My favorite classes to attend in high school were my art classes, especially ceramics and AP art where I was free to create whatever. I looked forward to them and was always excited for the next assignment. In most situations once students reach high school they have a choice of what specials they would like to take. I believe this means that students enrolled in your class want to be there and enjoy some aspect of art. High school was important to me at the time, always wanting to do the right things and fit in. Now that I look back on my four years in high school I realize that all that "stuff" was really not that important in the whole scheme of things. I think it is important to put yourself in the shoes of the high school student or think back to when you were in high school and you might find some things easier to relate to. That is what I believe anyway. I have a cousin that is a junior in high school and sometimes when I am around students her age I think of her and what she enjoys to give me some idea of what I am dealing with. I was very involved in high school... sports, student council, and different clubs. It allowed me to broaden who I was as a person and I also met a lot of different people.
When I think about working with high school students I cringe just a little bit. I always told myself that high school was not for me. The thing that gets me is the fact that I am not that much older than they are and how will I be able to teach them, plus the "attitude" has kicked in. I think I need to throw myself into the setting to realize that their really is a big difference in age and knowledge, which might make me feel a little better. I think we can all learn from each other no matter the age gap. High school students are interested in a lot of things we may not know about that we can learn, which in the long run will help us to close the gap. We will never truly be able to understand why they do some of the things they do but we can at least try to put our arms around it.
I am really excited to start practicing and teaching some of the things I enjoy after a hiatus from the art world. It will be neat to see the ideas that these high school students come up with. I am looking forward to bouncing ideas around and really letting creativity run wild. This semester should be exciting and I can't wait to meet our students.
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I also feel that it is important to put yourself back in the shoes of a high school student. Otherwise you will probably go crazy. In high school, everything feels like the end of the world. I feel that it is also important to keep up with current trends. You don't have to watch the entire series of Hannah Montana to try and understand what kids are into these days, just know a little bit about the show. When I was teaching swim lessons to a group of five year old boys I remember this really coming in handy. I was trying to get a boy to kick faster, and nothing was motivating him. So, I said " Kick like the Green Goblin in chasing you" ( He was wearing spider man swim trunks, so I figured he know who he was). Worked like a charm.
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