NaStaija Partee'

April 15, 2015

EDUC 323
Field Experience Reflection
This semester in my Instructional Strategies class, I completed field experience at
Whittaker Elementary school with the art teacher. There, Mrs. Johnson sees all grades three
days out of the week because she is also an art teacher at another elementary school. During
the short time I spent with Mrs. Johnson, I gained a lot of insight. My field experience this
semester was beneficial to me, as it always is, but there were also certain concepts taught
within my class that I was not exposed to during field experience. I think this is because art is
an enrichment course and although all courses should include strategies and follow the lesson
plan model, time is of the essence. While I watched the teacher instruct her class, she seemed
to be using an abridged lesson plan model. I spoke with her between classes a lot and
recieved plenty of information and advice on teaching students with short attention spans in a
short amount of time. I feel like this information was beneficial, but it does not benefit me
now when I need to learn how to complete and follow a lesson plan to a 'T' for a grade along
with using instructional strategies. During my visits, no instructional strategies were used
during lessons. Students were told what they were going to do, the teacher modeled, and
then the students began their art (or watched a movie on Percy Julian during black history
month). Only during a science period in another teacher's class did I have a chance to witness
instructional strategies being used and a very developed and strict lesson plan being followed.
The teacher in this class used the S.L.A.N.T. strategy effortlessly and used many different
questioning techniques as she reviewed students' homework and taught a concept that tied

into what they had been learning about the last time they had been in her class. She had
in-class incentives for students that answered questions correctly and participated during the
lesson and effectively stopped off-task students in their tracks immediately. The students in
her class respected her and she didn't give them a chance not to be thinking about what they
were learning. That one visit to a core-subject classroom made me realize just how different
what I was seeing and learning in an art classroom was as compared what my peers may have
been seeing and learning in their respective core-subject classrooms.
As I stated before, my field experience was a positive one that will help me on my
journey to becoming an art educator to children and possibly young adults. It would have
been more helpful to observe a teacher that consistently used strategies and techniques
consistent with the ones I have been learning about in this course. Because I followed my field
experience teacher's manner of teaching a lesson, my classroom mini-lesson was lacking in
numerous areas. As an art education major, I have to work harder to get what my peers are
already getting in their other courses and that is one of the reasons why my observations at
Whittaker Elementary helped me. I would have never known this if I had not stepped foot into
the science teacher's class for a few hours, nor if I had not had many conversations with Mrs.
Johnson, the art teacher. In conclusion, I enjoyed my time at Whittaker Elementary and have
learned that I need to find creative ways to be as effective as a core-classroom teacher as it
relates to art.