Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

For my Senior Presentation I am most proud of all the information I was able to give the juniors and seniors in my class. (And when I asked them if they were enjoying themselves they stated that I had a lot of information and that I was keeping it interesting through cracking the occasional joke.) Out of the my whole senior project I am most proud of my I search paper because I worked very hard on it and even though their were a few mishaps when trying to complete it on time, I still got it in and received an AE and a complement on my writing skills. For both I worked hard to complete these activities and it showed in the end.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

I would give my self an AE or high P on my 2 hour presentation because I did hit all the points and I did extra to make sure that my audience was paying attention along with checking for understanding.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

Over all I would give myself a P on my overall senior project grade because I completed all my work on time along with doing extra work on the side to help my 2 hour teacher better understand my senior project as a whole.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

I thought my mentorship worked extremely well because I was able to put some of my answers into action and test my other theories. I was also able to see how art integration can truly help a student understand a topic to the best of their ability.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I felt that My two hour teacher and I needed more time and better communication because whenever I came in to work with him after school when he said he had time something would come up and whatever we were going to work on would get put off again.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples. 

In the future I plan on creating something like a career camp where students can take what they like and find out what they want to do with their lives. Throughout my senior project I was able to show students what fun lies in the world even in some of the least interesting of topics. I was able to spark an interest in them that could and for some will lead to later interest. By sparking an interest earlier on in a child’s development students later will be better off in the end.

EX: During the last art assignment I gave the student's at my mentorship many students gained an interest in a certain part of history they learned and some went the extra mile and took initiative to learn more on their own time.

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 minute presentation

30 Min Lesson Plan Name: Catherine R. Clauss Date: 1/15/2013 House: West Essential Question: What is the best way to use art as teaching tool in middle school? Objectives: For the class to understand what I learned durring my mentorship hours and research that lead me to my first answer. Category Guide Introduction Hello my name is Catherine Clauss and I am doing my senior Project on Art Integration. Today I will be teaching you about what I learned during my mentorship hours how what I learned lead to my first answer to my essential question. To start off my essential question is "What is the best way to use art as teaching tool in middle school?" Best- getting the most out of art that will help the students learn the concepts and understand them. Art as a teaching tool- also known as art integration is the process of mixing art and lessons (usually core subjects) to help student get the art they crave, learn what they need to know, and understand what they are learning. Middle school- I mean student's usually in 6th to 8th grade. Verfication Beginning: I will ask questions to the audience like "Does anyone remember a teacher who used art in their lesson to keep the class' interest? What did they do? Do you still remember even a bit what they taught you? What do you think art integration is?"  End: After the activity I will ask a view people to explain what they did for it and ask them question which they should explain. Body Literal: What I learned: Art Integration: an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form where students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both. Good Lesson: Give children the chance to learn and comprehend what you are trying to teach them in what ever way works best. This may mean different things for different classes or even students because everyone is different. When using art integration you can accomplish a lot as long as you have an equal balance of art/ fun and learning/ comprehension. Interpretive: This helped me make connections to my life because not only did I see my own teachers try to accommodate for their many different student's in my class but I also have seen my mother throughout my whole life work to make her lessons fun by using the creative process. by doing this she has as a teacher help many students and she has also help both my sister and I throughout the years by making homework time a little more interesting. Applied: My end goal for this project is to find new innovative ways to help teach a multitude of subjects that not only bring out a student's creative side but also shows them what they are capable of doing and learning when given the chance. I pick this because in the future I wish to open my own camp for teens in middle school and high school that have no idea of what they want to do. I plan to do this by taking the things they like be it art or building things, and applying it to real world things so that they can do what they love and make a living. First EQ Answer: "The best way to use art as a teaching tool in middle school is to tailor each lesson to your class by adding art activities that will help improve the student's learning and comprehension of the topic you are teaching them, while also allowing them to experience a fun, creative, and hands on learning experience." Visuals I plan to have art pieces from school projects that the students will recognize from work they have done so they can better understand what I am tring to explain to them. Things like my 9th grade summer math project calender. I will also show pictures of different students working on projects. Activity In this activity students will be creating their own art integrated activity based off  of the information I have given them. With their partner on a separate sheet of paper (that I will provide) they will have to create their activities' title, brief summary, directions (to make the product) and an illustration (of their activity). Materials- they will need pencil's paper and an example sheet of what they need to do. EX: They are given multiple examples of good art integrated activities/projects and given a basic break down of what a good activity should have(Good first instruction, Something hands on, Attention grabbing, Available connection making, Adds to the lesson, Balance of art, and Content) So they create an activity based on that. It could be something for English where they draw a picture for major events that happen in a book. Three Important Sources 1. Susan Hodapp- She helped me create my first answer by answering any and all questions I had and allowing me to observe her classroom setting. She showed me what a teacher had to do behind the scenes. 2. Heidi Clauss- Has let me sit in and participate in her classes. This helped me see how much a teacher actually had to do while teaching. 3. Buddies: Reading, Writing, and Math Lessons.- This book gave not only gave me the lesson activity I used today but also gave me a better understanding of what lesson activities should look like and Ideas of how to make a lesson fun for the students and teachers. Conclusion After asking a few final questions (stated above) to check for understanding I will restate my first answer to my EQ and briefly explain the reasoning behind it.

Rough Draft of Presentation 1

Prepared By: Cat Clauss #33

West House

Working EQ: What is the best way to use art as a teaching tool in middle school?

Objectives (Specify skills/information that will be learned.): People will learn about the many problems a middle school student has.

	Guide	Time	Important Source
Introduction	Hello my name is Cat Clauss and I am doing my Senior project on using art as a tool to teach in schools to middle schoolers. So I will be talking about one of the base components of my project Middle Schooler's mostly 6th graders, how they learn and does does it need to be improved.	1min	1: Susan Hodapp (a teacher at Los Palmas Middle school, and the person from my first interview) -and my own personal experience Visuals Middle school Pic
Verification	-What was your favorite and least favorite memory about middle school?why? -What were some things that made learning hard for you? (example, drama, or certain teaching techniques.) Middle school can be stressful because during that time students are transitioning from the elementary school way of learning to the high school.	2min(s)

Body

L- Less time to learn, More drama (because of puberty) to distract a student from the lesson I- The most important source for this was from my first interview with miss Susan Hodapp, She helped explain the difficulties a middle school experiences A- Because Middle school students have so much going on around them and changing I makes it harder for them to understand what they need to learn.

L- 1 min(s) I- 1 min(s) A- 1 min(s)

Visuals Confused Pic Shocked Pic Middle child pic

Conclusion

Ask People “What have you learned from my presentation? The audience has learned that the average middle schooler has many obsticals to over come durring middle school, like drama (with friends, themselves and bullies.) along with different ways of learning.

2 min(s) Visual Survival Guide Pic

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10tCXaFJmEnx1OauDrw3AFZ8eoH2mkY-N4jvt1r_87b4/edit