Intern I: Final Reflection

Gillian Kaminski

College of Education and Allied Professions; Western Carolina University

EDSE-483-71

Dr. Tara Campbell

Fall 2023
 First and foremostly, from a generalized reflective and analytical standpoint, this

semester and the beginning of my teaching career have challenged me in ways I could have

never anticipated. I didn’t exactly have any sort of preconceived notion as to what fall of

2023 would hold for me, but truly, it was not this. I am exponentially grateful for the

experience as a whole and am proud of the growth I have endured as both an educator and an

individual. Aspects of this experience I will carry far into my teacher career, I am always

grateful for opportunities to learn. Now, onto the formal analysis and writings.

In terms of the 3 unit lesson, overall from a content standpoint, I feel as though it sat

quite comfortably within both the skill level and the standards for elementary school

achievement. As a generic overview as to my thoughts on the execution as a whole, I feel as

though the lessons went over quite well with the kids. They seemed interested, engaged, and

willing to learn about mediums in more experimental ways that they may not have been used

to before, and that’s all I can truly ask of them as an art teacher; the willingness to try.

Regardless of the grade level or ability, the willingness to try will continuously be one of the

most challenging things to ask of students within an academic environment, no matter the

subject matter.

Moving forward to the more technical aspects of these lessons, a discussion of the

standards that were being met to fall in line with the overall curriculum. A standard that I

personally found to be, in my opinion, one of the most important to implement in an

elementary school setting is 4.V.1.2, which reads “apply[ing]” personal choices while

creating art.” This I feel doesn’t get enough discussion in public schools due to the fact that

many elementary art projects end up coming out with very “sip and paint” energy as I like to

call it, or more plainly explained, as a copy-paste rendition where the finished products all

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look relatively the same, and lack much of the individual expression and creativity that

elementary schoolers possess, but often aren’t allowed to both express and explore.

Although only present as one of the standards for two out of the three lessons, it is

absolutely applicable to all three. Within the first lesson, the texture and tear “cheat sheet”

autonomy was really in the students hands, and the final product completely varied from kid

to kid, which was undoubtedly the goal. What paper are you using from the scrap bin? How

big are your triangle rips? Were you very clean and precise with your straight line rip, or is it

a lot more jagged? These are all questions that were able to be answered individually by

students, and I feel as though that really helped contribute to their learning. Addressing the

individual choice within the second lesson this is where the kids truly thrived and created

their own, very individualized pieces of artwork. Their pumpkins were quite impressive, and

the personality they were able to put into the little guys was lovely to see. I think the portion

of the lesson where I had a brief sidebar as to how emotion is created and how we express

emotion really helped to solidify the concept as to what exactly emotions are.

Addressing another standard from my lesson plans, 4.V.3.3, aka, “Create art using the

processes of drawing, painting, weaving, printing, stitchery, collage, mixed media, sculpture,

ceramics, and current technology.” Also known as, create a mixed media piece. Mixed media

is something that is super important for me in my own artistic practice, so finding ways to

implement it into a classroom, especially an elementary school classroom, is something that I

am passionate about, even to a small degree. The limited material present within an

elementary school classroom most prominently contributed to the difficulty to implement

mixed media projects. I wanted to challenge that, not only creating a mixed media project in

an elementary class, but creating a 3D project as well, which also provides its own challenges

with limited materials. The final product utilized paper, glue, markers, glitter, and colored

pencil, which pushed past the standard writing implement and paper that many elementary

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school art projects fall under. Moving forward with my teaching, and particularly with my

teachings within this particular elementary setting, I want to try and implement more and

more mixed media projects. The level of engagement that my kids exhibited, and the overall

finished product is something that I want to really strive and push for in the future.

In conclusion, I believe this unit was very successful within its planning and

execution, and created an engaging project for my 4th graders to not only enjoy, but be

challenged then excel at. I am very proud of my kids for their constant ability to adapt, and

willingness to learn. I will always foster creativity, and it truly warms my heart to see how

ripples of that are already implementing positive change into my students' lives and

creativity. I will always encourage creativity above all else, and that starts with my teaching

now.