Observation Reflection 1- 4300

Kirstin Burnette Art Education 4300 Mark McGuire Observation Reflection #1: Climate At the Columbus School for Girls I am observing 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. At each grade level Mr. Klingenberg’s students complete the same projects. Right now, the 6th graders are starting a clay project, the 7th graders are finishing up collages, and the 8th graders are working on a drawing spheres and ribbons. They are using shading to make the spheres and ribbons be three-dimensional. The goals for this lesson are for students to understand how shading can make a drawn object look three dimensional. After a couple days of observations, I now feel like I can use the general observation form to write about Mr. Klingenberg’s classroom. The learning climate of the classroom is more teacher centered in my opinion. Mr. Klingenburg has specific objectives for the students to meet. He does not use choice-based art education in his classroom. However, he does let his students have some freedom within their projects. I think that It would be awesome if he could add a couple projects were the students could have a lot of choices in how they create their art. Mr. Klingenburg has good classroom management. The students come into the classroom and have always been very well behaved. They know what is expected of them when they enter the classroom and throughout their class. You can since the respect between the students and the teacher. The environment is safe for all students. Mr. Klingenburg makes sure that the lessons objectives and all elements are very clear. The students know the minimum of what is expected in each project and know that they should preform above the minimum. I think that this is a positive aspect of his teaching. The students always know what is expected of them.

For Mr. Klingenburgs’s classroom the lessons are varied. He has many different types of lessons for the students throughout the year creating all different types of art. However, I have only been able to see him introduce one lesson. During this lesson he gave examples and showed the students how to start the process of the project. Mr. Klingenburg is very focused, he is prepared before each of his classes. When students don’t need his help, he is usually preparing for another class. Each grade level is completing a different type of project so there are a lot of different materials being used in his classroom, clay, charcoal, pastels, magazines, etc. The goal in all of Mr. Klingenburgs’s classes are for the students to understand the fundamentals of art so that they have a foundation to build on when they reach high school. However, he also has goals that are relevant to each of his lessons. These goals are more of short-term goals that can vary week to week. The students all seem to understand what they are doing and use their tie efficiently. They are working on their projects from the time they walk into the classroom until the class is over. The only references I have seen used in Mr. Klingenburgs’s class so far are previous student examples, and two articles about African face jugs. He has a lot of these examples for each of his projects in his classes. I believe Mr. Klingenburg’s classroom management style is authoritative. You can tell that the students have been told the rules of the classroom and that Mr. Klingenburg expects the rules to be followed. There is one poster in the room about truthfulness and honesty. This gives some of the rules in the classroom, but I do not see any others posted. Sometimes when the students get off task or get too loud Mr. Klingenburg will remind the students that they need to be quieter and/or to get focused. From what I have observed the students just know what is expected of them and they adhere to that mot of the time.

In my future classroom I think I will use some of this style for specific rules the students must follow for their safety and being respectful to others. However, I want my classroom to encourage creativity in less restrictive ways because, “[t]he classroom’s physical environment… can influence the structure of the group and the relationships among its members” (Borich, 64.) Students are exposed to an authoritative style most of the day. I want my art classroom to be different from my student other classes, so I believe I would use more student-centered or nurturing styles. To make day-to-day tasks smoother Mr. Klingenburg uses boxes to store students sketch books that are color-coded. Each grade level has a blue, yellow, and red color assigned to their class. For their current work there is a specific cabinet with folders labeled for each class and their corresponding colors. There is also a cabinet for the supplies the students seem to use most in the classroom. The students have access to this cabinet all the time. If there are other supplies needed Mr. Klingenburg takes out those supplies and lays them on a table in the back for students to pick up. Overall, his classroom is very organized, and he always seems to be prepared for all of his classes each day.

Works Cited Borich, Gary D. “Considering the Learning Climate.” Observation Skills for Effective Teaching: Research-Based Practice, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016, pp. 53–70.