Emiley Hoffman

Self Critique

Art 395

4/25/21

 You will need to look back and critique/reflect on your learning this semester. In art we are

always looking back at our work, to see how we have improved and what we could still do

better.  I want you to do the same in this assignment.  Take a look at your work and start to think

about the kind of classroom and class structure you want to have someday.  What are the skills

from this classroom that you think will help you get there? This should be done as a paper and

typed and inserted as the section of your portfolio. The following questions need to be answered. 

1.) How have you grown as a teacher from the information you’ve learned this semester? (5

points) Give me your general impressions here about the kind of teacher you were when

you walked into the classroom and the kind of teacher you are as you leave this class.

Like a thesis statement.

I have my doubts about how good I am going to be as a teacher, I know the first year is the

hardest and all I want to do is have my students succeed in my classroom. After taking this class

I feel a little more confident on my lesson delivery and knowing what I need to do to have my

students understand what I am talking about by using VTS and SIOP strategies in my lessons to

make sure that we as a class are on the same page. I think using those strategies will help me be

more confident as a teacher because I can build those stepping stones with my students if they

are needed and I understand what to do if my students are struggling with certain concepts or

terms.
 2.) What skills from this class do you plan to use in your teaching/pedagogy? (5 points) Cite

at least 3 different skills that you plan to use in the classroom and how you might use it

to be a better teacher.

I want to utilize VTS in a lot my lessons because I think it is beneficial for students to evaluate

artwork and understand what they are looking at, what they like or don’t like, and what they

would do differently if this was one of their pieces. I think it gets students thinking more about

how they want their artwork to look like and understand what elements and principals of art are

needed to have their artwork completed. I also want to use SIOP a lot more such as using

sentences stems to have students remember their vocabulary/academic language. I will also give

many opportunities for students to break out into groups after projects so they can talk about

their work, read out their artist statements and critique each other’s work to help build each other

up and help them better as artists, because one student may not like their artwork but not sure as

to what exactly is wrong with it. Another student may just have the answer they need to help

them recognize what looks funky and so on. I also want to utilize writing in my classroom as

much as possible such as assigning artist statements for their works and tickets out the door.

Because I want students to create meaningful connections to what they learned and what they

know so they can better analyze in the future. I am personally not a big fan of writing artist

statements, but I understand how they help me by reviewing my work, why exactly I made it,

what elements and principles I used, and what I could do better. Which only helps me grow and I

want my students to grow as artists too, and they can use those analyzing techniques in other

various areas as well.

3.)   What did you find most useful to your upcoming teaching practice?   (5 points) Evaluate

what the most beneficial part of the class was for you and why you feel that way.  Be sure to

justify and defend your reasoning with how it will help your teaching practice.

What I found most useful in this class was the stages of artistic development because I think it is

important to understand where your students are at for a skill level. And then using that

information for future lessons to help the students grow as artists, but not challenge them to the

point where they are going to become extremely frustrated or the end product of a piece seems

impossible to them. I knew that the stages was a thing I needed to look for but I know feel a bit

more confident on how to pick up on where students are at when looking at their artwork. I want

to be able to challenge all students in the classroom but I know that all of them will be in varying

stages of artistic development, so to know where they are and know how to challenge every

student is important so they can become better artists.

4.)   What sparked your interest and is something that you plan to look into further? (5 points)

Here’s where you have to think about something that you might not know everything about yet,

but would like to continue looking into.  Tell me what that might be and explain your reasoning

for why you want to explore it further.  How do you think it will help you grow as a teacher

someday?

I really want to have TAB in my classroom, but I am still a little unsure on how exactly I make it

successful in the classroom. Having the TAB days in the class helped me understand how it

would look but I still am a little unsure on how exactly I get students to the level where I feel

confident that they will succeed with TAB. Since I want to have a lot of choice in my classroom

because I think that helps boost creativity, but I also don’t want to overwhelm students with too

many options where their mind becomes blank when trying to create something. This is
something I want to not only have in my classroom, but I really want it to succeed and let my

students have fun exploring different mediums. It is just something I need to explore further by

reading about it and watching videos on TAB classrooms to help me get more confident in

incorporating it to my future classroom.