Art Teacher

Today was my first official day as a sub.

Reading Intervention

• I began the day with a reading intervention group. I think that the students were reading a book which was at their frustration level. They spent so much time decoding the words that they probably did not comprehend what they were reading. I used a whiteboard to break the words up for the students to help them decode the words. I think I like it better when they read at their own pace and I just listen in on where they are at than when they take turns reading because taking turns may slow down a reader who knows the words. But it is also helpful to notice when a student cannot decode many of the words in the book, buddy reading may help students like that.

I was extremely nervous to sub for art because I am not very good at drawing. A lady from the office walked me to the room and set up Netflix and told me that usually subs have student free draw while they watch a movie on sub days.

Teaching

• When my first class came in, I finally saw the sub plans while said that I could either have the students free draw or I could use one of the lesson plans. I let each class vote on a movie to watch. I chose a few of the ideas from the lesson plans and told students that they could draw their imaginary locker or free draw if they wanted while the movie played. I let them whisper.
• The sixth graders were rolling newspaper tubes to create baskets with. I think that this project sounds pretty cool.
• I admit that kindergartners and first graders are not my forté. I enjoy older kids who stay on task and follow directions more easily. I knew that I had to change my voice and my style with these younger children.
• The first graders were supposed to create flower-shaped sun catchers, but the teacher did not leave out the proper supplies, so I had them color the pictures.
• I taught the kindergartners to draw themselves. I am not the best person to teach this lesson. We ran out of paper from the free drawing, so I had to adopt the lesson from drawing their family to drawing themselves. Because I'm not good at drawing, sometimes my pictures did not look right. When this happened, the students laughed because they thought that I was joking, so I just played it off. The pictures turned out alright.

Managing the Room

• I walked through to make sure that the room looked nice after each class left. I think that this helped set the expectation that the room needed to be clean when each class left because I was able to point out that the room was clean when they came into the room. At the end of the day, I swept the floor and made sure that each marker had a cap. I love how she stores the art supplies. 

The students made me a few gifts, they made me a bow and a paper swan.