging their innovations; their brilliance. Make a really big deal about stealing their great ideas. If they are rewarded for thinking independently, they will do it again and again. Replicate their ideas on the board, put their names on them, share them with every class. This kind of reward is authentic, and you will grow even more than they will if you are open to letting your students know that you don’t know it all,
HONOR THE RULE-BREAKER: If you rigidly insist that all projects be executed in a lock-step fashion you will lose some of your best divergent thinkers, and you will miss out on the opportunity of learning anything new yourself.
ART IS ART. CSAP IS SOMETHING ELSE: You are an Art teacher. Kids are hungry for what you have to teach them. Don’t allow the subject that you are passionate about to become another hook to be used for hanging CSAP test taking skills on.
JUST SAY NO: When teachers, administrators, lunchroom ladies, custodians, parents and their neighbors approach you with a poster-making project for your students to do during their time in your class, tell them nicely that your own curriculum doesn’t allow for any frivolous interruptions. If you welcome frivolous interruptions from outsiders, you need to spend more time developing art curriculum.
EXHIBITING AND COMPETING: I exhibit every finished project in the classroom. all students see their work from a distance, in the company of others’ work. This is so important. When they step away, and compare it with what their peers have done, it sheds new and objective light on their efforts. It motivates them to rework it if needed, and to discuss it with their peers and with me. Impromptu critiques occur countless times per day in this fashion, and no one feels “put on the spot”. Names are never put on the front of a piece of unjuried art.
THE ART SHOW: The Art Show is my governor, and the final expression of all that my students And I have worked for throughout the school year. It is the instrument to which I am accountable, more than any other. It is a salient demonstration of that one thing that I am primarily about: nurturing and growing excellence in this one tiny corner of the vast multiplex of public education.
Each completed class project is juried by an artist other than myself. It is a bad idea to jury your own students’ work for a number of reasons which are probably obvious to most of you. The artist who juries the work is told one thing only: “Choose the best work.” Typically, about 10% of everything created in my classes is selected for the Annual Hill Art Exhibit. These pieces are then matted and labeled with artist’s name, grade, title of work, and medium. I have three showcases in my building where they are first shown to the school. When new pieces are juried into the show, they are rotated into the showcases and the old ones are stored. In May, students who have work in the show receive personal invitations. They come with their families on the big night, and there is music, refreshments, and an awards presentation. There are typically between 225 and 250 individual pieces in the show, and those are then juried for winners. Winners receive prizes and ribbons. In my show, there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes for each grade level, one Best of Show grand prize, and a People’s Choice award.
From the work that has been culled out for the Hill Art Show all year, the very best pieces are chosen for the District Wide Show, and that has been, in years past, the culmination of everything, and a truly meaningful gesture for those students whose art is honored in this manner.
I like to tell my students that if they are not having fun, they are doing something wrong….
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February 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Barth Quenzer
Best Advice for a new teacher
Barth Quenzer
Visual Arts Teacher
It can be summed up in three deliberate words: Discipline with Dignity (which is actually the name of a classroom management book).
Students seem to be very concerned with equity in the classroom; what is fair and not fair. We are taught in the Teacher Ed. Programs to bring democratic principles into the classroom. Pure democracy in the classroom is an unattainable ideology. Once teaching the teacher becomes the dictator by deciding seating charts, rules and expectations, curriculum, and even the general attitude and classroom atmosphere. Students notice that each teacher’s classroom management strategies are different. Is it any wonder that some students push the limits of a teacher’s guidelines to find out where the limits actually exist?
A seasoned teacher would tell you to expect the unexpected. Under any circumstance, act on classroom management issues with dignity, or at least give it your best shot. The last thing students need is another explosive teacher. Students need to witness a teacher who can effectively apply reservation, care, and deliberation to issues as they arise. With this approach, a teacher can practice democratic principles in the classroom.
My perception about students changed for the better one momentous day. This came after reading an article about neurological research being done on the difference between the adult and adolescent brain. Specifically, they were looking for physiological differences. In conclusion, they found that the adult and adolescent brain were fundamentally the same, except for one, small area. This specific area of the brain had to do with a person’s ability to reserve oneself just long enough to consider the short-term or long-term consequences of an action about to be taken. The area of the brain responsible for moments of self-restraint long enough to consider the effects of an action in an adolescent’s brain was considerably smaller than that of the adult’s brain. Altogether, this is not too surprising. But its implications for a teacher are monumental. Now, the teacher can expect that students will make mistakes, and the teacher no longer needs to take personal offense by feeling that the student’s action is an attack on the teacher. Like an epiphany, I began to see the students in a new light, and I was less offended by their actions, and instead reminded them of their place, the expectations, and the consequences of their actions. I had to do this repetitively. I could almost see that little area of their brain growing with every mistake made and then corrected.
