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Journal One January 18 2021 

These Past couple of weeks have been crazy, I have been fortunate enough to student teach in a school district in San Antonio Texas. My first placement is in a elementary school, and I am teaching 1stthrough 5thgrade art. The school I am at is doing a program that is in person and then the other students that choose to work from home. I solely work with the in the person program because the at home students the art program is optional. The school I am at is at 80% capacity so I see about 300 students a week. This past week, I have been teaching 3rdand 5thgrade art, and we have been doing projects for Art to Remember which is a fundraiser that the school is doing for the art department. 

 

It has been a hard transition going from a full time student to a full time teacher and student. And that includes waking up early and coming home late to do more work for my lessons in the morning. I know teaching would be a lot of work but I think I underestimated how much I actually would be doing on a daily basis. I think time management has been something I have really trying to find the right balance. Waking up early, coming home late, and then doing more lesson plan late into the night is taking a toll on me. I am not going to lie, I am completely stressed and overwhelmed.  I need to be working on finding some time for myself and finding ways to balance my work life and personal life. 

 

This last Friday I had a group that was particular challenging for me, I thought I was prepared enough for the lesson, but with trying to figure out the next steps, wait time, and overall class room management. It Is challenging when I have all the students spread out, and most of them don’t really listen to me, and then trying to explain all of the cleaning things with the materials. I need to figure out jobs for cleaning that also has everyone keeping their distances. That is one thing I did not prepare for is having all the students with all the material and making sure that they are not sharing. I need to prepare for those moments and try to find ways that are organized. 

 

Overall, these past couple of weeks have been hard. Every day is ups and downs of emotions, somedays I love my job and I love the moments with the kids. And then somedays I come home so stressed and overwhelmed that I am wondering if this is really my calling in life. Every week does get a little bit better, but right now with covid-19 and social distancing teaching is hard.

 

I am excited for my future as a teacher, and having my own classroom. I am excited to start my teaching career, but the first couple of steps and weeks have been challenging. 

 

I created this piece as a landscape because I miss the mountains of Colorado. It also was something that I could create that was relaxing for me, I miss working with clay and creating weavings in fibers. But, it is interesting to take materials like sharpies and crayons and go back to those childlike creations. 

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