[Channel-talklearning] Spring session The Learning Classroom

Hello, my name is Kate. I'm an art teacher for students in grades 1-5. I teach about 700 kids in a 6 day rotation. I'm in a rural location where the students have a wide range of abilities so some of my classes are functioning on a high level and some on a low level. I feel a lot of pressure to have as productive a class as possible because ; 1. I don't see the kids very often, and 2. Class time can be short, especially for 1st and 2nd grade because I have to walk the kids from one school to another. Over the summer the 2nd grade time slot was shortened to 45 minutes! Very well-behaved classes can make it up and down the hill in about 12 minutes, others can take up to 20. I tend to present material quickly and dive into the activity. After viewing the video for session 1 and reading the material, I am planning to slow myself down by introducing more reflective questioning. For example, third graders are currently making a castle (2-dimensional) using architecture from Greece and Rome (columns and arches.
) For my reflective questions, I asked them why would someone want to build a castle, what purpose columns would have, and to encourage using texture such as stones and brick patterns, I asked which they might use and why. Later I thought that I could have asked what other materials might one build a castle from and open the doors of imagination. I'm hoping using reflection in an opening discussion will improve my teaching and that I can do it in a timely manner.

Katherine Kraus
kate231@earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

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Received on Wed Mar 9 13:08:27 2005