Try to give students the opportunity to correct their actions. They will appreciate it.
Do what it takes to learn the students’ names.
Make phone calls home to report the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Parents of problem students will be ecstatic when you deliver some positive news about their child. Opening a bridge of communication home can effective change a student’s attitude and performance in the class.
Make good with the secretaries and the facility managers in the school, as they can provide you with anything you would need. They are your best friends… always!
February 11th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Susan Dickson
A few thoughts from an old horse, for what it’s worth -
AUTHENTICITY: Your students deserve to be taught by a master artist. I was far from one myself when I started teaching art, as my background was in English Literature. I took drawing, painting and sculpture classes at the Art Students League of Denver 6 hours per week for 5 years. As I became a more accomplished artist, I became a more effective teacher.
SHOW AND TELL: Let you students see what you are currently doing in your studio, talk about your work, invite them to your gallery openings, talk about the business of fine art from an insider’s point of view. Likewise, invite them to bring their work in. Praise them for past efforts.
ASSUME: Make the correct assumption that EVERYONE is an artist. Demystify the phony cult of the artist as “special-magical-person”. Don’t talk about talent. Instead, talk about effort and desire. Talk about passion.
RESPECT: If you feel you must touch your students’ work while it is in front of them, ask permission. Treat them like artists. Expect them to reciprocate the respect that you are modeling, and do not tolerate disrespect.
LOVE YOUR PROJECTS: If you don’t have fun doing your own assignments, they probably won’t either. Don’t presume to teach a project that you have not done at least twice yourself. Have your prototypes on hand to show your students at the start of a new project.
LEARN RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR STUDENTS! Few things empower, thrill and win over art students more than publicly acknowledging their innovations; their brilliance. Make a really big deal about stealing their great ideas. If they are rewarded for thinking independently, they will do it again and again. Replicate their ideas on the board, put their names on them, share them with every class. This kind of reward is authentic, and you will grow even more than they will if you are open to letting your students know that you don’t know it all,
HONOR THE RULE-BREAKER: If you rigidly insist that all projects be executed in a lock-step fashion you will lose some of your best divergent thinkers, and you will miss out on the opportunity of learning anything new yourself.
ART IS ART. CSAP IS SOMETHING ELSE: You are an Art teacher. Kids are hungry for what you have to teach them. Don’t allow the subject that you are passionate about to become another hook to be used for hanging CSAP test taking skills on.
JUST SAY NO: When teachers, administrators, lunchroom ladies, custodians, parents and their neighbors approach you with a poster-making project for your students to do during their time in your class, tell them nicely that your own curriculum doesn’t allow for any frivolous interruptions. If you welcome frivolous interruptions from outsiders, you need to spend more time developing art curriculum.
EXHIBITING AND COMPETING: I exhibit every finished project in the classroom. all students see their work from a distance, in the company of others’ work. This is so important. When they step away, and compare it with what their peers have done, it sheds new and objective light on their efforts. It motivates them to rework it if needed, and to discuss it with their peers and with me. Impromptu critiques occur countless times per day in this fashion, and no one feels “put on the spot”. Names are never put on the front of a piece of unjuried art.
THE ART SHOW: The Art Show is my governor, and the final expression of all that my students And I have worked for throughout the school year. It is the instrument to which I am accountable, more than any other. It is a salient demonstration of that one thing that I am primarily about: nurturing and growing excellence in this one tiny corner of the vast multiplex of public education.
Each completed class project is juried by an artist other than myself. It is a bad idea to jury your own students’ work for a number of reasons which are probably obvious to most of you. The artist who juries the work is told one thing only: “Choose the best work.” Typically, about 10% of everything created in my classes is selected for the Annual Hill Art Exhibit. These pieces are then matted and labeled with artist’s name, grade, title of work, and medium. I have three showcases in my building where they are first shown to the school. When new pieces are juried into the show, they are rotated into the showcases and the old ones are stored. In May, students who have work in the show receive personal invitations. They come with their families on the big night, and there is music, refreshments, and an awards presentation. There are typically between 225 and 250 individual pieces in the show, and those are then juried for winners. Winners receive prizes and ribbons. In my show, there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes for each grade level, one Best of Show grand prize, and a People’s Choice award.
From the work that has been culled out for the Hill Art Show all year, the very best pieces are chosen for the District Wide Show, and that has been, in years past, the culmination of everything, and a truly meaningful gesture for those students whose art is honored in this manner.
I like to tell my students that if they are not having fun, they are doing something wrong….
Same goes for their teacher.