Reflecting on your teaching Experience

At the alternative high school we have been working at this semester, I worked with a small group of boys on a mural. I let the boys choose the topic, scale, and medium they wanted to work with and then guided them in technique and execution of the work. The end result was a huge 9x5 foot canvas of a cartoon dinosaur, named Reptar, standing on the moon. The mural was really well done and accompanied by glow-in-the-dark stars and metallic sharpie.


Although I had a plan for making the mural and each day I gave the boys a goal for what was to be accomplished, it was not a very formal lesson. So I think this was what I would change. In the future I think I would incorporate more background information, and other mural resources to them. Maybe give them different books/slides of mural artists each week or talk about the different way murals could be Incorporated into the community. Although really good work was done and the final product turned out beautifully I feel like they developed their skill level as an artist but not in their knowledge of the history/world of art making.


In terms of the way I got the student's motivated, I think I would change that too. Although the students were invested because they had choose their own topic and felt very much that this was their mural I think in the future I would have them do more reflective writing about their work. That way I know what it going on in their head and what more I can do to motivate them to do their best. I am not sure that I pushed them enough in my daily goals and I this is one way that I could have done that. This way the students would have a deeper emotional connection to the piece too and perhaps had come up with more ideas about ways to change the mural.