Practicum Experience

I mentioned in class a student who was completely disengaged throughout my practicum, had missed many days in class and even was suspended during my time there. This student put in the absolute minimum effort in everything he did and was considered academically below grade level.

In my third week, I taught my second art lesson. This was based on the spooky story they had written the week before. We had a discussion about realism, specifically when drawing trees. The students were expected to use a photo of a tree to make their drawing more realistic than the standard 'symbol' of a tree (criteria was for using line placement, shape, and line width, all concepts they had worked with before). The drawing had to have a tree in the centre of the picture, worked into a scene from their story.

In this lesson, the student had to be redirected a few times to stay on task. One of these times, I pointed out an aspect of the drawing that he had done really well. After a while, he started to put a little more effort into his drawing. Once he was finished, like all of the other students he needed to complete a self-assessment stating whether he was "Meeting" or "Not Yet Meeting" the expectations for the three criteria points. Then, for those that were determined "Not Yet Meeting", the students had to write what they could do next time. Although his drawing was perfectly acceptable, he had marked "Not Yet Meeting" for all of the criteria points. Without looking at the artwork, I explained that he needed to write what he could do next time to improve. He didn't respond, so I made a few suggestions of what he could write down. He took one of those suggestions and wrote it down identically, for each criteria point.

When I looked at his drawing, I saw that he had actually fulfilled all but one of the criteria points. I wrote on his form, and praised him verbally that he had done quite well on the assignment (a 'B') and that I could tell he had put effort in, and that he needed to give himself more credit. This was the first opportunity I had in three weeks to make a connection with this student. I lament the fact that I had no opportunity to act on it, and perpetuate the experience since my practicum had come to a close. I only hope that this student will see his own potential and perhaps having tasted success, be able to put effort into the other subjects.

It was a great experience for me to see the way that art can help us connect with students who might otherwise be disconnected from our classrooms. It's amazing to me, how art can affect people so differently. I spent my whole life believing that "I'm not creative" but once I discovered the joy I can have from sketching, I realized that there is no such thing as "not creative" - everyone has an opportunity to enhance their life in different ways, whether the creativity is tangible or not.

I know that this student has had a quite challenging life, like many in that classroom and that school. I found that I really enjoyed working in the inner city school, and it was connections like these, with students who have had very few (if any) positive relationships in their lives that I found most rewarding.