Hello and thanks for listening in
advance! I have been lurking on this
list for many years and have gotten a
wealth of inspiration from this group.
I have been teaching for seven years,
this is my third year in my current K-8
school. A parent of a 7th grade girl
was standing outside my door yesterday
as students were being dismissed. I
should have stopped it right there and
taken her into the office, but I had
know idea how angry she was at me.
Apparently I have been disrespecting her
daughter since the 5th grade! Then she
told me that it didn't matter what I
thought about the student's work , it
only matters what the student thinks
about their work.
It is for this reason that I write. I
have stopped teaching "projects" rather
I teach skills. Such as mixing colors,
gray scale, or design-anything that I
can look at their picture to see if they
did it or not. This make grading and
offer suggestions much easier.
Currently I am teaching my 2nd&3rd
graders to look for the organic shapes
in photographs of themselves. We are
then drawing those shape to re create a
self portrait based on a photograph.
Wow can these kids understand this more
easily. Noses don't seem to be as much
trouble! To make it even better, they
don't come and ask me if it is "good
enough." Instead, I tell them that they
are good lookers (they love it when I
call them that) and can make the
decision themselves. If they still
aren't sure, ask a neighbor-they will be
honest with you. I am still beating
myself up about that parent, she was
down right mean to me. He daughter had
twisted things to make me an evil
teacher. Which yes, I can be. But I am
not there to make them feel better about
themselves. I am there to teach them
visual skills. It is a perk if we have
a lot of fun along the way. When did I
miss the class on edu-tainment?
Susan
