OBSERVATION
DATE: 2/14/18
TIME: 2:02-2:42pm
CLASS:Painting I
LESSON: 4 Corner Painting Techniques
TEACHER: Melissa Akey
OBSERVER: Jim Maron, Department Chair
This week I had my department chairperson, Jim, observe me on wednesday afternoon (2/14/18). Our schedule allowed for him to have some time to come into my painting class for about the first fifteen minutes of my forty minute class. Wednesday I had a split class of some of my students ready for the next project and a portion of my students still finishing up the previous project. This is the third week of this course so the project I was introducing is an introduction to a handful of different painting techniques. The students divide their canvas into 4 equal rectangular sections, then draw four circles within each section. My students then have to use four different techniques to fill the canvas. A grayscale section, an expressive impasto section, a wash section, and a pointillism section. In addition to the different painting techniques my students have to consider form and light.
The class started out with getting everyone situated with the materials they needed, my students who needed to finish the previous project and then I got all the students sitting together who needed to start the new project. Jim sat off to the side behind me. After class we sat down to go over what he observed. One of his observations was he wrote “super advanced- review”. He explained that I told the students that once they get the basics down we will move on to portraits and landscapes and more advanced paintings and he said I may have scared off some of my students that were hesitant or nervous to start painting.This is something that I could work on and breaking up lessons into smaller pieces and not explain the entire timeline all at once. He also wrote that since I had two projects happening at once I kept getting interrupted by my students that were working on the previous project and my students that were listening to my demo were waiting around for me to come back. I find this one hard to find a solution to when in a large class there are always students at different work speeds that will need help all at the same time but with different aspects of the lessons.
Another comment he made was he asked if “I forgot to take attendance” because he didn’t see me go up to the computer to take it. I explained that I take attendance on my ipad quickly so I don’t lose time signing into the computer and having to go to my desk rather than just being able to do it in a minute in my hand on my ipad while still working with my students at the tables. This is something that is working for me and I will continue to do. Today (friday) was the last day before a week break off of school so when I get back to school I will scan the documents from Jim onto my blog post because I forgot them in my desk at work. Also when I get back to school I will have another chance to edit my demo with the rest of the students who had now finished our previous project and are now ready to start the painting techniques one.
I will update on 2/26/18 when I get back to school after February break.